Chapter 62

Soft lips kissed my cheek just as I felt the Citation's tires touch pavement. I smiled at Etta and told her, "There's no way you're my mother's age. You look younger every day we're together. I love you and know how special we are together, Etta." That's when I realized I had been talking to Etta's mind and not through her ears. Yes, we were special together.

Brandy and Tiani were stretching and checking on their boys who were coming out of the lethargy induced by the flight. I noticed Sharon stretching behind me and unbuckling her seatbelt.

I told the girls, "Let's make sure the SUV taxi is next to the aircraft before you carry the boys to it. I'll check outside with Sharon and relocate the car seats before you move them. We'll be doing a little more security checking for a few days. Bear with me until I can get an all clear."

I took a minute to get my armor out and put it on under my shirt. My senses weren't screaming trouble, but I wanted to be prepared before I felt danger around me.

Brandy patted her shoulder handbag and said, "Tiani and I are ready to help any way necessary. Let's get to our house that I know is secure."

Bear and Crystal were at the door and bottom of the steps when I opened up. The two were both grinning at me as if I were some special long lost brother. Crystal gave me a bone crushing hug with a kiss, followed by a bruising hug from Bear. While he had me in his 'Bear' hug, he said, "I checked your place out thoroughly and have brought in a few men to watch your joint to make sure no one sneaks in. These guys are all Scouts and know what to watch for. I have sixteen of them, so they can have four short shifts a day. I know you don't mind popping for a few bucks and beers to take care of this. Let me watch out for you, Chuck. You've shown so many that you are a righteous brother."

I winked at Bear and told him, "Thanks, Bro. That you've helped me get my family to safety is, as you know, most important. We need to check out all of the outer areas when the rest of the family gets here, and do the same when Steve and Dewey get here. I don't know for sure if we're going to be targeted, but the threat was clear, and severe enough for me to want to get to a secure facility."

The girls were in the SUV now, and Bear told me, "Go about a hundred yards and stop when you get to the lane road. Get out and go to the front of the truck. That will indicate that you are who's in charge. The lead man will talk with you and then make sure you are safe getting to the house."

I told Bear, "The two pilots who came with me are Agents who are with me to watch my back too. We should have this covered. Thanks, Bear, you have proven your worth all over again."

"Hey, Rookie, I didn't keep you from losing a leg over there, but I was there in time to get you out. Let's do it right this time. Go home. You have Marines helping you, so you know you and yours will be fine."

The pair of pilots joined us in the SUV. I noticed that they both stashed a duffle bag and an equipment case smaller than mine in the rear of our transportation.

I had the driver stop in the lane about a hundred yards from the main road. I stepped out of the SUV and stood in front, but off to side of it just a little, so that a missed round wouldn't go into the SUV if someone shot at me.

A soldier wearing a ghillie suit moved to me and smiled as I closely looked him over. The man said, "It's easier for me to blend in to the landscape with this while we check out who's coming in. There hasn't been any activity since Bear sent us in. Who else is coming, and how soon?"

I told him about the women who would be here within a couple of hours, and that Steve and Dewey would be arriving tomorrow. I told him, "I have no idea what the local time and when tomorrow is, so bear with me while I get acclimated. I want to thank you guys for doing this duty for me and mine. I want to invest in you if you're a security company. Let me know whatever you need, and I will find it."

The man laughed, "We can probably get just about anything necessary to win a small war. The only thing we need is more troops like you and us. You're the client this time, so let us protect you. I somehow don't think you need that much protection, but the larger the group, the tougher it can be to watch all of you. Go into your home. I'll check in with you later."

I got back into the SUV, and we drove through what looked like an overgrown farm road, but the two lane path emptied out onto a beautifully landscaped park-like setting with a small village built within. Going from left to right, or north to south, the large studio was on the far left, fairly close to the huge house on the right of it, and a short distance away from the house was the eight car garage with apartments above it. Next were the caretakers' quarters that looked to be a fairly large home that I knew was divided into four separate apartments, and then on the far right end was the rather large home that could accommodate at least four rehabbing agents. That home and the caretaker house had swimming pools and hot tubs. There were paths down to the seashore when people wanted to go to the beach there.

We parked near the rear entrance to the house and were greeted by two ladies and a man who helped us move the kids and luggage into the house. Brandy took me to a small room that had a floor diagram of each level on the wall, and video displays of the other buildings on the other three walls. Brandy asked, "Do you want to keep the pilots in the house with us, or do you want to put them into the garage apartments?"

"I'd prefer they be with us if we have the room in the main house. Do we have enough room considering all of Steve's and Dewey's family will be here?"

