Chapter 47

For the last couple of months our time in Israel was mostly uneventful with the two of us talking about what each of us had been asked. For myself the request was to develop businesses in both Israel and one or more of the Palestinian territories no set monetary amount was specified but after a couple of meetings with my people I knew there was no short cuts to be had if I wanted my people protected.

For Antonia, her meeting was an attempt to address the various short comings throughout Israel and if any of the spouses would be willing to head up or contribute to a charity. When she told me what was being requested, I quickly agreed thinking a million dollars a month would gain us a lot of goodwill. What I was not counting on was when, Antonia stated, "I want to head up the charity."

Asking her why, she said she was not ready to go back to the tunnel where her friends and father had died and she had not. At first I was going to argue with her, thinking she was just avoiding going back into the tunnel. I had no idea what to say after she stated she did not want to go back into the tunnel, but right then I suggested we would talk about it later. She agreed and I made a mental note to talk to her psychologist the next time Antonia had an appointment.

When we had our meeting with her, Antonia was not happy I brought up her statement about not returning to her work. There were several more weeks of meeting before we were to leave and we came to a compromise with Antonia returning to the island and finishing her work, while I would double my donation to her charity with an extra bonus of a million dollars for an end of year bonus to make the donation a nice round twenty five million dollars. The round number at the end I thought was easy for the psychologist to offer as none of the money was hers. Still she pointed out the additional cash gave Antonia a goal to work towards.

The money was not an issue for me because not only were my investments doing well, but Thor, who had been my point of contact regarding the upcoming 2020 Olympics, came through big, negotiating a handshake contract, promising I would stay away from all athletes. Most of the details about what I could do came from Korea since they had first-hand knowledge as to what I could do. My compensation for all of this was a cool five million dollars per gold medal event, all told just over one point five billion dollars to be paid over two years with a third being paid immediately, a second third three months before the games began and the last payment to be paid once the game were finished and the results were more in line with past Olympics results. To show there were no hard feelings; Thor had the IOC add blocks of tickets to every single event to the contract.

Asking him later, why so many tickets he stated, smiling the whole time, I could give them away to his staff so their families could attend. Saying nothing, I wondered who was going to foot the bill to fly and house everyone in Japan. Somehow I knew I would pay for all of them. So plans were started in order to visit Japan in the summer of 2020.

By August the hospital had pronounced Antonia as rehabilitated as they could do though they did admit she was already farther along than most people who took up residence there and quite possibly fully recovered on her own. Her mental state was another matter as she had no desire to return to Atokos instead preferring Italy to visit her family and to say good bye to her father, whose body had been recovered and buried while she had been hospitalized. She also wanted to visit the families of everyone else who had been killed that day.

So we flew to Rome, where our plans diverged with Antonia going to visit her family and pay her respects to the crew members who died, while I continued on to my island in Sardinia. Once there, the problems Sven and Thor had put off so I could care for Antonia needed to be dealt with; first were the women who I had agreements with who had returned. Only there were five women waiting for me not the four I knew would be there. The fifth was Cecilia's younger sister and after greeting everyone I was asked if Cecilia, her sister Sarah, and I could talk at a later time, as I had no real schedule I agreed we would meet after dinner that evening.

Until then I had not only a full day of meetings but meeting for the rest of the week. I found the meetings tedious but I knew I had put things off as long as I could outside of critical meetings that Sven kept as short as possible so I could be with Antonia. With my financial empire growing and not being in control I knew I had to pay the piper so I let Sven lead me to the veranda where I had spent many days looking our over the water when we first arrived. Looking out over the water I was pleased to see things looked like they had before I had gotten married though I wished Antonia was here to share the view with me.

As that was not going to happen for a week or more, I focused on my money managers letting them tell me how my money was doing. We spent most of the day going over what had changed with Sven going on a buying binge of islands around the world, some of them vacation spots where Antonia and I could go for somewhere different. The other islands Sven reminded me were for the other project I had commissioned before the accident. Asking if everything was accounted for I was told it was so I told everyone to move on.

The only point of contention was my most recent suggestion to either start businesses in Israel and Gaza or purchase existing ones and the budgets I gave them. None of them knew why of course and I did not tell them other than I wanted it done. The only suggestion I got back was that if I was going to invest in Israel that it would have been better to avoid Gaza as anything I built would be attacked. I told them that I understood their reservations about doing business there but I wanted it done. Collectively they said they would do as I asked and keep looking for a way to start a business in Palestine.

Dinner on the island that night was American Southwestern with enough for everyone who I had on the island that day. By the time dinner ended no one left hungry and my taste buds, which had not had a good American meal in years, were very pleased. Feeling as good as I was, I smiled thinking that I was probably being set up for something.

I was right as the women were setting me up in two different ways; the first turned out to be easy as they were making sure their tuition was going to continue to be paid as I had already told them time in my bed was no longer needed. The second was Sarah, Cecilia's younger sister who needed a mentor/guardian as their father had passed away recently. The reason for his passing was due to his youngest daughter's computer activity and it was also the reason she could not join her sister in America due to being banned from entering the country due to her computer crimes and subsequent record.

I liked Sarah immediately. Being banned from entry into America at fifteen was an accomplishment as I did not accomplish mine until I was nineteen. Adding to her good points for me was she had already completed school which meant I did not have to arrange school for her was a bonus as well as her crimes of bank fraud, considering what I was going to be doing in the near future; she would prove to be an asset I could conceal.

We talked a while longer, Cecilia, Sarah and myself and I told them I would let them know in the morning after I talked to a couple more people. The people of course were Antonia and Sven, Antonia was easier to convince saying I needed a personal assistant as I was asking Sven to do too much already being my assistant as well as my head of security. She was right and I agreed that I would talk it over with Sven in the morning.

