Chapter 8: Brandy

About a week later, Tiennie and Rati were out on the lawn, practicing Rati's skills. I was there enjoying the warm weather and the sight of two extremely sexy women in tight summer outfits. It was interesting to watch as Tiennie showed Rati some katas (martial arts practice drills) and they practiced them together, as if dancing.

It was even more interesting when Tiennie asked Rati to float a shuriken, a fighting star. Using the same kata she had been practicing only minutes earlier, Rati held one of the razor-sharp weapons in her left hand and began the drill. As her filled hand swept across her body from right to left at waist level, the star lifted from her palm and matched her hand movements, inches above her moving hand. When the kata required her hand to flip, the star followed, now floating below the woman's dark hand. At the end of the drill, Rati pulled both hands toward her body and centered them, then, when she pushed both hands away from her body and the star was projected by the movement. From the speed with which the star left her and buried itself in a target, the force on the star must have been powerful. The aim was perfect, as well.

The next kata moved Rati's two hands down her front in some kind of wiggle. After a few practices, Tiennie told her to focus the light while doing the kata. On the next repeat, between Rati's hands there were dark areas and bright areas. Somehow, the light around her was being bent: where it moved apart the space was dark and where it moved together it shone brightly.

Other drills involved controlling heat and collecting electricity from the air to make lightning. The last one was the most spectacular. For every form of force or energy, there was a kata. I could not tell if the kata controlled the energy, or if it just helped Rati to focus and her mind did the work.

After the spooky drills where Rati made things move without touching them or bent light or controlled lightning, it was almost anticlimactic when they began sparring together. Tiennie would shout out the name of a kata and Rati would perform it, and Tiennie would do what looked like the reverse motions and they were fighting. From personal experience, I knew that Tiennie was not moving at her eye-blurring fastest speed, but she kept Rati busy blocking and punching for several minutes.

They both stopped at the same time. Tiennie threw a towel at Rati, who 'caught' it with a hand motion and let it drop into her opened palm. When Tiennie picked up a second towel and began wiping her face, I was watching the elegant lines of her hand and her head. She froze.

"Rati, Johnny, come over here right now! There is some strong energy just outside of our property and it is heading directly towards us." Her delicate hand pointed in the direction she was looking and our eyes followed it. There was a tornado moving in our direction.

My stunned senses finally heard the freight-train roar of an impossible storm - tornados don't happen in California. What should I do? Running away didn't seem like a possible way to escape, so I ran toward Tiennie and picked up Rati as I passed her. "Can we stop it?" I shouted over the howling wind.

"Touch skin! As much skin as you can on both other people!" Was Tiennie's command. We connected, and Rati and I could feel Tiennie's senses as the force producing the tornado was made tangible to us.

"I can't stop it!" Rati cried. "It's too strong for me!"

My arms pulled her tighter. With our brains connected, I thought at both of the women, "We don't need to stop it, just turn it away. That should be much easier."

"How?" came from someone.

"Heat!" My brain was remembering basic physics. "Heat the air and as it rises, it forms a low pressure zone, which will suck the tornado towards it. Can you heat the air near the tornado's path, but away from us and the buildings?"

"Sure." Rati could heat air using heat, microwaves, focused light, even electricity - I could see the ability in her thoughts. "But I need to use my hands. How can I do several at once?"

Tiennie again became the teacher, showing drills to a promising student. "Start with your left hand. Do the heat kata. Direct your thoughts to the left side of the funnel, but in front of it." "Now, the right hand. Electric wave kata. Focus on the same place." The air in the place Tiennie had indicated began to glow.

The funnel veered some, but not enough. "Help!" called Rati. "I don't have enough force to control it."

I kept my hands touching the bare skin of both women, to maintain our connection, as they both began to move their hands rapidly.

With hands blurred by their speed, Tiennie began two other katas and things started happening between her hands just as they had for Rati. "Connected, I can use your abilities. But there is still not enough power."

