Chapter 29

Steve

Oh, what a night! My lovely ladies must have thought I needed the attention as they were absolutely on fire. I think they were trying to help me set a record as they all had some of my loving and started over again. The surprise among the players was a sneaky person, as all of a sudden, when Mercy fell to the side, two large bazooms were in my face and they did not belong to Sue. Sue's mother was sitting on my pride and joy, smiling down at me. She said, "Oh, Steve, this feels so good. Do me like you do Sue, oh yeah, so good!"

When Beth had come and gone (pun intended), Sue snuggled up to me and trapped my swollen, but not hard, pride and kept pushing her big fun toy balloons in my face until I responded. Giovanna decided to get in on the fun and was feeding me Italian nipples as an appetizer for her 'seconds' later. Thank goodness Mickey and Juanita didn't want seconds as I doubt I could have responded.

This morning, though, I was wide awake as was my pride and joy. The good ole' ego was waving in the air, thinking of a little fun, when Sue slid onto me. She worked her magic until she fell over, squashing her big mammaries with stiff nipples into my chest. Mercy didn't let her rest as she pushed Sue off and assumed the same position. Now we were off to the races. This time I was better able to hold off until I worked my way through Kathy, Juanita, Mickey, and finally, Gio, before losing control and planting a very large amount of genetic material in Gio. Sure hope her comment that she was fine meant she was safe.

Now I was bushed, totally drained, but very relaxed and had the smile of a satisfied man. When I made it to the parlor, Dewey had the same kind of smile as I did, and was making a huge pitcher of Bloody Mary's. When he pointed at the pitcher, I nodded and was served a large glass.

Dewey, still smiling, while taking a drink of the tomato enhanced treat, asked, "Ready to sail out of here? Sheila and Sheena can't wait to get back on the water. It's difficult to believe how lucky I am to have those women. They support me in everything I do and then compete to see who can wring the most from me. I love it."

Chuck had just walked in from his room and said, "Thank goodness the famous five and Maria went home. I don't think I could have enjoyed one more woman this morning. Please, Dewey, a glass of our favorite morning beverage."

As the women began coming into the parlor, kids were coming from their rooms. The kids wanted a repeat of the syrup sticky mess they had yesterday, so a big order was made. Dewey kept up with the Bloody Mary demand, and had the coffee maker going on the second pot.

Chuck asked Dewey, "Do you know where the nearest major bank is? I want to send some of the money from these debit cards to my banks before we leave. I'll keep a couple for expenses but I really don't want to haul around a dozen debit cards worth that much to lose."

Dewey said, "You know there is an American Express branch in all of my Riviera hotels. If you have your transfer numbers, go to the branch and do your business. They'll charge you a fee but I doubt you will care." He laughed, "Most of the transactions here are for people transferring money in after a night in the casinos. You are going to upset the status quo around here."

Mercy was sitting next to me and said to Chuck, "Whatever you need to do, do it quickly as I'm taking your boat out of here this morning whether you're on it or not. I want to get going."

"I need to have a short meeting with my other partners this morning to sign off on the new property," Dewey explained. "The meeting is scheduled for seven thirty and it shouldn't take more than a half hour as the other partners have other meetings to attend."

Mercy lamented, "I guess we're not leaving until after nine at the earliest, are we?"

I asked Dewey, "Do you know the hours of the American Express branch?"

Dewey smiled, "On the Riviera, it's like everything else, twenty-four seven. You can get your business done anytime."

Chuck left the room to apparently get dressed and go to the branch. I thought that would be a good idea since I had collected some nice sized debit cards by shadowing Chuck and mirroring his bets. He and I made as good a duo gambling as Mercy, Missy, and I did before. I told Sue and Mercy sitting next to me, "I am going to get ready and go with Chuck."

When we went into the branch before seven in the morning, I was surprised to see several people at two active windows. A couple of the people were still in evening clothes and must have just returned from the casinos. I was happy to have money going back to the states, as opposed to having to withdraw some.

I had been a little apprehensive that Chuck's extremely large balances on the debit cards might be compromised in some way, but they were all confirmed and he happily signed the transfers. We both exchanged most of our remaining Euros as we were not going to need them any longer. Both of us kept out some for gratuities to the helpers at the docks. They would be happy they helped us this morning. Dewey came in and performed the same type of transactions while Chuck and I waited, and we all went back to the suite to have some breakfast that had been delivered. I was going to make breakfast tomorrow so we could get back to some good biscuits and gravy. I don't mind pancakes or waffles, but not every day.

