Chapter 19

Matt was in his office, on Tuesday. He had just finished another meeting with his leadership team, though nothing noteworthy in came up in the way of new business. Matt was reviewing the inventory. There were two additional sales, which he would handle the programming for later in the afternoon.

Matt heard a knock on his office door. “Come In.”

Matilda walked into Matt’s office. She walked over and sat in one of the chairs facing Matt’s desk. “I have the final contract for the investment in Armored Shutters.” She passed a document over to Matt.

“Do I need to call my trust attorney?”

“No. We are getting sales moving much faster than I initially expected, and we have plenty of cash reserves in the Chronos Enterprises. I think we should fund it out of our cash reserves and have the company own the stock.”

Matt nodded. “That makes sense.” He read through the contract. “Everything looks to be in order. Make it happen.” He signed the contract and handed it back to Matilda.

Matilda took the contract back and stood up. “I’ll take care of it.” She walked out.

Matt’s office phone rang. He picked it up. “Chronos Enterprises. Office of the CEO.”

“Mr Murphy.” It was Maks Alkaev’s voice. “I need to warn you about something.”

“What?”

“The Yakuza is moving into human trafficking in Europe. And they aren’t just trying to out compete the incumbents. Two of my facilities in Europe have been hit. I’m beefing up my security, even in the US. They have a presence in the US, mostly on the west coast.”

“Thanks for the warning. I’ll let Ted know. Anything else?”

“Not right now.”

Matt hung up. Then he dialed the extension for Ted’s office.

Ted answered his phone. “What’s up boss.”

“Mr Alkaev said the Yakuza are starting a turf war over human trafficking in Europe. A couple of his operations in Europe got his. He’s worried it will spill over into the US.”

“I got a heads up from a couple of people in Mr Alkaev’s security organization. We’ll be ready if anything happens.”

The ring tone on Matt’s cell phone went off. Caller ID indicated Louise.

He answered. “Hello Louise.”

“Hi Matt.”

“What’s up.”

“I talked to that knowledge Spark Professor Deasun pointed me at. He taught me some basic exercises to focus and deliberately activate my ability. He also said that the more I deliberately use it, the less I’ll get random flashes of knowledge.”

“That’s good to hear. How’s it going so far?”

“I’m only up to a 10% reliability on getting the right answer to the specific issue I’m focusing on. The reason I called is because I was practicing and I got a flash about you. A yacht owned by your trust. It will be important. I don’t know why.”

“Okay, I’ll look into it. Do you know any details about the yacht?”

“No, Just that you needed a yacht and it should be owned by the trust.”

“Anything else?”

“No. Talk to you later.”

“Okay, bye.” Matt ended the call.

Matt called David Barrister’s office.

The receptionist/secretary answered the phone with a standard greeting.

“Is David in the office, does he have time for a quick call?”

“He’s in the office. I’ll check and see if he can take a call. Please hold...”

After around a minute David came on the line. “Matt, what can I do for you today.”

“Apparently I need a yacht. I’d be looking for the trust to actually hold the title to the yacht and manage the expenses.”

“Apparently? That’s certainly something we can do. Molly’s trust owns and manages the building she has her apartment in. Actually, it’s an odd coincidence that you should call about that just now. I just got off the phone with an old colleague that I went to law school with. He’s in Florida now and he has a client who’s looking to sell a custom yacht. He called for help in finding a buyer.”

“If she hadn’t said anything, would I still have broken the vase?”

“A Matrix reference? I don’t get it.”

Matt explained about the call from Louise and her power. “What do you know about the seller?”

“Not much more than a name. I don’t know why he’s looking to sell just now, but I do know he wants to do a direct sale to a private buyer rather than a dealer or yacht broker because he’s hoping for a deal that will keep the current crew employed. He’s worried that if he has to let the crew go they’ll have a hard time finding new jobs.”

“Why would the crew have trouble finding new jobs? How much do you know about the crew?”

“As I understand it, they are all young women, between the ages of 18 and 24. They all have troubled pasts, criminal histories or they are hiding from abusive families. I’ve been told they are all properly trained for their jobs, but criminal histories and forged identities could be a problem with finding new jobs. The current owner apparently took them in as charity cases originally”

“What about the yacht itself?”