My eyes closed and I pushed with my mind; forcing my energy through our skin-to-skin contacts into the women's minds. At the same time, my brain was thinking, "Can you use the energy in the air, whatever is around us?"

The area where they were focusing grew lighter and warmer. Constant blasts of lightning and intense heat warmed the air. Gravity lessened and bright light filled the space. Soon the warm air began lifting rapidly, sucking more air into the partial vacuum. As that air warmed, it also rose. When the rising air was high enough, water condensed, releasing more energy, which Rati and Tiennie captured and focused on the blindingly bright space they were heating. The tornado turned toward the column of heated air and swerved around it. As soon as it began to head away from our property, it collapsed, the energy maintaining it was removed.

Fortunately, Tiennie and Rati were holding me up, because I almost fell when the effort we were using was released. We all three sat down together, holding each other and breathing heavily. The sounds of the storm stopped; the noise of lightning bolts and overheated air ceased. The silence was intense.

"Are you three all right?" Zulie's voice made us open our eyes.

Zulie, Freya, Chellie, and Hana were standing a few yards away from us, looking worried. When I nodded, weakly, they advanced and all of them touched us.

"Zulie, please go get some sports drink or lemonade from the house. They need liquids and sugar." Freya felt the three of us and knew what we needed. Zulie took off at a fast run.

"Chellie, would you go find some blankets? As soon as they notice, they are going to feel cold."

Both Zulie and Chellie were back and providing warmth and refreshing liquids just about the time we started shivering.

It must have been Hana's turn. "What happened? We heard the most incredible sound, like a tornado, then another noise, like a million lightning bolts at once. We ran out here and saw that storm spin around a pillar of light and disappear. The three of you were surrounded by some sort of glowing light which turned off when the pillar went dark."

Since I still was too breathless to speak, Tiennie took over. "I had been hoping that whoever sent those men after us had stopped trying. It seems he has graduated to weather control. Someone created that tornado and sent it directly toward our house, trying to flatten it and anyone inside. I sensed the tornado forming and warned these two. With my help and Johnny's smarts, Rati was able to turn it away."

We were helped into a bed and given time to recuperate. When she finally could not stand any more, Chellie collected the family around us and called a meeting to order.

"That tornado was not natural." Chellie was never one to beat around the bush. "It must have been created and controlled by someone."

Heads nodded all around the room. Everyone knew about California's environment, and while it sometimes had earthquakes, it did not include tornados.

"The most logical conclusion is that the someone who controlled the tornado is the same person who sent the thugs to the restaurant and the assault group to our house." There was another pause, but no disagreement, so Chellie continued. "We need to know more about our attacker. To me, it seems unlikely to be a business person - no one I have ever heard about can control weather."

"Does anyone think there is a possibility of different people organizing the different attacks? No? Then we have someone unknown to us trying to kill me, or all of us. We need more data in order to protect ourselves and to defeat our attacker."

Chellie went into business presentation mode. "First piece of data: we know how to stop the first two attacks - Tiennie and Zulie are protecting us. We have weapons and defenses against normal attacks."

Tiennie and Zulie both nodded. We had buildings, tunnels, vehicles, trained personnel, and weapons to stop any and all reasonable assaults.

"Second piece of data: Tiennie can detect the power which controls the tornados. It is reasonable to assume that any new weather attacks will be powered in the same way, so we can detect them before they arrive. Can we stop these attacks?"

"During the attack, I was connected with Tiennie," began Rati, "And I could sense the power also. It was drawn from energy normally present in the air. I think that metal conductors would reduce the amount of that energy in the air and diminish or defeat any future attacks."

"Like lightning rods?" Zulie spoke next. "How close would we need to place them?"

"Every hundred yards or so, I think." Rati replied. "Closer is better, because it makes the field weaker, but that should be close enough to stop major attacks."

No one spoke for a few minutes, then Hana stood, formally. "Could you, Rati, use that power to defend us?" Rati nodded. "Zulie, could you rig some way to store the captured power and let Rati have access to it?" Zulie thought for a minute, then nodded.

