Clay Flesh Part 3

By Ivan the Terror

Codes: Mf+,MF+,inc

Chapter 67

It was becoming a bigger and bigger problem in the schools.  Ten years ago, when it was first noticed, the doctors and sociologists just thought it was a negligible side issue.  It seemed so innocent; kids were just not paying attention in class.  But it had now grown to epidemic proportions, and no one could figure it out.  Federal standardized testing had been mandatory for thirty years, and last year’s graduating class only had 17% pass the test.  The students were so apathetic that most of them didn’t even try to retake it.  College admittance was down 74%.  It had become a major social issue.

What was interesting was that none of my kids had the problem, we had our own schools up to high school, and most of my girls graduated at 13 or 14.  The few of my kids in outside schools were doing fine.  However, the neighborhood around us was going to hell in a handbasket as all sorts of kids finished high school without graduating and became burdens on society.  They were similar to the welfare mothers of the late 20^th century and early 21^st century.  The government had ended the dole fifteen years previously so crime was rising rapidly.  The only thing provided was free food.  One good side effect was the EB classes were larger than ever as girls had nowhere to go after school.

I sat down with Leslie, who was now the head detective for the local police, and who was very well respected around all the local precincts, and asked her, “Leslie, does anyone know where this apathy is coming from in the schools?”

“No, and it is a big problem.  We have tried to put some people in UC to figure this out, but by the time kids are finishing High School, whatever it is has already happened, it is too late.”

I said, “I have asked several of our new EBs why they didn’t graduate, and all they can tell me is that they didn’t feel the need to do so.  It just wasn’t important to them and they can’t say why.  And Lisa retired fifteen years ago, so she has no idea.”

“That is the same as we have been getting from interviews as well.  It just doesn’t make any sense.  This has to be solved.  The crime rate has risen 231% over the last three years, police departments around the country are recruiting actively, but there just aren’t any candidates since a high school diploma is required.”

I smiled, “I was thinking about a mission to solve this question.”

Leslie smiled back, “What do you have in mind, Tom?”

“I say, lets rejuv me, you, and Holly Thompson to 13, join the seventh grade, and find out what is going on.”

Leslie sat there for a minute thinking it over.  “Only if you also take Tami,” was her only comment.

I nodded, Tami was my personal bodyguard.  The ones I knew would have troubles with this were the twins and Natalie.  I’d take them along, but things were going to be complicated with four UCs, much less seven.  And Natalie, even rejuved, would be instantly recognizable.

That evening I talked it over with them.  I told them that I would stop in several times a week, but that I needed to do this.  They really didn’t understand, but I was Master so they acquiesced.

My father thought it would be fun to play dad again, so we set up a house down the block from the estate.  Ester spent a week there with a team.  When she was done it didn’t look any different, but she was happy.  Every room was wired with pinhole cameras that needed a microscope to be seen.  The outside walls were reinsulated with a carbon mesh that was bulletproof and as a side effect was a better insulation than standard pink fiberglass.  The windows were bulletproof with new composite polymers, and they looked normal.  There was an escape tunnel that came out by the estate, and she was actively working to extend it to the estate.  All the doors were electronically sealable. She could remotely monitor the whole house, which she had an entire EB team doing.

A few days before completing work on the house, I rejuved Leslie, Holly, and Tami.  Then Sara rejuved me.  We needed to spend some time as early teens to get used to the bodies.  Sara carefully made sure I still had eight inches, and unless we sped it up, would grow back to my adult ten and a half by the time I was sixteen again.  Also she made sure my gift was unaffected.  Unlike most thirteen year olds, we were fully enhanced, and had no acne or the like.  The girls had seven year birth control sheaths in place. 

Tami worked hard once she was in the smaller body, relearning coordination to maintain her 9^th dan black belt (she was actually better than 9^th dan, but that was the highest she could get).  Since she was a natural, it wasn’t long before she was again throwing EB guard opponents off the mat.

We had to have all our pictures taken for the fake school records Ester was working up for us.  We also sat down and did a week of study, learning what a kid starting seventh grade was supposed to know.  It was sad, the level of knowledge was way less than that of 40 years before.  Kids were expected to know to multiply and divide, basic geography of the local area, and what a Noun was.  Basic fourth grade skills in my book.  No wonder my girls were graduating at 13.

We mixed in with my daughters about the same age for several days.  That was fun.  We had to learn the modern social conventions of mid-21^st century teens.  I left a trail of happy, unconscious, and drooling girls behind me.  We learned to use the new ear-bug technology.  The ear-bugs projected a holographic picture before the eyes and had full computer and cell capabilities.  The whole thing was controlled by eye twitches and took some getting used to.  Ester had special ones made for us that linked in with the estate systems and had twice the power.

The local police chief was in on the whole thing.  He was flabbergasted at the change in Leslie.  After gaping for a few minutes, he briefed us.  “You are going in blind.  Not even the principle knows who you are.  If there is an emergency, I can get you out, or Ester can.”  He and Ester were on good terms.  He had borrowed an EB swat team a time or two.  “School starts right after today, Labor day.  I just want to say good luck to all of you, and I hope to God that you figure out what is going on.”

Tami and I were going in as fraternal twins so that we would stay together as per school policy.  Leslie and Holly were adopted, former foster kids.  My father was playing himself.  My mother nor her sister refused to have anything to do with it, so we recruited an original EB, Pam, to play our mom.  I gave my dad a few gray streaks and a five o’clock shadow so he appeared older.  Pam was really almost fifty, so her body language made her appear older.  Our cover was that we had gone to a rural school until this year when we moved to the city.  The only thing that we hadn’t come up with a good story for were the rings on Leslie’s and Tami’s fingers.

My 13 year old daughters had fun decorating “our” bedrooms in the house, making them appear normal.  One even grinned and slipped a handful of Hustlers under my mattress.  My dad pulled a lot of his old furniture out of the attic and we put it in the UC house, buying a new style TV and other modern appliances that weren’t 30 years out of date.  By the time the four of us were at the bus stop in the morning, the house sure looked lived in.

It was funny.  School Buses were one of the few remaining Diesel operated vehicles still around.  It roared up and stopped in front of us, smoke billowing out behind it as the door squeaked open.  The last time any of us had stepped onto one of these was 30 years ago.  We were all grinning as we climbed the stairs.  It was surrealistic, the bus even had the green vinyl seats.  The only change to the interior I could see was the emergency autopilot console next to the driver.

We quickly found seats and the bus roared on.  There was only one more stop on the next corner to pick up a cute sixth grade girl, and we were off for the school.  The middle school was not the one we had attended, it had been torn down and rebuilt.  I knew because I had contributed ten million to the reconstruction twenty years ago.  Fortunately I had done so “anonymously”, otherwise I would have had to use a false name.  The four of us went in, found our lockers, punched in the code, and stashed our backpacks with our gym clothes.  One big improvement was that all the textbooks were eBooks so backpacks were lighter.  The homeroom assignments were assigned by application date, so we all were in the same homeroom.

We took our seats as the old woman in front got organized.  Well, old respectively.  She was in her mid-50s, so were we, but didn’t look it.  She lifted her tablet and called out roll call.  When she got to us, “Holly Malloy” being first, she had each of us come up and get our student IDs with the picture from the fake records we had created two weeks before.

Soon the bell rang, time to head to first period.  I punched up my schedule on my tablet, cross referenced it with a school map, and headed for class, Tami at my side.  She had an identical schedule, being my “twin”.  A study twenty years ago had determined that twins get better grades when they are together in school.  Ten years ago it had become school policy to schedule twins together for all non-elective classes.  Of course Tami had elected the same classes I did so our schedules were a perfect match.  Leslie and Holly had normal schedules and neither had the same first period class that Tami and I did.

We slipped into our seats in the Science Lab.  I remember that these fancy tables were debated when the school was built and that I insisted on the best ones.  It appeared that they weren’t even used except as for desks.  Sad.

The teacher, a tall skinny man about 30, a “Mr. Fowler” according to the schedule, got up and said, “Is there a Bobby Danver present?”  A boy raised his hand.  “Your card wasn’t recorded entering the room.  May I see it?”  The boy said that he had forgotten it.  Mr. Fowler sent Bobby to the office to get a temp card. 

After that he looked around the room and said, “Please download today’s lesson.”  Without any further interaction, he sat down and started reading his tablet.  A few students, plus Tami and myself, pulled out our tablets and hit the download button on the local Wi-Fi server, getting a recorded lecture plus cross reference notes to the eBook.  The rest of the kids activated their ear-bugs and started chatting with friends.  Tami and I looked at each other and exchanged glances.  This was silly.  If all of school was like this, I already saw the problem.

The six of us who actually downloaded the lecture sat and watched it, then read the part of the eBook highlighted.  At one point a boy tossed a glob of something and hit Mr. Fowler on the leg.  He glanced up and said, “Please don’t do that,” and went back to his book.  Unbelievable.

Second period English was a little better.  We downloaded the lesson, but the teacher, a Ms. Olson, went around and talked to everyone about it.  Several kids didn’t download it at all, and told Ms. Olson not to bother them.  At least she was trying.

Third period Spanish was a repeat of first period science.  The teacher told us to download the lesson, then took a nap.

Fourth period we had gym class.  I went into the locker room.  It was like any old locker room from the past century.  Smiling, I changed my clothes then headed out to the gym.  Wow, there were a lot of hotties around.  Good thing I was used to being surrounded by hotties, because if I was a real 13 year old I would have had a major tent in my shorts.  There were at least three that I saw that were close to Tami in appearance.  I deliberately stood next to one and said, “Hi, I’m Tom.” 

She looked at me, raised an eyebrow and said, “June.” 

There wasn’t a teacher around yet so I said, “I’m new here, what are we supposed to do?”

“Oh, they will have us run around the gym two times, then it is free workout where we can do what we want.”

“What about rope climbing, or the horse?”

“Why on earth would we climb a rope, and what do horses have to do with gym class?”  She looked at me strangely.

“Just things I had to do in gym class before.”

“Weren’t they worried about lawsuits?”

“About what?”

“Making kids feel inferior.”

“That’s silly, someone is always worse at some things than others.”

“Shhh!  Don’t say that too loud!  You could get suspended!”

The shock must have registered on my face because she said, “Your old school must have been nice.  But no teacher is allowed to make any kid look bad here.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense.  Heck, you are really pretty, and that makes a lot of the girls look bad.  Isn’t that against the rules?  No wonder no one will lift a finger to do anything around here.”

She was staring at me.  She whispered, “You think I am pretty?”

“Yes.”  I smiled.

She looked down in embarrassment, “Thank you.  No one besides my mom has ever said that to me.”

“Really?  That is like not calling the grass green or the sky blue.”

She turned an even brighter shade of red.

Following the convention that my daughters had taught me I said, “Can I friend you?”

She whispered with big eyes, “Yes.”  She blinked and activated her ear-bug.  I did the same.  We both sent friend links to each other.  Now we’d have access to each other’s blogs, page, IM and phone contact.  I moved my eyes in the shutdown pattern and the ear-bug hologram disappeared.  She did the same.

I gave her a big smile, “Thanks.”  She smiled in return.

The teacher arrived and, just as June had predicted, we ran around the gym twice then had free workout.  I came up beside June again.  She said, “I have been thinking.  There isn’t any rule about a student being better than another, just so another student isn’t singled out.  It is the teachers who can’t do anything.”

“That makes sense.  You are smart too.”

She blushed again.  “Thanks.”  She paused.  “I looked up the horse.  I can’t believe that people use them in gym class.”

“Well, I always thought they were a little silly, but they were common in the last gym class I was in.”

“And climbing a rope!  I thought that was only in the military.”

“It’s a way to measure and build upper body strength.”

“Wow, your old school must have been very old fashioned.  I wish I went there.”

“I miss it too.  But things here are looking up.”  I grinned at her.  She blushed again.  I had a brainstorm, “What are the rules on thing like after school Clubs around here?”

“As long as no one who wants to get in is excluded, and it is approved, they are encouraged, as much as anything around here is anyway.”

“So I assume you are a cheerleader then?”

“Oh I wish!  But that was banned years ago.  I think there is still a squad at the University.”

Holy crap!  Things had really gone to hell in a hand basket.  No wonder the whole educational system was falling apart.  “Let me guess, it made other girls feel inferior, so the school couldn’t sanction it?”

“How did you ever guess?” she said sardonically.

“What about sports?”

“As long as anyone who wants can join the team, and everyone plays equal amounts of time.”

“Wow.  I can see the everyone who wants joining the team.  But some people are better suited to be benchwarmers than line players.  That is just the way it is.”

“I agree.  I am also really enjoying this conversation.  It is better than any I had all last year.”

“Are you serious?  They don’t even have intellectual discussions on a topic?”

“Hell no.  Those students who cannot keep up will feel inferior.  If Mr. Rand, the gym teacher overheard us, he’d make us stop immediately.”

I looked up at the clock on the wall.  “We are going to have to go change in a second.  Let’s continue this conversation at lunch.  Meet you after class outside of the locker rooms?”

She blushed again but said, “Yes.”

A second later Mr. Rand called out, “Students, time to go change.”

I didn’t bother to shower; why, when we didn’t do anything?  June was waiting outside of the locker room.  So was Tami.  I went up and said, “Have you two met?”  They eyed each other, I could almost hear cats hissing.  “Tami, this is my friend June.  June, this is my sister Tami.”  Both of them relaxed.  “Let’s go get something to eat before the line gets too long.”  They both nodded.

We sat down at the traditional tables with the black round seats and waited a bit.  June asked, “What are we waiting for?”

“My other two sisters who are in line right now.”

A minute later Leslie and Holly joined us.  “June, this is Leslie and this is Holly.”

Leslie said, “I can see why he is talking to you, he really likes pretty girls.”

June blushed again.  “Thanks.”

I said, “June was explaining to me why the school is so messed up.”

“Really?”  “Cool.”  “Neat.”  “What did she say?”

“June?”

She gathered her courage and said, “Lawsuits.”

The four of them frowned.  Then Leslie asked, “Do you mean that they are afraid of lawsuits or are forced by lawsuits to act that way?”

“Both.  There are limits to what the teachers can do because of lawsuits against the school district, plus they are all so scared of being sued by singling out any one student that they treat all of them the same.”

Holly exclaimed, “That is crazy!  No wonder everyone is so apathetic and disenfranchised.”

I laughed.  “Remember Holly, small words.”

“Oh, sorry.”  She blushed.

June gave me a strange look.  I said, “We knew the academic standards weren’t very high here, so we all agreed to dumb things down when we transferred here.  But I don’t think any of us realized how bad things were.”

June said, “I am more and more jealous of your old school.”

I commented, “Yeah, I was telling June here about our sixth grade classes.”

They all raised their eyebrows.  The last time any of us were in the sixth grade was forty years ago.

I went on, “Maybe we could transfer to the company school.  I bet June could come with us.”  I was thinking that June was smart, she would do great in the Malloton school.

Leslie rolled her eyes, “Tom, do you have to save everyone?”  She turned to June.  “Sorry, but he has a knight in shining armor complex.  He has to rescue everyone.”

June was staring at me, “Company school?”

“Yeah, it is an old style school that is local here.  We didn’t go because we wanted to be in public schools, but if they are as bad as this place...”

“Really?  I would give anything to go to a real school.  I couldn’t afford it though.”

“Don’t worry about that.  My family is well off, and besides, I have a sneaking suspicion that you are smart enough to easily get a full ride.”

She gave me another strange look, but was excited at the same time.  As she took off for her next class, I said to my three ladies, “I think the problem is obvious to all of us.  Do you agree?”

They nodded.

“Let’s finish today, and discuss this tonight at home.”

The last two classes were identical to the others.  I grabbed my backpack and we took the bus home.  When we got there, I called the estate and had Ester, Sara, Betsy Two, Carrie Four, Alicia, Zandy and the Thrupp twins come over for a meeting.  Betsy and Carrie ran the Malloton school.  They both came in and stared.  Apparently they hadn’t heard about the project.  Betsy asked, “Why do you look like a kid?”

“We just went undercover in the local schools to find out what is wrong; why everyone is so apathetic.  It turns out that they are so hindered by lawsuits that they can’t teach.  It was horrible.  I was expecting it to take a lot longer to find the problem though.  We spent all this time setting up this house and we don’t even need it.”

Zandy asked, “What kind of lawsuits?”

“Apparently they cannot, in any way or form, let any student feel inferior to another.  That includes academically, physically, or by appearance.  Did you know that there is no such thing as a cheerleader anymore?  It was considered to be bad for the psyche of the girls who couldn’t do it physically.”

Alicia exclaimed, “That is just crazy!  Everyone has their own area of expertise, not everyone is the same.”

Betsy said, “That would grind everything to a halt.”

Leslie said, “No kidding.  Then no one learns anything, no one graduates, and no one has a job so crime skyrockets.”

Amanda said, “What a mess.”

I said, “I was thinking.  We could do a trial fix to see if it solves the problem locally.  If we could prove that, then we have evidence to get congress off their collective ass about it.”

Amanda and Mandy, who always knew what I was thinking, said, “That will be expensive, but I like the idea.”

As usual, most of the others looked puzzled.  I said, “Let’s build ourselves a school.  Why not?  The Catholics do it all the time.  And part of the requirement for attending this school will be that parents sign a no-lawsuit pact as part of the paperwork.  We will maintain standards that WE want, which I tell you right now will be greater than any state or federal standard.”

Everyone was nodding.  I said, “We have no time to lose.  And Carrie, I have a scholarship student for you.  A girl who has actually learned to think in public schools.”

“This girl I have to meet.  Zandy, lets figure out the paperwork after the meeting.”

Zandy nodded.

First thing the next morning, before the bus would arrive, I knocked on the door of June’s house.  A minute later an attractive woman, about 40, opened the door, stared and said, “Tom, is that you?”

June came up behind her and said, “Mom, how do you know Tom?”

Her mom shook her head, “I must be thinking of Tom’s grandfather.  But he is the spitting image.  He used to throw these fantastic parties...”

I grinned, “Actually, Ms. Reynolds, that was me.”

She blinked and asked, “How...?”

“Cosmetic surgery.  I was undercover in June’s school.”

June said, “What?”

“I am here to follow up on an offer I made to June yesterday.”

June shrieked, “You mean...?”

“Yes.  Do you want to go to a real school?”

“Yes, yes, yes!  Mom, please, please, please?”  She gave her mom the doe eyes.

Her mom said, “This is coming too fast.  Now what do you mean by a real school?”

I answered, “Her current school is awful.  I was there one day and never want to go back.  In fact, because of that one day, I am building a new school, technically private, but open to all who want an education.  I currently run a girls school in which I already made arrangements for full scholarship for June here.  She will be older than some of her classmates, the average graduation age is 14, but every single girl who goes there graduates with a GPA of 4.0 or better with offers to dozens of colleges.”

Ms. Reynolds smiled and said, “You always like rescuing damsels in distress, don’t you Tom.  And yes, I would love to have June attend this school.  Even if it means that she is running around naked in Malloton.”

I raised my eyebrows.  How the hell did she know that?

She laughed.  “Tom, everyone who attended your parties hoped to be able to live there.  It was a dream and we memorized every detail we could worm out of your girls who lived there.  Even if it wasn’t a much better school, I know the wonderful opportunities that girls have under your watch and I would heartedly push June out the door to have them.”