“It’s forty six meters, a hundred and fifty one feet, custom built yacht. Diesel engines, cabins for up to 12 guests including the owner, plus up to 10 crew.”

“What’s the size of the current crew?”

“Eight, all female. A captain, first and second mates who are all qualified to pilot, I think that’s the correct term, the yacht. One stewardess/cook, one just stewardess, two general deck hands, and an engineer/mechanic.”

“How much does the current owner want?”

“A little over six million. He might go lower with a solid agreement to keep the current crew.”

“Is it a good deal?”

“I was given some ballpark numbers on the average operating and maintenance costs. As long as we are doing a good job managing your money, upkeep and crew salaries will only eat a small fraction of the earnings on your trust. Yes, if you want a yacht that size, it’s a good deal.”

“Buy it then. Meet the asking price, arrange a dock for it here in Houston. We will keep the current crew, contingent on me meeting them. Have the crew bring the yacht to Houston.”

“I’ll take care of it. There will be some paperwork for you to sign, I’ll have it ready for you by Friday.”

Virginia Matriarchy HQ:

The Matriarch was meeting with her council. She brought the meeting to order. “Isis, where are we at with the Russian mercenary group?”

“Negotiations are complete and we are moving to bring them to the US. Machina prepared a light cargo/troop transport aircraft retrofitted with active camouflage and other stealth tech. That craft has already been dispatched to pick them up.”

“Where in the US are we bringing them to?”

“We have acquired a safe house for them that is a smallish farm/homestead in the rural areas between Houston and College Station. The transport will drop them directly that property.”

“Since they don’t speak any English, will that be a problem for them if they have to interact with bystanders or local authorities?”

“They have mechanical translators of some kind that they will ditch for the actual confrontation with the target. They will also have a seventh person with them who is not a spark who speaks both Russian and English to act as a translator. We also have false documents prepared for them, just in case.”

“How will they get around?”

“We have several cars waiting for them at the safe house.”

“What is their plan?”

“We’ve given them the information we have on the target’s friends and family. They will split up and run surveillance on the potential hostages and once they’ve picked a hostage, the teleporter will pop in grab the hostage and pop out. Once they have the hostage, they will set up a confrontation in a public space somewhere, possibly taking additional hostages to keep law enforcement from interfering. Once the target is down, the teleporter and the gate creator will evacuate the team back to the safe house, where our stealth transport will be waiting with an extraction crew.”

“That sounds risky. If things go badly, can they be tied back to us?”

“Mr Murphy will almost certainly know we were behind it, but unless the Russians are taken alive, and they talk, there shouldn’t be any actual evidence to tie them back to us.”

“Proceed.”

Friday after classes, Matt and Molly headed into Houston to meet with their trust attorney. When they arrived at the law firm’s offices, they were directed not to David Barrister’s office, but to a conference room.

As the entered the conference room, They saw David and his secretary working on a laptop on one side of the conference table. On the far wall of the conference room was a very large, Matt estimated it was a 60 inch diagonal, flat screen display with what appeared to be a very high end web cam sitting above it.

David looked up from his laptop computer. “Ah, Matt, I have all the paperwork for you to sign to finalize the purchase of the yacht. However, the current owner want’s to talk to you first over a video conference. Is that okay with you?”

Matt sat down at the conference table, opposite David. “No problem. I’m kind of curious about the seller actually.”

“Good, we’re working on setting up the video conference now. It should be ready in just a couple of minutes. After the video conference, we’ll take care of the paperwork.”

Shortly after that the big wall display came on. The scene it showed looked like a hospital room. There was a man in the bed, a man in a suit sitting in a chair on one side of the bed and a nurse standing to the other side.

David looked at the screen. “We can see you now. Can you see and hear us?”

The man in the Suit said, “Yes, we can see and hear you. Can you hear us?”

“Yes, we can hear you.”

The man in the bed waved at the nurse, who adjusted the bed so he was sitting more upright.