"What about other power? Rati, could you use more power if it happens again?" This time Rati's affirming motion was very definite: more power would help. Hana continued her thoughts. "We have lots of generated power now, with the hydroelectric plant, the solar panels, the regular power lines, and the fuel cell generator. We could also install a diesel motor or gas turbine to run another generator if we need. Would electric power help defend us and attack anyone who tries this again?" Tiennie looked at Rati for an instant, then both turned to Hana and nodded in unison.

"Then I think the next step should be to provide some way for Hana to have access to as many sources of power as possible and to let her practice controlling that power." Hana sat.

The meeting returned to Chellie. "Then all agree?" She waited while we agreed. She turned to Zulie. "Zulie, you have to add to your already full list of jobs: install lightning rods all around our property - maybe every hundred feet around the wall, and every hundred yards in the middle. Hide them if you can; run them up trees and buildings, paint them to match or camouflage. Johnny, while they are being installed, see if you can find batteries or something that will store the energy they capture. Then, make that energy and all electric power from generators, etc., available to Rati." When Zulie and I nodded, Chellie turned to Tiennie. "Could you help Rati practice? She will need the best personal and energy defense and attack skills you can teach her." Both Rati and Tiennie agreed.

Next to speak was Zulie. "We do have defenses. First, all the buildings are designed to handle California earthquakes, so tornados, even hurricanes, would not hurt them. It might damage the landscape, but not the buildings. I doubt if even a small bomb would harm them. Second, there are tunnels between all the buildings; we can move from one to another without making ourselves targets. The tunnels are deep enough that any possible weather could not damage them. They also have hidden entrances, so we could get out if an attack were so strong it destroyed the buildings."

We all felt better to know that. "The buildings are almost complete." Zulie continued with the good news. "The new house is ready for us to move in now. The office building is mostly complete - there are a few out-of-the-way sections that don't have carpet and paint yet, but the power is on and the main offices are finished." There was a gap while Zulie remembered something. "Oh, all of the buildings are lined with metal, so none of this energy can get in. If someone is trying to attack, or even probe us, they will be stopped at the perimeters of the buildings."

"Do we know anyone who could give us more information about these attacks or about a person who could cause these attacks to happen?" Was my next question. "As Chellie said, we need more information. Where can we find some?"

When no one spoke for over a minute, Freya took a turn. "Why not advertise for a researcher? We could surely use someone like that for the company and, if we word the job description carefully, we might attract someone who has more knowledge than we do."

"Ask for a librarian and specify an interest in the unusual. We can claim the person will be in charge of Johnny's book collection, that's unusual enough." This was from Chellie.

"I'll write it up." Freya said. "And I can send it to newspapers and universities to post."

"When you have it, give me a copy and I will post it on our Itzamna, Inc. web site and the major internet job boards." I added. "Oh. I want to buy some more extravagant books at company expense to do my own research."

Chellie looked at Hana, who nodded. They both spoke together. "Go ahead. The new librarian can catalog them when she starts."

There didn't seem to be much more we could do. Everybody had work to do, so we went at it. We did, however, travel back and forth to work by tunnel for the next few weeks.

"Come with me, please Johnny." Rati had something she wanted to show me. I followed her robe-covered form into a spare bedroom in the new house. The bed and all furniture had been removed and the floor covered with practice mats. Tiennie was waiting for us, wearing her practice gi - her karate uniform. When I turned to Rati, she had dropped her robe and was also wearing a gi.

"Zulie figured a way to make energy available from the metal shielding in the walls," Rati explained. "Since most of the rooms have at least one outside wall, no construction was required, only wiring and switches, which I can control. I have set this room to have power in that wall," she pointed to one with a window, "and Tiennie and I have been working to control that power."

Now, her voice became quiet and secretive. "We discovered that we can control gravity enough to float. Watch!" Some motions of arms and legs began and the two lifted off the mat and hung in the air. "We wanted to show you, first, Johnny."

