Chapter 21

I woke up being hugged by Jenny on one side and Grenaline on the other. I don't remember going to sleep with the daughter of one of my significant others, but they all change places sometimes during the night. Guys are clueless, and this is just another way that proves it.

I was looking into Jenny's eyes when I awoke. They were soft brown and looking at me as if in question. When I smiled, her eyes smiled and she softly kissed me. She said, "Gin came over here because she wanted to be close to us. Isn't that sweet?"

From behind me a voice said, "I don't know whether it's sweet or not, but I'm really horny and Sal might be the perfect cure."

Jenny sat up and said, "You know you want to save it for that special person in your future. Are you having a hormonal problem, Daughter?"

"Oh God, Mom, I'm so horny that I could rub off for an hour and it wouldn't help. I know it's my hormones, but I somehow keep thinking that Sal could fuck me into submission and all would be well."

I rolled to hold Grenaline and said, "Gin, you are a gift for any man, but you need to hold on a while and let it be the man who deserves you."

"But you deserve me, Sal. You love my mom; you help my brother, why not help me when I'm needy like right now?"

I softly kissed Gin and told her, "You and I are not going to be lovers like I am with your mom. We're going to be best friends forever, and someone each of us can go to for help and advice."

Grenaline exclaimed, "Damn, I know you're right, but I need something now, not later."

I did what I don't think I should have done. I held and kissed Gin while I slipped my fingers past the top of her panties, moving the gusset aside and with as much gentleness as I knew how to give, massaged her clit until she arched her back, and what do you know, the young Gin did exactly what Jenny does. She squirted almost across the room. Jenny pinched my butt to the point that I might have had a blood blister back there, but I did take care of Gin's problem.

Gin held my face to hers and kissed me. "Oh, Sal, you gave me exactly what I needed, when I needed it. I know why Mom loves you so much by the way you lovingly took care of me. It was so good."

The three of us were up, showered, and dressed, ready for me to go to the patio while they were going home to dress for the day, since they hadn't moved their clothes into our new place yet.

I wondered where the rest of the women were, since the new bed was for all of us, not for just Jenny and Grenaline.

I arrived at the patio just as Steve came from his house and turned the patio lights on, as usual. Also as usual, Glenda came into the patio through the side door. We three sat together with our coffee mugs and smiled at each other, celebrating another great day on this earth.

Steve said, "So, Sal, are you ready for your bonus day? We're actually celebrating this a little late as the first bonus day is supposed to be a year after you start. You're a little late, but all for good reason."

Tiny had come in and sat with us. He said, "Not many will have received the kind of bonus you will be getting, Sal. Your contribution to the company and all of its components is significant. All of us will be rewarded for your efforts."

How do you answer a comment like that?

The first of my ladies to come to me this morning was Rita, with our son, Deuce. I held the little critter for a few minutes before she took him into the living room to feed him. Suki came with our son, and held him to me. I held Trey in my hands and kissed his forehead while he seemed to smile at me. After a hug, Suki took him into the living room to feed him while she sat with Rita.

Glenda said, "Just like when Steve's and Chuck's were tiny. The Moms kept bringing them to him for kisses and hugs before they took them into the living room to feed them. This is history repeating itself."

My brother, Val, came onto the patio and went straight for the coffee mugs. He sat next to me after he had poured himself a cup. After a healthy gulp, he asked, "What do you think, Sal? Do you think I have what it takes to be a Deputy Marshal?"

I lovingly looked at my big brother, and said, "Val, I've always thought you could do anything you wanted to do. If you want to be a U.S. Deputy Marshal, you will be one of the best. Do it, Bro, and know that your little brother approves of everything you do."

Val looked at me with misty eyes, then reached out and hugged me to him. He looked at me for second before he said, "Sal, you are the most intelligent of us kids, but you have always been the most honest. If you think I have what it takes, I'll be the best damned U.S. Deputy Marshal there ever was."

Val left us to go do what he had scheduled shortly after that exclamation.