Brandy nodded and said, "This place is huge, and we have plenty of room for the two pilots who are also Agents, as well as any more you would like to invite to visit. I want to show you something you didn't plan on when we get everyone settled and the rest of our family here, but that the women in your life thought would be necessary. The company who installed your bunker could have sold this to us, but they were greedy and you bluffed them out. Wait until you see your surprise. You're going to love it."

I was curious now, since Brandy was probably my biggest supporter after Lisa. The woman is something special, and seems to know how to handle two large handfuls of women and kids on an hourly and daily basis. I was really interested in seeing what Brandy had created or added.

We put our duffels and cases away in rooms that looked like they had been relocated from our home in Florida. The difference was there wasn't a hallway with multiple small private rooms. Sets of drawers and hanging areas were in the huge walk-in closet. There were several sets of these, making me wonder how many there were, until I finally decided to count them. There amazingly was sixteen sets of drawers and hanging areas, with built in shoe storage along the back wall of the hanging area. The hanging areas were on some form of rotating mechanism that allowed for not just one, but six four-foot wide hanging areas that would allow the most lavish clothes horse to have enough space for her clothes.

Tiani was standing next to me when I was watching how the clothes bars rotated around. She said, "So you like my idea on how to save space and give us girls all the space needed to hang our clothes. I thought of it when we were picking up some of Lisa's and your clothes at the dry cleaners. I figured the company who made the big rack could make a smaller one too."

"This is a great idea, Tiani. I hope the company patented the idea, as this is perfect for most of the homes in the U.S. that have women who need room for a lot of what they consider 'special' clothes."

I was shown into the huge kids' room and realized it was designed to have a sliding wall between the kids we had now and the new kids we would be adding. Our main bedroom was large enough to hold the fourteen bassinettes we would need in the beginning. We also had the second bedroom if one or some of the women decided they didn't want to be in a pile. The beds were large enough to hold us all, but everyone could spread out if they used both bedrooms. I'm sure we would test the various configurations during the time here.

Brandy and Tiani were whispering to each other before both came to me. Brandy said, "Tiani and I want to show you what we had installed. Come with us and check it out."

The two girls took me to the stairway entrance to the security passageways, but turned toward the garage instead of toward the studio. Brandy stopped at a door about halfway between the house and garage, and put in a code that she told me was 'FAB5' and opened a door to a dark chamber. She turned the lights on, and said, "Ta Da" while holding her arms out. In front of me was almost a duplicate of the firing range at the Federal building in Tampa. Tiani pointed out the brass recovery system, and then went to the Range Officer station where she turned the computer on and punched in some commands. The range turned into a combat and decision course with various pop-ups to fire or not to fire upon. Tiani entered more commands, and you could barely see a target at the end of the range. Tiani said, "Isn't it uncanny how you can have a target at a thousand meters in a chamber that's only fifty meters long?"

"Amazing, Ladies, and who gave you the idea to install a range here, Brandy?"

"You depend on your ability to be accurate. All of us have watched you and have watched you and Lisa in combat situations and know how important it is for all of us to remain proficient. This isn't just for you, but for everyone living in this complex. What do you think? Did we spend your money wisely?"

Tiani told me, "We met your Range Officer when you took us to the Federal building range. He gave us the name of a company that would provide the equipment, and the dimensions we would need, when we asked him how to set up a range. Cap is coming for a visit and is going to teach us how to do reloading. He's going to show us how to save some money on the rounds we use in here. Don't you think this is even better than the fancy range at the gun store?"

"Perfect." I began moving the two ladies toward the door, "We should get ready to go get our family from the airport now." I'll feel a lot better when we're all here. I know Steve and Dewey are coming tomorrow, but I want them here right now so I can watch over them. If we didn't know better, I would go to the two men in recovery and ask them to help watch. Hap called Bear to find me some help watching the grounds, so we're in good shape.

The big SUV taxi was waiting for us, so we gathered Red Dog and Mouse, the pilots sent for protection, and took off for the airport. We had the SUV driver slow down upon getting close to the area where the 737 would park to unload, so that we could visually scan the surrounding buildings to see if anything or anyone looked out of place.

We amazingly had just reached the operations building when the painted up CS&S 737 touched down and taxied toward us. I could see Lisa's face in the cockpit window as they began shutting down. I knew they would be short on crew, so it was only reasonable that Lisa would spell both men.

A portable stairway was pushed up to the aircraft as the door swung open. One of the regular pilots was aligning the stairway and locking it to the aircraft. A bus came to the bottom of the stairway so people could step directly into it. I went into the aircraft and began removing car seats to put on the bus. I marveled at how many of us there were and how many there would be every time I moved family from one conveyance to another. I keep thinking we're going to need a bunch of nannies to help move that many kids at once.