Belts, shirts, and pants from the two gi's dropped to the ground. The two swooped down and touched my hands and I was lifted into the air. Each kept one hand on my bare skin and used their other hand to remove my clothes. When the three of us were naked, they spun me around until Tiennie had her mouth on my penis, Rati was kissing Tiennie between her legs, and Rati's legs were wrapped around my head and I was kissing her vulva. I felt another part of my body rise, mostly into Tiennie's warm mouth.

The kissing continued until we all were panting and very ready to climax. Then, as if choreographed, the lips on my penis slid off and Tiennie spun until I was aimed directly at her vagina and I slipped into her.Rati and Tiennie were now kissing each other on the lips. Unable to stop myself, I began pumping harder and harder. The triangle of our bodies began rotating and I started licking Rati as hard as I could. We came simultaneously, spinning, panting, and shuddering together. I don't even know how, but we landed softly and just cuddled each other for several minutes while our breathing and heartbeats returned to the normal range.

Two sets of lips were kissing my face when I opened my eyes. "We've been practicing hard to get that just right, Johnny," Tiennie told me.

"Well, you two got it hard, for sure," I joked. "And I thought it was just right."

Resumes and letters of application began arriving by the hundreds. Freya spent most of her time weeding out ones she thought were interesting and filing the rest. Every few days, she would bring a stack out to the kitchen table and we would all go over them together. For one reason or another, no one letter interested all of us at the same time. Of course, the businesslike ones appealed to Chellie. The organized, scientific ones appealed to me, and the in-depth ones appealed to Hana. But not one even stirred a slight interest in all of us at the same time until Freya came running from her office and yelling for us all to meet in the conference room immediately.

She held a single page of paper in her hand. Obviously, it was another application. When she handed it to me, I saw the applicant was named Branwyn Brighid Achtland, was from some place in Ireland called Arainn Mhor Island, and had just graduated from University with a Ph.D. in Management Information Science with a specialty in research. Just the fact of her MIS degree was good enough for me to like her, but Freya saw more than I did in this brief document. I handed the paper to Zulie, on my right, who read it and passed it on, until all had read it and it returned to Freya. For some reason the rest of us could not fathom, Freya, Tiennie, and Hana were practically leaping for joy over this letter.

"Don't you see it?" Freya asked. "This letter contains the feelings of the girl herself. I can sense them right on the paper."

"And her energy is there, too." added Tiennie.

"I can see her personality, in depth, right in the paper." was Hana's excited supplement.

The rest of us were confused. "What does that mean?" I asked for Rati, Chellie, and Zulie.

"She has some power of her own. She placed some of her mentality and energy right in the paper when she wrote the letter!" Freya spoke, but the other two nodded.

"Then we'd better get her over here and interview her for the job." There was nothing more to say.

Freya contacted Miss Achtland, who told her that she liked to be called Brandy. They arranged for tickets and travel expenses, and Brandy was on her way from far northwest Ireland to California.

Freya, Chellie, Tiennie, Hana, and I picked up Brandy from the airport in the afternoon, two days later. She was easy to spot - bright red hair, pale white skin, and dressed completely in black - black slacks, black shoes, and a black jacket over a black blouse. She was clearly exhausted and excited at the same time because her eyes kept closing by themselves and her body could barely stay still. We escorted her to our home, installed her in one of the spare bedrooms, and left her to sleep.

About four hours later, she appeared, at least a little rested. Freya gathered all of us in the dining room to interview our potential researcher.

"Tell us what is not in your letter that you think we need to know about you," Chellie started.

"Well, I am from a small island off the Irish coast. Summers are short and winters are long there, so my family does lots of reading. Since the Internet became available on our island, we have spent much time learning from that, as well." She spoke of family and home, and how they influenced her life. There was a little about special projects at school, and of being first in her class. There may have even been something about other job offers which didn't interest her as much as our company. Then the tall, copper-haired beauty described her reasons for going to University and for studying researching.