All of my women had spoken to me and given me hugs and kisses, and Cindy came by to give me a kiss afterward. She said, "You did it for us, Sal. Val is really hot to become a Deputy Marshal. Your friends Chuck and Lisa are influential enough to make sure Val gets the opening."

"Cindy, Val wouldn't have been considered if he didn't meet their expectations and requirements. These people don't do things that way."

Knowing Val's abilities, I called out to the airpark and asked the person on the desk, "This is Sal, and I want to schedule my brother's first introductory flight for later today. Can you fit him in around three or four?"

When they said three would be best, I knew I had to get to Chuck before then.

It didn't take long to get the correct number to get Chuck. There was the usual wait between barriers to get to him when I called.

"Chuck Johnson here."

"Hey, Chuck, this is Sal Feeny out at the park."

"How can I help you, Sal?"

"My brother has applied for a place with your organization, and I think he could be a more valuable member of your team if he was to learn to fly. How about teaching him to fly while he learns to be a Deputy Marshal?"

There was a long wait, but eventually Chuck's voice came back, "Great idea, Sal. I'll make sure he's on the training schedule as of Monday morning. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see you later."

Wow! I sat back thinking that this would protect my brother from further military intervention. Little did I know! I had to call the airpark and ask them to cancel the three o'clock as Chuck would schedule later.

Now that was progress in the way I thought it should go. Val has always been a good learner and has always been aggressive in learning new ways of doing anything. Our youth told me that he would do well learning to control those huge aircraft.

Val taught me how to schmooze my ladies. He had experience with women who had just given birth and who had been left behind. That knowledge let me handle the emotions of the women who were watching their best friends nurse the babies they wished they had borne.

Between my sister and sister-in-law, I was able to give the new mothers sufficient attention, and the audience what they wanted to hear. The mothers were happy and the newborns were cooing as they ate.

My work had a new focus, since we had found the answers to thousands of questions, and proven those answers to most of them. Remaining were answers that had to do with how to consistently invade countries without alarming the techs who monitored enemy radar. The drones could fly in almost at ground level and never be known except by surface observers. We needed the larger, more destructive aircraft to be equally unseen, but more devastating to the enemy.

Our tests in the bombing areas became purer as we entered and re-entered the radar zones without detection. We expanded our testing to war zones, and although we were without ammunition and armament, we made pass after pass over their positions and saw them launch toward something that wasn't there. Our product was a success.

The most important part of the agreements was getting the government observers to agree that all of the tests were successful.

One of the former generals, who now worked for Boeing, made the supposition that the display could be rigged for S&S. His own people showed how that couldn't have happened, since they had real time photos of every second the flight was in progress.

Another Boeing rep suggested that the residual MPVs were rigged to delete problems with the target drones. He was instantly proven wrong. The discussion on that problem lasted less than thirty seconds.

The last and most ferocious attack came from Lockheed-Martin engineers who stated they had heard from our own engineers that we were able to manipulate the reported data to show our ability to target a specific location.

We requested a Lockheed-Martin tech to work with our engineers as we put an attack together on an area just outside our specified safety area. It could have been disastrous if the armament had been the original, but we were a couple of hundred yards from the impact area. When we watched the drone launch, everyone in the area held their breath as they realized how close this was, but the impact outside of our immediate area was a huge relief.

When all was over, Steve grinned at me and said, "Take them all back to where they can get out of here. We'll talk to them in future weeks."

Helicopters came in and took all of the observers back to our airfield to leave for their respective home offices. None were allowed to stay.

Steve told me, "Get everyone squared away and back home on the patio. We need to celebrate a little."

The men on site took each target apart and loaded it onto a semi-trailer. We leveled the area where the building had been that we targeted in order to show our distance accuracy. My men turned to me when all of the trucks had been loaded, and the leader said, "Okay, Boss, we did our part; we have a 206 that is ready to take us back. Fly us home, okay?"

As my men loaded up, I did a preflight and was quickly in the air. A lot of their friends and co-workers were at the airpark to meet us when we landed. It was a unique party for a bunch of nerds.