By seven thirty, Dewey was gone to his meeting and the rest of us were finishing packing up. The kids were out on the beach getting rid of some energy, since this was going to be their last time on dry land for more than a couple of weeks. The women had kept some clothes out so that the kids could shower and dress at the hotel before boarding the boat.

Chuck and I, along with Julie, Gio, Gina, Kathy, and Juanita, were able to get all of our bags to the boat and stowed in the proper cabins. The women put the kids' clothes in their lockers and drawers, getting everything straight for probably the last time until we dock in Costa Rica.

The band came aboard with all of their clothes and double checked all of their equipment. With all of the instruments and sound gear set up, one end of the salon looked like a music store or night club. It's a good thing the boat had a main salon that is almost sixty feet long, considering the quantity of instruments stacked up in their cases. Someone had been smart and labeled each of the kids identical guitar cases with a large adhesive printed sticker proclaiming the owner's name. Even some of Chuck's and Lisa's cases were labeled with what kind of instrument was inside.

I made several trips back and forth to the hotel room, noting that the kids were now cleaning up and the mothers were packing the last of the dirty clothes. Dewey showed up and helped me carry the last of our stuff to the boat.

Chuck was working with the shore attendants, telling them how he was going to back out of the slip. They were not used to sailboats having fixed props, but one the size of our boat probably wouldn't function with the folding type.

The Captain of the Irish Bell was about ready to get going as well. He told us that he would travel with us until we were well out into the Mediterranean before going ahead. We agreed to take the northern route above the Balearic Islands, in what is known as the Balearic Sea. There was only one area that the big motor yacht would have to follow a channel. The rest of the way was going to be deep water.

The excitement of leaving was building as everything and everyone was on board. Chuck had used one of his remaining debit cards to pay for the part of the hotel bill we were allowed to pay, and for all of the yacht club expenses. I doubt it put much of dent into the card, but it came in handy. I saw Chuck distribute Euros to all of the dock attendants before he came on board for the last time, folded the gangway railings, and stowed it in its compartment.

Chuck had me at the outdoor helm as all the springer lines were released and coiled, followed by the center lines. Finally, he waved at me and I nodded while he released the stern line and Mercy pulled in and coiled the bow line as I slowly backed out of the slip. Once out in the marina lagoon, I stopped the reverse thrust and applied forward to bring us around to head out to open water.

The Irish Bell was moving now, also backing out, but when it was clear, they used their bow thrusters to swing the boat around to follow us. A half hour later, with everyone still up on deck watching the shore pass by, I began raising sail.

There was a decent wind this morning that had a little chill in it yet, as the water temperature was still cool. The kids were still wandering around the deck, with mine showing the Italian kids everything and what the names of the various parts were. The four new kids seemed to have worked their way into the group very well. Like Mercy and Sue say, the kids will work it out.

I decided that there was no need to be chilled, so I had Chuck open the salon helm. Once that was open, I closed up the outdoor helm until it warmed up this afternoon. There was a party atmosphere in the salon, with everyone on board congregating there. Chuck had all of the monitors up, including the one for the weather. The big TV was on with BBC news, but the volume was very low and the closed captioning was turned on so we could read what the newscasters were saying. Playing over the salon music system was a CD of one of the shows the band had recorded. I supposed we would hear a lot of that for the next two weeks.

Around noon, the ladies brought up large trays of sandwiches and chips. We were enjoying the picnic as the big boat sliced smoothly through the water. The wind had picked up a little and we were listing slightly from the wind direction, but not noticeable enough to have to use the cup keepers or worry about things sliding off the counters in the galley. Chuck remained at the wheel with Lisa, Gina, and Julie sitting with him.

Dewey was using our close proximity to shore for some last minute cell phone calls before he would have to switch to satellite. He appeared to be very happy and content that he was able to sail with us. I couldn't have been happier, traveling together with my two best friends.

Chuck

Lisa, Gina, and Julie were sitting with me as I manned the bridge, or helm, as we called it. All of the instruments and gauges were reading correctly, with the wind at about twenty knots. We were making good time, doing almost fifteen knots, about our top sailing speed. I had a good view in front of us, and I could see the Irish Bell trailing behind. According to the GPS course indicator, we were heading directly for the one channel we had to navigate while passing by the Balearic Islands on the way to the Mediterranean. Julie was asking both Lisa and me, "Can you two talk about how you were hurt, or is that something I should keep my mouth shut about? You know everyone is curious about, and of course, interested in what you do. The others seem to know that you do some strange things, but I'm not used to it. Can you tell me what happened?"

