Chapter 1

This is the second follow-on part of the 'No Strings Attached' story.

The ending of that was:

This entire project had cost billions, and had lasted more than four years. It had required thousands of security checks and special clearances. It had started because of a word of mouth slur campaign when a new Director was being announced for the Agency. If we could look back and see into the past, we'd see that greed, power, control and jealousy back then was the main reason that the AD had gone 'off the reservation' when someone else had been appointed (That and his mistress, who was a young Executive Admin, and wanted all she could get).

Daddy called us all into his office for a meeting when everything was pretty much over.

"I hope you all are done with this little training exercise? You may have a short R&R, and then you'll need to earn your keep. Now git."

Getting a new job from Daddy, makes Bianca and myself nervous. Does Daddy mean everyone, or just Bianca and me?

{{{Note from Author: Read 'Life Can Get Better' on SOL by Angus, for some information on what is needed to be done with a new technology, in order to make special chip sets. (Needed for both the SE (A true Interplanetary colonization series initially based upon recovered items in 1945 and 46) and the SB (a bomber and transport series.}}}

Rob, Li Wu, Mei, Mollie, Heather and the pixie Jody were the 'prime contractors' for the new chips. Manufacturing would be done in China, in an area controlled by Li Wu. Daddy was paying extra for limiting access. Not even all of them knew what many of the chips were to be used for. The unique feature of the chip, was that heat, cold, power fluctuations and space radiation did not affect them, much. The other important part was that they could be programmed to do various things, and used in many different applications.

Our Story Continues...

Remember that 'Test' of the security response teams and the things we all found out that did not work? WELL ... that was only the tip of the iceberg. Daddy was so pissed, that everything had to be redone. Bob was put in charge, and a new plan was developed. Jen, Sandra, Bianca and myself were given our new codes for the house, club, office and even our remotes and cars ... yes, we now had several cars.

Things were now starting to get a might complicated with our personal lives, also. You all know that old story about there being 'no room at the inn, ' or having to share a bed with the farmer's daughter. Well, adding Jen to our harem, now, had a similar effect. We went to bed early and woke up late. With R & R soon to be over, we all were searching the Internet trying to find some country or place where having three wives would be very 'normal'. A Zulu marriage would work, but the price of admission to a couple of those tribes was a price I was not willing to pay, or let my wives pay. The Muslim faith allowed for multiple wives and was a possible choice.

Sandra, Bless her, found several small Islands that were not only Matriarchal societies, but for 'hard cash' only, would be more than willing to add to the Islands population. In fact, they even would add a few 'locals' as wives if they were desired.

Daddy extended our R & R to include a fact finding trip. As the new diplomatic representative of the Island of Tara Bonga, Bianca and her family were 'untouchable' for any overt criticism. The idea of dual-citizenship made our new marriages very compatible with our jobs. We just did not talk about those things very much. Daddy actually blushed when I showed him some videos of the ceremonies, and pointed out several 'volunteers' for the positions of wives four, five and six.

I also started to roll up my sleeve to show him the bruises my three wives had given me when I asked about whether I should accept those offers. All in all, I had three very happy wives, now, who all felt they had a legitimate place in the family, and the legal status, should we decide on children.

Our first assignment when we started work again was to review the new security assignments Bob's people had worked up. Daddy seemed quite proud of them. Bianca and I noticed there were now resolutions to all of the failures and issues we had identified before. We told Sandra about them.

For a school teacher in Elementary school, she was just too worldly. She asked one simple question while we were all at Daddy's having dinner. This was after greeting Maria as 'Mom'. She asked Daddy what was the plan when we were not in Virginia, D.C. or Maryland?

Say Europe, Asia, Africa, The Middle East or South America. Daddy took up a Sat-phone, made a call, then with a disgusted look on his face.

"Sandra ... no, wait your not twenty-three yet. Damn. Do you have any idea how much time and money has been spent to come up with this 'fool proof' plan you just destroyed over dinner?"

"I had such a great assignment lined up for Ryan and Bianca and you just blew it all to hell. Ryan, you and your wives need to make up a plan for at least Asia. Korea should be easy as well as Japan, Thailand, Kuala Lumpur, and China might be a tad more difficult. You have three maybe four months then you both need to go there. I did not say this, but you could hypothetically have your wives help, if no specific details come out.

"You would be working through Uncle Bob on these, so Jen already has enough clearances to help, there. Damn, damn, damn. Where did these daughters get their 'brains' from?"

There was very little that we needed for the D.C. area cars. As had been done in the office ... food, water, medicine, bandages and a Sat phone needed to be brought in whenever the cars were to be used. Food spoils, batteries discharge and the medicines might need cooling or changing.

The other foreign locations did not fare as well. Outside of the 8th Army sites in South Korea, there was very little that would be secure, or even stable. For those that have tried driving there, for a non-Korean on one trip you need to stop several times for a security checks, conducted by armed and uniformed guards ... especially when crossing bridges or heading into a government site.

Legal issues also exist. Even an accident not your fault could result in a 'fine' (Bribe) or being taken into jail.

In any case, 'no way Jose' was any LEO 'inspecting' any of our cars. One could envision how trying to conduct any clandestine trip could be hampered. If security while in transit was an issue, physical site security was worse. Where we wanted to go, the 8th Army was not there. Japan was only slightly better while traveling, but physical security (outside of Okinawa), was just as difficult. Japan was very security conscious. You had to get off a plane with all your gear, get inspected then return to the plane, even if that same plane was to continue on, outside of Lapa[1]. Gaijin flights usually went through Narita. Those two were the good news, Thailand, China and Kuala Lumpur were almost impossible to secure. There were two or three public sites which one could secure in parts of Bangkok, but the rest of the country was just that, the rest of the country.

KL and China were not even secure for the ruling governments. Bianca looked thoughtful. The old adage of 'if Mohammed would not go to the mountain, then you move the mountain' was considered more and more ... first to herself, then out loud, and then to us directly. It looked like we had a few restrictions to deal with. If we wanted to go, and Daddy had plans for just that, then we only had enough time to devise an interim plan for our trips. China and KL would require several approvals so they were set for last. Korea (Seoul), Japan (Tokyo), and Thailand (Bangkok and by extension, Katmandu) were to be done first. First, that is, if we got some interdepartmental cooperation. A call or two from Bob's people helped with that.