Chapter 216: Where To Go, What to Do

It doesn’t seem like this part of Greece is the best place to go exploring.

April woke about four for a bottle, waking Elena and I both. As I fed April, Elena suggested we pack up, head to the basement and slip out the entrance housekeeping uses. She had a number to call to get us a car that would park in the dark area between streetlights. Her plan made sense to me. On the way, I put a note with the room keys to say things didn’t work out and asked that they give the keys back to the manager for us.

Just like she said, there was a car waiting right outside the housekeeping entrance. The hoodie I took from my bag was big enough to cover April, in her front carrier, and me, without her getting too hot or suffocating. Elena chose to use this heads scarf thing around her head. I had the jacket unzipped as soon as we were inside and had April in her car seat between Elena and me.

Once the man driving us made sure that no one followed us, he headed toward the private airstrip.

“Your father wished that I convey that he contacted some associates in the area, and they agreed that you should depart for Gibraltar immediately. Everything you will need shall be waiting for you in the hanger. He sends his love and bids you to enjoy your vacation,” he told us in the time it took to drive to the side entrance for the hanger. “Your plane and pilot are awaiting your arrival for immediate departure.”

When we went into the hanger, someone came over to immediately take April out of her carrier and put her into a different one. I didn’t question why since I saw that the jet we were taking looked like a Gulfstream G600, but looks are deceiving. The place in my head was getting attuned to whatever made the silent, high-speed planes fly. For appearances, it sounded like the plane it appeared to be.

Two more women came to take Elena and me off to change.

In the room with me, I felt I small tingle in the transceiver that man-in-the-machine had put there. When I connected the place in my head to it, through my shield, the woman started to talk.

“Sorry, David,” one of the man-in-the-machine’s androids said. “Wrong place at the wrong time. It wouldn’t do to have the Greek domestic terrorism unit take you in for questioning. There was a very high probability law enforcement would ignore your clothing, as the mugger-rapists did. With additional data points, I tuned the code used to predict them detecting you as Mr. Smith or Darren. Based on my new calculations, you will be less conspicuous as two American kids, with a baby, taking some time off to see Europe. We have packed you casual, semi-formal, and formal outfits, plus beachwear. You can purchase whatever else you may need as you travel. As a precaution, I have already scheduled Mr. Smith to be traveling to North Korea. His ultimate security card will ping ultra-top-secret locations in Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Pakistan, India, China, and then South Korea. Mr. Smith will be using it quite a bit on both sides of the DMZ before he joins Kim Yo Jong and Kim Jong Un as an unexpected dinner guest. Glimpses of Darren will be seen on video feeds, briefly, around Skylar’s, Corwin’s, and Mary’s various homes long enough to trip the facial recognition software they use to protect themselves from enemies. To be sure they don’t question their security systems, each will find very personal and private gifts that appeared on their pillows. It never hurts to subtly hint that you are a ghost, who just so happens to be able to get into their homes, not to mention their rooms, without anyone seeing you.”

Sounds good to me.

I slipped on a pair of faded jeans, well-worn faded jeans that currently appeared to need washing, and a toned-down touristy type button-down shirt. I also had a style of sandals that didn’t look like any I had seen in stores back home.

April got a stroller that perfectly matched her car seat, a beaten-up backpack for her baby stuff. I got some older, well-traveled, Samsonite luggage that appeared as if we had raided our grandparent’s attic. The best thing about the old suitcase is how easy it is to pick out from the others everyone else was using.

The plan was to take some time to explore Gibraltar before renting a car to go over to visit Seville, Cordoba, and then head back down to Málaga, where Elena’s dad owned a five-star restaurant and five-star hotel she hadn’t visited in years. We would stay there overnight, and head to València. It wasn’t a very long drive to get there, and she wanted to go sight-seeing since she hadn’t been there before. We would find somewhere there to spend the night so we could take the ferry to Palma de Mallorca, to stay at one of her father’s hotels in Ibiza. She wanted us to enjoy time at the beach with the hip crowd just because we could. After we had enough of the beach, we would drop the car in València and take a train to Madrid to spend a few days there. In exchange for letting me have a few days in Toledo, she got to explore a castle, some famous church, and some Roman aqueducts in Segovia.

Now that is a reward. I’m pretty sure the man-in-the-machine could find me a real swordsmith somewhere around Toledo.