The transfer only took thirty minutes, but it also took that long for the plane to be put to bed awaiting its next flight. Bear had a place for the plane and had a man with a tow motor ready to move the aircraft.

Everyone did a double check to make sure nothing was being left on the aircraft before we all got into the bus. The SUV only had the two pilots who came with me, and the two Lisa used to bring the family. This reminded me that we needed to get some cars for transportation. I'm sure the staff had cars, but did we have any vehicles for our use?

I sat with Lisa and Tina across the aisle on the way to the house. We talked about how easy it was to get the family packed and on the way. Lisa said, "These women are getting used to moving quickly."

Tina commented, "We're all so close in our thinking and family goals that it makes it easier to pick up and go. We wondered if Jane would fit in when she came along, and she did. Cassie blended in so easily that it's difficult to remember she's new. We're all used to working as a group."

This driver had made this trip several times, so knew the way and wasn't put off by the narrow overgrown road. A man and two women came out to help move the family inside when we were stopped at the rear main entrance to the house once again. There was a lot of activity to get kids through the bathroom, and into fresh pull-ups, in some cases. All the kids were soon playing in the nicely carpeted family room that had security padded fencing to keep the little ones safe and in one place.

I turned to the women milling around in the kitchen, and said, "You know this is my first chance to see how the house turned out. I want to look at everything and get comfortable with it. I've seen our bedrooms and our kids' room, so let me check out Steve's and Dewey's areas now.

Steve's rooms were similar to mine, but he only had a single bedroom with a huge bed like ours. There were four very large bunkrooms for the kids. I figured the boys and girls would be separated now that they were older. Next were Dewey's chambers, with a king size, but not a custom made oversized bed. I was chuckling to myself thinking that I should give Dewey a few women. I realized then that the kids bunkrooms were going to be shared by all the kids within that age grouping. This would include Marion and Virginia. I wondered if that was acceptable, but then the kids had already been in the bunkrooms on the boat and sure didn't act like it was problem.

I went upstairs and found the eight large apartment style studios. These could be for Tiny, Henry, Sal, or anyone else who might show up. The pilots were all going to have rooms on the second floor while they were here.

I was shown some rooms off the kitchen back downstairs, and informed that they were for the hired help. I asked, "I thought we had a caretaker home with apartments for the house staff?"

Brandy said, "There are two more staff members who take care of the men who are staying with us for rehabilitation. The groundskeeper could probably use some help, so we might add another person there too. These rooms are for our in-house staff. They have rooms in the caretaker cottage too, but it's nice to have them close. Note there are enough rooms for at least three more nannies if we think we'll need them."

The place didn't look that big when you drove up to it, but you realized how much space there was when you looked at how deep the building is.

I walked out on the porch that faced the ocean and almost felt like I could have Mina from the islands bring me a cup of her delicious coffee. There were table and chair sets, as well as chair groupings. This was very nice.

I could see a few boats out on the water when I looked out at the Pacific. One seemed to be fairly near and made me wonder if the fishing could be better there. I went inside to the master bedroom and pulled my equipment case. I assembled the 50 with the super scope, and was about to carry it out without ammo. I was going to use the rifle just for the scope. The gun isn't worth much without ammo, so I picked up a magazine of five explosive rounds and put them into my sport coat pocket.

I sat in a chair back out on the porch that I had pulled up to the banister that surrounded the porch, and rested the rifle on the railing. It took me a few seconds to range the scope and then to focus on the boat. Well, well, there was a guy sitting on the rear deck of the boat doing exactly what I was doing. I watched him and he had kept his rifle moving around the property as if trying to pick up targets.

I pulled my phone and called my contact using the sync mode. The man on the other end asked, "I wondered when you would call to give me the all clear."

There needed to be a pause for a second before I answered, so I waited to tell him, "I'm in Hawaii, sitting on my porch facing the Pacific. The neat part is I'm using my big fifty to check out a guy on a boat with a rifle and scope checking out the house. If you know how to contact these people, do it. I'm going to sink that boat in five minutes and destroy everything and everyone aboard. Can you make the call to get rid of this problem? Oh, and if they should accidentally let a round off, I will put so much lead in them they will sink from the weight."

"Oh shit, don't do it. I didn't know they would have acted so fast. Let me make a call. If the boat is still there in ten minutes, sink it."

I was still sitting on the porch sighting in on the boat that I ranged right at nine hundred and seventy meters. The boat was moving up and down with the swells, but it was still a makeable shot. There wasn't any wind so it wouldn't be that difficult.

My phone rang and I heard that grating voice of Carl Manning when I answered "Johnson". "You stupid shit, who are you threatening. They can't hit you and you can't hit them. We'll wait for the right time to come to kill you."