Lisa looked at me, but didn't ask anything. She had a determined look on her face, "Julie, I probably shouldn't say anything, but I'm not an employee of those people, and in reality, Chuck wasn't acting as an employee of either of his services. We were loaned out to a group neither of us like, and wouldn't have been involved if it hadn't been for kids being hurt."

Julie said, "Ah, you were part of the people who freed those kids, weren't you?"

Lisa nodded, "Yes we were, and as usual, everyone looks to Chuck to direct and lead them. Chuck shouldn't be in the front, he does have a prosthesis, although most of the time you wouldn't know it. Most of the men he ends up leading wouldn't follow him if they knew. It just isn't smart to rely on a one-legged guy in that type of situation."

"So what happened? How did the two of you get hurt?" Julie asked, sitting back in one of the big chairs next to the captain's chair at the helm.

"To make a long story end," Lisa began, "Let me compress it as much as I can by telling you, we had to overcome a bunch of men who were guarding kidnapped children. These kids were part of a global child slavery operation that was being simultaneously attacked by law enforcement in most of the countries they operated in. From what we learned, they even had children being shipped to buyers in England. You can only imagine what they may have been doing with them."

Gina was sitting on the other side of Julie, almost falling out of her chair listening and trying to understand everything Lisa was disclosing.

Lisa had to gather herself as she continued, " Chuck organized several groups of people, made a plan, and led us all to begin the assault. We ended up having to go below deck where the children were being held. That's where Chuck was shot by two bursts from an AK47. A burst is three rounds fired in rapid succession, like a machine gun, but only three rounds at a time. The way a heavy automatic weapon like that acts, it draws the muzzle upwards as you fire, so Chuck was probably hit on his side by the first of the six rounds fired at him. The rest of the rounds were stopped by his protective vest. I saw them later, enmeshed into the armor. The rounds hitting Chuck lifted him off his feet, knocking him backward. I shot those two shooters and was trying to check on Chuck. I could see he was wounded, but he got up on his hands and knees and told me he was okay."

"When we thought we had that room secure, we were going to the other room in the front of the barge, but someone began firing at us from the dark hallway. None of the rounds hit us and we fired back with our weapons on automatic, you know, like a machine gun. When Chuck found a light switch, the light showed we had neutralized a couple of guards in the hallway. Ah, neutralized means dead. Chuck went to the front, secured that area, but while he was gone, I was checking the children that had been shot to see if any were still alive and could be helped."

Lisa took a deep breath, "I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings and someone snuck up on me and hit me on the head, knocking me out. He probably thought he had killed me or he would have finished me with my own rifle."

Giving me a hug, Lisa continued, "Chuck later told me that when he found me, he knew someone was still in the area. One of the other law enforcement people helped him find my attacker. When the guy began shooting out of a closet, both Chuck and the other person shot him. Chuck carried me out of there, and the first thing I remember was seeing Chuck getting bandaged and trying to comfort me at the same time."

"That's about it. We found out there had been over a hundred and fifty kids onboard and over fifty guards. Almost all of the guards were killed, and several little girls were killed or injured, but we saved almost all of them. Since this happened, I have resigned from the service I used to work for. That was how I met and fell in love with Chuck, so it wasn't all bad. The problem has been that since we have been together, the assignments we have been on have become progressively more difficult and more dangerous."

Gina surprised us by getting down from her chair and went and gathered Lisa to her, hugging her. Gina was almost cooing to her, petting Lisa's head, telling her she was safe with her. Gina was still hugging Lisa, when she turned to me and said, "You can never take Lisa with you to do these things. I know men have to do what they do, but you don't take one you love into danger like that. Promise me, Chuck, you will never do this again?"

I looked at Gina, "I promise, Gina. I will never intentionally take Lisa into a situation like that. I think I'm going to promise not to get myself into more situations like that as well."

Gina released Lisa and came to me to hug me. She kissed all over my face, petting my head as she had Lisa, "Let me take care of you, both of you, all of our family. Let me give to all of you the love I have. I will make you happy; you don't do those dangerous things anymore."

Gina was full of surprises as she hugged Julie and said, "You are like my mother. I have come to know you are full of love for all of us. That has made me very happy. Thank you, Julie, for caring for me the way you do."

You could see the moisture in both Julie's and Lisa's eyes. I was touched too.

Julie told Lisa, "Thank you for telling me. I kind of figured you and Chuck had something to do with what happened on the docks back in Nice, but didn't know for sure. Missy and Mercy seem to have some sort of connection with you two, and were up during the night worrying about you. I was going to join them in the parlor, but I could tell they were both upset and I didn't want to intrude."