I drove, April slept, and Elena navigated. We had excellent meals and some amazing rooms, but I wasn’t much into the sight-seeing. Now Ibiza was a different matter. The beaches were amazing. Even though I had a shield around April, without even knowing I had done it, we still covered her in baby SPF 50 sunscreen. Elena daringly used only a bit of SPF 30 tanning oil. It was fine when we were going around in swimsuits, but the concierge at the hotel mentioned there was also a nudist beach where families are welcome. Elena blushed when he suggested.

I wonder if she does that when she wants. She didn’t blush once when we were at the resort.

The next morning the three of us were having breakfast on the beach. Both girls had sunscreen slathered all over them, but it wasn’t good sunscreen and washed off the first time they went into the water. April was fine. Elena didn’t take long to be on the edge of a nasty sunburn. I did have to think about it for a few seconds, but then she had a shield around her that was only letting in enough sun to let her get as good of a tan as she could while we were out in the sun. She was still going to have a slight bit of sunburn tonight, but some aloe and cold sheets would have her with a nice tan in the morning.

“Does this beach get a lot of people, or is it dead like this most of the time,” I asked her.

She didn’t know but did say there are a lot of bars on the beaches around here and things in Spain tend to start until around ten at night. Most people were still sleeping. Around ten in the morning, we started seeing some families coming down to play in the sand before it got too hot. Elena joked that those women had nothing on her.

Some of the teenaged girls around our age are giving you a run for your money.

When late teens and early twenties people started coming down after lunch while those with kids had left. There were a few with older kids having lunch though. Elena had been waiting for them to start to show up, so she could show me off.

“There is a bathroom at the far end of the beach and a vendor selling water at the other. It is time to strut your stuff. You are likely the hottest guy on the beach right now. Don’t be rude though. If someone talks to you, then talk. You worked hard for your buff body, enjoy it. When you come back, you get to feed and change April so she can get everything out before we go back into the water. While you do that, I’m going to the bathroom. While it is uncool to even make out on this beach, probably half of the people out here are shopping for a hookup,” she said as she explained the plan she had in mind.

I did what she suggested, and I didn’t share her opinion that I was the hottest guy on the beach, but quite a few women and girls did. Only one was brave enough to stop me and that was to ask how big my dick got when hard. I could hear the girls with her trying their best not to laugh so I told her. That shut them up. I picked up some cash on the way past Elena to get us some water bottles. We would need some to make April’s formula.

Elena began squirming and looking uncomfortable, but I couldn’t see any reason why.

“I was maybe twelve when dad first brought me here as we checked out a few places he was considering buying. He met up with some other investors who happened to be here with their children too. I didn’t know any of those families, but dad told me they were cool and said if I wanted, I could go to the beach with them. I wasn’t ever self-conscious about my body. When the boys played mind games to get all the girls topless, which their mothers overheard and made sure that was all they got us to do. We were all playing happily down by the water when some of the older teens came trolling around. These teens slowly herded all of us away from the mothers watching us. The adults could see us, but we were too far to see what was going on. The older guys were telling the girls we had some nice tits as some girls they knew walked up the group. Soon the boys were convinced to whip it out to show the girls. The boys then wanted the girls to give them a show. Only one of the boys with us had anything to show and none of us girls had even the first hair between their legs. That had no impact on the older teens saying it was only fair and similar peer pressure tactics. Some other guys around their age surrounded us. One guy tried to rip my bikini bottom off me and it scared the hell out of me. My martial arts training kicked in, but not before all the girls on the beach with me were naked, our bikinis nowhere in sight. I managed to hit a few in the nuts hard enough to put them on the ground, out of action for a little while at least. Two of the older girls managed to pin me down on the sand as some boys pulled my legs open as far as they could,” Elena said after sitting next to me quietly for ten minutes. “One of their buddies was doing his best to figure out where to push his fat dick. One of the girls with me screaming rape, in many different languages, was enough of a distraction to let me get loose. I started punching and kicking any of the older kids around me as hard as I could. My body was running on pure adrenaline at that point. Somewhere in my head, I knew that my hands, feet, forearms, and shins were hurting badly. I kept attacking the bigger kids until someone tightly pulled a beach towel around me so that I couldn’t get my arms free. They pulled me back away from the older teens, some of which had stripped one of the older girls with them and were raping her, so they didn’t notice anything else around them. Did you know the Spanish Guardia Civil like Americans?”

She had more to say, but April added her two cents in to let us know she was hungry. I got her fed and changed. Elena’s mind was somewhere else.

