Chapter 1: Feeling Overwhelmed

Anthony Barlow entered the dimly lit diner with some trepidation. Unused to such intrigue, his normal milieu was an office overlooking the downtown cityscape, not a crummy diner in a bad neighborhood. He wasn't at all comfortable with the situation, but he was desperate and wanted a solution to his problem. He figured this Wittmore fellow didn't have a traditional office he could simply drop in on during business hours. He'd asked Wittmore to meet him as soon as he could, so Anthony knew he really couldn't ask for anything better.

There were only a handful of people in the dark establishment at this hour, and it wasn't difficult to pick out Harry Wittmore. He was the only one watching Anthony as he stood just inside the door. Everyone else was either watching their drink or the legs on the waitress who slowly paraded past carrying everyone their orders. The Investigator looked gruff, unshaven, and worn by the years. But Anthony figured that's the kind of man he needed for the job, someone who had seen the seedier side of life and who knew how to look through the dirt for messy little details. Having figured out what to do, Anthony stepped smartly up to the table Harry was sitting at.

"Harry Wittmore?"

"You Anthony?" Harry asked, knowing better than to use his client's last names in even as unsocial an environment as this was.

"I am," Anthony answered simply.

"Then have a seat. Can I order you a drink?" Harry inquired as he took the measure of his potential new employer. He was used to all types, focusing mainly on spousal abuse cases, and those tended to hit people of all stripes. But this man looked so out of place he was practically begging for someone to mug him when he left the building.

The man was older, with gray hair and dressed in a conservative and downright boring business suit. He also had a dour expression, as if tasting something that curled his lip for the past week. But Harry didn't have to wonder what it might be since he was sure the man would tell him shortly.

"I think I should stay away from alcohol at the moment. In the mood I'm in, I'm likely to overdo it. I could use some coffee, though."

"The coffee is crap in this joint," Harry told him. "Wait till you get back to the city and get yourself a Starbucks. The only things worth drinking here are the beer and the whiskey. The beer because it's in a bottle and they can't water it down, and the whiskey because you can tell if they cut it with something."

"I'll do without then," Anthony said, ready to get down to business right off the bat.

"Fine by me. Now what's your problem? You mentioned something about your daughter getting into trouble?"

"Yeah, apparently it's just started. Her boyfriend was agitated when he brought her home earlier today. I assumed he'd done something to my daughter, so I cornered him. He was evasive, but he told me enough for me to bluff my daughter into giving me the basics. Seems they met some charismatic charlatan in downtown Beaumont, and now I believe my daughter is getting involved in some kind of a cult."

"I wasn't aware we had many cults in downtown Beaumont?" Harry asked with no trace of humor in his voice. Somehow Anthony couldn't picture the man having much of a sense of humor as he looked like he was too used to seeing the ugly underside of life.

"Apparently they caught this clown traveling between cities. He was traveling between New Orleans and Houston. They supposedly only talked for a short while, but it was long enough to cause my daughter to decide to run off to meet him."

"So your daughter is missing?" Harry asked, more interested in knowing what the job entailed than in this suit's personal problems.

"No, she went to some concert in Houston this guy was supposed to be attending. But she told me she was going and that there wasn't anything I could do to stop her. She informed me that if I refused to allow her she'd leave anyway, and if I locked her in her room she'd just break a window. Normally she's not very motivated, but she's resourceful, so if she makes her mind up to do something you can bet she's going to do it."

"Yeah, so the problem is?" Harry asked, hoping to skip the minor theatrics.

"She's ready to follow this guy wherever he leads. She said he wants her to study hard and get ahead, but I figure that was just to convince her he isn't after her money. But I don't trust him. From how she describes it, she's willing to drop her entire life just to follow this kid at the drop of a hat."

"Kid?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, the guy's not even old enough to drink yet, but apparently he's got a whole train of women following him around, doing his bidding. I don't like the sounds of that."