I knew from EB research that she was divorced and worked as an accountant.  I hadn’t known that she was one of the party goers from the past.  “You know, Esmeralda, that you are welcome to come live with us, and a free rejuv is part of the deal, although not to this degree.”  I looked down at myself.

She immediately said, “Deal!”  Not even taking half a second to think about it.  I think she was afraid I would change my mind.

I said, “If you would like, I will show you around and get you registered with security.  Maybe give you that rejuv I mentioned.”

June looked confused.  “I don’t know what you are talking about, but if it gets me into a good school I will follow along.”

Her mother said, “Tom here runs a small village inside a large estate.  It is called Malloton.  In Malloton, they have their own school.  From the sound of it, a very good one.  When I was not much older than you he used to have big parties, although I heard that the parties ten years before that were even bigger.  Anyways, I and most of my friends have always wanted to live there.  I hear it is wonderful, always something to do, free everything, support for all your troubles, family like relationships.  It is a dream I gave up on many years ago, and now am being offered again.  And you are going with me, which is just perfect.”

I said, “It is more like a town now.  And there are 131 clinics which each have a community attached to them.  Things have grown over the last couple of decades.”

“I’ll bet.  Out of curiosity, are you going to be 13 for long?”

“I haven’t decided yet.  Leslie, you remember her, the cop who watched the door?”  She nodded.  “She had me change her back last night.  Holly, another girl had me change her back too.  Tami here,” I gestured to Tami who was standing behind me, “will do whatever I do.  I will probably age myself to 18 again in a few weeks.  This is kinda fun.”  I paused, “Did you want that rejuv now or later?”

“I’ll take it now.  That way I can go up to my ex and he can eat crow.  He moved in with his 19 year old receptionist and left June and me since he said I was getting too old.”

“You have got to be kidding.  You are hot.  It is easy to see why June is so pretty.”

She blushed a lot like her daughter.  “Thanks, but I would love it now if you have the time.”

“Sure, can I come in?”

“Oh!  Of course.” 

I followed her into the living room.  I gestured for her to sit on the couch, then went and placed my hands on her legs, belly, arms, then face, rejuving as I went.  She was very hot.  June watched with big eyes.  I made the final cheerleader and EB changes as she giggled.

June said, “Wow, mom!  You look like my older sister!”

She grinned evilly, “I can’t wait until I see Bob’s face.”

I said, “You look fantastic.  Shall I do June’s upgrades now too?”

Izzy said, “I assume you mean the EB upgrades?”

“Damn, there was a real security breach back when you were in high school, wasn’t there?”

She just grinned for a minute, then said, “Of course you need to do them to June.  She needs to fit in for her new school.”

June looked worried, but didn’t say anything as I quickly did the full EB package and birth control on her.  She frowned and said, “I don’t feel any different.”

I grinned and said, “Pick up the coffee table.”

She grabbed the leg and easily lifted it over her head.  “Holy shit!”  Her jaw dropped.

I said, “Ask your classmates about the other enhancements.  They all have them, mostly naturally since 99% of them are my daughters.”

I led them to the estate, where Ester met them, having been filled in by Tami on the way over.  They were assigned a two bedroom apartment in Malloton and given a map.  June was told where to go to start classes the next morning.

The two of them fit in like a glove.  Izzy got a job at Malloy bank, quitting her old job.  June was placed in the eighth class, and was expected to graduate in two years.

Chapter 68

We had long ago purchased the large tract of land to our south.  I had fences added enclosing 250 acres near the Malloton fence.  We started work on a combination middle and high school.  Lisa worked full time on it, after all, she had been a High School English teacher for over a quarter century.  We had two plans, one main one and an online one that anyone could change.  If the changes were good, they were incorporated into the main plan every morning.  Most of the changes were made by estate students who would be attending the school, so it was interesting to see what they came up with for ideas.

After a few weeks of enjoying being so young, I aged Tami and myself back to 18.  Before I did it we enjoyed a fun night as 13 year olds though.  Youth really is wasted on the young.  June was sad, she really liked me as I was.  Many of the other younger girls did as well, but I had to restart my management hops to Aspen, Hollywood, and random Clinics.

Because the school had to be inspected, things like the mastubatoriums were built into the female restrooms, and those restrooms were huge, able to handle thirty girls at a time.  The middle and high schools were in separate buildings, only separated by a surface tunnel.  There were huge gymnasiums with built in bleachers, and behind the bleachers were club rooms.  The math and science department would make NASA envious.  There was a huge 800 seat thrust theater with large drama classrooms.  The English and Foreign Languages departments took up a huge area.  That was one of my pet peeves, so I made sure it was big.

A tunnel into Malloton was built, with security so only estate students could get through.  We also added dormitories next to the school, just in case.

After a lot of thought and some pushing from my girls, we named it the “Malloy Preparatory Academy”.  I didn’t really want “Academy”, but they all did so I gave in to their wishes.  Zandy had been working hard throughout the entire construction getting all the legal paperwork done.  It was amazing how many politicians and bureaucrats wanted to put their finger in the pie.  Half a million alone went to payoffs.

We tested the school by moving all the estate students from sixth grade on up over to the new school.  Those moves actually alleviated a lot of crowding in the estate school and let the fifth grade and under students expand into the open space.

Lisa was the Principal.  I was Head Master.  Usually those are the same office, but we decided to separate the two, sort of like CEO and COO.  She ran the place, and I was responsible for the final disposition of things.

Lisa spent six months just interviewing.  We had to find teachers who were real, that didn’t just sit on their ass, but actually taught.  Surprisingly, it was the old teachers and the really young teachers who still had the idealism to teach properly.  The only teachers in their 30s or 40s that we had were EBs.  She had cried when she had first learned what her beloved teaching profession had devolved into.  She angrily threw herself into the project.

John Fredricks designed an advertising campaign, and we had billboards all over town for the start of the next school year, saying that it was free, just come and sign up.  The tag line was, “We provide an education like your child is SUPPOSED to have”.

The line formed immediately.  A few stomped off in a huff when they read the details; we had parents sign notarized contracts stating that they couldn’t sue and that the school was In Loco Parentis.  I think some of them smelled money and got upset when they couldn’t sue.  What was surprising were all the students who came in and wanted to go there.  All we could do was send the forms home with the kids and hope that they got signed.  We required notarization, so a lot of parents were too lazy to sign.  Unfortunately there were too many like that to individually intervene.  We did have a couple of floating Notaries that prospective students could schedule to drop by their house for document signing.

By midsummer we had scheduled over 500 students per class, from 6^th through 12^th grades.  That was 3500 (actually about 4000) students.  Good thing we planned for that.  There were well over 200 teachers hired, plus about 100 EBs and 100 of my daughters with teaching degrees of various sorts.  The school was built to hold up to 5000 students.  That made class sizes around 15 or less.

We contracted with the same bus company the city schools used.  The old yellow busses would continue to pick up the kids.  I had had a big wave of nostalgia when I had boarded the bus on my one day of school, so I didn’t dink with it.

Two weeks before class started we emailed out the class schedules and student handbooks.  In them, we emphasized the In Loco Parentis, that a student WOULD be punished for misbehavior.  Being liberal, we also emphasized that the only other rules were about theft, bullying, fighting, laziness, or disobeying a teacher.  There was no dress code or rules about PDA.  A kid could spend the entire day naked if they wanted.  We also didn’t care about knives, as long as one student didn’t threaten another.  We didn’t have any rules about drugs, I figured we would clean that up quickly.

We already had thirty boys and fifty girls living in the dorms.  Half were from the county, sent by judges who knew us, including the grandson of our original friendly judge, who was living in a senior apartment and still had the picture of Lisa on the wall.  The county was happy to have a place to put kids since not too many people wanted to be foster parents these days.  The other half were kids who got their parents to sign and were living there to escape a bad home life.  The girl’s dorm was run by EBs (of course), but we had to hire a guy to run the boy’s dorm.  Interestingly enough, Holly One’s second kid, Charles, was happy to take the job.  He had inherited his mother’s enhancements just as his older brother had done, and had spent much of his time growing up in Malloton, so he felt right at home with the EBs.  Just as I had predicted thirty six years before, his older brother Henry was a famous fire fighter, his enhancements allowing him to save hundreds of lives.  I think that Charles felt that Henry cast too big of a shadow and wanted something where he wasn’t compared to him all the time.

School started on schedule the day after Labor Day.  It was surprisingly well organized.  The kids got off the buses (all at the same time, no separate times for middle and high school) and found their lockers.  Each kid had a locker that was 8 decimeters across, a meter and a half tall, and fairly deep.  A modern kid doesn’t have much to put in the locker, mostly jackets, sweaters, hoodies, and parkas, but we decided to leave the extra room, just in case.

Then came the time of trial.  The kids gathered in their homerooms.  Lisa and I stood in her office watching one of the classes on the monitoring system.  It was pretty fancy, the 3D technology was the latest and we could issue voice commands to zoom and pan.

As we expected, and had specifically trained the teachers for, there was a small group who sat in the back corner and ignored everything.  This was expected behavior in a normal school, but not in ours.  We watched as the teacher for the ninth grade homeroom, an EB named Scarlett, went back and said, “Please take your seats”.  When that didn’t have any effect, she repeated, “Take your seats, now.”  Again they ignored her.  We had planned for this.  She deliberately reached out to the nearest one, grabbed a handful of hair and marched him to his correct seat, loud complaining all the way.  When she turned and asked the next one to take her seat, and the rest of them scrambled to their seats.  All it took was a little discipline.  Lisa watched with a satisfied smirk.  The scene was repeated in almost every homeroom class.

First period was where it got interesting.  The homeroom scene was repeated in half the classrooms.  Then the teachers sent the syllabus’ to the students.  Instant uproar.  The students actually had to do homework and read books!  The students who wanted to be there were happy, but the ones whose parents had made them go really got upset.  A good third of the student body got up and walked out.  The gate monitors recorded their leaving school grounds and reported them as truant to the local police.  Leslie was expecting them and started sending patrol cars around to collect students.  Half of them went home, a third to the local mall, and a sixth went over to the old high school.  By the end of the school day, they were all rounded up.  Lisa sent out the notice to their pads.  Detention for a week.  Detention was a new concept to most of them, having the last student in public school detention twenty years before.  Our detention wasn’t just sitting around, it was more like military KP duty.  Cleaning the kitchen, being towel boy/girl, things like that.  They were also informed that from now on, they wouldn’t be allowed to leave the grounds during the school day.  Some of them immediately tried and were held back by armed guards.

After school, all the traditional club activities were present, including cheerleading.  I was surprised at first, but not a second later after thinking about it, when I saw that one of the clubs was the Tom Malloy fan club.  Several of my daughters were running it.  I also noticed that most of them went out for cheerleading.  June led the pack, happily being the first to press her thumb to the list, signing up for both the Tom Malloy fan club and the cheerleading squad.

June, having had to develop a strong personality just to survive in the regular schools, then given a year at the estate school, was extremely popular, a natural leader.  She was also developing as much fanaticism over me as Alicia.  They were two of a kind.  It didn’t help that she was completely encouraged by her mother.  June’s best friend was one of Alicia’s daughters, Candy, who was fourteen like June.  Like all nine of Alicia’s children, she had inherited the gift, which was unusual considering that the average was about half.  June and Candy were already planning the clinic they were going to open together in four years.

Since fashion was very risqué these days, the mesh shirts with mini-skirts still being popular, I had fun designing the cheerleading uniform.  Amanda and Mandy had actually rolled their eyes when they saw it.  I had the mini-skirt, but left out the cheer panties, requiring all cheerleaders to either shave or have the pussy hair removed.  Of course, estate girls didn’t have to worry, never developing pubes or underarm hair in the first place.  The top was a mesh sports bra, needed because they bounced a lot.  The guys had a jockstrap and half-T.  What was interesting was that no one complained.  Not a single person.  The cheerleading squad rapidly adopted the outfit as their school uniform.  Very soon it became common for girls just to wear the mesh sports bra and the guys the jockstrap for gym class.  Much of the time, they just went nude.  The guys enjoyed it, very obviously, and the girls giggled a lot and had hard nips.

Since over half the student body was enhanced, gym class and sports were interesting.  There weren’t many schools left that had real football teams, but among those remaining we were instantly contenders.  Half of it was the distracting cheerleaders, but they were only that way for home games.  The state rules stated that they had to dress more conservatively for away games.  The football team was co-ed, like all the other teams, but many of the guys got covert upgrades from my gifted daughters, especially the cute guys.  Of course, all the girls got the basic cheerleader mods.  I hadn’t planned on that including the pheromone tie in, but since I was swarmed by girls as I walked down the halls, I guess my daughters who had made the upgrades had done the whole package.  Those of my daughters still in the school had the pheromone tie in naturally, of course. 

Along with the sports changes, I noticed that over the first month, every ugly betty in the entire school seemed to suddenly look much nicer.  Not immediately beautiful, but nicer.  I asked one of my daughters about that.  She told me that she and her sisters had gotten together and decided that all the ugly girls needed to be fixed up, but to do it slowly, over a period of years, so that it appeared to be natural.  The senior girls they weren’t worrying too much about, since 95% of them were joining the EB class after graduation anyway and would be fixed up at that time.  The remaining 5% were going to college, and every one of them wanted to come back and join the EB class after college.  Not a single girl didn’t want to return.  And all of them, except for 4 girls who were physics prodigies (especially after enhancement), and one who was studying law enforcement, were studying to be doctors because they wanted to help out at the clinics.

It wasn’t until halfway through the first semester that I found out that there was a class called “Tom Malloy”.  Apparently a lot like the Tom Malloy club, it was an elective, but a popular one, peer pressure got any girls who otherwise wouldn’t sign up to do so.  I checked, and they studied the history of the estate, every major event that had happened from the original rescue of the cheerleading squad to the drug war intervention.  They discussed the social life as one of my girls, even taking a field trip over to the estate.  I was debating about continuing the class, it seemed a bit much to me, when several weeks into the semester half the girls in the class arranged to move to the dorms and the seniors applied to the fall EB class.  Many of them were crying and sobbing about how wonderful it was.

The purpose of the school was to set an example.  And set an example we did.  The graduating classes’ test scores were the highest in state history.  Not a single incidence of drug use, the one druggee we had was cured a week into the school year.  And not one teenage pregnancy, we had, of course, installed birth control sheaths as part of the admittance exam.  All this provided fuel for our local state rep to propose the “Malloy” bill.  It was a major revamp of the educational system.  1. It made the in loco parentis a standard at all public schools in the state.  2. Made lawsuits against the schools illegal.  3. Set up hiring standards for teachers.  4. None of the lowest common denominator discrimination allowed.  There were more, but those were the main ones.  The bill easily passed the house.  The senate hemmed and hawed for a while, but passed it as well, because it would actually save money for the schools, not having to spend all their money on nonsense.  The bill was extremely controversial and popular.  Reporters camped out on the Capital’s steps waiting for any tidbit of news.  By the time it went to the governor, he couldn’t not sign it; he would have been impeached if he hadn’t.  By the start of the second school year, it was signed and would take effect at the beginning of the next summer.  We had done it.

Chapter 69

We were getting too many EBs.  Not that we couldn’t use them, but I couldn’t keep up to them and, more importantly, it was causing a major imbalance in the population of both my home city and Aspen.  The male to female ratio was good, but the male to available female was horrible.  The number of forced bachelor guys was close to 70%.  I got together with my senior staff, and they reluctantly concluded with me that we had to do something before riots erupted.

Systematically, we removed the “no other guy” trait from the EBs.  We left the enhanced sexual tie in with me, but the EBs would now not get ill with other guys.  The EBs who were more senior we left with the trait, but most of the new EBs and the ones from the last fifteen years or so we secretly removed it.  The senior EBs were so fanatical that they would never leave me anyway.  The super smart EB core with IQs in the 160+ range we left exclusive to me as well.

Since there were hardly any males on the estate, there was no noticeable difference there.  However, ones who worked out in the community we had four who requested marriages in the first month.  For that circumstance, we had a set of policies in place from Holly and Katie.  They would still be EBs, but detached.  They still called me Master.  There were big parties when they got married. 

Holly spent half the time in Malloton, heck, her boys had been raised there.  She was even at the weddings.  Katie was still heavily involved in the commune, after all, she was my daughter.  Her two girls from Tom, Amy, 10 and Lisa, 12, practically lived at the Aspen compound.  They flew to our home city several times a year for a month or so.

In the next six months, after the EBs had seen that it was possible, we had a 120 more marriages.

Chapter 70

I was still a bit of a geek, even after 45 years of being an Alpha male.  I still read science fiction and kept current on the latest physics theories.  The latest international space station I had donated over a billion dollars toward construction.  This station was designed to be permanent, unlike all its predecessors.  It had a spin with ¾ G at the outer rim, a permanent population, and was a way station for the new moon base that being constructed and the two missions to Mars that had taken place.  Angie’s eldest daughter, Jenny, was the station medic.  She had a support staff of six EBs.

Then my worst nightmare occurred.  A shuttle pilot dozed at the wheel, and rammed the station.  A camera, put in place so the public could look at the station, captured the whole thing.  The shuttle didn’t even brake as it hit the outer rim, bounced, and drifted off at an angle as the whole area decompressed on the station.  The station couldn’t stop the spin, much of its construction depended on the spin to maintain integrity.

The medical bay wasn’t anywhere near the impact site, but the impact caused a beam to fall and hit Jenny.  The EB medics had her stabilized, but she was unconscious and so couldn’t heal herself.  There were a lot of injured on the station.

I immediately called in some markers with several senators.  An emergency shuttle was being prepared at the Colorado Springs accelerator.  It was due to launch in six hours.  I got places for four in the crew complement.  Ester was watching the TV with horror and hadn’t even noticed that I was on the phone.  I went over and said, “Ester.”  She blinked and looked over at me with tears.

“Ester.  Who is most qualified for space among our locals?”

She blinked again, and began to have a little hope in her eyes.  Master was on the job.  She immediately said, “Gertie Two has been a fanatic about space for decades.”

“Then have her and Angie report immediately.  She, Tami, Angie, and I are on the rescue shuttle launching in six hours.”

“Yes, sir!”  She blinked her ear-bug into operation and said, “Gertie is on her way.”  She blinked a couple more times and said, “And so is Angie.”  Of course, Tami was standing right behind me with Natalie.  Ester blinked a few more times and said, “The jet is being prepped.  Take-off in half an hour.”

I hugged her and said, “Damn, I love how efficient you are!”  She nearly passed out in delight from the compliment.  Then she took off running.

Since we were going to be outfitted when we got to Colorado Springs, we didn’t bother to go pack.  However, Ester returned a minute later with a large briefcase.  “Take this with you.”  I took it and she said, “The car is waiting outside, good luck and take care of Jenny.”

I nodded and we ran out to the waiting SUV.

As the plane took off I peeked in the briefcase.  It was jam packed with electronics.  I recognized an oversized signal booster and WiFi relay, but most of it was way above my head.  Suddenly Ester’s voice came over my ear-bug.  “Sir, the suitcase is a local relay for the ear-bugs.  It should allow communications from the space station in case their local comms are out.  Leave in your ear-bugs and just make sure the suitcase is someplace on the station, preferably someplace not to heavily shielded.”