Lisa said, "You'll learn about us soon, anyway. I think the word is clairvoyant. Missy and Mercy can read minds. They are able to reach out to people, talk to them, and soothe them when they need it. Chuck and I share some of those abilities, but we are not as proficient as they are. Chuck has the same ability as Missy by being able to anticipate things. He often knows what is going to happen before it does. He tries to hide his feelings and thoughts from me and those two ladies, but he has been more open lately than he was before."

Gina asked, "Are Missy, Mercy, and you witches? Is this a good thing?"

Lisa answered for the both of us again. "So far it has been a good thing. Chuck and I have become closer because of it, but we also have gained a great friendship with Mercy and Missy."

Julie said, "I wondered how Missy always seems to know what the kids are up to and when to intercede. Mercy does the same thing, but Missy does it with all of the kids." Julie looked back at the people in the salon, "Have you seen the way Mercy's triplets act? They will sit together in a little circle and not say a word, but it's as if they are talking to each other. Now that I know what Missy and Mercy are capable of, I'll bet they are talking together using their minds."

Gina said, "This is very strange. There are entertainers who do things like that in Italy, but I know of no one who can really read the mind."

Lisa asked me, "How about giving the helm to someone else so we can give the new kids their guitars." She turned to Gina, "When we were at the music store, we bought your and your sister's kids new guitars just like the ones the other kids have. Now they will feel like they belong with the others."

This made Gina very happy and she went to drag Giovanna back to us. "Tell her, Lisa; tell her what you just told me."

Lisa told Gio who then became as excited as Gina. Gio said, "I want to watch when you give to them. They will be very excited, very happy. I think they like, er, ah, enjoy the playing music."

I waved at Steve who probably knew what I wanted. He brought Dewey over and said, "We'll have to set up a schedule. I'll get Sue and Mercy on it. What do you say about the way we did it on the way over? Four hour shifts between eight to eight, and two hours from then till eight in the morning. Let's just set it up that whoever is coming on does a deck tour to make sure everything is the way it should be."

Dewey said, "We have a good group. There are the three of us, Mercy, Sue, Juanita, and Kathy, with Lisa and Julie now coming along pretty well.

Sue and Mercy came over with a sheet of paper and said, "Let's go with this. I've broken it up so the guys are not consecutive. Let's use Greenwich Mean Time, an hour earlier now, so we will have a constant as far as the time of operation. We started with Chuck who was on until noon today, and I was supposed to have been on until four, so I'll take over now. Steve will be four to eight then Juanita will begin the two hour shifts from eight to ten. Mercy will be on until midnight, followed by Dewey, then Kathy, and Chuck back on at oh four hundred. Is that good?"

Everyone agreed, so Sue posted the schedule planned for twenty-one days, more than enough. Sue changed the big digital clock at the helm that changed the clocks throughout the boat. I was sure some of the times would get swapped around, and some of us would take extra shifts just to be nice or because we couldn't sleep.

Lisa told me, "Go below to the storage locker and get those four new guitars. I think I made them similar to what the other kids received when they got theirs. I put a handful of picks, extra strings, written instructions in the cases, but in English as well as a video and CD, some simple music, and a tuner like the rest of them have. The guitars are the exact same model. I already put their names on the cases so you won't have a problem giving them out. Let me get all of the kids together as they will be equally excited."

I went to the storage locker on the bottom deck and took out the four cases, along with the case for Bonita's new/used Blues King. Lisa and I might be spoiling her a little, but the other kids hopefully won't feel left out. Knowing Bonita, she'll share the Blues King the same as she has the SG.

When I was back up in the salon, Lisa had all of the kids sitting in their pre-arranged chair grouping, with Bonita on the end nearest the keyboards, with the four new kids sitting next to her.

Gioia and Sophia were next to Bonita with the two boys, Mario and Giovanni, next to them. Lisa said, "Since you now have four new friends and family members, Chuck thought it was time they had what you have. Give them their new guitars, Chuck."

Bonita was as excited as the new kids. She was helping them get the guitars from the rectangular road cases, showing them all of the items that were in there. She took out a tuner, put the batteries in it and began showing them how to tune their guitars. Liz, Lisa, and I helped, so all four had their new guitars, complete with wide shoulder strap, ready to play. I did notice Gioia and Sophia both began doing chords in the progression I had taught the other kids way back when.

Lisa got everyone's attention and pointed to me, I began, "We all have enjoyed playing what I think is some classic blues music. There are a lot more for us to learn and enjoy, but you may sometimes want to just sit down and play some special blues just for yourself. I have just the instrument for all of you to share."