"I can understand," Harry answered, not particularly caring how this kid or his potential employer entertained themselves. He was interested in what he needed to do. "So what do you want me to do? Hunt him down and hurt him? I'm sorry, but I don't do that kind of thing. If that's what you want I can give you a number, but I won't get involved in it, and I don't want to be informed about it either."

"No, no. I want information. I figure my daughter is already convinced this guy is the best thing since sliced bread. What I want is for you to dig up some dirt on him. Hopefully, if I can show her this guy's dark side she won't be as susceptible to his claims."

"You realize she'll probably like him more, simply because you dislike him so much yourself?" Harry asked, getting as deep into psychology as he had any interest getting.

"Yeah, I realize that. I don't think it'll be easy, but she's a smart girl. If she thinks she's being taken advantage of she'll fight back. She may not come home to me seeking solace, but at least she'll be better able to look out for herself."

"All right, that sounds like something I can do. I do surveillance all the time. Just who is this character and where can I find him."

"Well, she wouldn't tell me where he is now, other than somewhere in Houston. But apparently he's spent a lot of time in New Orleans where he's developed quite a following as a religious figure of some kind. All I know is his name is Alex, but that name should be recognized by a bunch of people there."

"So you want me to locate someone named Alex in the Big Easy? You know this is going to take some time, effort and expenses. I charge $150 per hour plus expenses, and New Orleans ain't cheap. Plus, I may need to pay certain people off."

"I understand. Just keep detailed records and if the expenses are justified I'll cover them. I'm not going to pay for you to party or to pad your expenses, but if it's reasonable I'll pay."

"That's good to know. The other half of my business, my assistant, is very good with the record keeping, so you shouldn't have a problem with the itemizations. Now, is there anything else you can tell me besides this guy's first name?"

"Well, he's supposedly been in the news down there recently. He also seems to go after women, so figure you'll have to focus on the women surrounding him, or who knew him when he was there."

"That's not much to go on, but if he's attracted that much attention it'll help. The fact he surrounds himself with women could be difficult, as it may make getting access to his followers difficult. I may need to take a female associate along to gain their trust. That'll increase the daily rate and the expenses, of course."

"As I said, I'm not afraid to pay for good information. If you can get me some real dirt on this creep, especially if you can get a photograph of him showing his true nature, I'll appreciate it."

"I'll need to leave right away," the detective warned his businessman employer. "If he's on the run he won't be around long, so I'll have to move fast. Any idea how long he's going to stay in Houston?"

"Grace said she's planning on meeting him at some concert in the city tonight and tomorrow, so I have no idea what he plans beyond that. As you can imagine, she wasn't anxious to tell me much other than to defend the guy and tell me to screw off."

"All right, there's no telling how long it'll take to dig up any dirt on this guy. I may not be able to get anything incriminating before he skips town again, but if he sticks around trying to soak your daughter, I may be able to follow him around after I learn some more about him. I'll try to give you daily updates, as I figure the short timeline is going to involve a lot of changes of plan, and that'll affect your bottom line. You got a number I can call?"

"Yeah, I'll give you my business number. The wife and my daughter are bored by my work, so they won't answer. That will keep anyone from finding out what you're doing before I'm ready to reveal the results. I figure my wife won't understand the implications unless I can show her what's wrong with this guy, so I figured it's better if I keep her out of it for now. But I appreciate this, since I didn't know how else to address the situation."

"Hey, don't worry about it. Whatever dirt this guy has, I'll find it. Now, if you'll excuse me it sounds like I need to pack in a hurry and head out of state, so I'll talk to you tomorrow evening after I see what I can find."

"Thanks, I'll take care of everything on my end, and I'll keep you out of whatever I decide to do to him afterwards, as well."

"OK, Alex, now that everyone is gone, we've got several things to discuss before Patricia gets here," Cate warned her brother. "After all this time she's going to be want some quality time with you, so how about you strip naked so I can get some quick time with you to discuss things before she gets here."

"Ha! Like I'm going to strip naked when Patricia's likely to stop by any minute with her whole band."