Back at the patio, Steve immediately handed me a tall glass that made me gasp as soon as I took a big drink. Steve smiled and told me, "That is the best Beefeaters can give."

Steve, Tiny, and Henry had me join them at a table a little later. Steve said, "I told you that your contribution to this project was worth a lot to our company, but I didn't discuss how much."

I smiled at Steve, as I was very happy with the deal I had so far.

"Sal, your work and persistence to go beyond what we think is normal, has brought us unimaginable profits, and areas of research. Your early work here will become the benchmark for the research we will do in the years to come."

"For this sale, we need to reward you for the extraordinary monetary benefit to S&S, CS&S, and Quality Wear, a bonus that in no way represents the magnitude of the benefit you have given your companies. Take this, Sal, take this as just a beginning reward for your productivity."

Steve handed me an envelope and said, "Open this later. This is just the beginning of your reward for the work you have done."

I shook hands with Steve and took the envelope. It seemed that he didn't want others to know what was inside, so I folded it in half and stuffed it in one of my back pockets. Steve smiled at me as I did that. He was a man that I also wanted to emulate as I grew in life.

When I sat down with my family, Marilyn immediately asked, "How much was it? Is it a lot?"

Suki was first to tell her, "You know that Sal is paid very nicely for what he does, so an extra fifty or a hundred would go a long way to reward him."

Jenny was right there and said, "But Sal solved a huge problem within their military bids. Since he was a part of the solution, you know Steve will reward him handsomely."

Rita told all of the others, "Let Sal tell us what the reward is. The value he places on it is what we need to feel is the reward."

I had heard that, turned to Rita, and winked at her. Not only was she a new mother to Deuce, but a very smart mother to my new son.

Marilyn's son sat next to me as he brought his plate full of food from the kitchen one morning. After taking a healthy forkful of food into his mouth and chewing it, he looked up to me slightly and asked, "Am I supposed to call you 'Dad' now?"

I was startled as this had been the first time Garth had spoken to me. "Garth, you can call me Sal if it would make you feel better, since I am somewhat of an interloper within your family."

The young man turned to me and said, "You have made my mom feel really good about herself and she is back to being the person that she used to be. I want to thank you for that, but I don't know what I should call you."

I looked at the boy and said, "Call me anything you feel is right. I would like it if we can be friends. I will help you with school work if you let me, but I'll also work with you to be whatever you want to be in the future."

Garth was smiling when he turned to me, "I know I'm too young, but can you teach me to fly? Jeff says I have to be sixteen, but why can't I learn before then? Will you teach me?"

Without knowing how his mother felt about small aircraft and flying, I told him, "You and me, Bro, we're going to do some fun flying. But I have to tell you that I'm not an instructor pilot yet, so I'll have to get Jeff to give you the flying lessons you need. Don't worry, Garth, I'll handle the cost. Your problem is to let your mother know and to get her permission for you to learn to fly."

Garth did a vanishing act and was dragging Marilyn to me within moments. "Mom, tell Sal that it's okay to teach me to fly. He's worried that you won't agree. Please, Mom, tell him its okay."

Marilyn hugged Garth to her and hugged my head. "If anyone should teach my Garth to fly, it should be you, Sal. He's already told me that you can't really do it, but Jeff can. Please, teach my son to fly the way Jeff has taught you. Garth has always been a good respectful kid and deserves to be rewarded for his good behavior. Teach him, Sal."

I spoke to Jeff a little later and he agreed to take Garth on as a student since I was going to sponsor him and pay for his flight time. Little did I know how much flight time Garth would want!

The next few days were filled with all of us attempting to bring the software to focus on the smallest of problems for any size aircraft. It later took us a month to come up with a good design for the hunting/camping aircraft that could land on a hard surface or water. This aircraft should be a winner all by itself, but would only appeal to a few.

One of the conventional aircraft that we were trying to get airborne was an air coupe that was meant to land on water, but constantly wanted to nose over in our computer analysis. Thank goodness we didn't attempt to fly it or build it to test. The tests were significant enough to convince us that a high wing aircraft might be best for water or ski landings.

