Chapter 23

The drive to San Francisco takes, or so I was told by the girl at the car rental counter in Beverly Hills, about six hours if you take I—5, about half an hour longer using 101. Not counting our forty minute stop for dinner, it took us just under six hours.

Finding a hotel took longer than I would have liked, and much longer than Lilly liked, although she did get a pretty good night-time tour of the city. We ended up taking a mid-sized suite at the St. Regis, just off of Mission on 3^rd Street.

It was a pretty fancy place. As nice as the Raffles had been, it couldn't come close to matching the view from the corner suite windows that looked out on the Bay Bridge. Yeah, it was expensive, but like I told Lilly our first night in San Diego, the Agency was paying for it so why not indulge ourselves.

And that night we did. Champagne, caviar, oysters, truffles, lobster and sautéed giant scallops with our filet mignon followed by crè

me brû

lé

e and a bottle of dark Port for dessert, all served in the quiet and comfort of our suite.

I was feeling pretty relaxed by nine that evening, lying back on the 'L' shaped couch looking out on the cityscape, watching the fog as it slowly rolled in across the Bay.

Lilly was beyond relaxed. She was buzzed, wobbly and had an itch she couldn't reach. She stumbled across the room, jumped up and landed next to me on her knees then fell lengthwise on my chest.

"Whatcha'thinkin'bout?" she slurred; her eyelids drooped slightly and her smile was a little sloppy and lopsided.

I kissed the tip of her nose and returned her smile.

"I was just trying to make sense of it all."

"Well, maybe there isn't any sense to make." she said.

"You could be right." I admitted.

Lilly twisted her body around and peered out the window above and behind my head. "Can you feel them? This city?"

I nodded and licked her exposed neck. Lilly giggled happily and dropped back down. I brought my right hand down and began running my fingers up and down her spine.

"This one and the one on the other side of the Bay."

I began applying more pressure with my fingers, eliciting a stream of soft groans and humming sighs.

"You don't seem any crazier than usual." she whispered as her muscles relaxed.

"No ... it's all just pain and hate and fear. No reason, no purpose ... no point. And it never stops. Never."

I put my left hand behind her neck and worked my fingers into her hair, massaging her scalp while I continued working on her back.

"There ought to be a point, don't you think? A reason for it all?"

"There probably is a reason for most of it." she said, rubbing her breasts against me. "But since you can't see the thoughts behind the feelings I suppose it's always going to seem pretty meaningless."

Well bugger me with a fish-fork!

I hugged Lilly tightly, bursting with love and admiration.

Her entire body quivered as she returned my embrace, humming the whole time.

"Do you have any idea how much I love you, Lilly Blacktower?"

"How much?"

I linked our bodies and emotions. "This much." And then I showed her.

Life is pain. My mother told me that once. Not the mother produced by my fragmented psyche, but my real mother. I was eight years old and it was after one of my many run-ins with Izzy in a tormenting mood. You have to learn to accept the pain, because it's always going to be there, in one shape or another. It doesn't last, she told me. It passes. All things pass.

She was wrong about that. But then, she was talking about regular people.

The clock on the night stand chimed midnight. Lilly was spread eagled on top of the duvet, lying on her belly and giggling into the pillow beneath her head as I licked and kissed every available inch of her naked body.

Three hours had passed and I still hadn't been inside her. Not my cock anyway. Fingers and tongue, they'd been there and done that, my lips had been everywhere lips could go, and by my count Lilly had cum, large and small, about seven times.

I'd said she could have anything she wanted. She made me promise; no cheating. So no amping her feelings, no sending her mine ... but that didn't mean I couldn't read her body.

I played her like a sexual instrument, and her pleasure, her joy and physical delight brought me peace. When she felt good, I was happy. When she sighed, groaned, whimpered, gasped, and cried out with pleasure, it was the most beautiful music I could imagine.

I kissed and licked my way up her back, nibbled at the base of her neck and, sensing her exhaustion, laid down, covering her body with mine.

" ... so nice..." she murmured.

"Yes you are. Absolutely delicious."

Lilly's phone, on the nightstand in front of the clock, started beeping.

I rolled off of her, snatched up the little device and put it into Lilly's hand.

"Better see what they want. I'll see if there's any of that champagne left."

Lilly gave me a happy little smile and turned over on her side, thumbed the call button and slid the phone under her hair and against her ear.

"Hello?"

I got up and strode out of the bedroom. The champagne bottle was empty. I shrugged, turned and looked out the windows at the skyline; tall buildings, bridges, ships and streets lit up like something out of an artist's wet dream.

"Ike!" Lilly called out, a note of hysterical panic in her voice. I charged back into the bedroom. She was huddled up against the headboard, knees pulled up tight to her chest, tears on her cheeks, dread in her eyes and fear in her heart.