“Good idea Ester.  How the hell did you have something like this ready to go?”

“It was designed for emergencies deep underground, but the signal booster should be strong enough to reach orbit.”

“Well, thanks again.  I still am amazed at how you always are prepared.”

*sigh* “Thank you, Master.”

Angie was wide eyed with worry.  She hadn’t said a thing, she just wanted to get to Jenny as fast as she could.  Gertie was torn, she was all excited to go into space, but was worried about Jenny as well.

We had priority landing at the airport next to the launch accelerator.  A dozen planes full of reporters were held off.  We were whisked over to one building, outfitted with a pressure suit and four environment coveralls, and then over to another building where a mission briefing was just starting.  There were fifteen of us going up.  We were the designated medical team, there were two pilots, and nine emergency construction engineers to repair things.  The cargo was parts and replacement O₂.  We slipped in a crate of medical supplies plus my suitcase.

Soon we were strapped in and the coils along the track were being cooled down to their superconducting temperature.  The bird buster was sent along the track to clear off any jaywalkers, then the countdown recommenced.  I couldn’t take my eyes off the mission clock, counting up to zero.  Three, two, one, and then it hit, the best acceleration I had ever felt.  The accelerator shot us down the valley, up the side of the mountain, detaching at the top as we continued upwards at several Gs, which rapidly became free fall as we decelerated up through the atmosphere.  If I had known it was that much fun, I would have visited Jenny long ago. 

A few minutes later the pilot announced, “We have achieved orbit.  Burn in 30 seconds.”  Sure enough, thirty seconds later we felt the shift as the shuttle did a burn towards the station.  I glanced around, Angie was still determined looking, but both Gertie and Tami had silly grins on their excited faces.  I then realized I did as well.

I blinked in a call to Ester.  She came in loud and clear.  It is amazing what several million in advanced communication equipment can do.  That suitcase worked great.  Ester came on.  “Hello, sir.”

“We just made orbit, heading for the station.  This is a comm test.  The suitcase seems to be working.”

“We are reading full telemetry plus voice comms at our end.”

“Good.  Call you back when we reach the station.”

“Later, Sir.”

An hour later all of a sudden I heard, “Master!  Is that really you?”  We had come within range of the station and the relay had come into play with the ear-bugs of the EB medics on board.

“Yes, Charlotte.  It’s me.  With me are Angie, Tami, and Gertie Two.”

“Oh! Thank Tom!  We were going nuts here.”  She whispered something, probably to the other EBs.  I heard a few squeals of delight and sighs of relief.  “We’ll be waiting.”  She disconnected.

It took another hour to dock at the central core of the station where there was no spin.  Waiting just inside the airlock was Charlotte.  I gave her a big hug.  She enjoyed it for a moment, then said, “Come with me.”

She led us through the station, into the low G section right off the core.  That was where the medical bay was located.  Close enough in so the Coriolis effect was negligible, but far enough out so there was some gravity.  There was a sign over the door that said, “Thrupp Clinic”.  Angie and I immediately ran over to Jenny, who was strapped into a medical cot.  Angie was sobbing, but she knew to hold back as I went to work.

Jenny had a skull fracture and damage all along the left side of her body.  She also had a fractured spine.  It was amazing that the EBs had managed to stabilize her.  I repaired the head fracture carefully, having to regenerate some of the brain and her left ear from DNA.  Fortunately it wasn’t in the memory centers, so she shouldn’t have much memory loss.  Then, making sure she was turned off, I went down the side, repairing as I went. 

The shoulder needed major reconstruction, and the arm was fractured in several places.  The ribs were broken, and they had damaged some of the organs under them, including the left lung.  The hip was broken as was the leg ball socket.  Surprisingly the rest of the leg was fine.

A quick once over to make sure I hadn’t missed anything, then I woke her up.  She opened her eyes and exclaimed, “Mom, Dad!  What are you doing here?”  Then she looked around.  “Aw, shit.  What happened?”

I let Angie fill her in as I called Ester.  “Hey Ester.”

“Yes, Sir?”

“Jenny is back to normal.”

“Oh, Thank Tom!  Thank You Master!”  I heard cheering in the background.

“We’ll stay and help out for a bit.  Just thought you should know.  Talk later.”

“Later, Master!”

Since Jenny had been down and the injured were lined up like the old days, she and I went to work on all the injured in the medical bay and the triage set up next door in a cafeteria, fixing them all up.  Apparently 23 people had died in the initial accident and six people since.  One of the injured was a pretty woman who had a pressure door slam shut on her leg.  Since there wasn’t any meat available to rebuild the leg, I had one of the EBs take a leg from a corpse and Jenny and I worked to revitalize the leg, then we rebuilt it to match her DNA as we attached it.  It was a bit gruesome, but we made sure that the donor was a registered organ donor.

Angie had been helping out with the minor injuries, and when we had all finished, we all collapsed together in relief.  We recovered fairly quickly, that is the nice thing about being enhanced.  I went exploring.

In the emptied cafeteria, Tami was bouncing off the walls, literally.  I guess she was working on learning to be maneuverable in a low G environment.  It was like a ballet, she was very good, every movement coordinated perfectly.  I often watched her work out, and this time I stood there and watched for a while.  I am sure she saw me, her situational awareness was off the charts, but she knew I liked to watch so she kept going.

After fifteen minutes, she landed in front of me, light as a feather.  I pulled her to me and kissed her hard.  Peeling back the jumpsuit, I kissed my way down to her perfect puffy breasts.  Tami was moaning as I pulled off our jumpsuits.  Laying her back on a table, I slid in to her velvet dripping pussy.  We eagerly joined the 60 mile high club as she thrashed about and arched her back screaming as I filled her with warm cum.  As Tami lay there gasping, semi-conscious, I noticed Charlotte standing in the doorway, I waved her over, kissed her hard, then proceeded to lay her out next to Tami.  Soon she joined Tami who was beginning to recover.  As Tami became aware, she eagerly licked me clean, then we buttoned up and she followed me exploring.  We covered the half-conscious drooling EB with a blanket.

As we came out of the cafeteria, Gertie saw us and joined the expedition.  I was curious, so we headed upgravity toward the rim.  Because of the Coriolis effect, there weren’t any ½ G rings, but the effect diminished with the greater radius, soon we were in the ¾ G rim 200 meters from the core and peering out a large observation porthole at the wrecked area.  Work crews had already bridged the missing section and were adding on the support frame.  I blinked several pictures into my ear-bug.  Gertie commented, “Good, they have finished the basic structure.  The station was so imbalanced that the bearings couldn’t take much more.”  She had obviously been talking with the station crew.

I was amazed at the size of the station.  It hadn’t seemed so big on TV, but it sure seemed like it was big now.  I eagerly thought about how it would be in another 20 years.  I was willing to bet that there would be hotels and tourism.  It was so exciting to be around as mankind left Earth.  A great time to be alive.

That evening they managed to capture and tow back the errant shuttle.  The crew was still alive.  They were dehydrated and hungry from two days without food, but otherwise okay.  The shuttle was too damaged to make an atmospheric reentry, so it was docked until repairs could be made.  The pilot, it turned out, had been drinking, and with a minor case of diabetes he had passed out.  He was being charged with negligent homicide, similar to what a DUI would carry back on Earth.  Our shuttle was to take him back down in cuffs.

The return shuttle was leaving the next morning, so I played tourist and wandered all over the station.  It was fun.  Gertie and I had the time of our lives.

Soon enough I was kissing Jenny and the EBs goodbye, then boarding the shuttle to return to Earth.  The station commander thanked us for our help.  We strapped in.  The pilot announced, “One minute to separation!”  A minute later we felt the “thunk” of the releases.  “Stand by for reentry burn.”  We rotated, then were pressed against our seats as the thrusters fired and we decelerated.  We quickly descended as we slowed relative to the planet.  Soon we were in ionization blackout, then coasting in for a landing in California.  As we stopped and pulled into the bay, the pilot announced, “Welcome back to Terra Firma.”  Soon we unstrapped and left shuttle, following the feds who had taken custody of the screwup pilot, who had been escorted from the shuttle.

We went over to mission debriefing where we gave our statements, then next door where we changed back into our street clothes.  The ubiquitous black SUV was waiting outside and we rode to the airport where our plane was waiting and flew home.

Chapter 71

June and Candy were planning on opening the first Thrupp Clinic outside of North America.  Coincidentally it was Clinic #150.  There were many places that needed a clinic.  I steered them towards Eastern Europe.  I wanted to put our toe in first before diving into the mess in third world countries.

It took $650 million plus another $150 million in bribes but we built a Valery style clinic/shelter in Moscow, Russia.  We also built a second building the next block over that was private, similar style, but since we already had everything set up, it was only $450 million.  We bought the surrounding ten blocks and cleared them, putting in parks.  It took some work to get them to build things properly, the local construction companies wanted to prefab everything and just stack it.

Sarah, the EB training chief, had six daughters.  Like Alicia, she raised them to be fanatical in their devotion.  The oldest one, Didi, June and Candy recruited to run the EB training center in the second building.  Didi had the gift, but she used it to train EBs, not for general clinic use, except in emergencies.

Like usual, we tried to recruit locally for doctors.  Because of the horrible state of the Russian economy, which was even worse than the U.S. economy, there was quite the search for idealistic doctors.  We ended up recruiting in all of Russia, bringing in doctors from Siberia for interviews.  It took a while, but we finally had a minimal staff for the clinic.

From the day the doors opened, the clinic was packed.  Like Canada, who also had socialized medicine, it was curious that a free clinic got so much business.  The concept of a homeless shelter was hard to get through people’s heads; they all figured that it was first come first served apartments.  The girls were forced to put up a big sign explaining a homeless shelter.

The other big thing that took a lot of work to enforce was the no drugs and no guns policy.  The locals just couldn’t understand why they couldn’t get a room and just smoke and deal crack from it.  It was tied to the belief that the apartments were theirs once they had them.

The one thing we got a lot of were EB recruits.  Didi had her hands full with over 200 recruits to start with and classes of 200 every other month.  Fortunately, her mother had it down to a science by this point, a four month cortical suppression, total six month training, and six more months with a probationary internship.  They didn’t even need to meet me anymore to get the full indoctrination.  Didi followed the protocol which was very effective.  Every single EB who graduated was fanatical about me.  It was a little scary.

As the EBs graduated, they took over security.  The mafia tried to get into the buildings, but they were stymied at every attempt.  They were getting pissed royally.  It didn’t help that Candy followed standard procedure and immunized everyone she came in contact with from all drugs, and making them allergic as well if they weren’t law enforcement.  A lot of mafia members were being found shot and dumped since they were now useless for drug operations.  Candy also spoke to a lot of school classes about what the clinics and shelters were all about, secretly immunizing the kids before they even could get involved in the drug trade.

We were rapidly running out of space for EBs in the second building.  June contacted the Russian government and purchased an old military base for several million.  She and Didi immediately set up a camp for EBs, building a small town like Malloton.  We realized that we needed to do something with the EBs, so we built clinics in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Vladivostok.  This temporarily alleviated the problem, but recruitment was so high that we soon were overflowing with EBs again.  June and Candy set up portable hospitals that roved the countryside, many without even a gifted daughter, just general relief.  The border with Chechnya and Afghanistan, always war torn, had fifteen roving hospitals.  With modern fuel cells, these hospitals could run for weeks on a charge.  And they were needed. 

Even halfway through the 21^st century the religious fanatics in the Middle East and southern Asia were still killing everyone they could get their hands on.  My daughters, ever inventive, started adding an allergy to gunpowder to any combatants that they came across, this in addition to the standard drug allergies.

I visited the Russian clinics every other month or so.  As a consequence, the EB birthrate there skyrocketed.  I seem to have hit one place right when they were all fertile; the Novosibirsk clinic had 83 babies born all at the same time, the result of a party when I had arrived.  Russians really know how to party.  When I wanted to visit some of the roving hospital trucks along the border, Tami stepped forward and said no.  It was only the second time she had done that in 34 years, so I listened.  She explained it to me, I was the only one holding my empire together.  If something should happen to me, the whole thing would fall apart.  My daughters would continue on, but each clinic would be on its own, and they sucked up too much money for support to last very long.  If I was on a rescue mission, that was one thing, but as a tourist it wasn’t worth the risk.  I gave her a big hug and thanked her.

In the end we went to see one that wasn’t along the southern border, but was instead roving the villages in Northeast European Russia.  We boarded a supply truck heading out to resupply the portable clinic.  It was guarded by ten EBs with very serious looking weapons.  I greeted them all with a “Привет Мои Девочки!” followed by a hug and butt squeeze.  I got a lot of sighs and giggles, probably at my accent.

It was a two day trip out and two days back.  The resupply truck was almost as big as the hospital trucks themselves.  It had a sleeping area with small kitchen, communications center, and a pair of motorcycles.  The back was taken up by the large cargo area filled with fuel cell replacements, medical supplies, and food.  I spent most of the time figuring out my will, to fix the problem that Tami foresaw.  I left everything to my ring girls, to continue running as long as they could, which with my daughters’ gifts, could be eons.

The majority of the roads in outlying Russia hadn’t been repaired since the 20^th century, over 60 years before; and were in very bad shape.  Heck, half of them weren’t even paved.  At a stop to ooh and ahh at a beautiful scenic vista in the Ural foothills I took the time to look at the suspension.  Each wheel had its own suspension and was tied in to the drive train.  The whole vehicle reminded me of those old post-disaster TV shows from the 1970s where the crew drove around in their survival vehicle.

The girls took turns on duty.  Apparently brigands weren’t all that uncommon.  The off duty girls I took the opportunity to get to know better.  Tami also made a lot of friends, but in a different way, of course.  I was relaxing, snuggling with two of the girls watching TV Land reruns of Castle, Nathan Fallon had died a few weeks earlier and they were running a marathon in his honor; when I saw a book that one of the EBs was reading.  It had my picture on the cover.  Just having a paper book was unusual these days, but one with my picture on it got me really curious.  I asked if I could see the book.  She handed it over.  It was in Russian, so I used my high school Russian from 48 years ago to read the title page.  “Томас Маллой” That’s my name.  The back of the title page was printed in English, “3^rd Russian Printing, 5^th Japanese Printing, 2^nd French Printing, 19^th German Printing, 2^nd Chinese Printing, 31^st Spanish Printing, 42^nd English Printing, Copyright 2032, Malloy Enterprises, All Rights Reserved”.  Nice of someone to tell me that the book existed, especially if it was translated into six other languages and was in the 42^nd English printing.  I handed it back and asked Tami, “Tami, did you know about that book?”

“Yes, Master.  All EBs read it constantly.  It contains a basic history of you, plus many of your philosophies.  If a girl is confused over something, usually the answer can be found in the book.  It has all your decisions that you made to start your empire and the moral decisions that you made along the way.  The book is a source of guidance for every EB.”

Great, I had my own bible.  “Remind me to read the English version when we get back.”

“I think that Alicia is working on the second edition, since it has been many years since that one came out.”

“Then I definitely want to go over it before publishing.”

“I’ll pass that along.”

The truck passed many small villages.  It was depressing, it was the middle of the 21^st century, and many of them didn’t even have electricity.  We caught up to the hospital truck in Bigichi (Бигичи), a small town on the river Kolva.

Lara, one of my gifted daughters, ran the clinic.  Her mother was a Russian immigrant, a former model, and Lara had learned the language from her; that was why she was in the middle of Nowhere, Russia running a hospital truck.  We pulled up behind the hospital truck, and the EBs and Lara came over.  I stepped out of the door and Lara was instantly there with her arms around my neck, sobbing.  “Oh, Dad, I am so happy to see you!”  She sobbed for a while, then stepped back.  “What on earth are you doing here in central Russia, of all places?”

“I was curious about how these trucks were doing.  Tami vetoed me visiting the ones south along the border.”

“Wow, I agree completely.  And not just because you came here instead.”

“Yeah, she explained the logic.  I don’t have to like it, but I reluctantly agree.  Anyway, how are things here in Bigichi?”

“So sad that I cry a lot.  These people have almost no medical care, very bad schooling, scrimp and scrape for clothing, A little girl came in yesterday with legs and feet so beat up from working that she could hardly walk.  Her parents couldn’t afford shoes or work pants.  It is really heart-wrenching.”

“I assume you enhanced the feet and legs so she can handle it better?”

“Yes, but there is so much of that.”

“Honey, I know it feels like a drop in the bucket, but imagine that little girl if you weren’t here.”

She started bawling again.  I held her while she worked it out.  I saw that several of the EB assistants were pretty worn out as well, so I waved them over for a group hug.  They all cried for another 40 minutes.  Finally, they relaxed and cried themselves out.

To brighten things up I exclaimed, “This is Russia, we need a party!  I know that big chunk of beef in the cargo was for repairs, but let’s cook it up and celebrate the resupply!”

Most of the EBs spoke English and they started cheering.  In half an hour we had the whole town kick-dancing with us.  I was amazed, I had thought that the traditional stuff was long gone due to the Soviets in the last century.  Except that the music was played by a boom-box, the scene could easily have been from the 19^th century.  Then some old people pulled out accordions and balalaikas, and the boom-box was put away.  We danced half the night to the bonfire.  It was the most fun I had had since the orbital trip four years before.

As I snuggled down with a few of the EBs around two in the morning, I contemplated the complete opposites, a small town in Russia and the infinite vistas of space.

Normally a supply truck comes in, drops everything off, then takes off a few hours later.  I knew I was messing up schedules, but I had them wait a day and night.  I sat down with Lara and discussed it.  She thought that the party was the perfect idea.  I mentioned that maybe, unless there was a reason not to, the supply truck should bring in the supplies for a party as well and throw one whenever they dropped off supplies.  She thought that was a good idea.  We also discussed the shoe problem.  It was traditional for Slavic peasants to go shoeless, even in winter, but that was ridiculous.  She agreed.  We figured out what was needed, and planned for several crates to be delivered on the next supply truck, filled with shoes for children.

The day after the party, I hung out around the trucks while Lara went to work.  There was a constant stream of people, many of who had travelled up to fifty miles on by foot or ox-cart, who came because they heard that the hospital truck was in town.

At lunch, I had a surprise for Lara.  I took a package that I had stowed in the cargo, and then got busy in the small kitchen.  I presented four hard shell tacos and a large burrito to her.  She almost fainted in delight.  The EBs, all Russian, didn’t see what the attraction was, but Lara had grown up with Tex-Mex and loved it.  One thing Russia had a lot of was Pepsi and Coke.  Lara pulled one from the truck refrigerator.  The EBs were also puzzled that she chilled it before drinking, since it was common to drink it at room temperature.

After lunch, I wandered a bit taking pictures that looked like something from a 100 year old National Geographic, except that they were in 3D.  We drove back with the discharged fuel cells.

Chapter 72

It was a sad day.  I received a phone call from Cardinal Harden.  Father Ricci had died of old age.  Apparently he had requested that I be invited to his funeral. 

Sister Gwendolyn had died ten years previously; Sara had been very upset at that one.  Us immortals we getting our first taste of what was to come as everyone we knew started to die off.  My good friend Frank Taymen was in his 80s and still going strong, but I knew he had only another ten to fifteen years as well.  If he had asked, he could be immortal as well, but he understood that that was a dangerous precedent and so didn’t ask.  It was like the ancient song from Queen, “Who wants to live forever?”  There were downsides.