Our first pontoon or float aircraft was sent up to the northwest so it could be tested between Friday Harbor and Seattle. Steve's friend, Dewey, welcomed the opportunity to see some of our experimentation take to the air around him. The fact that the aircraft flew from Florida to the outer islands of Washington State meant nothing, but that the aircraft was floating on the bay in Friday Harbor, ready to fly Dewey to Seattle, was all the proof he needed. This aircraft was designed with the help of Mark from the Costa Rican islands. Mark had designed and built one of the experimentals with pontoons, so all we had to do was use Mark's design.

CS&S was on the move, and had Dewey on board for testing what we needed. The plane was left with Dewey's pilot at the airport at Friday Harbor, and our pilot took a commercial flight home.

Another significant battle was brewing at home. My guys were constantly fighting with the Lockheed-Martin engineers to keep them from our source code. They protested enough that I was called in to settle a dispute between our men and the Lockheed-Martin team.

The Lockheed-Martin team's attorneys brought their document out that was supposed to be the terms of our agreement. Something didn't read right as I looked at the document.

I called our legal department and asked them to have a copy of our original agreement forwarded to us and to have someone come and act as counsel. I had a copy of our original agreement within seconds, and printed it with multiple copies.

While I was handing the copies of the printed document out, one of our legal counsels showed up. It was Mrs. Sandy Flowers, who was a very attractive addition to our meeting. I didn't know that she had completed her legal degree and passed the bar exam.

The Lockheed-Martin people were huddled over the document I had given them, and they turned to us with mean faces, "This is obviously your way of dodging your responsibility under the contract. There is something very wrong with the way this agreement is worded and we will take you to court on it. We want all of your source code this instant, all of your research data, and all of your tested materials as we agreed."

Mrs. Sandy Flowers smiled at the men and said, "If you can show me anywhere within our agreement where what you request is offered or agreed upon, we will remit. Otherwise, Gentlemen, you are not welcome on our grounds any longer."

Wow! That was strong language from a young attorney.

The attorneys for Lockheed-Martin huddled and one almost began to argue, but was held back by one of the others. They gathered their materials and left. The only other person with them was one of our security people escorting them off premise.

Mrs. Flowers said to all of us, and that included her husband, "That was the correct way to handle a dispute like that. Don't try to understand the legal mumbo jumbo; let us in legal unravel the language. You all did well."

Our Sandy was grinning as he watched his lovely wife leave the meeting.

On the patio later, Steve told me that he had heard all about the confrontation with Lockheed-Martin. He had already been on the phone with their CEO and was just as put off as we had been. Steve told me that it seemed as if Lockheed-Martin had promised more than our product could do, and was up against a deadline or they would lose a rather large research bonus. That was what Steve had been trying to prevent, so it seemed to be possible.

After that incident, I did notice that security felt tighter around our campus and out at the airpark. The R&D center now had people posted around the outside of the building. When I looked out onto the serene landscape, it now included a security guard wandering around the area.

There were enough men around the hangar where the drones were at the airpark, to give anyone the idea that it was not smart to get close. The hangar where the mystical military jet was being built was so heavily guarded that you didn't want to get close.

About that time Donny announced that he wanted to make the inaugural train expedition across Florida. My Mom, Dad, Grandmother, and Grandfather came here just for that special ride.

The train was made up of the engine, the tender with loads of water as well as coal, two Pullman cars, a dining car with kitchen, a luxury car, and trailing them all was a bright red caboose decked out in luxury that could have only been dreamed of during its real use.

Donny had his dad dressed in the traditional Conductor's uniform, complete with a visor. He outdid himself by examining each ticket before punching a hole in it. Everything was supposed to be as it was in the forties.

The huge steam engine was huffing and puffing in the lead, giving everyone the sense that we needed to board immediately.

Before the train began to move, the Conductor hollered "All aboard", the engineer sounded the shrill steam whistle with a loud blast, followed by the bell going off multiple times. All of the noises made the passengers more anxious and excited.