"What? What's wrong?"

"They're sick. The babies are sick."

I sat down next to her on the bed, took the neglected phone from her unresisting fingers, put my arm around her shaking shoulders, pulled her close and held the little phone up to my ear.

"Lilly!" Izzy's voice came shouting out of the damn thing.

"Izzy, it's me. What's going on?"

"Where's Lilly?"

"Right here next to me on the bed. What happened to the kids?"

"It was so sudden. There wasn't any warning; none."

"Izzy, calm down, take a deep breath and just tell me what happened, okay?"

"Peggy and I took the kids into town this morning to pick up the presents you promised the girls. When we got home, all four of them went outside to play and we used the time to wrap their gifts and hide them."

"Okay, so far so good." I commented, just to let her know I was still on the line.

"Yeah, well after we had hidden them and went down to fix dinner, we saw all four of them running around the front yard stark naked."

"Aw shit!" I swore softly.

"Yeah, that's pretty much what I said. They must have been out there for about forty minutes."

"How bad was the weather today?"

"Not that bad really. About thirty five degrees, not much wind, no snow."

"Okay, what then?"

"We ran outside and dragged them back in and put them in our bath tub to warm up. Then we put them to bed and fed them hot soup and tea. They seemed to be fine."

"Izzy, where are you?" I asked, dreading the response I just knew was coming.

"Bethesda. Ike, I don't know what happened. Two hours ago Belle came into the bedroom, soaked to the skin and burning up with fever. She could hardly stand up. She said AJ was throwing up. They were all sweating and coughing. So we bundled them up and rushed them to the emergency room. The doctors admitted them about twenty minutes ago."

"What did the doctors say?"

"They think it's some kind of flu."

I thought fast, did some calculations in my head and tried to sound more positive than I felt.

"Alright sweetie. Here's what you do; call Evan and let him know what happened. I'll get in touch with Eric and have him put some people in the hospital to watch over you guys. Lilly and I will finish up here as soon as we can. We'll be on our way home this afternoon. If there's any change, any change at all, call me. Me Izzy. Okay?"

"How's Lilly? She didn't sound so good."

"She'll be fine. I'll take care of her. You and Peggy take care of yourselves, and try to get some rest. We'll see you at the hospital tonight."

"I'm so sorry..."

"Izzy, it's not your fault. It's not Peggy's fault. Sometimes kids do dumb things. It happens."

"Come home soon."

"As soon as we can, I promise. I love you all."

The phone went dead. I set it down and stared at the far wall for a few moments.

"They've never been sick before." Lilly said faintly. "Not once."

I thought back over the seven years of my children's existence and realized that she was right. No colds, fevers, chicken pox, flu ... none of the usual children's illnesses had ever touched them.

"Lilly, when was the last time you were sick?"

"I don't know."

I thought hard. Every year, each month, week, day, they all flashed thru my mind in vivid detail and clarity.

"You haven't been sick since I've known you. None of you have."

I couldn't remember a time when I'd been sick. Did that mean something? What were the odds?

I'd gotten a barrage of shots when I went into the Army and another when we shipped out for Saudi. Most people experienced some discomfort or unpleasant effect from at least one of the injections. Not me. I never even got the trots from drinking the local water.

I picked Lilly up and put her on my lap, holding her in my arms, rocking back and forth while I sent her wave after wave of soothing reassurance.

"I can't lose them again." she sobbed against my chest.

"They're going to be just fine." I assured her.

"Not again."

"Lilly, I swear to you, nothing is going to happen to them. I won't let it."

I was very careful, easing Lilly into sleep by amplifying her exhaustion. She needed the rest and I needed time to make arrangements.

Once I'd wrapped her up in the duvet I went out into the living room with my secure phone in hand and started making calls.

I put the aircrew on standby, telling them to have the plane fueled and ready to go on ten minutes notice.

I called Eric's home number and had him send what was left of our department's agents to stand four hour shifts in Bethesda.

Lastly I got on the hotel's phone and notified the front desk that we'd be checking out early. They weren't too thrilled about losing the revenue, as we'd planned on being there at least three days, but I wasn't very happy either and rapidly running out of patience. Eventually I decided that mayhem wasn't the way to go and told the twit on the end of the line that they could keep the money, seeing how we'd already paid in advance, and that seemed to mollify his pecuniary predicament.

I spent the next five hours cursing myself for being a lousy father; worrying myself silly over events I couldn't do a damn thing about, and swallowing the emotional residue of two cities.

Morning arrived with a dull thud. A heavy fog had rolled in and devoured the city, leaving it looking as shrouded and cold as I felt inside. The memory of four small holes dug into the wet sandy dreamscape beach of my mind just would not go away.

