Chapter 27

I was hugging tiny Suki when I woke up, but the more luscious Jeannie was at my back with her arm hugging me. Suki complained as I shifted to get out of bed, but Jeannie released me and I was able to crawl over her and head to the bathroom.

Rita and Jenny joined me as I stepped into the shower. We shared a few kisses before getting busy washing. Jeannie came into the shower with us, looked at the three of us, but didn't say anything. Rita hugged Jeannie and asked, "What's the matter, Honey, what has you upset?"

Jeannie hugged Rita and looked at me, "I want Sal to love me, but I'm not sure I want the love to have sex. I almost put him inside me last night, but I'm afraid. I'm afraid I will get hurt and I'm afraid it will turn out like before."

Jenny put her hand under Jeannie's chin and said, "You don't have to worry about us or Sal. We'll respect what you want and how long you want to wait before loving him, even if you never make love with him. Sal doesn't want you to be unhappy or afraid of him. Relax, Jeannie, you're safe with us and never have to make excuses or apologize for not being physically intimate."

I reached for Jean and pulled her to me for a hug. She was stiff at first, but relaxed as I held her. She pulled my lips to hers when I tried to kiss her forehead, and kissed me as only a lover would. As her lips left mine, she told me, "I love your kisses and want as many as I can get. I love the hugs you give me and I'm thrilled that we can hug naked in the shower like this, but I'm afraid of doing more. Wait for me, Sal; I'll get better." After a pause, she added, "I hope."

Rita told Jean, "You had some bad experiences that can be overcome, but you have to enjoy the new good experiences, without focusing on the memories of the past. Don't worry about being expected to do anything. Worry about doing a good job for S&S and for your kids. If you're supposed to become a part of Sal, the time will come."

"I want to be a good addition to you girls too. I've watched you; you love each other and show it physically. I want that, but I'm afraid just like I am with Sal."

The soap was now all washed off the four of us, so I said, "Come on; let's dry off and start a new day. I'm dying for a cup of coffee."

Jeannie enjoyed displaying her very nice body, and seemed to often touch all of us as we dried. I quickly shaved while the first three women went to dress, and the next three sleepyheads came in for kisses before getting into the shower.

The kids were helping the little ones get dressed, and Rita's twins were becoming the leaders of that group.

Rita and Suki took some time to nurse the boys before taking them to the patio. Those few minutes while the boys were at their mother's breast was special, as the moms' serene look was worth a lifetime of smiles.

The patio had filled early this morning, which usually meant a busy day for the company. Sue was in a deep conversation with Henry, while Steve was talking to Tiny and Abe. Rita came to me and said, "It looks like Steve has some responses from your demonstration. Sue is even getting some activity from her military contacts, so it looks like we're in for a busy day."

Sandy and I discussed what might need to be done to stay ahead of any questions that could be sent our way, but he said, "We have six different sets of programs made up that will give us a back door to anyone who attempts to pass the program along. We used the copy trap that you showed us at the University, so we'll receive notification and the 'from and to' IP addresses, including any bridges. That should do it."

I nodded as I sat back with a fresh cup of coffee. Jean was sitting across the table from me when she said, "You have a full day of training, so we should get out to the airpark as early as possible. You're going to meet and greet a Vietnam era UH-1BH that Jimmy and Tank thoroughly reconditioned. You need to learn from the beginning."

The day was brutal in as much as Jeannie wanted me to become proficient in a helicopter that didn't act anything like the Schweizer that I had been training in. Although we had lunch, and only stayed up two hours at a time between refueling stops, Jean didn't want to quit even after six hours. The saving grace was that the Huey didn't require nearly as much moment to moment attention and fine adjustment as the Schweizer, had more power than I needed for anything I wanted to do, and autorotated like a dream, without the white knuckles that afflicted me every time my instructor would chop the throttle on the little helicopter.

As we refueled the helicopter the final time for the day, I told her, "I'm bushed. Any more flying today and I'll be a danger to those around me. Isn't there something about the max instruction time in a day? I'd bet it isn't six hours, whatever it is."

Jeanie seemed disappointed when I spoke to her, but she looked at her watch before nodding in agreement. She said, "I just want to teach you everything as fast as possible so we can get on with designing the aircraft we want, Sal. I promise to lighten up on you, but there's a lot to learn."

My five women and Jean were still sitting at the table after supper that night, discussing what would come next in our lives, when Steve came up to us and said, "Well, Sal, your group has once again contributed to the coffers of S&S, CS&S, and Quality Wear."

Steve looked around the group and spoke directly to Jean, "You're in some rare company, Jean. The guy you're teaching to fly rotary wing has just contributed another group of contracts that should exceed about five billion, if they are exercised to completion. That's as in billions of dollars. Who knows whether or not we'll ever collect all the contract value, because Sal will probably create something even better? So be careful with him and treat him right, Jean. He has already been our man of the year."

Marilyn and Janet were watching and listening to the conversation, and both got up and came to me. Janet said, "You know that you probably need to take us on another vacation soon, Sal. I think Marilyn and I were not as content with the last one, so how about a weekend in Vegas or Key West?"

Steve was still standing with us, and said, "You know what? That's a great idea. I'll call the hotel down in the Keys and make sure our floor is free. Let's make a long weekend of it. We'll leave Thursday morning and come back Sunday night if we feel like it. What do you say, want to party in the Keys, Sal?"