We immediately planned for the trip to Vatican City.  The funeral was to be there, the burial in a cemetery outside of Rome.  Apparently the Father was well liked; Pope Mark II himself was going to preside over the funeral.  I hadn’t seen him since Atlanta twenty years ago.  He would be in his 90s by now.

With me I was bringing Sara, Ester, and, of course, Tami.  I wanted to bring the twins, but we felt it was too crowded.  They were a little depressed anyway, many of their old friends had been dying off recently.  They (and I) were only 67, but Zandy’s father, her stepmom, many of the teachers from when she was in school, all had died recently.

The plane was waiting at our airport.  We had built it several years before because of the constant travel that I needed to do.  What was crazy was that, while I had been all over Russia and North America, I had never been to Western Europe before.  At least flights were much quicker now that most airplanes were SSTs.

We landed at Fiumicino Airport.  A little long of tooth, but the even older Ciampino Airport couldn’t handle SSTs.  Before we left the plane we changed into our “Sunday” clothes.

Waiting were three of the ubiquitous black SUVs that security people have been fond of for a century now.  The squad of EBs that Ester had sent ahead randomly picked one and we got in.  The motorcade moved out.  Rome was a beautiful, if slightly smelly, city.

The motorcade arrived at the Vatican, we entered at the north entrance by the museum and gift shop.  Cardinal Harden, in his 80s but still spry, greeted us with his Brooklyn accent.  “Tom, wow, you still look exactly the same.”

“Yeah, nice side effect, don’t you think?”

He grinned, “Yes, it is.  It is tempting to ask for one of your rejuvs.  Something for my next confession.”

“Well, I am still young, only 67.  The one you should be impressed with is Ester here.  She is 87.”

“A year older than I am?  Wow again.”  He peered at Ester, I think his sight was going bad.  Ester gave him a shit-eating grin.  She always loved her rejuv, more than any of us.

I touched the back of his neck, deadening the nerves so he didn’t feel it.  I fixed up his eyes, hearing, prostate, and cleaned the blood vessels around the heart.  Otherwise he was pretty healthy already.

He blinked, then turned to me and said, “Tom...”

I smiled and said, “Consider it a gift.  I noticed that you were having trouble with your eyes.”

“Just limit it to that, okay?”

“Sure.”

“Hmmm, it is nice to be able to see clearly again.  *sigh* Another one for confession.  Two things in two minutes.  You are dangerous, Tom Malloy.”

He led us in, waving us past the Vatican Guard.  I was surprised when he led us to the Sistine Chapel, where apparently the viewing was still in progress.  Although I was Lutheran, I emulated Ester, a Catholic, as she crossed herself and went to view Father Ricci in his casket.  He looked peaceful.  I worked my way back to the entrance where Cardinal Harden was standing.

I commented, “I am glad that he died so peacefully.  After some of the things that he battled, I am more than glad.”

“Really?  You know about that?”

“If you mean Mexico City, yes.  I was there.”

“When you get some time, could you please answer some questions about that, Father Ricci’s diaries were destroyed in a fire a few years back.  We didn’t even know who was there so we couldn’t reconstruct it.  Father Ricci refused to talk about it and all the other priests that were there are long dead.”

“It was a demon possessing the body of a dead child.  I can see why he didn’t want to talk about it.  I don’t really want to either, but I will tell what I know for the record.  I will also say that it severely shook my beliefs.”

He shuddered and crossed himself.  “Oh my God.  No wonder he didn’t want to talk about it.  It also explains many other things, like all the guards that retired suddenly right after that.”

“It took me years to get over the nightmares, and I left before the actual exorcism.”

“Let’s change the subject.  I won’t ask you to go over that again.”

“So how is the Pope doing?  Did you ever find the culprit?”

“Yes we did.  But I can’t discuss that.”

“I understand.”

“One thing Ronald, I mean the Pope, and I were discussing is all your clinics in North America and Russia.  We were wondering if you would like to establish one here.”

“You mean that the church membership is falling off and you want to bolster it with some good publicity, right?  A few miracle cures here and there?”

“Well, yes.  I keep forgetting you aren’t a teenager.”

“One issue, all my clinics are run by my daughters and female staff.  If you can live with that, I will ask if any of them want to found a clinic here.  In fact...”  I raised my voice over the din, “Ester?”

She scurried over.  “Yes, Tom?”

“Isn’t your Hannah turning 18 next month?”

“Yes, she is.”

“Do you think she would be interested in starting a clinic here?”

“She would love it!  Hold on, I’ll ask her.”  She blinked a few times, calling Hannah up on her ear-bug.  “Hannah, honey...”  “Yes” “I have a question for you.”  “Tom wants to know if you are interested in opening a clinic here at the Vatican.”  “Good.  I’ll pass that on.  Start planning.”  “Bye, love you.”  She looked up, “Yes, she thinks it is a wonderful idea.  She also said it would be a little crowded here inside Vatican City, and suggests maybe across the street somewhere.”

Harden said, “Good idea.  She is right.  It is a little crowded in here.  Most of the surrounding land is owned by the Holy Cee, we will find something for her.”

“Normally we have a homeless shelter as part of the clinic.  That also would be good publicity.”

“Yes it would.  I’ll talk it over with the planners and the Pope later.  If you want, there are three hours before the service if you want to go to your hotel and freshen up.”

“You go ahead.  I was going to sign up for the tour.  See you at five.”  He was old and probably wanted to rest up.  I gathered my ladies and we took the Vatican tour.

We met back up in the chapel.  Because of security, the Pope did the final invocation, the Valley of Death stuff, while we were still in the chapel.  I, along with three priests, were the pall bearers as we carried it out to a old hearse waiting outside.  The thing must have been over fifty years old.  The burial was done quickly.  Out of respect I followed the hearse and stood while the casket was lowered down.

There was a dinner after the service.  The Pope led the prayer, then we ate.  I was sitting across from a Priest.  He nodded and said, “Hello, I am Father Joseph.”

“Tom Malloy.”

“I was one of Father Ricci’s students.  How did you know the Father?”  Suddenly things were quiet around our part of the table.

“I met him 37 years ago during one of his investigations.  We remained in contact afterwards.”  The conversations around us started up again.

“37 years ago?  Aren’t you a bit young for that?”

“Actually I am 67.  Appearances can be deceiving.”

He didn’t say anything, but he looked doubtful.  Cardinal Harden, sitting two down from me, said, “Father Joseph.”

The Father turned to the Cardinal and with eyes lowered, said, “Your Excellency.”

“He is just telling the truth.  He is 67 years old.  And he has a good point, don’t judge everything by how it appears.  Remember John 7:24, ‘Stop judging by mere appearances...’.”

“You are right, of course, your Excellency.  But how?”

The Cardinal looked at me and I nodded.  He said, “I suppose you should know, since we are setting up a clinic here.  Tom and his family have the miracle gift of healing.  A side effect of that is eternal youth.  That is how he met Father Ricci, during an investigation into the miracle.”

“So it is a miracle?”

“Yes, the gift of healing itself is the miracle, not what he does with it.  It is not a public miracle because it would create riots.”

“I understand.”  A minute later he asked me, “You are opening a clinic?”

“Yes, we already have over 200 of them in North America and Russia.  You may have heard of them, the Thrupp free clinics?”

“Yes, I have.  So those are yours?”

“Yes.  I opened the first one 50 years ago next month.”  I turned the conversation on him, “Do you investigate miracles too?”

“Why, yes I do.”

“Any you can tell me about?  I was one of Father Ricci’s experts that he called in occasionally.”

“Hmm, interesting.  You aren’t on the call list; of course Father Ricci kept everything in his head, so he didn’t have a written list.  I’ll have to add you to it.  Anyway, we just got back from confirming a miracle in Ethiopia.  In front of hundreds of witnesses, a farmer called out to God to save his fields, and out of the blue, no cloud in the sky, thunderheads appeared and rained over his fields and filled the dry reservoir.  We had meteorologists, climatologists, aerospace engineers, and none of them could figure it out.”

“Wow, amazing.  Have you figured out which Saint to attribute it to yet?”

“No, that is currently under debate.  It is a tie between Saint Innocent and Saint Genofeva.”  He answered seriously, not catching on that I was twitting him.

“By the way, I don’t see Father Ricci’s old cohorts Father Conti and Father Moretti.  Are they still around?”

“Sorry, no.  Both of them passed away years ago.”

“Sorry to hear that.  I suppose it has been 26 years since I last saw them.”

We talked for another hour, then they all said a post-grace (I don’t know what else to call it) after the meal, then everybody left.

Hannah immediately set out the day after her birthday.  She was “loaned” the property just to the North East of the entrance to the Vatican at St. Peter’s Square.  Because she didn’t have much space and couldn’t build up, she went down, and down, and down.  Right down past the catacombs she built twenty-five sub-basements.  Drainage was horrible with the river only two blocks away.  Sump-pumps were going constantly, but it was the only way she was going to get the room she needed.  Deep plasma sealing the walls and floor to a meter helped a lot, although it was extremely expensive, that alone cost $20 million.  The place ended up a lot like a Valerie style clinic, only shifted down twenty stories.  It even had the atrium.  It took a year to build, even with the new automated construction ‘bots.  There was only one floor below the atrium, and the clinic was up on street level overlooking the rest of the place.  The personal apartments were on the far side, only accessible by going to atrium floor and going back up on that side.  They were separated from the shelter apartments.  Kind of a Mt. Olympus.

In the park there was a large statue of Father Ricci.  Also at the entrance to the clinic, there were two catholic style prayer votives; one dedicated to the Saint Martin de Porres (for charity and instant cures) and the other to Saints Cosmas and Damian (for the free clinic).  Those were our concessions to the location and to keep the Catholics happy.  We also added small chapels both in the clinic and on the edge of the park.  The pope himself consecrated the chapels.  I was there and he commented to me, “Pretty fancy, Tom.”

The problem was when several nuns showed up and wanted to be EBs.  Apparently they liked the active nature of being an EB over the passive nature of a nun.  Also, several of them were older and a bit jaded.  We really didn’t want to upset the church, so all the converts were sent to the United States for EB training along with the locally recruited girls.  Fortunately, English was a required language in all of Europe and all the girls spoke it fluently.

Having ‘miracle’ cures right out in front of the Vatican did what the Pope and Cardinal Harden hoped.  It did bump up church membership a lot.  What was funny were all the terminal patients from the U.S. who flew into Rome to go to the clinic when they could have just gone down the street to the nearest Thrupp clinic.  Ester’s older daughters Lilly and Zandy turned their clinics over to their sisters and then joined Hannah in Rome because it was so busy.  They were all technically Catholic, so that worked out well.

Chapter 73

Because of the expressed need, we started several more clinics in Europe.  Stockholm, London, Paris, and Frankfurt all had Valerie style clinics.  We also built one in Melbourne.  One of my girls wanted to start up one in Istanbul and that was the first time I ever said, “No!”  There was no way I was going to send one of my girls into a war zone like that.  If they wanted to go personally, like some of my girls did during the Border Wars, I would accept that (but not like it).  But setting themselves up as terrorist targets, forget it.  Instead I mentioned Kolkata, and she jumped at it.  Because of the desperate need, her sister started one in Mumbai at the same time.  Fortunately, India had been war free for many years, finally pacifying Pakistan by the simple expedient of sending in assassins and taking out all the corrupt and fanatic Islam leaders who supported the remnants of the Taliban.

I mentally didn’t really consider India to be “Asia”, although technically it is Southwest Asia.  So it was a landmark when we built clinics in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, and Manila.  Because we wanted things to be self-contained, they were all Valerie style clinics.  The big difference was since cheesy glitz was the norm in Asia, there was a big logo on the side of the building with “Thrupp Clinic” next to it in bright backlit green and orange.  It became part of the city night silhouette.  In Japan and Korea, large EB training facilities were built, but out in the country.

The next big place we built was in Johannesburg.  Until the rest of the warring idiots in Africa got organized and stopped fighting, that was the only stable area.

The only continent that was left (besides Antarctica) was South America.  The drug lords still ruled over the western half of the continent, so we just opened one clinic in Rio de Janeiro.  Not the nicest of places, but with no terrorist/cartel activity.

Chapter 74

It was time to visit the space station again.  My daughter Zenon (from the children’s book and Disney movie) had her awakening coming up in a few weeks.  She was the first kid born and raised in space, the result of my dalliance with the EB Charlotte last time I visited.

We flew to Colorado Springs in less of a hurry this time.  With me were Tami, Angie, and Niyol.  Niyol had been wheeling and dealing for months to get on the list.  Since it wasn’t an emergency, we had full physicals, which we all passed with flying colors.  We were fitted for our pressure suits, then we waited in a lounge for six hours with our fellow passengers.  Finally they let us board the shuttle.

It hadn’t changed in the last 14 years.  We were pressed back in our seats by the incredible acceleration as we zipped along the track.  Soon we were airborne and decelerating up to orbit.  A few hours later we docked with the much larger space station.

We were greeted by shrieks of delight and big hugs as we stepped off the shuttle.  Hannah’s and Zenon’s enthusiasm almost pulled me off the floor, I don’t think the magnets in my boots were designed for flying tackles.  The EBs looked like they wanted to join in so I waved them over for the group hug.  I must have stood there for fifteen minutes just hugging my girls as they snuggled down with sighs.  After a few minutes I nudged Hannah and Zenon and said, “Go greet your mom and grandmother.”  They blushed in embarrassment and quickly went over to hug Angie as well.

Niyol was swiveling her head so fast I thought she would break it right off.  Tami was enjoying herself, but was standing there quietly like usual.  I wouldn’t have even known she was happy if I hadn’t had her as a bodyguard over the past 40 years.  Normally she appeared to be a bubbly cheerleader whether she was happy or not.

Looking up I noticed that the station commander was patiently waiting.  I disengaged my girls and went over.  He shook my hand, saying, “That was quite the greeting.”

“They haven’t seen me in 14 years, and Zenon has never actually met me in person before.”

“Zenon.  Heh.  That girl really lives up to her namesake.”

“Yeah, I wish I could have been here more, but it is a bit out of the way.”

“Just a bit, yes.” With a half-smile.

“Well, her future will be decided in the next few days.  I’ll let you know how it comes out.”

“She is pretty strong willed, she will want to determine her own way.”

“Then she is like all of her sisters.  Don’t worry, any decisions will have her input.  This is a family thing.”  He nodded.

There were actual guest quarters in the 1G section of the station.  We were shown our rooms, and then invited for the daily jog around the rim of the 1G section.  To prevent calcium loss in the bones all station personnel were required to jog around the one mile perimeter every day.  Of course this wasn’t an issue with me or my girls, but we joined in just for fun.  A lot of guys were staring at the girls in their skimpy jogging outfits.  The girls liked to show off and enjoyed the looks.

The station had grown and was over twice the area that it used to be.  Hannah had had built two atriums in the 1G area which were parks.  It was amazing, you could sit on a park bench by a bubbling stream with fish in it, and not even realize that you were in orbit.  The biologists loved the parks; they could experiment with growing plants in space to their hearts content.  They had cost over a hundred million to build, hauling up loads of dirt and trees.  The water was part of the station reclaim system.  The station commander was ambivalent about the parks, he liked them, but they were heavy and took a lot of station resources.  The struts holding them to the station (one on each side for balance) were four times stronger than the rest of the setup.  I was happy because Zenon would have some experience with the outdoors, even if it was in artificial parks like those.

I spent two days exploring.  There was a commemorative plaque on the wall of one part of the ¾G area, that was the only sign of the space accident fourteen years previously.  On May 3^rd, I awoke to several girls cuddling with me.  One of them was Zenon.  She had grown nice and tall in the light gravity.  She did a repeat of Niyol, suddenly looking up at me and exclaiming, “Wow!  I see everything!”  She jumped up and took off, forgetting to even get dressed.  My girls had their own enclosed section of the station down in the ⁷/₈G section so it wasn’t any big deal when she excitedly ran naked down the hall, taking a close look at everyone she passed, grinning and running on.

I looked over at Tami, Niyol, and an EB I invited in the night before; saying, “Well, I guess she gets her party.”  They all grinned and nodded excitedly.

In the luggage I had brought up a large hock of beef, two experimental clamshell self-ventilating grills designed for space, and some traditional party supplies.  I got dressed and went to see the EBs.  They were all happy to set up a big party for that evening.  None of them had had a grilled steak in almost two decades and they were really looking forward to it.

We set up in park Alpha.  At some point every person in the station must have dropped by.  An astonishing number of them were vegetarians, but they partied with us anyway.  The entire haunch of beef was gone within hours.  The first barbeque in space was a complete success.  The station administrator complained that he had to pump ballast into the park Beta tanks because of all the personnel in park Alpha, but he thought it was worth it.

In the end, Zenon said she wanted to visit Earth, but she wanted to return to the station.  It was home and she wanted to train with her sister Hannah.  I had no problem with that.  The Station Administrator agreed, so Zenon joined us on the shuttle ride down.

Chapter 75

When the shuttle landed, my ear-bug started flashing a red dot to my left.  That meant that there was an emergency message for me.  Since the ear-bugs worked in orbit, whatever it was must have just happened.  I pulled up the message.

“Leslie was shot.  She did not survive the injuries.”

I saw Angie, Niyol, Tami, and Zenon receive the message at the same time.  It must have been a general broadcast.  I blinked up a connection to control as the shuttle parked.

An EB answered, “Yes, Sir?”

“Status.”

“We don’t know much more than the general broadcast, sir.  Ester and a team are on their way to investigate.”

“Keep me informed.  I am on my way.”

“Thank Tom!  We are all freaking out here.”

I had had my ear-bug on broadcast so the others had heard the conversation.  They were all very angry.  I remember that from the EB manual, anger and action first, grieve second.  The second the shuttle came to a stop, we were out of our seats.  We were told to wait, but I told them back that it was an emergency and we had to get home.  Sometimes it is nice to have power, the crew coordinator just rolled his eyes and didn’t say anything.  I signaled ahead and my SST jet was fired up and waiting fifty feet away as we descended the stairs from the shuttle.  We were airborne in ten minutes.  I would have to pull some strings to get the pilots out of trouble with the FAA later, but they were as eager as me to get home.  In fact, the copilot was one of Leslie’s daughters.

We got back in half an hour.  I think the pilots broke every rule in the book, hitting mach 7 on the way home.  The legal limit for non-military aircraft was mach 3.

Waiting was a full SUV.  Unusual since we normally drive golf carts on the grounds.  It got me to CICC in less than two minutes.  I burst through the door, I could see everyone relax a bit, but they stayed on alert.  On the main monitor was the tactical feed from Ester’s ear-bug, while surrounding it was the feed from several of the EBs with her.  I checked the monitor and realized she had taken two hundred swat trained EBs with her.  That was half the estate compliment.