Lilly was cuddled up next to me, half way beneath my arm and half draped across my chest and hip. I shifted slightly, easing the strain on my left arm and repositioning the duvet around us.

I heard a determined knocking on the suite's front door. I glanced at the clock on the night stand; 7:24am.

The first thought that popped into my head was that the San Fran cops had come to pay a social call.

Upon brief reflection I decided to dismiss that idea out of hand.

My second thought was to wonder why Marcus would even bother to send a team after me, if what he really wanted was Lucifer.

Stupid thought. Marcus wouldn't. But Justice might.

Third thought; I didn't care who was on the other side of the door. One wrong word, just one, and they were toast.

That thought made me feel better than I had all damn morning.

I slid out from under Lilly and the duvet, put on a pair of pants and headed for the door.

Four sets of emotions. I could feel them very clearly. Distinct, but oddly similar. Anxious, tense, worried, apprehensive, resigned.

I unlocked the deadbolt, swung the door open and looked out.

Four men, somewhere between the ages of fifteen and forty-five, all right around five feet eight and one hundred and forty pounds, with black hair and brown eyes; they were wearing black or blue slacks, white collar-less shirts, black leather jackets and dress shoes.

They looked like clones. Or relatives lacking in any kind of individual fashion sense. The way they dressed, combed their hair, carried themselves ... there was something vaguely military about the four of them.

The one closest to me gave a little bow.

"Doctor Blacktower?"

"Yes, can I help you?"

"My apologies for intruding, but circumstances require that we change your appointment this morning with our CEO."

"You gentlemen represent White Dragon?"

"We represent the CEO of White Dragon, yes. Will you come with us please?"

It wasn't really a request, even if it was phrased like one. He was very polite, but there was a definite under-current of restrained violence in all of them.

San Francisco is famous for many things; the Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street, the Forty-Niners, Alcatraz, the Summer of Love (before my time, but I'd heard about it), the earthquakes, Jack London, Fisherman's Wharf, cable cars and of course Chinatown. There's hardly a major city on the west coast that doesn't have a Chinatown, but San Francisco's is the most famous.

The entire Bay area is renowned for its multi-cultural diversity. That's a PC term for having lots of different people of lots of different races and national origins all within the same zip code. Blacks and Whites, Mexicans, Indians (from India as well as the native varieties), Pakistanis, Afghanis, Persians, Philippinos, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Chinese; they were all represented, along with smaller populations of less well known groups.

None of which even begins to touch on the subject of organized crime, something else San Francisco is known for. Triad, Tongs and the general run of the mill street gangs that are an inescapable part of big city life.

The four men standing before me were definitely Asian, and I was pretty sure they shared a common country of origin, but I couldn't tell which group they might belong to.

I can't tell one European from another either, just looking at them.

Their leader spoke west coast American English without a trace of foreign accent. He sounded like a TV news anchor. No help there.

All four watched me closely, curiously, waiting for a response.

I nodded. "Now?"

The leader inclined his head slightly.

"Come on in and have a seat. We'll get dressed and be right with you." I stepped to the side and waved them in.

"I'm afraid not, Doctor. We were instructed to bring you, no one else."

I stopped moving in mid wave and linked with the four men.

Their arrival with news of an earlier meeting was, from my point of view, a fortuitous and welcome development. The sooner my business was finished, the sooner we could get back home to the children. But my patience had been stretched exceedingly fine during the early morning hours and I wasn't in the mood for negotiating.

Bam!

I wasn't as gentle as I could have been, as I usually was when turning someone. It wasn't that there were four of them, or that I did all four at the same time. Up to then I'd been in the habit of inserting rings individually, but since coming to California I'd gone on something of a tear, turning two pairs simultaneously. So why not four at a time?

It wasn't really their fault; they simply came at the wrong time and caught me in a less than genial frame of mind.

"Come in and sit down." I commanded.

Two, the leader and the man on his left stepped inside. The two behind looked up at me, confused and bewildered expressions on their faces.

"Inside, now!" I said sternly, heat building behind my eyes.

Their spokesman snapped out a short sentence in a language I'd never heard before, at which point the reluctant pair relaxed and scurried inside. I shut the door and herded the little group into the living room.

"These two don't speak English?" I asked their spokesman.

"No, they have only been in America a few months."

I nodded and pointed to the L — shaped couch by the windows.

"All of you sit down. I'm going to explain a few things to you ... what are your names?"

"Thanh Duc Fan." the spokesman said. "This is my brother, Kim. These are our cousins, Vin and Han."

"Alright. Thanh, I'm going to explain something to you and your brother, and then you tell your cousins exactly what I said. Are we clear? Exactly."

"Yes sir." he replied, no change of expression on his face.

I proceeded to give them my standard lecture on loyalty, obedience and absolute defense of my family and my personal interests.