“My name is Daryl Bowman. The Party On The Sea Of Love is my yacht. I used to be quite the playboy. I inherited oil money. I had no intention of being monogamous. I had many lovers. Six months ago I found out one of my lovers was pregnant. A month after that I was diagnosed with cancer. It’s aggressive and it’s not responding to treatment. The doctors have told me to make my peace with the world. I probably won’t live long enough to see my daughter born.”

Daryl started to cough. He took a couple of deep breaths. “I want to see to it that my daughter is taken care of. I’ve provided her mother with a decent house and she and my daughter will inherit everything I have. I’m trying to liquidate most of my real estate holdings and physical assets to leave them with mostly cash, stocks, and bonds. The yacht is a special case for me. She was my primary residence for the last decade. I want to be sure that the yacht and her crew are going to a good home.”

Matt looked at the camera. “I’m Matthew Murphy. I’m nineteen. I didn’t grow up rich. My father was a Marine officer, Force Recon, and latter a sheriff’s deputy here in Houston. He died in the line of duty. I’m studying computer science at Texas A and M University. I’m a Spark, but I’m not going to discuss the specifics of my powers over a video conference. I expect to live a very long time. I recently came into a lot of money. I’ve put the money into a trust fund because I don’t want to try and manage that much money myself. I’m looking to acquire a yacht through my trust fund and have the trust hold the title to the yacht and handle the expenses for it directly.”

Daryl smiled. “Yes, I think you’ll do. Do you have any questions for me about the yacht and or it’s crew?”

“I am curious about the all female crew.”

Daryl laughed. “I didn’t deliberately set out to create an all female crew. The original crew was mostly male, and mostly older. Over the past six years I rescued the current crew from various bad situations and gave them jobs working on my yacht. A few of them I had trained and certified as pilots for the yacht. I’ll let them describe the specifics of their situations to you, if they are willing to do so. Over that same period, the old crew members either retired or left for their own reasons.”

“Have the crew been among your lovers?”

“Daryl frowned, and his eyes narrowed. “I didn’t take advantage of them, Yes, I’ve been intimate with most of them, but I made it clear that having sex with me wasn’t a requirement of their employment. And I never fired any of them for not having sex with me.”

Matt frowned. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to accuse you of anything improper. I’m not big on monogamy myself. I have developed an unconventional life style, beyond the rejection of monogamy, and I am concerned about how well they will deal with that.”

Daryl nodded. “Apology accepted. I can’t give you an assessment of how they might react without knowing exactly how your lifestyle is unconventional.”

“BDSM, master slave relationships. I currently have four female slaves, including Molly here.”

Molly blushed.

Daryl grinned. “Not my thing. A couple of them might be interested in joining your harem. None of them are inclined to be judgmental about such things.”

“Okay then, do we have a deal.”

“Yes, we have a deal. I was hoping we would. I had the girls set sail for Houston last night. They should arrive Late on Monday or Early Tuesday.”

David cleared his throat. “I have all the paperwork here. We’ll get everything signed and I’ll overnight your copies to your attorney. I have arranged for a berth for the yacht at Pelican’s Rest marina on Galveston.”

Daryl nodded. “The Party On the Sea Of Love is equipped with a satellite phone. My attorney has your contact details. We’ll have the captain call you for the marina details as soon as we have the paperwork in hand.”

The screen went blank. David spent the next 15 minutes going over all the paperwork with Matt and getting his signature where needed.

Matt and his family were lounging in the ranch house’s great room. Even Ruth was there.

Molly came over and sat in Matt’s lap. “When are you going to tell everyone about your yacht?”

Iris looked at Matt wide eyed. “Yacht? Since when do you have a yacht?”

Matt laughed. “I just bought it yesterday, through my trust. The trust will hold the title and take care of the expenses and maintenance, including marina space.”

Ruth said, “You’ve never been that interested in boats. Why buy a yacht now?”

“Louise called last Tuesday said I needed a yacht. And no, before anyone asks, she said she didn’t know why, just that I needed to have one and it needed to be owned through the trust. So, I called our trust attorney and told him I needed a yacht. By an odd coincidence, he had just gotten off the phone with an old colleague from law school who was looking for help finding a buyer for a yacht.”