The only person at the table who acted disappointed was Jean. She said, "That will throw us at least three days behind schedule. How am I going to teach this guy if he's down on the beach?"

Steve told her, "Sometimes having fun is a more important thing to do than flying, teaching, or anything else, Jean. The other thing that Sal needs to do is to go over to St. Pete and help Hap's friends with their network. Come on, Sal; let's ride over there and take care of your promise."

The women looked at each other to see who was going to go with me, but Jenny stood and told the rest, "I'm going tonight. We won't be late." That was that.

Steve with Sue, Charlie with Shawna, Hap with Margie, Hank with Debbie, and Jenny riding with me, took off and pushed a little faster than I was comfortable with going across the bay to the bar in St. Pete.

Using a few of the tools I brought with me, I set their server up with a software firewall that trapped someone rather than kept them out. Once an IP address hacked through the Microsoft front door protection, the firewall trapped the address and put a hard cookie on the far end PC. We would have their address and log in information should we later want to do something with the intruder.

The intruder screen is supposed to show any IP address or network name of anyone who isn't listed on the network's class of service. An address or name could not be added to the 'Class of Service' member list unless the administrator used three password steps. The main change we made for the current users was that they would now have to login rather than just accessing the web address.

We rebooted the server and admin PC after everything was loaded, and checked to make sure all online users were listed. From another PC, I used one bridge and did a fake login and did what most novice hackers do and tried to rout myself to a position from which I could watch who was doing what, and I could read stored e-mails and notices. The patch was doing what it was supposed to do and identified the bridge and local IP address.

We had our first customer within a few minutes. The hacker set himself up as a router and gave himself access. The 'Class of Service' listing caught him and the intruder alert listed the IP address, and to my surprise, it was a named computer. I checked the login at the far end and discovered this was the out of town club that had been trying to take the area over.

Another intruder came up, but this one was slick as the operator was able to hide from the other intruder, but he couldn't hide from our trap. I reached to cancel the cookie, but wasn't fast enough. There was a long pause, while the operator attempted to dump the cookie, before he dropped off the connection.

We sat back with a beer for a few minutes until the hacker came back, and when our software installed the hard cookie, he attempted to install a like cookie on our server. I let the foreign operator think he had placed the cookie, but I routed it to a CD waiting to record the information instead. I turned to Hap, "This is the law. They have some good operators, so do you want to let them stay and play, or do you want to get rid of them? The local chapter Prez said, "Let 'em stay. This way they'll know we aren't doing anything illegal and are trying to be straight."

I suggested to the club members, "Why don't you call the FDLE and discuss what you know is happening, and also tell them that they're welcome to put a man in your clubhouse as long as he follows the rules."

Hap looked at the local Prez and nodded. The local leader said, "We'll have a closed meeting and collectively decide on this one. A lot of guys smoke some weed, but they aren't dealing. We're staying out of that and are selling rebuilt scooters that are making us some money. The bar here is open to the public, so we're doing okay there too."

Hap asked, "Could you just let the lawman who is hacking us know that we know he's there? I want them to know we aren't a bunch of wienies that let everyone walk on us, but we'll let whoever that really has a purpose come in."

I told them, "Call the FDLE first, tell them you know they have been hacking your server, and that you appreciate they haven't done anything to your files. That will get us some kind of response, and if we need to do more, we'll do it and get their attention. Let's leave well enough alone."

Jenny was trying to talk to me about Jean on the way home. She was beating around the bush about how to say what she wanted to get out. I finally told her, "Just say what you mean, Jen. If this will help you, I do recognize that Jeannie is scared to death of most men, but she's accepting me and testing me because I haven't made any forward moves on her."

"She is scared of you and all men, Sal. She told me that she wanted to crawl under a table when she met Steve, but he was with Sue and Mercy, and that made her able to talk to him. Whatever happened to her must have been really bad, but she hasn't let it influence her twins. She told us that her dad is the only man who she trusts. She apparently was taken advantage of by an uncle, but he's out of the picture now. The man she married became possessive and mean all at once. He was angry that she became pregnant so fast and began beating her at that time. Her ex had someone go to her house to intimidate her. She was beaten and raped by this other man, then the ex came by to beat her some more. She may never want a relationship with a man again, Sal."

I told Jenny after a bit, "Jean and I will have a relationship, but it won't be on the same level as the one I have with you five. I think we need to be just the best of buddies and not even worry about intimate contact. We might even want to find her a place of her own. Her trying to overcome anxieties while being so close to me, a male, could keep her from doing a good job."

Jenny hugged me from the rear seat of the bike and said, "Thanks, Sal. All of us appreciate the way you accept these things."

I put the bike away when we got home, while Jenny ran into the patio to talk to the other women. Rita came in the storage shed while I was wiping the bike down, and said, "Jenny told us what you said. Jeannie is over there crying because she wants more than she has with you, but she's afraid of more. I think she's going to be another of your ladies, but she isn't going to be one of your lovers. The fact that you're being a male figure for her twins has her really confused, but just do what you feel is right and I'm sure it will be."

I made the suggestion, "How about putting Jean in a separate room instead of in our bed, maybe even finding her a place of her own? You know that I really enjoy making love to my ladies, but that hasn't happened since Jean arrived. She'll understand, and she can snuggle if she wants to, but not until we are finished loving each other."