"I hope your men can swim, Carl, because I'm going to sink that beautiful 30 or 35 foot fishing boat. Listen while I take care of the boat, and then you can try to call your men, Carl. I hope they can swim and they'll be swimming right into my range. Listen carefully."

I ranged, aligned, and fired an explosive round right at the water line of the bow. I next put another round into the rear waterline that must have had some effect on the engine compartment because I could see flames on the deck. Men were jumping overboard and I counted up to eight before I lost track in the cloud of smoke.

"All your men are in the water, Carl. I don't think any of them were hurt, but they have lost their long weapons and there will be a welcoming party for them when they swim ashore. I told you not to mess with my family, Carl. You know the consequences. Now call off this stupid vendetta you have going and go away." I ended the call.

My phone rang instantly, "Johnson".

"You didn't kill any of them, did you?" It was my contact.

"No, no, how about getting this call authenticated, tell me."

We went through the protocol before he said, "You shot twice. I was afraid you were killing them all."

"No sweat. I put one in the bow at water level that opened a big hole, and another in the rear of the boat that must have hit the engine and fuel tanks. Lots of smoke, but no secondary explosions. I watched eight men jump overboard before the smoke became so dense I couldn't see them any longer." I had to ask, "Who did you call? Manning called me almost immediately to tell me I couldn't touch them. I guess you have that recorded, but did you call him directly?"

The contact told me, "I called his office to advise them to move their observation boat away from where it was. They didn't even give me an answer and hung up on me. I'm going to get off the phone while you and your people gather the swimmers. Call me if you think you need to."

A crowd had gathered around me on the porch. The pilots were all behind me, along with Sharon, while Lisa was holding her own fifty caliber ready to do more damage. One of the men from the team watching the house came jogging up to the porch. He asked, "The men from that boat will be swimming ashore. What do you want to do with them? We can hold them somewhere until we can ID them. Do you want us to do that?"

A smile and head nod was all it took.

One of the security pilots asked, "What did you shoot at?"

I told them, "There was a very nice thirty plus foot fishing boat sitting out there with a man using a sniper scope to sight in on the house. I asked them to move and they said I couldn't hit anything if they couldn't hit anything. They might know we're better than they are now."

We watched as men materialized from the surrounding flora and fauna to move to the beach so they could take the swimmers into custody. A large ATV with a trailer came from the front of the house and went down to the beach so they would have transport for the prisoners.

Lisa came up to me with her fifty over one shoulder and her MP5 over the other. She said, "You didn't even give me chance to shoot. I got all excited and then nothing. Do you think any of those other boats are part of this?"

"Don't know, Baby. We're going to watch them tonight and we'll sink them too if any get close. We're probably going to have to get a salvage company out to remove the trash. This is becoming a long day and I'm tired and hungry. Let's see what's for supper."

I commented as I cleaned the fifty, "I suppose we need some maritime radar to keep us aware of what's out there and what may be along the shore. Let's call tomorrow to see what we can get to cover us for what we need. We will want to have coverage out to at least ten miles, and up and down the coast. I want to get the usual collision avoidance software so we can track and be alerted of any incoming traffic."

My phone rang, "Johnson".

My contact went through the protocols, for encrypted transmission and then said, "The Director is on the line for you."

"This is Agent Charles Johnson."

A voice I recognized said, "So how's it going, Chuck? You're either causing or curing problems. I've listened to the audio of the calls from one of ours and it will be dealt with. I know you have the ability to eliminate the man, but please hold off so we can get him away from our service. I've only heard part of what caused this problem, but I'll hear it all as soon as possible. The Secretary heard the audio of the first call and wanted to have the guy arrested. The man is a little slippery right now, so give us a chance to gather the man in and take him out of circulation. You have to keep your guard up for right now, but I think we'll get it taken care of soon."

"The ops group I belong to is special, Director. These men go on the spookiest missions there are. We all know the risks and willingly take them to serve our country. The facilities you use to rehabilitate agents are important. Those of us who provide a safe place to rehabilitate, work with those who've been undercover for extended periods of time, and know the tension they feel over that entire time. You have only a few rehabilitation locations and you need more because there are so many men returning from extensive operations that are a couple of bubbles off center and now have attitudes of willingly eliminating problems. Look at your programs long and hard, and help those people coming back from deep undercover and those who have been on tough missions and were affected by some very bad Intel that almost caused them to die."

"I'll do that, Johnson, and I'll inform the Secretary of what you've said. Just watch your back a little while longer and let us catch this guy."

"Got it, Sir. I'll be available through my handler if you need me."

Wow, the Director had that kind of conversation with me. I wonder if the Secretary really knows that this has happened.

My phone rang, "Johnson".