I watched her coral lips dance as she spoke, I counted the brick-colored freckles on her porcelain-white skin. Her emerald-green eyes glowed with interest and intelligence. Her long black skirt and loose black peasant blouse covered everything except her head and her perfectly formed hands. Probably most of what she had to say went right past my ears, but my eyes were enjoying just looking.

Chellie asked some business questions, which Brandy answered. Then Freya asked, "There was something special about you which we felt from your letter. Can you tell us why you are special and why that would benefit us in your work?"

There was a stunned silence for some time. Brandy didn't know how to answer, so she asked a question back. "You mean you could tell I was different from my letter?"

"Not exactly. The paper carried traces of you, and I was able to feel those traces. I guess I sound a little crazy, claiming to be psychic or something, but I definitely felt something. That is why we wanted to interview you."

"Never have I met anyone, outside of my family, who was able to 'sense' things like that. The women in my family have the 'gift', back at least to my great-grandmother. But how does that connect with hiring me as a researcher? I thought you wanted a company librarian or something like that."

"First, I want you to know that I usually try to sense people while we interview them. I can mostly tell if they are telling the truth that way. Unfortunately, I can't sense anything about you. Do you have any experience with that?" Freya looked worried at revealing so much about herself, and us to a stranger.

"Sure, my mom taught all of us how to close our thoughts so they would protected. Since I've nothing to hide, I'll try and open up to you." Brandy took one, two, three deep breaths and relaxed. "That's it."

Freya smiled. "You will have to teach me that trick, if you would." Her nod let the rest of us know that Brandy was no threat to us.

When the 'look' went around the table, we all agreed that she would be worth hiring. As Brandy sat there, unsure of what to say next, Chellie smiled. "We would like to hire you, starting immediately. Salary will be worked out so you are happy. We will include paid visits home, or trips for you family to visit you here, as you wish. We all know the importance of family."

A happy look appeared on Brandy's face. "I'm hired? Wonderful! I looked up your company, Itzamna, Inc. and found that you make those wonderful Triple-U devices. Our family bought one, and our small town is negotiating to buy several. The power often goes out, especially in winter on our island. And water, sewage, and cooking gas are also problems. I would like to buy a larger one, when I get paid enough to afford it, and send it to my family. They can donate it to the town."

Chellie wanted to be positive the new company researcher was happy in her position. She also wanted to get to work immediately on the threat to our family. "Do you agree, provided your salary and other negotiable details are satisfactory, to work for us?"

She wasn't dumb. "You mean, I should start right now? Of course. I can see that you have some pressing business. I can go back to my room if you need to vote on something..."

"No. We mean you should start right now and you need to hear what we have to say, because it impacts your employment and might change your mind." Chellie looked stern, but Brandy just looked happy.

"Your first research project will be to discover how, and who can control tornados. A few weeks ago, we had a tornado just outside our wall. Since they are almost unheard of in California, we suspect someone was controlling it. You should not restrict your research to normal methods, include the occult, government conspiracies, and anything else you can think of." Brandy was focused and Chellie was in control, but looking as uncomfortable as if she were discussing real-estate prices on the moon.

"Second, we need information on mental powers - this may be just fantasy, but since Freya feels people, we want to know about mind control, ESP, telepathy, telekinesis, people who can control energy as well as physical objects, and people who have special powers of understanding. Again, this may be fantasy, but humor us." Except for Brandy, the rest of us seated around the table knew Chellie was telling the truth, but it might sound fantastic to a newcomer.

Asking for clarification, Brandy began, "Do you mean that I should include crazy things, like ... magic?"

Chellie was all for making things perfectly clear. "In our company library, you will find a number of ancient texts which claim to be true, and which explain how to perform magic acts. Those are available to you. You may also purchase, with company funds, books and materials which will assist in your research: strange and unusual topics are perfectly acceptable, and collectables, including expensive ones, will be purchased when you find them. Freya can handle the ordering. Hana will approve the expenditures." To be sure that Brandy understood, Chellie paused for a few seconds. When the light behind Brandy's eyes came on, it was like a green laser. Chellie concluded, "Ask any one, including me, any time you have a question. This may sound crazy, but it is important to us. And I mean ANY time." Chellie smiled. "To work, all."