The rest of our conversation went well and for the first time in several long months she did not cry when we talked about the future. I was hopeful Antonia's time away was doing her good.

The next morning after my swim and a short talk with Sven, I invited Cecilia and Sarah to join me for breakfast. I offered Sarah, and she accepted the offer to be my assistant, along with enrollment in a school for personal assistants. I never knew there existed schools for assistants. I assumed everyone simply filled a need with someone they knew, giving them the insight into what they boss needed.

Until the school started she would start her duties with me by shadowing Sven until she was due to leave for her school. Her departure was put in jeopardy as Sven and I both discovered Sarah was even better with computers and electronics than simple cybercrime, the only reason she got caught was she talked to a friend of her who had a bigger mouth giving police a trail to follow back to her. Had her friend not talked, she would have financed her own college career.

Her ability also reminded me what Antonia's doctor had mentioned about others who had abilities similar to mine. Sven and I both thought trying to find others like myself would be a good test for Sarah as none of us had heard of any others. For Sarah's test she was asking for a number of components that Sven and I had never heard of but she stated she would need if we did not want her found out. Shrugging my shoulders, I told Sarah and Sven her budget was to be a hundred thousand dollars and if there was a problem she was to work around the problem.

Within a week of the parts she requested arriving as well as a good Internet connection, she delivered her first report to Sven. The problem with her report was that her first subject was the woman who helped me with my telekinesis in Korea. Because I had not told her about my history I accepted her report asking her if there were others and if there were I wanted her to prepare reports for me on them too.

My life started to get back to normal after three weeks as Antonia arrived one morning, early enough I was still swimming, having driven in from the airport. Her purpose was to surprise me and she did as she joined me for my morning swim.

Wrapping me up in her arms, she stated with a smile, "I think that I am ready to start paying you back for our wedding."

With Antonia back our time seemed to fly as we were constantly buzzing around the country taking in shows as well as the occasional meeting for either business or her charity she was a board member. We also did some diving though I could tell the spark of life was somewhat dimmer as she thought about the friends she had lost in the accident. So surprisingly after one of our dives she stated she was ready to return to Atokos after visiting Israel to see how her charity and my money were being spent.

The only surprise we discovered while we were there, besides the abject poverty, was how much was being lost from bribes, non-existent regulations, and outright blackmail. If I was going to face the same levels of graft starting my own business, Palestine and Israel both could go pound sand as far as I cared, I had no desire to throw money down a money pit. Talking to Antonia about the graft we had seen led to our first fight as she wanted to continue with her charity work while I suggested we hold the money back until the criminal system worked better. In the end I agreed to continue the contribution I had agreed to previously though I did not like seeing my investment siphoned away helping only the rich. Right then I just did not have the time as Sven stated he had a surprise for Antonia and me on Atokos.

Asking what the surprise was he simply stated I would have to wait and see. Thankfully the flight and the wait were short because as we circled the field to make sure it was clear to land. For me I was not looking at the runway but instead I was looking at a ship sitting just off of the coast of the island close to where the cave entrance was located. As we circled I could see various cables running from the shore to the ship holding the ship in place while others disappeared into the water farther out. Before I lost sight of the ship, I thought I could see other cables running to the shore but those did not look like they were there to hold the ship in place.

My first question to Sven as the jet passed behind the hills to land was, "What's that ship doing there?"

Looking out of one of the windows himself, Sven answered, "Let me answer your next question first to say the ship you saw down there is yours, or I should say the ship belongs to you through the company you started. The company right now does not have a name as the previous company was bankrupt, so Thor had been using a temporary name B.A. Enterprises until you could give it a proper name. The few who know what the ship is about and what is down there are suggesting the name, Finders Keepers."

"You say something has been found down there?"

Before Sven could answer the jet touched down revving up the engines in reverse, slowing us down. When the sound volume dropped as we taxied to what was being called the hanger, he answered saying, "After the accident we had to use the ROV to recover a couple people who we could not reach. In locating them the pilot took a couple pictures and Thor says there is a lot more down there."

Exiting the jet, I asked, "So what is the ship for?"

"The ship and crew have spent the last couple of months repairing, remounting and sealing the sea doors over the opening. Last week the captain reported the crew was ready to start pumping out the sea water but I thought it might be nice if Antonia gave the order considering what happened," Sven added.

Walking with us, she answered in a strong voice, "Tell the Captain to drain the fucking thing."

Sven smiled, saying, "Yes ma'am, it would be my honor." He stepped away for a moment and when he returned, offered, "The Captain says he will have the pumps up in a couple of minutes. The Captain has also invited both of you for a tour of his ship as the pumps might take a couple of days to drain the cavern."

After taking our things to the main house and a leisurely lunch, Antonia stated she wanted to look at the tunnel. The walk over there was easy enough though I did notice she slowed down after we entered the warehouse with the tunnel entrance. By the time we were ready to go into the tunnel her movements were down to a crawl with a real effort just to move her forward. Taking her hand in mine we made some progress though I felt like it was more like three steps forward two backwards, progress was made but it was slow. Moving farther down the tunnel, Antonia did pick up her pace somewhat though it was still slower than when she was first down here describing what she was seeing at the time.

The view of the harbor was different as the sea door was fully down so the only light to be seen was from our helmets and flashlights we carried. The lights we had put down here were all still here but since no one had worked here in over six months the lights had simply been left off. Returning to the tunnel we made our way to where the sea water had made it too and I could already see that the water level was dropping as the water line had retreated from the debris line by several feet. I was thinking this would take weeks to get the water out but after seeing Antonia sweating and in a near panic, I thought the pace would be good enough to let her work on her fear.