"That's hardly the 'Rock and Roll' spirit," Cate teased, "besides, most of them wouldn't mind seeing you naked."

"Still, I'd rather not answer the door in my 'all together', just on the off chance it's a 5-year-old from down the hall who's been drawn to me. I'll strip, but I'm keeping my pants on, at least."

"Oh, phooey, you're no fun. All right, that's good enough for me to get my daily exposure to you, I guess. I was hoping maybe we could fool around a little, but I can work around your pants," she told him with a leer.

Alex striped off his shirt and undershirt, opening his arms to her. She sat down, giving him a kiss and fishing his cock out. Alex didn't mind her playing with it, but when she started to go down on him he protested.

"Hey, I thought you wanted to talk?"

"Hmm?" Cate asked with her mouth full. She removed it before answering. "Oh, yeah, I guess you're right. How about we talk while you're balls deep in me?" she asked playfully.

"No deal, you know you get lost looking in my eyes. The best I can offer is to spoon you while we talk. With my pants on," he told her.

"Drat, well if you insist," she responded, playfully pouting. She'd expected he'd be a bit hesitant as his mind was occupied with other things. She quickly peeled her top off. The fact she conceded so soon told him much more about how serious she was about this talk than anything else she'd said.

As she settled down against him, pulling his hands up to cover her breasts, she began.

"Now, there are several things you missed tonight that I want to cover before Patricia gets here and you forget everything else," she told him while getting comfortable, worming her ass into a better position against his crotch. "First off, don't go making arrangements with people when you don't know what's going on."

"Huh? What'd I say?"

"You told those girls to meet you at the club tomorrow night, but Patricia was only scheduled to play there tonight. She made an arrangement with someone she knew to play here so they could see how well they performed before her first big show. I had to tell each of those girls where to show up and how to get in."

"Why am I always the last to know about these things?" Alex complained.

"Because you've got more important things on your mind," Cate reminded him. "Besides, if you don't ask, we don't bother you with the small details, just like you didn't ask about our travel plans this past week." Alex grunted, acknowledging she had a point while gently tweaking her nipples in appreciation. Cate mewed her thanks but continued on.

"The House of Blues isn't much bigger than the clubs Patricia has played for years, so it isn't much of a leap for her," Cate explained.

"So where are we supposed to go tonight?" Alex asked.

"Reliant Stadium, it's what replaced the Houston Astrodome," she informed him.

"Wha... ?" Alex managed to sputter. "You mean THE Houston Astrodome?"

"No, I mean 'Reliant Stadium'," Cate reminded him with a smile. "They closed the Astrodome some time ago and replaced it with the newer facility. It seats a few more people, but it's about the same size." Cate couldn't see his expression, since she was facing away from him, but she could well imagine it just from his response.

"Damn, that holds a mess of people," Alex responded in astonishment.

"It's a little over 70,000," Cate informed him.

"Shit! That's a lot more people than we've dealt with before."

"No, usually we're in large cities with hundreds of thousands of people, but it's more people in one place than we typically encounter, which is why Patricia was so anxious to set this tour up for you. She figured you'd be able to find quite a few people during each show."

"Hell, we found three last night, and that was out of only... ," here Alex hesitated, since he didn't know how many people were in attendance.

"The House of Blues holds 1,500 people, so Reliant Stadium would hold over forty times as many people," Cate calmly informed him, enjoying his stunned mumbling as he tried to wrap his mind around the numbers. As much as Cate loved her brother, she knew visualizing large numbers wasn't his strong suit.

"Wait a minute, 3 into 1500, multiplied by..."

Cate took pity on him. "You can expect somewhere around 120 Watchers, though there could be any number of Seers. That's assuming full attendance, of course."

"Holy Fuck," Alex quietly swore.

"Not if you keep going on about this," she informed him. "By the time you finally figure out the numbers Patricia and her band mates will be here. After all, it's a 'holy fuck' with a nearby angel that I've been hoping for."

"Wow, do you really think we'll meet that many new people?" Alex asked.