Chellie, Freya, and Rati wrote a contract to hire Brandy, who gasped and almost fainted when she saw how much she was to be paid, then almost cried when she found the part about donating and installing a Triple-U for the people of Arainn Mhor Island at company expense. Freya communicated with several governments to arrange visas and permissions so Brandy could stay and work for us. I helped buy and set up a computer for her, and showed her the books. It seemed that Brandy recognized several of the most expensive magic books for what they were - she looked dazed, then held and caressed several of the rarest and oldest as if she were meeting a star in person and should bow.

Everybody kept busy. Zulie was trying her best to finish all the construction; she did complete the pool and hot tub, and had to show everyone all the features. Chellie got the international headquarters of Itzamna, Inc. moved from the rented space downtown into the new buildings. Tiennie bought more arms and tried to find time to teach all of us how to defend ourselves with and without weapons. Rati spent hours handling legal matters for the corporation, but spent at least a few hours a day with Tiennie, practicing.

One clear California summer afternoon, Chellie had her fill of work and being locked indoors, and insisted on going for a walk. Tiennie went with her, as she was on security that afternoon. Nothing happened for almost an hour, and the two were feeling relaxed, when Chellie collapsed. Tiny Tiennie immediately lifted Chellie's motionless body and threw it over one shoulder. As she ran toward the nearest building, she used her spare hand to dial Zulie, "A new attack on Chellie. She just went unconscious. Meet me inside the front door of the old house." (The old house, Freya's parents' home, and my first place after we married, was the closest building to Tiennie and Chellie.)

Zulie collected all of us and brought everyone through the tunnel. Tiennie had a burden, but only had a short distance to cover; Zulie was running farther, empty-handed. They arrived at almost the same time. Tiennie and Zulie helped to lay the comatose body of Chellie on the sofa. Tiennie whirled to secure the door and Freya ran to her friend's side.

As soon and she sensed Chellie's mind, Freya knew something was wrong - she felt an outside force blanking all mental activity. It was weakened by the walls and roof of the old house, but not completely curtailed. "Johnny, come help me. Something is affecting her and we need to stop it now. She could even die if her heart stops!"

All I could do was hold their hands and think good thoughts. Freya tried for several minutes to force the malignancy from Chellie's brain, without success. Brandy watched, silently, then walked over and laid her hand on Chellie's forehead. Through Freya, I could feel a fence form around Chellie's mind as Brandy worked. The influence was mostly blocked by the fence, and Chellie moved, but did not wake. Freya copied the fence, but changed it into a wall around Chellie. I suggested, mentally, that the wall be made of metal, which blocked the energy even better. As Freya shaped the metal wall, Chellie was released completely from the evil which had held her.

Freya and Brandy stared at each other. Almost in unison, they gasped, "How did you know?"

Hana took charge, sending Zulie for a doctor, Tiennie to double check the security and look for someone nearby who might have initiated the attack, and Freya and Brandy to talk until both knew what the other knew about the attack and defenses against it. Rati and I stayed with Chellie, who was now sleeping peacefully.

Doctor Qetesh came about an hour later; by then, Chellie was awake and restless at being kept on the sofa. The good doctor found nothing amiss and recommended that Chellie relax for a few days, on general principles. I decided that the company needed a corporate physician and Dr. Qetesh might be suitable; I would bring it up at the next company meeting.

In bed that night, Freya explained to Chellie and me how to make a mental wall, and why Brandy knew about them. "Her mother, grandmother, aunts, sisters - all the women in her family - are 'different' and the locals have labeled them witches. They sense things, similar to the way Tiennie, Hana, and I sense things, but not exactly the same. She calls what she senses 'magic' and her family has had to find ways to block it and control it. Her mother taught Brandy and her sisters how to build a mental fence, to keep their magic from affecting others and to keep others from detecting and 'hexing' them. Brandy is not sure exactly who the others are, only that they are dangerous and best avoided."