Megan stretched. “Cool! How big is it?”

Matt looked at Megan. “From what I’ve been told, around a hundred and fifty feet. Cabins for up to 12 guests including the owner and up to 10 crew.”

“That’s more of a small ship than a boat. What about a crew, and when will you actually have it?”

Matt laughed. “It already has a crew. David arranged for dock space for it at Pelican’s Rest marina on Galveston island. The crew is sailing the yacht here right now. They should arrive late Monday or Early Tuesday.”

Iris came over and hugged Matt. “What do you know about the crew?”

“It’s an all female crew of eight.” Matt described his video conference conversation with the seller.

“Are you going to add them to your harem?”

“Give me a chance to actually meet them before I start making nefarious plans. Ruth, what’s your work schedule like on Tuesday.”

“I’m working the morning shift.”

“I’m planning to meet David at the marina to meet the crew on Tuesday afternoon. Would you like to come see the yacht after work?”

“Yes, I’d love to.”

“Iris, why don’t you bring Megan and her toys to see the yacht after they get out of school on Tuesday.”

“Yes sir.”

Megan clapped. “Yes!”

Matt pulled into the parking area at Pelican’s Rest Marina. After he parked, he, Molly, and Duchess got out of his SUV. Matt put a leash on Hercules and let him out of the SUV.

They walked over to the marina office, where David Barrister was standing.

Matt Walked up to David. “Good afternoon David. How long have you been waiting here? And why are you waiting here outside?”

“I’ve only been here a few minutes. I’m waiting for you and Captain Vela. Before we go out to the yacht, we need to get you registered with the marina office as a member and the owner of the Party On The Sea Of Love and we need both you and the Captain for that.”

A woman in shorts a t-shirt and sneakers walked up to Matt. She had the dusty, cream with coffee skin tone typical of Hispanic peoples.

She pointed at David. “He looks like a lawyer, so he must be Mr Barrister and you must be the new owner, Mr Murphy.” She held out her right hand to Matt. “You’re younger than I expected. I’m Captain Alicia Vela.”

Matt shook her hand. “What? Neither Daryl nor David bothered to mention how old I was. I’m 19 by the way. Pleased to meet you Captain Vela.”

Alicia grinned. “You can call me Alicia boss. They also didn’t tell me you were a Spark.”

“Call me Matt. Mr Murphy sounds like my dad and I hate boss. And you are a Spark too, but out here in public is not the place to discuss things like that.” Matt pointed out Molly, Duchess and Hercules. “This is my girlfriend Molly, Duchess, and the dog is Hercules.”

Alicia held out her hand for Hercules to sniff. “What a beautiful, well behaved dog.”

David said, “Lets get the paperwork out of the way, then we can go check out the yacht.”

They went into the office and took care of all the paper work.

After getting out of the office Alicia led them out to the floating docks. “Come on, the Party On The Sea Of Love is docked over this way.”

Matt grinned. “That’s quite a mouthful, do you always refer to her by her full name?”

“Nope. Usually we shorten it to Party SL.”

They came to a point where they could see the yacht clearly. They were approaching from the bow. The rest of the crew was lined up along side the yacht, all dressed identically to Alicia.

Matt was surprised by what he didn’t see. “No gang plank?”

“Nope. You have to get into something the size of a small cruise ship to see an actual gang plank and then you’d need commercial dock space, either with the cargo ships or find a cruise line willing to lease you dock space. The other option would be to keep it at sea and use tenders to transfer people back and forth. For smaller yachts, there’s a small platform just above the water line at the stern. We call it the dive platform. It can be used for getting in and out of the water for swimming or diving or getting on or off smaller water craft. It’s also used for boarding and disembarking in dock.”

As they reached the bow of the ship and the start of the line of women, Alicia stopped.

Matt stopped next to Alicia and looked over the line of women. There were two black women, one with a deep dark chocolate complexion and the other with a lighter milk chocolate complexion with an extra tint to it that Matt couldn’t quite place. There was one more dusky Hispanic women, A woman with darker coffee with cream skin that looked Hawaiian to Matt, and the three remaining had European features, but had deep tan skin tones that spoke of hours in the sun. At least two more of the women were sparks.