Ester was at the crime scene.  The police had it taped off.  They knew Ester and she was inside the tape investigating.  She was searching the area with the crime techs.  There were two covered bodies.  I said, “Is that them?”  In response the EB in front of me replayed a recording of when Ester had first arrived.  She had marched right over and lifted the sheet.  Damn, it was Leslie.  I hadn’t quite believed it until now.  Behind me Angie and Tami gasped.  They had known Leslie for decades.  Over to the side were the twins, Amanda and Mandy, crying their hearts out.  I went over and pulled them into a bug hug as they sobbed into my chest.  They had known her almost as long as me, for 59 years.  My parents were also in the corner crying together with Lisa, Angie joined them.  They were all very good friends of Leslie’s.  Right then, there were tens of thousands of my girls who were mourning around the planet.  Leslie was a legend, one of the original girls.  Heck, thousands of them had been raised on stories about her.

Suddenly, one of the EBs exclaimed, “Found the car!”

Ester’s voice said, “Details!”

“It is parked in a garage at 5024 Matthews Ave.”

Ester and her 250 EBs were on their way.  I found out later that they had identified the shooter and car from a recording of the tac feed transmitted by Leslie’s ear-bug.  The killer had taken the ear-bug and crushed it, but Leslie’s ear bug automatically recorded back at CICC so they had clear video of the shooting.  Four dedicated satellites and sixty super-computers with AI driven pattern matching tied in with all the traffic, security and street cams in the entire state had been searching for the two of them ever since.  Man, did that guy pick the wrong person to shoot.

Anyway, they surrounded the building,   There were six tanks, 100 troops, two combat choppers, and Ester with a bullhorn.  “James Galloway!  We have the building surrounded, come out with your hands up!”  She couldn’t just rush him, he had a infant that Leslie had been picking up with the other lady from child services.  What was crazy was that it wasn’t even his kid.  He had won her as a marker in a poker game.  One of the players in the game was a UC cop who had reported it, and Leslie and the child services lady had gone to the guy’s work to get the baby.

No movement from the house.  Ester called out again, “James, you are just making things worse, pass out the kid.”

He yelled out the window, “No way copper!  This kid is mine!  I won her fair, and Joey owes me $300 for her.”  $300, that was what this was over?  A measly $300?

Apparently Ester was thinking the same thing, she said, “Tell you what James, I’ll give you twice that for her.”

“I don’t trust you, copper!”

“I will put the money inside the screen door.  You can take it, count it, and then leave the kid outside the door.  Will that be okay?”

He hesitated, “Okay, copper.  You have a deal.”

An EB quickly rushed up to the house, tossed a pile of hundreds in the screen door, and then ran back.  Ester called out, “The money is there, James.”

The door opened and an arm reached around and grabbed the money.  Ten seconds later, the same arm literally tossed the wailing baby out on the step.  The EB ran back over and grabbed the kid.

Two of Ester’s people were gifted daughters of mine, they took the poor kid and immediately started scanning and fixing.

Ester called out, “James, now will you come out of there?”

“No way copper!”

Thermal scans showed that he was alone in the house.  Two flash-bangs were shot through the Window.  Then a gas grenade with knock out gas.  That wasn’t procedure, but Ester was pissed and she didn’t want to risk any more of her people.

A minute later thermal scans showed him collapsed on the floor.  Ester went in and collected him.  I could see she wanted to go old fashioned on him with a few kicks, but she knew that there were literally hundreds of recordings being made, so she couldn’t chance it.  We would arrange something in prison for him.  I don’t know to this day if I could have restrained myself.

Leslie’s funeral was attended by over a thousand people.  She was the most decorated cop in U.S. history, was the spokesperson for the Police and Peace foundation, and had been around for a very long time.  Of her “sisters”, there were tens upon tens of thousands of women who idolized her worldwide, including her fourteen daughters.  There were flags at half mast encircling the planet.  Her natural sister, Winnie, was still alive and showed up for the funeral with her children, grandkids, and great-grandkids.  It was the first time I had met her in the sixty years I had known Leslie.  She was a nice old lady.

Winnie and I talked for a bit, apparently I had met her briefly sixty years before, in the waiting room of the hospital after the car accident.  She commented that I hadn’t changed much.  I think that was her polite way of wondering why I still was 18 years old after sixty years.  The way she said it, along with her body language, was so much like Leslie, that I got tears in eyes.  I muttered, “Sorry, can’t talk about that, excuse me” and then I ran for a chair in the corner to sit with my hands over my face and think for a while.  Amanda and Mandy joined me in a group hug.  Leslie was immortal!  We weren’t supposed to have to attend her funeral for another 500-1000 years!  It was just wrong.  Soon Leslie’s daughters all came over and joined the hug.

Winnie slowly came over.  She said with surprise, “You all really loved her, didn’t you?”

“Very much.”  I suppressed my anger at the question.  “Ladies, this is your aunt Winnie.  Winnie, these are your nieces.”

She looked surprised again.  “Leslie never told me!  We didn’t communicate much after mom and dad disowned her for joining your cult.”

Again I suppressed my anger.  “Winnie.  We aren’t a cult, there is no religion involved.  We are a commune.”  Well, sorta.

“Oh! My parents went on for hours every night for years harping on the ‘cult’ that Leslie joined.  You mean after all this time it really wasn’t one?”  She seemed slightly upset.

“No, closest to a cult we come is that we have an unofficial group marriage.  Leslie still went to Lutheran church on Sunday.”

“Well... damn.”  The expression on her face was anger.  “I haven’t talked to my sister in sixty years because of our parent’s prejudice.  And now it is too late.”  She looked frustrated.  “Damn again.”  She looked up at her fourteen nieces.  “I will not continue that mistake.  I sure hope you won’t be strangers.”

They all nodded.  The oldest, Penny, said, “I know mom kept an eye on you from afar.  She made sure all her nieces got scholarships to the schools they wanted.”

“So that was the Malloy Foundation Scholarship that they all got!  My girls often wondered why none of their friends had even heard about it before.  Wow, she sure did a good job of hiding where it was from.”

“Probably didn’t want you to reject it out of stubbornness.”

“That is so like her, to do something that wonderful; then hide her whole part in it.”

All Leslie’s daughters and I were nodding in agreement.  That was very like Leslie to do that.  I guess she spent some of that $50 million still sitting in her account gathering interest.  I vaguely remember her asking me if she could use a few million for her outside family.  With all her salary plus the interest on top of the $50 million over the last 60 years, that account must be getting quite large.  I was tempted just to give it to Winnie and her family, but I had a better idea.  “You know, the fund she used is still there.  She left it to her daughters and me, but with their agreement, I would like to make it a general scholarship fund for your family.”  The girls all nodded.

“But what about you?”

I answered, “No, as my daughters, they have full access to the family money.  They don’t need it.”  Like all my daughters, they got their debit card on their tenth birthday.  They had emergency purchasing power up to several billion dollars.  What I found amazing is that not one of my daughters, all twelve thousand of them, ever abused the card.

“Then I think it is a wonderful idea.  But let’s add Leslie’s name to it.  Change it to the Leslie Malloy Scholarship.”

“Deal.”  I didn’t mention that Leslie never legally changed her name; she had still been Leslie MacAndrews when she died.

Lisa, Amanda, Mandy, and myself were the pall-bearers.  We carried it out to the hearse, then sat in the car behind the hearse on the way to the funeral.  It was the largest funeral in the city’s history, even larger than the DEA disaster 40 years before.  Police from five states and over thirty thousand of my girls filled the route to the cemetery, an additional small group was formed from the survivors of the Hurricane Sally that she had helped.  At the cemetery I got up to give my speech, “Nearly sixty years ago, I met Leslie as I pulled her out of her patrol car just before it blew up.  In that time, in six decades, she has never been angry at anyone, not even when she was shot.  She was totally dedicated to her profession as a Police Officer, living by the creed, ‘To Serve and Protect’.  I have long admired that attitude and have attempted to live by it myself.  She had served as a Mother and Companion and I couldn’t have asked for more.  Over the years, she has become a legend in her own time.  I, along with her sister, her fellow officers, and her 231,536 sister members of my clan, will miss her greatly.  Rest in Peace, Leslie.”

The twenty one gun salute was given and the flag was folded and given to her oldest daughter.  A Lutheran Pastor who gave the final words as the coffin was lowered while taps were played.

I was happy that Taymen had lived long enough to be at the funeral.  He lived for two weeks after Leslie, dying at home surrounded by great-grandkids.  Not a bad way to go.

We never had to plan anything for James Galloway.  He was beat to a pulp daily, stabbed six times in non-fatal areas, and raped repeatedly the first week in jail.  Many of the prisoners respected Leslie, saying that they had never been treated so fairly as when she arrested them.  They happily tortured the evil bastard.  The guards, of course, turned a blind eye to anything that happened to him.  Cop killers couldn’t expect to live long in prison.

He pled not guilty against the advice of his lawyer.  In trial, the ear-bug video was shown.  He was convicted to life without parole since the death penalty was currently not politically feasible.  He committed suicide after a month of torture anyway.

A group of EBs in Kiev came up with an idea which Ester endorsed and implemented around the planet.  The local clinics set up contracts with the local police to have EBs as patrol officers, free of pay.  We provided all the equipment and the cops, and the local cities reaped the benefit.  They became known as “Leslie Patrols”.  I suppose it was similar to the “Police Specials” in San Francisco, except that there were no individual contracts, just very pissed off cops.  In many of the cities with the patrols, the cops cut back on regular police and started focusing on things like organized crime.

Because the patrols had a higher moral standard, as outlined in the EB manual, they were un-bribable.  Crime dropped dramatically.  There were a lot of pot-shots taken at my girls, but their uniforms were bulletproof and so were their vehicles.  A few were injured, but they were fixed up almost immediately better than new.

Chapter 76

Over all, 99% of my daughters, 100% of my granddaughters, and 100% of my great granddaughters elected to stick with me.  Inbreeding was not an issue, we had all long ago removed any bad recessives, and repairing a problem was easy to do in-vitro.  Also, after two generations, every single girl born inherited the gift.  I hadn’t slept around for twenty years, keeping it in the clan.

That was why I was surprised when I got a phone call from social services.  Apparently I had a twelve year old granddaughter that I didn’t know about.  Her mother and grandmother were both killed in a car crash.  I flew out to New York to meet the girl.

On the flight, the EBs filled me in.  Her grandmother was one of the upgraded billionaires.  The one I had liked and shared an evening with 34 years before, Becky I think her name was.  Apparently our daughter had gotten pregnant at 20 and had given birth to Charlene.  All the money was gone, her mom and grandmother had been working as hotel maids.  I took one of my granddaughters, Jane, one of Sara’s daughters, with me because she was thirteen and had had been elected by her sisters as ambassador.  She was eager to meet her “cousin”.  We landed at Newark and caught a bullet train into Manhattan.

Social Services was in a old brick building that was falling apart.  The three of us, Tami, Jane, and I marched in.  We were directed to a middle aged lady in a small cubicle on the sixth floor.  There were only two chairs so Jane and I squeezed in while Tami waited next to us.  The lady was on her phone arguing with someone.  She nodded to us, but kept talking for another twenty minutes, finally hanging up with a snort of disgust.  She looked over at us and asked, “So how can I help you?”

“You called and said that I had a granddaughter.  My name is Tom Malloy, and I believe you said her name is Charlene?”

She typed something on her old computer.  I hadn’t seen a computer like that in forty years.  She said, “Yes, we found you via DNA match.  Charlene’s father died six years ago, and her mother and grandmother died last month.  There was no father listed on her mother’s birth certificate.  The state did a routine DNA swab and found six sibling matches in the metro area who were all 1^st relatives of Charlene.  After consulting with a Valerie Malloy, we found out that they were your daughters.”

“I spent a few hours with her grandmother 34 years ago.  I was unaware that Charlene was even born.”

I could see her shoulders relax a bit.  I wasn’t as deadbeat as she thought.  She did raise her eyebrow a bit since I appeared to be about 18 years old, but didn’t say anything.  “For the record, you do have an income sufficient to support a child?”

Tami and Jane snorted with laughter.  I just smiled and said, “Easily.”  I had been expecting this, so I handed her a card with my bank account numbers on it. 

She pulled up my records and blinked as her jaw dropped.  “Um... I guess you do.”  She hesitated.  “I have to ask, do you have a home for the girl?”

“Yes.  Ask Jane here.  She was elected by her siblings to come and greet their cousin.”

“That is good enough.  I can see that you have a closely knit family.  That is good.  There will be some emotional scarring from the last month.”

“Several of her aunts are child-psychologists.  We’ll take care of her.”

She nodded, grabbed her purse and a briefcase, and said, “Come with me.”  She led us out of the building, two blocks down, and up to a crumbling tenant building.  She commented, “It is after three.  School is out,” as she pressed a buzzer.

“Who is it?” came from a small speaker.  The system was at least 80 years old.

“Camille from Social Services.”

“This isn’t a good time, can you come back later?”

“Sorry, I have Charlene’s relatives here to pick her up.”

There was no answer.  Camille pressed the buzzer again.  No answer.  I looked over at Tami and together we kicked in the door.  Camille jumped back in surprise.  We leapt up from landing to landing, arriving at the sixth floor in a few seconds.  We together kicked in the door to 6B, the buzzer Camille had been pressing.

The scene was interesting.  A pretty girl, I assume Charlene, was tied naked bent over a table.  A man was fucking her hard from behind as she cried.  A woman was thrusting clothes at the guy, we heard her say, “Quick, get dressed and go!  The cops are here!”  They both whipped their heads around as Tami and I kicked the door in.

I was across the room and took out the guy with one punch.  I saw Tami do the same with the woman.

Tami untied the girl who hugged her tightly and sobbed.   A minute later Camille arrived, puffing.  I had contacted Valerie, who sent over a doctor to document things, and the local police.  I told Camille that they were on the way.  Camille just looked around, a bit dazed, but getting angrier and angrier.

Suddenly she exclaimed, “Damn!  We haven’t had a fuck-up like this in ten years.  How the hell did those two pass the foster screening?”  She kept pacing while muttering and cursing.

Jane had followed Camille, and was standing off to the side, probably deciding what to do.  She finally gathered up Charlene’s clothes and handed them to Tami who helped Charlene get dressed.  Charlene looked over at her and asked, “Who are you?”

“Your cousin, Jane.”

“M-My cousin?  But I don’t have any cousins.”

“You have a lot of cousins, you have a very large family in fact.  All centered around our Grandpa here.”  She gestured at me.

“Our Grandpa?  I have a grandpa?”  She gasped.  She looked at me, “You are my grandpa?”

“Sure am, honey.”  She detached from Tami and ran over to hug me tightly. 

She immediately nuzzled in and said, “Hmmm, you smell nice.”  That, combined with a quick DNA scan confirmed that she was my granddaughter.  I deliberately didn’t make any changes or fixes since the doctor hadn’t arrived yet.  There were no emergencies that I saw.

At that point the doctor came in and greeted Camille.  “I hear that there is a patient for me?”

“Yeah, Rennie, a girl over there with her grandfather.”  She gestured over at me.

The doctor took one look and said, “Mr. Malloy! Sir!”

“You know him?”

“Yeah! He owns the clinic!”

“Well, that explains a few things.  Anyway, you need to do a full kit on the girl.”

“Wonderful,” said Dr. Rennie sarcastically, giving the two who were unconscious a dirty look.  She came over and I said to Charlene, “Honey, the doctor here needs to give you an exam, okay?”

Charlene didn’t say anything for a minute, then nodded.  She quickly said, “But only if Grandpa is there!”

Dr. Rennie nodded.  Because they were so common, rape kits were often done on site, a big change in the last few decades.  The doctor led her into the bedroom, laid out a disposable cover as to not allow contaminates, and had Charlene get undressed and lay back on it.  A few minutes later and a couple of hand squeezes it was over.  The doctor, long working at Thrupp clinics said, “You can do your thing now, sir.”

I nodded, then I quickly went over the girl, repairing all the damage and redoing all the upgrades that had been diluted over two generations.  The doctor commented as she saw all the scrapes disappear, “It is amazing how you guys can do that.”

While Charlene was putting her clothes back on, the doctor and I pulled over the cover and put it in a medical waste bag along with all the used swabs.  Charlene was feeling a lot better, so I told her to go talk to her cousin.  The doctor had to wait for the police so that she could transfer the kit, maintaining the chain of evidence; so we went to talk to Camille.  Tami had produced two sets of zip cuffs from her fanny pack and had cuffed the two from the apartment.  The police still hadn’t arrived.

Camille was repeating, “Damn,” and “Oh, my god,” over and over as she chewed her lower lip.  I think she was expecting me to sue.  I said, “I am not going to sue, but I want a thorough investigation of why the vetting failed.”

She looked at me and said, “You had better believe there will be an investigation.  This hasn’t happened in over ten years.”

At that point the police arrived.  They burst in with their guns drawn.  We all looked at them in disbelief.  The senior partner looked around and said, “Stand down.”  They holstered their weapons.  Some quick questions and he radioed in for a detective.  The patrol officers had taken 42 minutes to get there, but the detectives only took 11 minutes.

They questioned everyone.  The couple flex-cuffed tried to bluff their way out of it, but neither Camille nor I would stand for that.  I did learn that Tami had police credentials; she was on detached duty for the Police Department back home.  Apparently something that Leslie had arranged a long time ago.  In that fanny pack of hers she had a gold shield.  There were no doubts as to her account of the events.

The detectives let her gather her things, then we took her to the local clinic.  Valerie and Raven still ran the place and were out in front waiting when we arrived.  Jane, being diplomatic said, “Charlene, these are two of your aunts, Valerie and Raven.”

Charlene had big eyes but gave them each a quick hug.  Then she returned to me and attached herself to my side.  We led her inside to the elevators and hit the penthouse button.  We got out, greeted the EBs and then took the second elevator up to the apartment.

A room had been prepared, and we showed Charlene to it.  She collapsed on the bed and was asleep in two shakes.

We had to stay in New York for a few days until the arraignment.  The two of them accepted the plea deal.  We flew Charlene back with us to our home compound.  Within a few days she fit right in with her cousin aunts; running around with the herd.  A week after she arrived she climbed into bed with me and snuggled down on my chest.  Two nights later I awoke to her pole sitting as she climaxed over and over, finally collapsing to the side in exhaustion with a big smile and a sigh.

Two months after she had joined us I asked her what had happened to her grandmother; why she went from billions to spend to nothing in just a few years.  She was surprised, she had never known that her grandma had been so rich.  I had my girls investigate, and Charlene and I both learned that it had all been stolen by an unscrupulous corporate attorney.  He had transferred all her money to his account in the Grand Caymans, leaving her broke.  She hadn’t even had the money to file a lawsuit.  Charlene and I looked at each other, she did.  Zandy happily worked with a New York law firm to charge Frank Horwly, the attorney, with a civil suit.  Fortunately the twenty five year statute of limitations still had two years on it.

Horwly spent millions on a defense, but the evidence was clear, my EBs easily uncovering the banking records, even in the Grand Caymans.  Charlene was awarded 6.7 billion dollars, the total stolen plus several million for pain and suffering.  After the verdict, two police detectives walked into the courtroom and arrested Horwly for fraud.  The second trial, with a public defender, didn’t last long.  He got thirty years.  He had spent two billion of the money, so Charlene only got 4.1 billion.  She really didn’t care, she was just happy that the bastard was in prison.

Zandy came to me after the trial.  “Master, Amy and I have a request.”

“Sure.  What is it?”

“A college friend of ours, Carmine Singer, is very ill.  We would like to give her a rejuv.  We had lost track of her, but it turns out that she is senior partner in the law firm that we worked with in New York.”