When I had April sitting there watching the waves, Elena continues, “The girl screaming alerting every around that someone was trying to rape her. Whoever called the Guardia Civil had them there quickly to stop them from further attempts to rape us. It was one of the officers who immobilized me with the towel while also covering my naked body. Dad said that the officers didn’t even question any of the older kids. Can you believe it? One teenager, who is the one who tried to rape me somehow got his seatbelt off and then those of the others. The planned to rush the cops the next time they opened the door to put someone else in. Not waiting until the van stopped first showed them that they had made yet another stupid mistake. We hadn’t taken the roads around on the island, but dad said it must have been one hell of a bad road between the beach and the police station to cause the injuries the boys caused themselves by removing their seatbelts. The boys and girls being cuffed to a stone bench for hours, after that bumpy ride had them each offering a lot of information that wasn’t even known for the police to ask, once they took them for questioning.”

I bet they would say anything to keep from accidentally falling down the stairs at the hospital or face planting into the security door when trying to escape.

I reached over to hug Elena. She said that attack had her working her ass off to get her martial arts skills up to where she wouldn’t be so weak or unable to defend herself if that happened again. My besting her in the hotel room that night had brought her back to that day on the beach here in Ibiza. We weren’t here to go to the beach, she as here to face her demons. Once she was ready, I slathered her and April up before we went to torment the girls and guys that had been checking us out earlier.

I had April held to me with one arm and my other around Elena as I said, “This is mean, and I like it.”

The girls that had dared their friend to ask how long my dick looked the most upset that I was carrying a baby and had my arm around Elena. More than a few guys assumed that it was our baby. She had no c-section scar, still narrow hips and no stretch marks.

April may only be a baby, but I felt she wanted in on the fun through the link we shared. I passed her off to Elena. When Elena cradled her in her arm, April reached up to grab at Elena’s nipple and had her mouth open with her tongue moving to get latched onto Elena’s nipple to appear to be nursing. Before long, she pulled off that nipple to reach for the other one to start to pretend to nurse on that one.

“I now have no question that she is your daughter David. With the way she is suckling on my nipple, I should be so horny I would do you right here with her in my arms, but I’m feeling something altogether different. It must be what it feels like to breastfeed a baby. I kind of like it and feel my bond with her strengthening, if that makes sense,” she explained.

I put my arm back around her shoulders as I told her, “It makes perfect sense. You better not try that with her sisters. You might be finding your breasts growing large with milk.”

She joked that women could manually stimulate their breasts in specific ways to encourage lactation. Elena wasn’t going there. Her breasts were still high and firm on her chest so she wasn’t messing with a good thing. The more we walked up and down the beach, before getting in the water for a few minutes, the more we started getting dirty looks as April seemed to breastfeed.

“I get people giving a breastfeeding mom a dirty look for having a tit hanging out as she feeds the baby. Why are we getting the evil eye from the people here? We are on a nude beach,” I said.

She smiled as she said, “I think it is less about me appearing to be breastfeeding than it is your being hung like a horse, with your arm around me, and you’re holding April. I’ve got you and they can’t have you, or me. They can get the hell over it.”

Once she was happy that she had her fun, we went back to get our things from the hotel storage to load into the rental car. Soon we were on a Ferry heading into València to get on a train.

These sure aren’t what I was thinking when she said we were taking a train to Madrid.

When looking at a map of Spain, it was a bit deceptive to me. The train ride only took a bit over two hours to get to Madrid Atocha Renfe station. We already had reservations at a hotel near Plaza Mayor that one of her dad’s business associates owned. Once we settled into our room, she would make a reservation for us at one of her father’s restaurants in Madrid that isn’t doing very well, even though it was near the Kapital night club, which used to be call Titanic.

Elena was thrilled as she told me, “I only went to that club once with my dad when he was getting a tour before they opened for the night. The place is massive. It has seven individually themed areas. Restaurants around there regularly stay packed with people going to the dance club. The restaurant we are going to has the same dress code as Kapital. It is going to be interesting seeing what is going on there. I don’t remember having gone to that restaurant before. He probably had me staying at another one while he went there before we went to Kapital.”

We didn’t dress up, but we weren’t wearing shorts and t-shirts or looked like tourists. When we got to the restaurant, I went up to put our names on the waiting list. I didn’t expect to have someone very courteous who told me we wouldn’t be waiting very long to be seated. Elena handed me April as she went to use the bathroom. When she came back, she looked confused.