Matt stopped time. He whispered the loyalty script to Alicia, then went down the line of the crew and whispered it in each woman’s ear. He went back to standing next to Alicia and restarted time.

Alicia stepped forward. “Attention ladies of the Party SL. This is the new owner Matt Murphy. The other gentleman is his trust attorney David Barrister. The Party SL is owned through Mr Murphy’s trust. And the trust will be handling all the expenses for the Party SL, including our paychecks. I’ll make sure you get Mr Barrister’s contact info later. The two women with Mr Murphy are his girlfriend Molly and Duchess. The dog’s name is Hercules.”

Matt stepped forward. “Ladies. We’ll deal with introducing all of you to me later, on board, where we have more privacy. I’ll want to know each of your unique circumstances, but I’ll be sharing a lot too. For now, I’d like Captain Vela to give me and my guests a tour of the yacht.”

Alicia led them back to the stern of the yacht and stepped off the dock onto the dive platform. Matt saw that there were stairs up on either side of the dive platform with a wide expanse of wall between them.

Alicia moved to the center of the dive platform and turned back to the group. “Watch your step, the dive platform can be slippery and we don’t want anyone falling in.” She paused a moment while the group stepped onto the dive platform, then she continued, “The Party SL has four decks, the lower deck, basically where we are now, the main deck, the upper deck, and at the very top, the sun deck. There are two tenders onboard, both jet RIBs. The area here at the stern of the lower deck is a garage for the larger of the two tenders. This wall flips out and the tender can be slid out and over the dive platform, then be pulled back in by a winch.”

Matt asked, “What’s a tender?”

“A smaller boat used to ferry people and or supplies to and from the ship. Basically it tends to the needs of the larger vessel.”

“Okay, what the heck is a jet RIB?”

“A RIB is a Rigid Inflatable Boat. The hull is partly rigid and partly inflatable. The jet part means that it uses an inboard water jet propulsion system, like a personal water craft, rather than screw propellers.”

“Thank you.”

Alicia went up the stairs on the side opposite the dock. She waited for the group to join her. Matt saw that there was an open deck area with a dining table set up to seat 10 and the enclosed space was narrower than the lower deck with paths along the outside.

Alicia continued, “This is one of two outdoor dining tables, and three over all.”

She led them around one side to a door. Inside the door was another door aft, and a hallway leading forward with stairs up and down.

Alicia went through the door to the aft. “This area has the main dining table and a lounge area. On the far side is a door up to the upper deck lounge, the galley or kitchen, and stairs down to the crew area of the lower deck.

She led them back into the hall and up to the far end where there was a large, well appointed cabin. “The Party SL has 5 guest cabins. This one on the main deck is the owner’s cabin, with a king sized bed. There are four more guest cabins on the lower deck, three with queen beds and one with a double bed, a twin bed and a Pullman bed over the twin bed.”

Alicia led them back down the hall and up the stairs to the upper deck where there was a short hall. She led them aft in to another indoor space with a wet bar, a couch with a coffee table in front of it, two chairs on either end of the coffee table, and a small table with four chairs around it. “This is the upper deck lounge and bar.”

Alicia led them to a sliding door at the back of the lounge and out to an area that was covered from above but open on the sides all the way around. There was another dining table and more padded lounge seating. “This is the third and final dining table.”

Alicia led them back through the lounge and forward to a room surrounded by windows with the ships wheel and a host of instruments. “This is the bridge. The Captain’s cabin is here on the upper deck, just behind the bridge. There’s a door to the captain’s cabin on the far side of the bridge. There’s a path all the way around the outside of the upper deck which leads to stairs down to the bow area of the main deck, which you can see out the bridge windows. Right now we have exercise gear set up out there. It could be used for more small water craft or, just about anything else that would fit.”

Alicia led them back to the upper deck hall and another stairway up. She led them up the stairs, to the sun deck. This deck was fully open except for an arch over where the stairs were. The top of the arch held antennas and radar units and other electronics. There was a bar and an open area with chase lounges in front of that and at the very front of the sun deck there was a hot tub.