“Of course.  Is there a reason you came to me rather than to Valerie or Raven who are local there?”

She just gave me a puzzled look and said, “You are the Master.”

That was an interesting response.  I said, “Okay.  How sick is she, will she last until the next area visit in three weeks, or do we need to do this now?”

“She is in the hospital, suffering from micro-strokes.”

“So now it is.  You and I are heading for New York.  Tell Amy to meet us there.”

“Yes Master, thank you Master.”

“Can the formality.  You and I know better.”

She grinned.  “Yes Tom.”  She scurried off.

We arrived in New York two hours later.  Amy arrived from Aspen fifteen minutes after that.  It was nice how fast travel was these days.  I gave Amy a big hug and kiss.  She was hot and sexy and she knew it, considering our latest daughter had been born only two weeks before.  She wore the latest fashion, which included a mesh top with nothing under it.  I really loved the new fashions. 

Valerie and Raven had sent a couple of SUVs.  We all got in the second one.  The drive over to Mt. Sinai didn’t take long, we had a priority license so were able to take the fast lanes.  The problem was when we went into the hospital and asked to see Carmine Singer.  The receptionist’s computer beeped, and she asked me, “Are you Tom Malloy?”

“Yes.”

“I am sorry, but I cannot allow you into the hospital.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know, but you are on the list of people not allowed in this facility.  Please leave, sir.”

“Is anyone with me prohibited as well?”

“No, sir.”

I turned to Zandy and Amy.  “Go see your friend.”  I looked over at the EBs, “Send a bodyguard with them.”  The head EB nodded and one of them stepped forward.  I looked at the lady.  “I don’t think you know who you are dealing with, but I will leave.”  I turned and left with Tami and the rest of the EBs.  As soon as we were outside, I told the head EB, “Find out what is going on.”  She nodded and began muttering into her ear-bug.

We waited by the SUVs for fifteen minutes until she said, “The hospital lawyer says that you are prohibited because there is an arrest warrant out on you for practicing medicine without a license.”

“What?  I have always been careful to specify to everyone that I am not a doctor.”  I had three undergrad degrees, three masters, but no doctorate.

“I don’t know the specifics, sir.  The charge is being checked in the database.”  She waited a minute, then said, “Apparently it was filed here in New York nine months ago.”  That was during the first Horwly trial.  Now I knew where it came from.  We had to get Carmine out of the hospital; then she could figure out what to do.

I blinked up a connection to Zandy.  “Yes, boss?”

“How is she doing?”

“Not good.  She can’t talk and her eyes aren’t tracking.  I don’t think she is aware.”

“Any family there?”

“Her daughter Irene.”

“Convince her to move her mother to the clinic.  I need Carmine’s help, apparently there is a warrant out on me.”

“Damn.  I will try.”

While she was doing that, I called Valerie.  “Honey, either you or your sister get over here.”

“Yes, dad.”

Twenty minutes later Raven arrived.  After a big hug, we quickly filled her in.  “Raven, you need to go in and fix Carmine’s mind, don’t to the rejuv yet, at least externally, but she needs to be able to sign herself out of the hospital.”

“Yes, dad.”  She turned and marched in, an EB bodyguard at her side.  Twenty minutes later I had a phone call. 

It was Carmine.  “I understand that you got me going again.”

“It’s what I do.”

“Zandy here tells me that she arranged a full rejuv like she and Amy have.  Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“And that you just found out about some legal charges here in New York?”

“Yes.”

“I think we have a deal.”

“Agreed.”  She knew that the rejuv had no contingencies, but her pride made it so she had to offer something.  I could understand that.

An hour later she was wheeled out in a chair by Amy.  She was followed by a startlingly beautiful woman in her 40s and three drop dead sexy teenage girls who were constantly murmuring into their ear-bugs.

Carmine was a bit fragile at 86.  We helped her into one of the SUVs, then the rest of us piled in to that one and the other.  Soon we were unloading at the Clinic.  We wheeled her over and up to the penthouse, everyone following.  The middle aged women said to Carmine, “Mom, I sure hope you know what you are doing.”  The teen girls were excited, but trying to hide it.  They were also making eyes at me, after all I didn’t look much older than they were.

We went through the security check, then up to the apartment.  I turned Carmine off, then Raven and I manhandled her onto a bed.  She wasn’t very heavy.  Raven sent an EB to grab a rack of ribs, then we got started.  I worked on the head while she started at the toes, similar to what Sara and I had done for Gertie 39 years before.

I added a lot of mass back into the brain, reversing the neural pruning.  Then I rejuved the rest of her face and head to her natural 18 year old appearance.  I saw where her daughter got it.  She was one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen.  And that is something considering I am surrounded by beautiful girls 24/7.  I moved on to her neck, Raven had slowed down because she had to remove a plastic hip.  I made the EB changes, then moved on to the arms, fixing them up like new as well.  Raven was working on the breasts as I fixed up the upper chest.  We flipped her and rejuved the back.  Nice ass as well.  Rolling her back I tapped her awake.

I stepped back putting my arm around each of the teen girls in turn.  They were so fascinated with how their grandmother had changed, they didn’t even notice as I made the EB changes in them, including the exclusivity changes.  I put my hand on the daughter’s shoulder and, keeping her appearance intact, pushed in all the internal EB changes.  I set her to slowly age backwards over the next few months or so until she was 19.  To cover I said, “She should be waking up in a minute.”  She nodded.

Sure enough, a minute later Carmine sat up and said, “Holy Crap!”  She looked down at her 18 year old body and said, “You really did it!  Wow!”  She got up, and unsteadily went to the mirror on the wall, getting used to her changed center of balance.

She spent a good ten minutes examining herself, her daughter and granddaughters oohing and aahing along with her.  Zandy and Amy just stood to the side and watched, smiling.  Carmine turned to the two of them and said, “Zagnuts”.  The three of them were rolling on the floor laughing almost instantly.  Must have been quite the inside joke.  It took them almost five minutes to recover, panting and tearing up in giggles.

Then it was like a switch had been hit.  She turned to me all serious and said, “As soon as I find some clothes, let’s take a look at these charges, Mr. Malloy.”

“I am sure Raven has something that will fit you.”  Valerie was too small.  “And call me Tom.”  I flashed her my best smile.

She smiled back but said, “Save the charm for court, Tom.”

An EB came in with a nice lady’s business suit and handed it to Carmine.  She started dressing.  “I am thinking clearer now than in years.  Let me go over the notes again.”  She finished dressing, took the old style paper folder with printouts of the charges, and started reading.  She glanced up once and commented, “Now that I am young again, I suppose I will need to get one of those awful ear-bug thingies, but that can wait.”  Then she went back to studying.  She closed it twenty minutes later.  Glancing over at me she said, “What is your side of this?”

“I have never claimed to be a doctor of any sort.  I am a Registered Nurse, and I take my required credits to maintain the certification.  I do own the Thrupp clinic, and there are doctors who work for me there.”

“According to the charges, there are witnesses to you saying you are a doctor.”

“I don’t see how, I have been very careful about that over the last 60 years.”  I looked at Tami, “Tami, have you ever heard me call myself a doctor?”

“Only once, Sir.  You told Betsy Poe you were one during the Hurricane Sally cleanup.”

I commented, “Tami has been my personal bodyguard for 48 years.  She would know.  I remember that; Betsy was six years old, and I told her that to help calm her down after her family was wiped out.”

Carmine commented, “I don’t think that Betsy could be a witness.  That was too long ago.  I would have to have been in the last ten years or so.”

“Sorry, I have only been here to the New York clinic five times in the last ten years, not counting now.  The last time was to pick up my granddaughter Charlene.  She was the one who successfully sued a corrupt attorney named Frank Horwly for the money he had stolen from her grandmother.  During this time his multi-million lawyer dream team came up with this charge, I assume anyway.”

“Don’t assume anything.  It could just as easily been because your name was in the newspapers.  Remember, my firm represented you so I know the details of the suit and I would think that a desperate man like that would have used the charges against you if they knew about them.”  She glanced down at the folder.  “I think the only way we will find out is with discovery.”  We both knew that I needed to turn myself in for that.

“So how do I do that?  Walk down to the local station, or what?”

“After I arrange things with the DA, yes.”

“By the way, the local station is downstairs.”

“Then stay here quietly until I talk to my connections at the DA’s office.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She grinned and said, “I’ll get back to you in a few hours.”  She scurried out, her daughter and granddaughters behind her.

A few hours later she returned, without the tagalongs.  “I have discussed it with the DA.”  At my raised eyebrow she went on, “They want you to go in tomorrow to talk, but the actual charges are dropped.  What that means is that someone got excited and went overboard before, and now they are on a face saving fishing exhibition.  Let me do the talking tomorrow.”

I nodded.

The next day we marched up the stairs of the courthouse.  It looked exactly like it did in all the TV shows.  After going through security, Carmine led us to a small conference room.  Waiting were two men in cheap suits.  We sat down across from them.

They identified themselves as ADAs Ron Burroughs and Xavier Dunn.  Then we sat in silence for a minute.  Finally Carmine said, “Gentlemen, you called this meeting...”

Ron said, “Ahem, well, ...”  He glanced at Xavier.  “We would like to officially apologize.  We had a corrupt ADA that would trump up charges for bribes.”

Carmine said, “I hope your corrupt ADA is behind bars.”

“Oh, yes!  And a full review is being done of her cases.  Unfortunately there is a backlog of thousands, and we had not got to your case yet, Mr. Malloy.  Otherwise we would not be here today.”

I exchanged glances with Carmine.  “Then I officially accept.  However, I do think you need to speed things up.  The delays caused by that warrant could have cost Ms. Singer here her life.  If there hadn’t been another medical technician available, she would be dead now.”

Xavier said, “We will talk to our boss.”  They shook our hands.

As we were leaving, Carmine said, “Not a word.”  When we got back to the clinic, we deliberately went through the bug zapper at the security point.  Six bugs were found and fried on me, two on Carmine.

She commented, “I figured as much.  The meeting was a pretence to plant listening devices on us.  Those idiots just wasted a half mil’ of city funds.”

“Wow, I would really like to see that warrant.  What reason could they have to plant those bugs?”

“I can’t think of anything unless there is a larger investigation that we don’t know anything about.”

“The only larger investigations that I have ever had were from the DOE and the Vatican.”

“What were the circumstances?”

“The DOE was after my family because the DOE claims there was a rogue killer who generated the same energy profile that we do when we heal people.  They seem to think that it means that we will run around killing people with a touch as well.  We had a restraining order against them that expired 13 years ago.  As for the Vatican, they investigated the healing ability as a miracle.  They determined that the gift of healing was the miracle, not what we did with it.  I personally know the Pope and I am sure he isn’t involved.”

I thought for a minute, “We have worked closely with the DEA and CBP in the past, and we rescued the president from an assassination attempt right here in the Bronx 18 years ago.  That is about the limit of our government involvement.  Of course, we are a multinational operation, so they could find fault with all our clinics around the world.  Depends on how much 20^th century cold war paranoia someone has.”

“Hmmm, none of those sound like they would be the cause for this.  The DOE sounds most likely, but I don’t think so.  I remember that case, it made the law journal, and I don’t think the DOE wants another black eye.  The only way we will know is if I complain to the court about the listening devices and get a copy of the warrant.”  She added, “Remember, there were two on me as well, and that pisses me off.”  She gathered up her purse, which had been thoroughly searched and bug zapped, and took off.

The next day, in late afternoon, she was back with the warrant.  “Boy were they embarrassed and angry,” she said, “They wanted their bugs back.  When I handed them the blackened shells, they were really pissed.  I told them that they were automatically destroyed as we entered the building here.  That embarrassed them a bit.  The judge chewed them out for wasting city resources.”  She handed me the old style paper warrant.

I took one look and said, “You have got to be kidding.”

“No, this is a photocopy of the original warrant.”

“But, Sexual Discrimination?”

“Apparently some guy complained.”

“But the only people we have hired here in New York are for the clinics, and that is equal opportunity hiring.  The building is run by labor from our home clinic, while all female, it is from outside the state of New York.”

“So the only hiring done was for the clinics?  So this is a standard discrimination suit.  I wonder why they are so worked up?  Usually the state doesn’t get involved in these things, it is usually a class action lawsuit.”

“Maybe the complainant is a relative of an ADA, and it is cheaper this way.”

“But planting a bug?  That is extreme even for these guys.”

“Then when other possibilities have been eliminated, the truth is the only thing remaining.  The whole thing is a ruse for something else.  I think it is time to get Ester involved.”

“Ester?”

“Head of my external security.  Former FBI.”

“Ah.”

I turned to Tami and asked, “Tami, could you please call Ester and tell her that she is needed here?  Fill her in on the way.”

“Yes, sir.”

An hour later, Ester walked in.  “Sir, I have checked with my contacts.  The end person behind this is Jason Downing, President of Rolling Pharmaceuticals.”

Carmine commented, “Really?”

“Apparently, ADA Xavier Dunn and Judge Chang Xu are on the Rolling payroll as ‘consultants’.  Rolling is upset that the use of cancer drugs has decreased over 40% in the last twenty years.  They have traced that to the clinics and you.”

I asked, “Do you have any hard evidence of that, or is it all from CIs?”

“Unfortunately, it is all from CIs and field agents.”

I hadn’t known she had field agents like that.  Interesting.  I said, “We can’t go to the FBI because several senators are in Rolling’s pocket as well.”  There recently had been several scandals with Senators sticking their nose into FBI investigations.

Ester looked thoughtful.  “Maybe we can.  If we go to the OPR (Office of Professional Responsibility), which is the FBI’s IA division, they keep clear of senatorial interference.”

Carmine said, “Another alternative is to release it all to the press.  Once out in the open, no politician will go near Rolling.  The evidence is weak to non‑existent, but this is politics.”

I said, “Let’s start with the OPR, and if we don’t get results, go with the press.  I am sick of being attacked because I’m the good guy.”

The next day we took the bullet down to DC and marched into the OPR offices.  They had recently moved to their own building, so we parked and just went in and asked to talk to an agent.  The agent listened for a bit, then called in a supervisor.  We laid out what we had for her.  When we mentioned how Rolling had their inside people bug us, she got very interested.  We showed her the bogus warrant.  She and Ester had a long technical conversation, at one point they both let off a few squeals of recognition as they discussed professional contacts.  Apparently Ester’s misuse of resources and the fact she took responsibility for it and quit afterwards was still used as an example at FLETC.  As an OPR officer, she could appreciate that.  In the end, she agreed to look into it and let Ester know through back channels what was going on.  They parted with a small hug as we left.

Apparently there was already a full investigation of Rolling going on.  Our case was thrown in with the rest.  Six months later, indictments were handed out, most of the executives at Rolling, plus a dozen civil servants, including the corrupt ADA and Judge from New York.

On the side, Carmine asked, “Did you do something to my daughter?”

“I just reset her system like yours, but let it naturally work, why?”

“Because she and I look like 19 year old twins now.”

“Wow, I would love to see that.  I’ll be out in a few days for the omnibus hearing, why don’t we have a get together, celebrate six months of being young.  I’ll have Zandy and Amy come as well.”

“You’re on.”

Four days later I was dancing with Charlotte, Carmine’s daughter.  She was murmuring, “You smell so wonderful!” while she snuggled against me.  Like her mother, she was so beautiful it almost hurt.  She rubbed her belly against my hard-on and snuggled in deeper.  After the song, I sat back on a couch and she snuggled into my lap, sighing.  Her mother had done the same twenty minutes before, and her daughters were eagerly waiting grouped around me and their mom.  Zandy and Amy were off the side grinning.  They really loved it when their Master claimed new girls, especially when it was friends.

When I headed to my room an hour later, they all followed like ducklings.  Starting with Carmine, then Charlotte, then the three granddaughters, I slid in as they squealed in delight, then left each of them passed out next to each other after back arching seizure like orgasms and a large cream pie each.  It was amazing how perfect each of them was, and how much they looked alike, even down to a small birthmark on the left side of their right breasts.  I dozed off with a couple of them snuggling up to me.  I awoke to a group blowjob from the three real teens while their mom and grandmom snuggled up at my sides.

During breakfast out on the main balcony, where the girls, all five of them, kept peering over the side in astonishment, I asked Carmine, “Out of curiosity, what did the junior partners do when they learned you weren’t going to die off and leave them the firm?”

She grimaced, “I had to lay off six of them, and we had to buy out one of the full partners.  I am glad you gave me my youthful energy back along with my youthful appearance, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the workload.  This is the first real break I have had in the last six months.”

Charlotte said, “No kidding, Mom.  At this rate you will wear yourself out and be an old lady again.”

“I know.  Last week I put out the call for new paralegals and junior partners.  I am hoping to get some good ones.”

I commented, “Good.  But for reference, none of you here will ever be old ladies.  You will either stop aging or maintain your age at 19 for the rest of your life.”

Sandy, the youngest at 14, immediately said, “But if we don’t age, we’ll never develop all the old age things that eventually kill us, like strokes, or Alzheimer’s, or heart disease.  We could live forever.”  She was one smart cookie.

I grinned, “Theoretically.”

Sandy thoughtfully said, “I am not sure that I want to live forever.  Everyone around me will grow old and die.  Heck, whole civilizations could disappear and reappear.  It scares me.”  Holy shit, she was unbelievably smart.

I looked at her and said, “Well, I plan on living a millennia or so, then let my descendants carry on.  I have thought about the same thing you just mentioned, and it scares me too.  But I like to live with the glass half full.”  She nodded.

I looked at Charlotte, “Wow, is she smart.”

“Yeah, I know.  But she only gets average grades in school.  I think she is sloughing off so that she can stay with her friends.”  Sandy looked indignant and embarrassed at the same time.

I said to Sandy, “I’ll have to introduce you to some of my daughters and granddaughters; they usually graduate at 14 and have their bachelor’s degree by 17.  Heck, you know Valerie and Raven, they both had their degrees when they founded Thrupp Clinics at 18.  Raven’s small clinic in Albuquerque she gave to another sister when she came here to help Valerie with this one because of the size.”

Desperate to change the subject, Sandy asked, “How many of these clinics do you have anyway?”

“269. If you count the mobile ones and the space station, 292.”

“Mobile ones?”

“Clinics built into giant RVs that roam the countryside in poor countries.”

“Valid.”  I guess that was the modern version of ‘Cool’.

Her sisters and mom were a little behind on the conversation, but it seemed that they were used to that.  Carmine appeared to be keeping up.

Sandy asked, “So how old are you anyway?”

“Seventy Seven as of June.”

“Valid.  You sure don’t act like it.”

“I went undercover as a 13 year old a few years back and learned all the modern body language.  I bet that I seem like I’m in my early 20s.”

“Yeah.  So what is the biggest change that you like?”

No hesitation, “Mesh T’s for the girls.”

Carmine snorted.  Charlotte smiled.  The three younger girls looked puzzled so I explained, “A girl always had to keep herself fully covered when I grew up.  All the nipples pointed at me these days are really sexy.  I guess I am just a purvey old man.”

Sally, Sandy’s middle sister, commented, “Maybe we like purvey,” and flashed me a million watt smile.  She was wearing one of the aforementioned mesh shirts.  The oldest sister, Sunny, just grinned and nodded, her skimpy top didn’t cover much more.  Both of their nips were hard as rock.