Thanh and Kim listened intently, nodding in all the right places while I reinforced my words with emotions. Then we did the same thing to his cousins, Thanh acting as my verbal proxy.

"Wait here. I'll wake my wife, we'll get dressed and then we'll go meet your CEO." I said, once I was sure each of them understood my instructions.

"As you say, Doctor." Thanh replied politely. I got to my feet, and all four men stood, bowing their heads at me.

I shook my head slightly and smiled, just a little, then returned the gesture.

I turned away and I heard them sit back down, talking softly amongst themselves as I walked quickly into the bedroom.

I woke Lilly and explained what had just happened. We showered in a hurry, dressed, packed our bags and joined our new retinue in the living room. I introduced Lilly to the four newest members of my...

I'm still not sure how to best describe the men and women I've turned. They aren't friends, but they're more than just acquaintances or followers. They aren't slaves, because my first experience with Anya had soured me permanently on that process. I'd rather kill than travel down that path again.

The six of us went down, checked out and retrieved the briefcase from the hotel safe, piled into Thanh's ugly green mini-van, headed down 3^rd Street, got back on I—80 and drove about three miles on the Bay Bridge before pulling off onto Treasure Island Road.

I held Lilly's hand in mine, easing her worries and fears, while going over what little information I had managed to acquire on White Dragon Security.

It was a privately owned business with only thirty employees. Thirty officially listed employees. Yet they had managed over their five year existence to become one of the most lucrative and well respected computer security companies on the west coast, and had, so most experts agreed, the potential to become the primer IS company in the country within the next five.

Privately owned. Family owned. My information said that the CEO of record was also the President. L. Fan. The Chief Financial Officer was also named Fan, as were all the VPs.

As was our driver and now loyal protector.

We turned right on 4^th Street and then left on Avenue M and came to a rolling stop in front of a large square warehouse. Dull semi-white paint covered the two story warehouse, paint that had been exposed to the elements and salt spray for at least two years longer that it should have been. Longish streaks of rust were evident everywhere I looked, and what few windows I could see were grungy and occluded. Over the narrow double doors was a handmade sign, a wooden Chinese dragon, painted completely white except for a mane of red flames and dull black eyes. Above the dragon were some glossy red symbols or words, which I took to be Chinese, and above those were, in an arched rainbow formation, the English words WHITE DRAGON SECURITY.

The lot across the street was empty, a flattened out patch of dirt with four corroded copper pipes sticking up like chopped off saplings. No other buildings were closer than two hundred feet. I could see a baseball field beyond the parking lot that was on the opposite side of the empty lot.

All six of us got out of the van, leaving our luggage behind. I held Lilly's hand in my left, the briefcase in my right, and followed Thanh and his brother Kim. The cousins trailed after us as we were led inside the building.

The interior was as different from the exterior as could be imagined.

Dark wooden paneling, colorful decorative wall hangings of cloth, crepe and thin metal, bright overhead track lighting, modern furnishings and thick plush red carpeting that covered the rear-most half the reception area's floor.

Thanh and his brother escorted us into the large, comfortable reception area, complete with over-stuffed leather chairs and plush three person love seats upholstered in garish red colors.

At the far end, opposite the entryway, was large wooden desk, with no one behind it. To the right of the desk, was a single metallic fire door with no markings of any kind. To the left was a set of heavy dark wooden doors inlaid with carved dragons that ran from top to bottom. On the right hand door was a heavy metal plate, and inscribed on the plate: L. Fan.

No sooner had Lilly and I taken a seat on one of the red love seats, than the fire door on the right opened and a tiny little girl emerged.

She pulled the door shut behind her, turned around, saw the six of us against the far wall, smiled brightly and began walking towards us. As she got closer I was forced to reassess my first impression.

She was no little girl; small, just a bit taller than Belle or maybe a little shorter than Peggy, but her attitude and deportment were definitely those of a mature woman. She had a youthful face, and shoulder length fire engine red hair that had to have come out of a dye bottle, but her calculating jade green eyes held years of experience, and her emotional state spoke of vast unwavering self confidence. Her clothing was a bizarre catholic school girl and punk rocker mix; mid thigh high blue-gray plaid pleated skirt, white fishnet stockings, ankle high black Peter Pan boots, a horrid pink tee shirt peaked out from beneath an ancient looking leather biker jacket that was easily two sizes too big and covered with metal badges and pins of all types and shapes.

"You must be Doctor Blacktower." she said, her voice a warm contralto that oozed latent sexuality.

I stood slowly. Her eyes followed my upward progress with interest.

"You're younger and whiter than we were led to believe." she said with a smile that held no malice.

"How old did you think I was?"

The little woman chuckled. "I don't know; fifty-fifty five."

I smiled back. "I'll be thirty one this summer."

"You look much younger."