Alicia walked to the front of the sun deck and turned back to the group. “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the sun deck. Another bar, more lounge area and best of all, the hot tub. The instrument arch has awnings that can be pulled out to provide shade on the sun deck. If you look to the aft you will see the smaller of our two tenders and two waverunner personal watercraft.”

Matt looked aft to the watercraft. “Um ... How do you get them in and out of the water?”

Alicia walked back to the aft by the water craft and pointed out what looked like a nondescript white block. She patted the block. “This is a hydraulic crane that can be used to raise and lower any small craft up to three thousand pounds.”

Alicia led them back down, all the way to the lower deck and showed them the remaining guest cabins. The queen bed cabins were smaller than the master cabin. The only particular interest was in the final cabin which had a double bed and a twin bed with what appeared to be a cabinet on the wall above the twin bed.

Matt looked around. “I was told this yacht could accommodate twelve guests. I’m sure they are only counting two in the king, queen, and double beds and one in the twin. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this only comes to eleven guests. Where’s the bed for the twelfth guest?”

Alicia laughed. She walked over to the twin bed, grabbed a handled on the side of the cabinet and pulled. The whole cabinet flipped out and down revealing a second fully made twin bed around 4 feet off the floor. “The last bed is a Pullman. It can be used by an adult, but it’s not recommended for anyone over two hundred fifty pounds.”

Matthew, David and the crew gathered in the main deck lounge. David said he needed to get going and told Matt to let him know if he was keeping the current crew.

The dining table was sized for ten, with one at each and and four along each side. Matt sat at one end of the table.

Matt pointed to the lounge area. “Molly, Duchess, why don’t you go relax?”

Molly nodded. “That’s a great idea.” She grabbed Duchess and dragged her over to the couch.

Matt waved a hand at the crew... “Have a seat, lets talk.”

When they were all seated, one side of the table had Alicia sitting closest to Matt, then one of the white women and the two black women with the lighter skinned on sitting closest to the far end. On the other side, the second Hispanic woman sat closest to Matt with the one Matt thought might be Hawaiian in the third seat going from Matt to the far end.

Matt knocked lightly on the table. “Ladies, now that we have a bit more privacy, let me tell you about myself. Please hold any comments until I am done.

“I am nineteen and I am studying computer science at Texas A and M University. I am also, as I am sure a few of you noticed, a Spark.” Matt explained what he knew of his powers and how he discovered them. “I can tell that several of you are also Sparks.”

Matt looked around making eye contact with each of the ladies on the crew. “I have also acquired a significant enemy.” Matt explained about the matriarchy and the attacks that they had made on him so far. “One of the agents they sent against me had considerable wealth, in off shore numbered bank accounts and other untraceable forms which I confiscated from her. I have used that wealth to launch a business venture as well as to buy this yacht.”

Matt paused a moment and took a deep breath. “My biggest concern with retaining the existing crew is that I lead a rather unconventional life style, and I am uncertain about how you will feel about that.”

When seconds passed and Matt didn’t say more, Alicia leaned forward. “Unconventional how? You mentioned that your time stop power gives you a form of mind control. I’d guess that Molly and Duchess are your slaves. We’ve all been through some tough shit. And most of us have seen a lot of what’s out there. We’ve seen that there are people who get off on being slaves. Unless you are kidnapping women off the streets, I don’t think any of us will seriously object.”

The lighter skinned of the two black women looked Matt in the eye. “Of everyone here, I have the most reason to take offense, but I have to agree with Alicia.”

Matt nodded. “Thank you. Yes, Molly and Duchess are my slaves. I also have two more slaves. Three of them are completely voluntary. Duchess was one of the agents the Matriarchy sent to kill me. I had the choice of killing her or enslaving her.”

The lighter skinned of the two black women nodded. “So she was an assassin. Sounds like the bitch got what she deserved.” None of the other women expressed disagreement.

“Well my other two slave are rather taboo. Let me lay the rest on you. When I’m done, anyone who wants to can leave, no questions asked. I’ll even make sure you get a good reference.” Matt told them about Chronos Enterprises and his plans for it.