"People, yes. Watchers and Seers, probably not. The club was packed tonight, and Reliant Stadium isn't likely to be. Plus, even if it was, I doubt we'd manage to grab them all. We'll have to manage the people better, but we need all of those girls."

"Wait a minute," Alex said, trying to wrap his head around another issue. "How the hell can Patricia pack an arena as large as the Astrodome?"

"Reliant Stadium," Cate reminded him, trying to drill the correct name home into his memory. "And she can't do it on her own. At least, not yet. But that's just another thing you haven't asked about. This isn't exclusively her tour. She's the opening act for Diane Kennedy."

"Diane Kennedy?" Alex asked. "Hell, even I've heard of Diane Kennedy. She's not as popular as she used to be, but she's still a big name!"

"Yeah, she's released a new album and she's trying to stage a comeback."

"How the hell did Patricia connect with Diane Kennedy?" Alex pressed, completely floored.

"The studio who agreed to do her next album thought a lot of it and pulled a few strings, and along with a lot of effort on Henry's part, they managed to get her on the tour."

"And Diane is starting in Houston?" Alex asked.

"No, they started on the East Coast with another opening act, but Diane wasn't getting along with them, so when they suggested a replacement Diane's people jumped at the chance. Diane isn't real easy to work with," Cate explained.

"Ah, that explains a lot I guess, though it makes Patricia's role more precarious."

"Patricia just needs to last until California, where they'll cut her album. The album is where the sales come from. The tours are mainly designed to help sell the albums. Once Patty cuts her own, it won't matter as much if Diane throws a fit over her."

"OK, I get it now. So was there something else—?" Alex started to ask before Cate rushed ahead.

"Yeah, there's a lot more. You did all kinds of things wrong tonight. First of all, that idea of standing in the entranceway as everyone walks into the concert was one of your stupider ideas. What would you have done if someone fell to their knees before you in front of 1,500 people?"

"Uh, I don't know," Alex replied honestly, since he hadn't actually considered it.

"Right, you don't. Which is why you have people around to do your thinking for you," Cate replied with a smile. "Next time, and by next time I mean tomorrow, you'll be hiding in the men's room on the outer rim of the stadium. Since all your followers are women, you shouldn't have much trouble there. Well, aside from hanging around a men's room for an abnormally long period of time. That might attract its own attention," she replied in jest.

"Once the band starts, you get out of the common areas and enter the back of the auditorium. Hopefully there'll be enough people there that no one will notice any kind of commotion you may produce. Patricia knows to watch out for you, so she'll start wailing right off the bat, so you shouldn't disrupt things too much. As I said, I'm going to talk to the other girls and we'll manage to station them around the stadium, herding any Watchers towards you. I'm assuming the Seers will find you on their own. Just expect a couple of women to be waiting for you when you get out of the men's room."

"OK, good point. I hadn't thought out what might have happened tonight," Alex conceded.

"No, you didn't. That much was obvious," Cate agreed. "But that's why you have people like me, Patricia and Gail around."

"OK, I can see putting all the girls to work tomorrow night, but what about after that?"

"You mean when we hit San Antonio on Thursday?"

"Yeah, how do we manage a crowd that large with only the three of us?"

"I guess you'll have to do your magic and attract a few new followers. We can't afford a new trailer to carry a bunch of new support people, and we can't uproot all of your people, since the whole idea of this is to create communities of your people around the country. So either you find all new people at each stop, or we're going to do a whole lot of running," Cate informed her brother.

Alex sighed heavily in exasperation, but recognized there was no getting around it. After all, the last thing he needed was to have a large contingent of women following him around in each new city he visited.

"Another thing," Cate continued, not waiting for him to get comfortable, "talking about obvious screw ups, you're lucky there weren't any obvious Seer activations." When Alex quit playing with her tits in questioning silence, she went on. "It's bad enough that anyone could snap a picture of you at any moment, but when you're walking around with a name tag showing your face and loudly proclaiming your name, you're just asking for trouble."

"Damn, that was stupid, wasn't it? OK, backstage pass goes into the pocket whenever I'm not backstage. Anything else?"