I looked over at Charlotte, “You never said, what do you do for a living?”

“Well, the first time I looked like this, I was one of the top models in New York.”

Sally and Sunny said in chorus, “What? You never said anything!”

Sandy commented, “That explains a lot of things.”

“Yeah, it made a lot of money, but after a while it wasn’t much fun.  Then I met your father, and quit to have you three.  Best decision I ever made.  I worked for fifteen years as office manager at your Grandmother’s firm, but when she semi-retired for health reasons, I was ousted by the partners and moved to work at legal-aid as an office manager there, where I am now.  Doesn’t pay all that well, but the work is fulfilling.”

Sandy asked, “Do you really have a clinic on the space station?”

“Sure do.  One of my daughters, Zenon, grew up on the station.  She is about your age.”

“Valid!”  Her eyes were big and she was almost quivering in excitement.

“Tell you what.  You apply yourself in school, and as a graduation present I’ll send you to visit for a few weeks.”

“Talking?”  I guess that meant ‘Really’.

“Yes, Talking.”

She squeaked, literally squeaked, clenched her fists and started bouncing in her chair.  I looked over at Charlotte and commented, “That should provide some motivation.”

“I should hope so.  She is a real space nut.  She is the only girl I know with posters of shuttles and earthrise on her room walls.”

“Hmmm, if she likes it, then maybe she could do her pre-grad and/or post-grad work there too.  I know that Zenon is planning to do so.  Heck, 80% of the people on the station have doctorates, so tutoring isn’t an issue.”  I looked over at Sandy and said, “This is all contingent on you stopping slacking off in school, of course.  With your brains, I expect you to graduate within two years at most, and if you apply yourself, you could do so by the end of this year, especially with how bad education is these days.”

She just nodded excitedly, still bouncing and clenching her fists, occasionally squealing.  Sunny rolled her eyes and said, “Great, now she will spend all of her time studying.  We’ll never see her.”  She was grinning as she said it though.

Raven walked into the room.  “Good morning.”  Everyone murmured a reply.

I asked, “What have you been up to?”  She looked a bit dusty.

“I was helping clean out penthouse six.  I don’t think Sol Giovanni will be using it anymore.”  Sol Giovanni was the grandson of Vinni Giovanni who was the original apartment holder.  Vinni had been one of the original ones bribed so we could get the construction done on the clinic.  Sol had been shot in a drive-by several months ago.  He had no heirs, and the penthouse was unofficial, so no one knew about it.

I said, “No I don’t think so either.”  I glanced over at Carmine and her family.  “Do you have anyone to move in yet?”

“No.  That makes three of the penthouses empty now.  Soon to be four, Sasha Renikov is in his 90s and has no family.  Bit of a grumpy recluse too.”

I nodded and said, “Carmine, would you and your brood like one?  They are identical to this one I believe.  Plenty big enough for five.”

She thought for a minute.  “Yes, I believe I will.  I have a nice Manhattan apartment, but I have lived there for nearly forty years.  Time for a new place.  New life, new place.”  She gestured down at her new body.  She looked over at Charlotte, “Honey, I would love if you joined me on this new adventure, but I understand if you want to stay independent.”

“Mom, I am going to lose my apartment in a few months anyway, I lost my nice high paying job, remember?  I will gladly accept.”

Now Sally and Sunny had joined Sandy with clenched fists and bouncing in their chairs while squeaking.  Apparently they liked the idea.

That spring, by god if Sandy didn’t do it.  She completed high school in one school year.  Carmine and Charlotte were both eight months pregnant as well.  Sandy asked if she could put off her graduation trip until after the babies were born.  I agreed.

Carmine and Charlotte both gave birth to beautiful little girls, Ester and Emily.  A week later, Sandy was on the shuttle up to the station along with two of my daughters, one from Russia and one from Tokyo, who were also taking it as a graduation trip.  Apparently they joined up with Zenon, and the four of them managed to arrange semi-permanent positions on the station, having one of the scientists there work with Zandy remotely to do the paperwork and establish the first university campus in space.

I had a call from the station commander about it, and I agreed to back the school.  As a bit of a geek myself, I happily created a 500 million dollar endowment which provided ten million a year to the school for funding.  That covered token pay for the scientists to teach and life support for up to 20 students.  Since there was already officially a Malloy University that had been started thirty years ago by Alicia for EBs to get their degrees, we called it officially a Malloy University Remote Campus.  Everyone unofficially called it Space College.  As part of the politics involved, ten slots were immediately taken up by the children and siblings of station members, the first non-family Malloy University students.  The remaining six slots were rotation slots taken up by Malloy University students taking a semester above.  The clinic EB staff happily doubled up their duties taking care of the non-teaching aspects of the university.  Since it was a ‘University’, there were both under and post graduate studies.

The station itself had been added onto, the 1G section expanded.  The arboretums were huge, about four acres each.  The width of the arboretums was matched all the way around making the station a cylinder a half kilometer in diameter.  There was already discussion about closing in the ends and pressurizing the whole thing.

Chapter 77

I was doing my rounds at the home clinic when I heard sniffles coming from one of the exam rooms.  Peering in, I saw Gertie One quietly sobbing in a corner.  I went in and hugged her.  She collapsed against me and continued subbing.  After a while I asked, “Gertie, Honey, what is wrong?”

“T-today’s my 144^th birthday.  I was just thinking about everyone who I had ever known outside of my family is long dead.  Everyone I went to school with; every one of my friends; everyone I was in the MASH unit with; everyone!”  She started sobbing again.

I saw a letter in her hand.  I took it and looked inside.  She was the last remaining Korean War vet left alive.  There was to be a special ceremony in Washington, and she was invited.  That was sobering.

I said quietly, “As long as you are alive, it will not be the forgotten war.  I think you should put on your 120 year old uniform and march into that ceremony.”

She sniffled, then grinned, then started giggling.  “Two problems with that.”

“What are they?”

“One, I look like I am 18 years old, not 144.” 

“Well, you can prove who you are, just tell them you got a rejuv.  The secret is a bit open at this point anyway.  And we need the advertising.  What is the other problem?”

“My uniforms have been on display at the historical society for the last seventy years.”

We both started laughing.

In the end, we had a tailor recreate the uniform, the original was too fragile.  He did a good job; Gertie put it on, and complained, “Damn, it even itches in the same spot as the original!”  It fit her perfectly.  She still had her dog tags, which she tucked under her blouse.  It was uncanny, two of our daughters and Liz who were coming with us to the memorial, stared slack-jawed with me at the vision of a piece of history.  Her hair was even tied up.  Sandra, her youngest at 11, said, “Wow Mom!  You look like something from the history channel!”

Gertie smiled and said sardonically, “I AM something from the history channel.”  She looked into the full length mirror.  “Wow is right.  This is unbelievable.  They are going to shit a brick when I walk in.”

Gertie had called ahead and told the event people that the reason she was still alive was that she had had a rejuv.  She explained that it was a cloned body (our standard fib) and she looked a lot younger than her age.  The event people were actually excited over the prospect, but they had no concept that Gertie would look EXACTLY like she did in 1952.  The event coordinator, a woman named Sarah, was actually surprised to be talking that energetically with a 144 year old woman.  Gertie, wanting it to be a surprise, used an old phone without the video component, after all, that is what an old lady would use.

We flew into Washington, waiting were Sarah and several other people.  Gertie walked off the plane in her full dress uniform.  They all dropped their jaws.  Sarah looked down at a photo in her hand, and then looked back up.  “I don’t believe it!” she exclaimed.

Gertie grinned, “I didn’t expect you to.  Shall we compare ten cards?”  The Korean War was forty years before the DNA registration database, so a ten card was the only way.

Sarah said, “Not meaning any disrespect, ma’am, I think we have to.”

“Lead on.  I suppose the nearest police station or airport security would have a fingerprint scanner.”

Airport security took Gertie’s fingerprints and did an AFIS search.  Up popped Gertie Donovan, Major, U.S. Army Nurse Corps 1952-1954, Retired, DOB: May 6, 1931, Wichita, Kansas.  The picture was a match to the one Sarah held.  Gertie took one look and said, “Dang it, I have been trying to get them to fix that for over a century!  I was born in 1932, not 1931!”

Sarah and her group looked a bit weak at the knees.  “How on earth... you said that you got a rejuv?  That is one hell of a rejuv!”

“Yeah, I know.  I expected this; that is why I turned down the military escort that you suggested.  I knew that we would be spending some time verifying who I am.”

“The thing is... I don’t know what to do!  If we troll you out at the ceremony, we will be a laughingstock, but it really is you!”

“Go ahead.  I will make everything clear in my speech.”

“Okay, Major.”

“Hmmm, Major.  I like that; I haven’t been called that since before your grandmother was born.”

The man standing next to Sarah said, “You realize, Major Donovan, that you are the oldest living person on the planet?  Also the oldest in recorded history?”

Gertie said, “Yeah, I know.  Depressing isn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t say that.  I would say it is inspiring.”

Gertie gave him a look and said, “You and I are going to have a long talk later.”  She turned to Sarah and gestured at us. “By the way, this is my boyfriend Tom, three of my daughters, and our bodyguard Tami.”  There were six undercover EBs in the crowd as well, but that was complicated.

As Sarah stood speechless again thinking about a 144 year old woman with an 11 year old daughter, Gertie giggled and said, “Let’s get the show on the road.”

As we settled into the limo outside, another of the people with Sarah said, “Hi, I’m Yutta Reinhaus.  I’m doing my thesis on the Korean War and would like to talk to you about it.”  Gertie nodded and they discussed the war for the rest of the ride.

Since Gertie didn’t need to rest up, we went straight to the Korean War Memorial.  It was a bit spooky with the statues throughout the garden of the soldiers.  Gertie immediately went to the wall.  She found a name, Dr. Robert Donovan, Jr., U.S. Army.  She touched it and said quietly, “This was my husband for 50 years.  He died 62 years ago.  We met in Korea.”

“Soon after the allies were pushed back to Pusan, he proposed, and we were married when we returned to the states after the war.  I was almost fifty when Liz was born.  It was quite the surprise; that was considered too old to have children at the time.”  She smiled.  “Bob and I were a very happy couple.  He died in 2004 and I don’t remember much after that until Liz arranged for my rejuv in 2022.  I met Tom and have had six wonderful girls since then.”

A little girl about six saw Gertie in her uniform and came over.  “Were you in the war?”

“Why, yes I was.”

“I thought so, your clothes look like Bugs Bunny’s!”

Gertie started laughing.  “Yes they do!  That is very smart of you to notice.”

“Thank you.  But why do they look so different than the other soldier’s clothes?”  She pointed at the honor guard.

“Because this war was a long time ago, and the uniform has changed.  They are wearing the new one and I am wearing the old one.”

“Oh!”  She nodded.  “Thank you.”  She skipped off back to her family who were looking over some of the names.

We went and took our seats.  Gertie was up on the platform in the row of chairs.  They started, and the speaker said, “...and this year, we have a special guest, Major Gertrude Donovan, U.S. Army Nurse Corps, the last living Korean War veteran.”

The clapping started, but became hesitant as Gertie took the podium.  She smiled and said, “I’ll bet that most of you are thinking that I am an actor.  I am not.  I had a rejuv job a few years ago.  I am the real Gertie Donovan.”  There were a few raised eyebrows.

She went on, “I am here today because I am the last surviving person who remembers the forgotten war.  That is sad, because in a way, it is a forgotten war.  Like the later Vietnam, it was a war that was a product of the cold war, which could be called the largest forgotten war ever.  There isn’t even a memorial to the cold war.”

“But we are here today to pay tribute to those of us who went to war for an ideal.  That ideal was freedom.  Freedom for a people that no one even knew or had ever even heard of.  Korea wasn’t even on most high school wall maps.  That is hard to understand today; when everything you want to know is at your fingertips.  That wasn’t the case then.”

She went on, describing life in the U.S. and Korea in 1950.  She concluded with a simple, “Thank you for listening.”

There was light applause, I think many people were still confused over who she was.

Afterward at the mixer, a reporter came over and asked, “Are you the real Major Gertrude Donovan?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Then you must be, like, 140 years old.”

“Actually 144 as of last month.”

“That is a bit hard to believe.  You said that you had a rejuv.  What is a ‘rejuv’?”

Gertie gave her a look of askance.  “Do you really not know, or are you just digging?”

Startled, she said, “Both, actually.”

“Okay then, a rejuv is a slang term for a medical treatment that makes you young again.  In my case, this body was a clone of my original.”

“Wow, I didn’t know technology like that existed.”

“I have been told that it has been around now for over sixty years.  Very, very expensive though.”

“How expensive?”

“Well into nine figures.”  The current price for a rejuv was $250 Million.  I told her not to advertise the immortality which was still a bargain at a cool Billion.

“Very expensive then.  How did you afford it?”

“Let’s just say I got it as part of my health plan at work.  That’s enough on that.  You should be able to write a nice juicy article with what I’ve given you.”

“No one except the tabloids will buy it, though.”

“Even though there is proof?  They even checked my fingerprints.  I am who I say I am.”

A week later, the article came out in Reader’s Digest.  The reporter had really done her homework, she even obtained digital copies of Gertie’s original military record somehow.  Probably asked to look at Sarah’s copy, recording it on her ear-bug.  There were beautiful full 3D pictures, probably also taken by her ear-bug.  The reporter given the shit detail to cover the sleepy memorial ceremony got the scoop of the year.

As a consequence, everyone wanted to talk to Gertie.  She kept herself secluded on the estate until someone in the government had a bright idea; they reactivated her and ordered her to the Pentagon.  That wasn’t a maneuver we had foreseen.  Someone had been doing their homework, there was a limitation as to how long after service a person could be reactivated, but there wasn’t any limitation back in 1952 when she signed her original enlistment papers.

I told her to tell them, only when ordered to do so, that I was the one who did the rejuvs, and that she didn’t know how it was done.

I was a little surprised at the hoopla.  After all, Natalie had been making movies, one every five years or so, and was the most famous actress on the planet, rivaling the Duke, Bing Crosby, Natalie Portman, and even Tom Cruise.  She had been playing young adult and teen roles for the last sixty plus years, three generations had been raised on her movies.  Hadn’t anyone noticed?  Maybe they thought it was all Hollywood magic.  And what about all the people we dealt with on a daily basis from all the clinics?  Didn’t they notice that the clinics were staffed with the same 18 year olds year after year?  And heck, the space station was publicly scrutinized, they hadn’t noticed that the young medical staff had been there for over 25 years?  I suppose having Gertie rub their noses in it was what it finally took for them to pull their heads out of the sand.

Carmine sent a junior partner, Bert, who had been a JAG lawyer, to meet us in Washington.  He had examined the original enlistment papers.  He told Gertie, “Basically, you are screwed.  This is unambiguous as you can get.  It is spelled out in plain English that they can recall you at any time for any reason deemed necessary.  No time limit.  Nowadays, no lawyer worth their stuff would let you go within ten feet of a contract like this one.”

“Back when I signed the damned thing, no one actually even read the contract.  You got in line to defend our way of life against the godless communists, and hoped that you passed the physical.  No thought was given for the future.  It was all very patriotic.  I don’t even think I saw the contract after I signed it until today, 122 years later.”

“*snort* Well, I can’t help you much until we see what they want.  We can protest the draft for many reasons, but then we wouldn’t learn what they want.  If it is a fishing expedition like you think, that has been illegal, contract or not, for over a century, but we don’t know that until you report.”

We rented hotel rooms as close to the Pentagon as we could get, then Gertie went in.  Six hours later she was back.  She came in, slammed the door and commented, “What a bunch of assholes.”

She told us what had happened, and showed us the ear-bug footage.  I was amazed that they had allowed her ear-bug at all.  She went in the main entrance.  She had to wait in security for two hours while they hemmed and hawed since her military ID was a century out of date.  They finally let her in and led her to the office of a General Fawler.  She sat in the waiting room for another hour.  Then she was sent in. 

The General let her stand at attention for another five minutes while he shuffled papers.  Then he looked up and said, “At ease, Major.”  She shifted to the standard relaxed stance.  Then he said, “I understand that you fought in the Korean War.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And got a medical treatment to return to youth.”

“Yes, sir.  It is called a rejuv, sir.”

“It is obviously effective.  I have reports from several medical doctors that such a procedure is not possible with current technology.”

She remained silent.

“No comment?”

“You did not ask me a question, sir.”

“Then here is the question, how was the ‘rejuv’ done?”

“I have no idea, sir.  My boss arranged it, I was not conscious at the time.”

“So you went in as an old woman,” he shuffled some papers again, “with severe dementia, and came out as a teenager.  How is that possible?”

“As I said, sir.  I do not know.”

“Anything you can tell us about the procedure?”

“Is that an order, sir?”

“If it must be.”

“Then I was told to say that you need to speak to my boss, Tom Malloy.”

“He told you that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You discussed your orders with him?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Why?”

“Sir?  I was required to take leave to come here.  I had to discuss it with my boss.”

“*sigh* Of course.”  He shuffled some more papers, then said, “You are dismissed, Major.”

“Am I still recalled to active duty, Sir?”

“Oh!  No.  Please see my aide for the paperwork.”

She saluted and left.  The aide in the outer office stamped a few forms, tapped a few things in the computer, and then told her that she may leave.

After we watched the recording, the lawyer, Bert, said, “That is so wrong.  There is a reason that it is illegal to do that with modern enlistment contracts.  We could get him fired in no time.”

I commented, “We didn’t learn much, did we?”

Bert said, “Only that your suspicions were correct and that he is a jerk.”

I said, “So what are our options?”

“Well, it appears that Gertie is off the hook.  So, one, we could do nothing and wait for their next move.  Two, we could sue and get the General to put in his papers, that would probably stop them officially.  Three, we could bypass the General and talk to his superiors, who would be the Secretary of the Navy or the President.  Four, we could go public, really public, doing interviews on talk shows, the works.  Five, we could tie this in with the DOE harassment from a while ago and get another restraining order.  That would be similar to suing them.”

I said, “Four is a last resort.  Five would embarrass the military, and I don’t want to do that.  Two I am tempted because that General is a real asshole, but in the end it doesn’t really serve a purpose.  So we are left with One or Three.  Does anyone know how to contact the President?  Is Sandra Thompson still alive?”

Ester said, “She is alive and well.  She lives in Dallas.”

“There is our ‘in’.  She owes me one.  Let’s go see her.”

We called and talked to her social secretary.  Sandra would be happy to see us.  We flew down and soon I was escorted into her den where she was lounging on a large stuffed couch.  She looked up and said, “Young,” then she grinned.

“Good memory.”

“Nice to see you, Tom.  What has it been, 40 years?”  She waved me to a large chair across from her couch.

“41, but who’s counting.  Nice to see you too, Ms. President.”

“Call me Sandy.  Since we really haven’t been all that social over the last few decades, I assume this has to do with that article in Reader’s Digest?”

“Still sharp as a tack, I see.  Yes.  The military has gone bonkers over that article.  Poor Gertie was drafted and forced to go to the Pentagon for questioning.”

“Gertie from the article?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll be those dorks at the security gate went nuts when she showed up with a hundred year old military ID.”  She snickered.