“I don’t understand why this restaurant doesn’t show that it is at least breaking even. All the tables have guests seated, most with their meals. Even the bar is almost to capacity, and it is only eight o’clock here in Madrid. My Spanish is only passing, but I didn’t hear anyone complaining about their meals, wait time, or the speed of their service,” she told me.

She was going to say more when a waitress came over to us to say they had a table waiting if we were ready to be seated now. We hadn’t waited for more than fifteen minutes.

While she looked over the menu, I could see her confusion growing even more. Once we ordered our food, it arrived promptly, and our server was very attentive to our needs. I didn’t manage to have my soda get down more than halfway before I had another brought over. When we finished eating, Elena was looking a bit lost.

She finally said, “Darren, I’m at a loss here. They charge three Euros here per glass of soda. As we ate, you drank at least four. Other customers are likewise having their sodas refilled in the same way. I’ve never seen someone who ordered a mixed drink, glass of wine, or beer have it in five minutes, or less, when not drinking at the bar. I know the restaurant’s costs for everything they sell. Not only are the prices excellent for making a profit, but menu prices for meals during the week are also above average for the same foods in this area. Something else is going on here. I plan to come back right before they close at two A.M. to see what is going on here.”

Sound good to me. Elena doesn’t know that I don’t need to sleep for energy.

Instead of hitting the hotel, we sort of bar hopped getting tapas as we explored.

Ten minutes before closing, we were back at the restaurant. The greeter told us they were closing soon so they couldn’t seat us.

“We are here to speak to the manager. Could you please get him, or her, for us,” I asked politely.

He wasn’t too happy about it, but he used a small radio to call the manager up to where we were waiting.

Elena didn’t bother with niceties when she told the manager, “I’m Elena, and my father owns this restaurant. Since I happened to be vacationing in Madrid, he asked me to stop by check the food, services and that no customers were waiting in the lobby when tables are available. I saw the opposite of what I expected. They seated us promptly, our order was out quickly, it was hot, excellently prepared, and our server did a fantastic job. The server even made sure to promptly provide refills of sodas before the current one on the table dropped below halfway. I was delighted to see the tables turned over quickly as well. It doesn’t make sense why this restaurant is showing in the red most of the time. Before we came here tonight, I reviewed the staff costs, taxes, and inventory expenses. Since we were at near full occupancy half an hour before closing, I decided I needed to check out the books for tonight. Why don’t we go back to the office so I can look them over?”

He was looking at her like she was stark raving crazy, drunk as hell, or just stepped off a spaceship from Mars. A few flicks on her phone and she was speaking to her dad. Within a minute of her hanging up the manager went pale after he answered his cell phone.

“Please come this way,” he said in as respectfully as he could.

I found a comfortable chair in the corner of the manager’s office, where I sat quietly with April sleeping in my lap as I checked emails on my phone.

I hadn’t realized that what Elena had me wear showed off that I was well muscled.

When I looked up at the manager, he would glance my way and then look quite concerned about what I might do to him if he didn’t do what Elena wanted. She wasn’t making a sound as she looked through the meals served, the few that comped because of a customer complaint, and all the sales from the bar. She was scribbling something down on a note pad beside her, but it was unintelligible chicken scratches as best as I could tell.

Not saying a word, Elena headed out of the office, so I put my phone away, picked up April, and followed her. Faster than I would have thought possible, she checked over every bottle still on the shelf, and the amount left in them. Once she had checked the kegs, she went into the area where they kept the wines. Her pad was full of her odd code now. Like with the bar, she went through the kitchen, walk-in cooler, freezer, and storerooms. She even took an inventory of the plates, cups and silverware. She looked in a few more places before going back into the office to get what looked like bills for the things delivered here today. She re-did some checks against the inventory. The manager was a nervous wreck when she sat down and started doing some calculations. Finally, she used her phone to call her dad.

I didn’t understand the terms she used when talking to him, nor did the manager it seems, but from what little I could figure out, something fishy was going on here. If I heard the figure correctly, the restaurant should have made around fifteen thousand Euros after accounting for power, gas, staff wages, water, broken dishes, and all the other costs based on the daily average. When she reconciled the take for the night, they were showing a ten thousand Euro loss. Even if they gave away half of the meals, they still would have at least cleared a few thousand Euros.

“No, he won’t mind, and April is sound asleep in her dad’s arms,” she told her dad slow enough that the manager could understand her English. “We’ll take care of it.”

To the manager, she explained, “The numbers aren’t adding up so my father asked me to recheck the numbers. Please have the servers and bartenders wait outside the office. I will see if I can’t get everyone heading home before much longer.”