"Just the most obvious, Patricia has been very patient and very dedicated. She's been working hard setting everything up in New Orleans for you. She set up that whole 'hopeful potential mother of the day' program for you, she covered for you whenever you screwed up in New Orleans, and she's planned this whole concert tour as a cover for you. I think you deserve to show her one hell of a good time to repay her for it."

"Yeah, I was planning on it," Alex agreed, looking a little guilty since he was already aware how little time he'd manage to give her so far.

"And I just don't mean a normal 'it's yet another girl' type of response. She's been one of your biggest supporters. She's put in more legwork than anyone else around you. Not only that, but she was the only woman you met on our first trip to New Orleans that you didn't sleep with. You only boosted her when she came to visit you for your birthday."

"Yeah, well, she—" Alex said, starting to invent some excuse.

"I don't want to hear it. She deserves several mind melting orgasms, at the very least. I'd tell you to treat her to a phenomenal date, but after what she's been through today, I don't think she'll be up to it."

"Actually, given that, I'd recommend some personal attention. The non-sexual kind," Gail offered, reminding both Cate and Alex that she was still in the room. "I don't know if her room has a hot tub, but I'd recommend a hot bath and a back and/or foot rub at the very least. And don't you dare get distracted with anything else. You need to treat her like the wonderful princess she is, since she's done more for you than anyone else has. It's the least you can do for her."

"Good points all," Alex replied. "Now, is there anything else I need to be aware of?"

"Just to keep playing with those until Patricia gets here," Cate said, indicating Alex's hands that were still playing with her breasts.

"I'll second that," Gail responded. "Watching the two of you together is almost as good as having her to myself." With that they all broke out in giggles, reassuring Alex that the lecture period was finally over and that both Cate and Gail were ready for some relaxation of their own after their own busy day.

The noise of several people moving about in the hall warned the three that they'd be having company soon, so they got up to welcome them. There was a knock on the door before they could get to it, then the door opened a little and someone peeped in.

"Hello? Everyone decent?" Mac asked.

"Yeah, we're decent," Alex replied, opening the door to reveal a tired looking band leaning wearily against the wall. "Hard night, huh? Come on in and relax. After all, you're paying for the room."

"Jordan and I will take the gear to your room for you," Chelsea offered, which the others gladly agreed to. They stumbled in and collapsed on the beds and chair.

"Man, you always forget how tough a first night is," Patricia said, as she stopped to give Alex a kiss before sitting down herself. "I mean, we've done this enough times that we're used to it, but until you get some experience under your belt, doing it every day, it always wears you down until you adjust to it."

"Can we get you anything?" Cate asked.

"Yeah, got any whiskey?" Sammy asked in a croaking voice.

"Uh, no, we didn't think to stop at the liquor store," Cate informed him.

"Oh, then I guess we could use some water. Once we're rehydrated we'll think of looking for something else," Sammy replied.

"Coming right up," Cate replied.

"So how'd it go?" Alex asked anxiously.

"We should be asking you the same thing," Patricia replied. "After all, this was your first night at this as well."

"Oh, we did fine. Several new girls, no Seers this time. No problems. But we're not talking about us, we're talking about you. How'd the show go?"

"It went well," Erica told them. "The place was pretty busy, and Patty got them revved up as she normally does. It was hard getting out of there since there were so many well wishers afterwards."

"Any more than normal?" Cate asked, as she and Gail returned with water for everyone.

"What, do you mean was there anyone asking about your brother?" Mac asked with a smile. "Nah, but it was a new city with new people. Back in New Orleans, after each session there'd be a ton of people anxious to talk about Alex. Here they were interested in us. I guess we should be glad he's here now, so he'll draw off the new followers and just leave us with the appreciative fans."

Just then the inner door connecting the rooms opened and Jordan walked through. "We got everything situated. You guys have the bigger room, as I'm sure you were expecting. We have the smaller one on the far side and Gail and Cate have the one on the other side of this one."