“A bit.” I grinned back.

She said, “I see two possible reasons you came to me, either you need some political corners to be cut or you want to use me as a new target.”

A bit puzzled I said, “I admit to the former, but don’t understand the latter.”

“Rejuv me and all the heat from the military will go away.  You will get more political things, like every senator wanting his or her rejuv, but the military wouldn’t be able to do anything if I went to a press conference and just said I got one too.”

“I have no problem with that, if that is what you want.  You were a great President, and have done a lot of philanthropic things since.  All you have to do is ask.  But do you think it would work to get them off my back?”

“I have been the ultimate politician for... many, many years.  It’ll work.”  She grinned, “I almost said, ‘longer than you have been alive’, but I know that is tricky to say around you.”

“You wound me, I am only 81!”  I grinned back.  “Besides, if you do this, people will be saying the same thing about you.  Heck, you never did a second term, you could run again.”

“Now THAT is another whole can of worms.”

“Two questions then.”

“Okay...”

“One, do you want to be young forever, or age naturally?”

“Young forever is what you have isn’t it?”

“Yes.  And what my one and a half-million employees have as well.”

“OMG.  Don’t ever say that again.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I will take that option.”

“Then the other question, do you want it done now, or schedule something?”

“I want it now, but it will work to the plan better if I schedule it.”

“Okay.  How’s your health right now?  Do you need a booster?”

“I am fine.  Whatever you did to me back at that clinic in the Bronx has me healthy as a horse, even at my age.”

“I gave you what I call the law enforcement package.  I designed it for cops.  Extra strength, faster reflexes, fast healing, and a better immune system, including immunity to all known street drugs.  We also gave it to your agents at the time.  Which reminds me, how is Agent Zane?”

“That young pup is still with the service.  He is close to retirement age though.  You could talk to him, he is part of my personal detail and is downstairs.  His instinct for trouble has saved my life many times.”

“I like him.  If he isn’t married or something like that, I’ll rejuv him along with you.  Have an agent who will be with you through thick and thin.”

“If he agrees, I would like that.”

“Okay, do your political stuff.  I’ll be back in how long?  Four days, a week?”

“Make it this weekend.  That’ll give the press three days to do their thing.  I’ll make my announcement tomorrow morning.”

“See you Saturday.  Oh, and have your kitchen stock about fifty pounds of fresh hamburger.”

We shook hands and I left.  The next day it was all over the news, ex-President Thompson would be getting a rejuv.  The press speculated for days.  That Saturday I returned with Sara and driving a truck and carrying a big medical bag for show.  Tami waited in the truck.

Sara shook hands with Sandra. “Sandy, this is Sara, my daughter.”

“Yes, I can see the family resemblance.  You look a lot like Raven, and a little like Valerie.”

“Well, it seems that my dad here has a lot of dominant genes.”

“Heh.  I assume you are here to assist?”

“Yeah.  If Zane was joining this endeavor, then Dad will do him and I will take care of you, except for the face, Dad likes doing faces.”  She grinned.

Sandra smiled, “Sounds good to me, young lady.”  She grinned larger, “I suppose it is the last time I get to call you that.”  Sara smiled back.

Zane came into the room.  He looked pretty good for a 66 year old.  I exchanged a hearty handshake with him.  He said, “So you are doing one of those famous rejuvs, huh?  You know, intellectually I am a bit leery, but my spidey-sense is not going off, and I have learned to trust that with my life.”

I had the pile of hamburger brought up, then locked the door to the suite.  There were two bedrooms, I took Zane to one while Sara took Sandra to the other.  I had Zane undress down to his skivvies, then before he could say anything, I turned him off with a tap.  Catching him, I laid him on the bed, then did a standard rejuv, locking his age at 18.  He looked exactly like I remembered.  Then I turned him back on, but sleeping, then went to help Sara.

Sara had Sandra on the bed and was adding body mass.  She was still in pretty good shape, so Sara wasn’t using as much hamburger as we expected.  I went to work on the head.  I reversed the neural pruning, then pushed the face to the natural look from when she was 18.  Cute, but the nose was too big.  I pared it down a bit, keeping the look but making it smaller.  Now she was downright pretty.  Sara had just redone the breasts, and she had nice B cup puffies.  We each took an arm, then flipped her over and did the back.  Nice ass.  I noticed that Sara was doing the full EB package.  I figured, ‘why not?’ and added the scent/touch enhancements to her brain.  Then, playing matchmaker, I also added Zane to the enhanced scent/touch.

I tapped her awake.  She opened her eyes and said, “Is it done?”

Sara and I nodded.  She sat up and looked down at her legs.  “Wow, nice.”  She stood up and nearly fell over.  Giggling, she carefully walked to the mirror.  “Damn, I really do look like I am 18!”  She glanced at me and said, “By the way, thanks for fixing the nose.”  Staring back in the mirror, she checked over every inch.

I said, “I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that you are very pretty.”

She blushed, which looked really good since she was naked.  “Thanks.”  She turned back the mirror and said, “Well, I guess it is time for the second half of our deal.  I have a press conference in two hours to show off the results.  How is Zane?”

“I left him sleeping in the other room.  Why don’t you get dressed and I’ll go get him.”

“’k.”

I went back to the other bedroom and shook Zane’s shoulder.  He sat up suddenly and grabbed my arm, stopping himself just before he threw me.  He looked down at his legs and said, “Damn, and I wanted to watch.”  He looked at me and said, “Thanks.”  A minute later he was dressed and we went back over to meet the ladies.  When he saw Sandra, he gasped and uttered a, “Wow!”  Then he shook his head like a dog and said, “Sorry, Ms. President.”

Sandra laughed, “Zane, I told you years ago, when we are alone or with friends, call me Sandy.  And thank you for the complement.  It really means something coming from you.”

“Yes, Ms. P... err, Sandy.”

“And you don’t look too bad, either, Handsome.”

“Err, thank you Sandy.”  He said with a small grin and a blush.

I said, “I suppose Sara and I should disappear before your press conference.”

“That would be best.  Thank you very much Tom.  And you Sara.”

“You are welcome Sandy.”  Sara and I bowed out.

The press conference was repeated constantly for weeks.  Sandra went up the podium and all the reporters gasped, having seen her a few days before as a 96 year old lady.  She actually skipped up to the podium and said, “Well it worked!  Any questions?”

One reporter asked, “Is that really you?”

“Sure is!  And to prove it, I will be heading over to the nearest police precinct to have a DNA test right after this press conference.”

“Who did the rejuv?”

“I had an old friend come over and perform the procedure.”

“Who is this old friend?”

“Sorry, can’t say.  Next question.”

“How was it done?”

“I don’t know.  I was unconscious while it was done.”

“Why did you have it done?”

“Are you kidding?  I feel like a teenager!  If you were 96 and had a chance to be young again, wouldn’t you want to be young again too?

“Sorry, dumb question.”  The other reporters laughed.

It went on for a while like that.  Sandy had 80 plus years as a politician, she knew how to handle herself and the reporters.  We never heard a word from the Pentagon.  Wow, Sandy really knew her stuff.

Chapter 78

Tami’s daughter Betty was on guard duty as I visited the Tokyo clinic; her mom was in her ninth month of pregnancy with our third kid, Sabrina.  Tami didn’t take time “off” to do things like have kids very often.  She had trained Betty and Veronica (yeah, she was an Archie fan) from birth to be bodyguards, and they were as amazing as their mother, both being well past the dan black belt ranking, but officially 9^th dan.  Like my other close girls, Natalie for instance, Tami felt it was dangerous to leave me for long.

I actually hadn’t been to the Tokyo clinic since the grand opening twelve years before.  It hadn’t changed much; there was a Valery style clinic in Adachi with an EB training center outside the city.  The clinic had a very Asian appearing park; it even had a small shrine.  The levels of apartments had an Asian flavor, having curved roofs and other decorations.

Running the place was Kumiko, daughter of Hotaru Tsupaki, a hottie cheerleader that I had recruited eagerly at a party a while back.  Kumiko had deliberately de‑emphasized her gaijin heritage externally so she looked completely Japanese; in fact, she looked like a stereotypical Japanese schoolgirl, only with a bigger bust.  Appearing completely Asian helped her to deal with the rampant racial bigotry in Asia, although she did still use Malloy for her last name.

The economy of Japan had been in rough shape for a long time.  The depression of the early 21^st century had caused major problems; and Japan was still reeling half a century later.  It didn’t help when many of the corporations outsourced much of the manufacturing to the mainland for cost purposes.  The shelter was kept full with a line waiting at the door. 

Kumiko’s oldest daughter, Keiko (named after the character from Star Trek) had just turned 18 and wanted to open another clinic near Osaka.  With Asia’s massive population, we needed many more clinics, and we had had a recent influx of money in the last couple of years due to Sandra’s rejuv.  So I wholeheartedly approved it.  She wanted to do a variant of the Valery style clinic, making it much larger.  Her plan was to have it twice as tall and to be more like the Moscow clinic, spread out over several blocks, with parks surrounding it.  It would be a billion plus dollar project.

In a city, for security and space purposes, a Valery style clinic was the only real option.  We had about 80 clinics which were the old fashioned type, separate hospitals with nearby housing for the shelter, several of which we just bought existing and upgraded.  But they were mostly rural except for a few in less crowded and lower crime cities like Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Banff, and Spokane.  All U.S. and Canadian cities.  Every single clinic site outside of North America, all 132 of them, were done in Valery style.  The remaining 173 clinics in North America were Valery style as well.

It took a year to build, but the Osaka clinic covered four blocks, had the roads going through, but each block were all joined at the fourth story, and was twenty stories tall.  Unlike many Asian buildings, it was designed to withstand up to a 9.0 earthquake; and since it was on a flood plain for Tsunamis, could survive up to fifty feet of water.  A giant park was in the center, with no indication that it was five stories above the ground below.  The whole place looked like a mountain valley inside.  I spent two days just wandering around.  It was awesome.  We couldn’t build too many of them at two billion apiece, but it definitely was a good design for areas that needed higher security and had larger populations. 

Our coffers were down to only about 200 billion, which was enough to run the existing clinics and services for about 40 years.  We had an income of only about two billion annually, which fell short of the five billion we were spending on our 385 clinics (not counting the space station).  I seriously started to brainstorm about what to do if we ran dry.  Except for special cases, I suspended the start of construction on any new clinics.  We really needed to anyway, we were running short of idealistic doctors in the United States with so many clinics.  There was no shortage of daughters of mine with the gift, so they started to double and triple up.  I wanted to get the governments to pay for some of the clinics, but to do that we would have to sacrifice our ability to do our thing.  Government funds meant government oversight, which would prevent us “medical technicians” from doing our healing.  We needed more income.

Chapter 79

I needed a vacation.  The last real one I had was the visit to the space station 12 years ago.  (I had taken a few weekends, mostly visiting Natalie on location.)  Ester happily had been keeping the RV up to date; I think it was her pet project.  She eagerly got to work going over it, prepping it for the road.  I went down and snuck up behind her, giving her a big hug then screwing her silly, leaving her passed out and drooling next to the RV.  It was a tradition.  Last time had resulted in the birth of Carlotta, who was one of the mechanics pouring over the RV.

The modern RV hadn’t changed much in the last 37 years.  A lot of the technology EB crews around the world had come up with, for example the multi-axel systems used in rural areas, we had incorporated.  Under the hood the systems were as advanced past those during our last trip and the systems during our last trip were over the original.  They were still fuel cell based electric systems, but the cells would last for weeks.  The communications system was minute, only a few feet square, but could easily handle a small city’s communications, including the Internet, of course.

I was taking with me the twins, Sara, Angie, Erin, Niyol, Lettie from Hollywood, Betsy from New York, and, of course, Tami and Natalie.  There weren’t any ride-along EBs this time, I wanted to keep it from being too crowded.  Of course, they were in the chase RV, but none in the main RV.

I was almost slap happy getting on the road again.  I remembered the first RV trip 67 years ago and still felt the same as I disabled the auto-pilot and pulled out of the garage.  Rather than have a specific location, I just wanted to go.  We had done the southwest before, so this time I drove southeast toward St. Louis.

An hour along, I couldn’t take the damn beeping from the Auto-Pilot.  We were required to have it by law, but the thing beeped constantly wanting to be turned on.  I pulled over to a rest area, and then hit the breaker on the piece of overpriced garbage.  I wasn’t being fair, the auto-pilot was actually pretty cool (excuse me – “valid”), but I hate being forced to do something.

We continued on without the beeping.

RVs were actually a bit rare these days.  There was a brief upsurge of popularity forty years back after the economic recovery, but not much since.  As we drove down the interstate, everyone turned to look.

For the night we pulled into one of the remaining RV parks in St. Louis near downtown on Jefferson Avenue.  Like usual, if you can call every dozen years usual, we got three spots with a space between them.  We connected to the city grid and put the fuel cells on trickle recharge.

It wasn’t a bad location, we were only two blocks west of the city museum.  I walked over and paid for the group.  We spent a good three to four hours going through the place.  The arch was undergoing renovation, so there wasn’t much else to do in St. Louis, and so we relaxed for a day then continued on.  We did swing by and visit Trisha who ran the local clinic.

I went straight east, heading for West Virginia.  West Virginia was still hillbilly country, even in the latter quarter of the 21^st century; in fact they were even more insular than a hundred years ago. 

With all the renovations to the RVs, heck they were designed for dirt roads in obscure mountain ranges, there shouldn’t be any troubles with the roads.

There wasn’t a single RV park left in the entire state of West Virginia.  That didn’t bother us much, the RVs could go for weeks without hookup.  We found a campground in Monongahela State Forest that had camping spots large enough for the two RVs and space between them.  They even had electrical and water connections, but no sewage.  That also didn’t bother us, our system flash dried and compacted the sewage into a powder that could be stored in a minimal space.  We could store it for months with no problems.  It made good fertilizer too.

The campsite was beautiful, it reminded me a bit of Barb’s campground in Aspen.  What was different was that the place was packed.  There were tents everywhere.  There must be a camping fad that I didn’t know about.  I would have to check-in with Barb and Tina and check the status of their campground.

We relaxed for a few days, just resting and cooking a nice steak or burgers in the evening.  We were returning from a hike on the third day when I began to wonder.  None of the other campers were leaving, and it was the middle of the week.  I began to notice things like old beat up tents, small sheds with cooking gear, that the kids disappeared during the day, and I realized that these were permanent residents.  But living in a tent?  That was horrible.  What did they do during the winter?  I asked the ranger as he passed by on his rounds. “Are all these people living here?”

“Unfortunately.”

“How? Why?”

“It is the law, we can’t kick them out as long as they don’t have a permanent residence and they aren’t living in any park structures like cabins, so when people lose their job they get a campsite and squat.  Some of these so called ‘campers’ have been here for over ten years.  A few of the kids have been born and raised here.  At least they are clean, if they aren’t, that is grounds to kick them out.”

“They live here even in the winter?”

“Yes.  We used to close in the winter, but now we are open year around.  We don’t have a choice.”

“Wow.”

He went on, continuing his patrol.  I stood there thinking.  I really couldn’t do anything for these people that I could think of.  If I built a big shelter, there were plenty to take their place here so that wouldn’t solve anything. 

As I stood there thinking, a school bus pulled up and a flurry of kids rushed out the door.  Following all the elementary school kids were the high schoolers, and damn, some of those girls were fine.  Two of them saw me and headed my way.  I looked their age, so they decided to greet me.  I saw Tami discreetly hanging back so they didn’t connect her with me.

The one on the left, an unbelievably curvaceous freckled redhead wearing daisy dukes and a mesh top with her nipples pointing out, came up and said, “Hello, I haven’t seen you here before.”  It took me a minute to decode her heavy accent.

The other one, just as curvaceous, but blonde, wearing the same clothes, said, “Yeah, we’d remember you.”  And they both smiled which cut their hotness in half because of the horrible teeth.  Damn, hadn’t these girls ever heard of brushing their teeth?

I answered, “Just here camping.”  I thumbed over my shoulder, “That’s my RV over there.”

Both their eyes widened as they squealed in chorus, “You have an actual RV?”  The redhead said, “We thought that was some old dude who pulled in.  Can we see it?”

A bit surprised, I said, “Sure.”  I turned and headed up the path back to the RVs.  I noticed that Tami was staying out of sight but was only a few steps away.  The two girls followed me, none the wiser.  They slowed down slightly when they realized that there were two RVs and how large they were.  They stopped just as we entered the clearing between the two RVs and saw the fifteen girls there.  I could see their mental wheels turning.  They knew they were hot, but knew that they couldn’t compete with what they were seeing.  I quickly said, “Girls, meet...” and I raised my eyebrows at them.

Quickly the redhead said, “Daisy”.  The blonde said, “Sally”.

I went on, “and these are my girls.”  The fifteen there smiled a greeting.  I guess they were used to me bringing home strays.  I led them over to the RV and opened the door.  I gestured like a doorman and said, “Ladies...”.  They giggled and went in.

I followed them in.  They were staring about in amazement with their jaws halfway to the floor.  After letting them gawk for a minute, I led them aft.  “This is the kitchen.”  They gawked some more. 

Sally said, “You have a real kitchen in this thing?  Wow...”

I showed them the one and a half baths and the two bedrooms.  They immediately ran in and jumped onto the bed and collapsed.  Daisy said, “So soft...”  Sally commented, “I have never been in a bed like this.”  I left them there sighing and went outside and helped my girls cook up some ribs.  We were just setting up the tables when Daisy and Sally came out.  Daisy said, “Thank you, mister.  That was great!  We have to get home now.”

“No problem.  And call me Tom.  If you want, go ahead and invite your families over for dinner.  Plenty to go around.”

“Talking?”  I guess the updated slang term had made it here.

“Yes, talking.”

“Eeeeeeeee!” they simultaneously squealed and took off at a run.  Less than a minute later they were leading over two groups.  I saw them stop just before the campsite, where Daisy and Sally led two ladies I assumed to be their mothers to the side.  Curious, I went into the RV and listened at the window next to where they were talking.

“...is what you always wanted for us, ma,” said Sally.

“I know, honey, but be careful.  I know we planned this, but now that the time has come I am a bit scared,” said one of the women.

“I just hope that we can get him to take us, and then convince him to help Joey.  He already has all those beautiful girls, he may not want two hillbillies more,” said Daisy dejectedly.

“Now, stop right there.  You two are the prettiest girls ever to come out of this place.  You just need to smile and bounce a lot,” said the other woman.  “Hell, drag them into one of these here campers and screw him stupid.  No guy can resist that.  We need to get the money for Joey’s operation fast.”

Daisy said, “But I like him and don’t like lying.”

Sally said, “I don’t like it either.”

The first woman said, “You aren’t lying.  You just aren’t telling him everything.  Now get your sweet asses out there and get your guy!”

A simultaneous, “Yes, ma” came from the girls as I turned and dashed out of the RV.  I was standing at the grill as the two of them led a parade out of the trees.  Following behind the two of them were three guys, four women, two younger and very pretty girls, four boys aged from six through about fifteen, and a coon hound with its tail wagging.  The Amandas saw the parade and went into the RV to throw several more bags of side dishes into the microwave.  Natalie and Sara just started setting fourteen more places at the picnic tables.

The three guys came over and said, “Billy Bob”, “George”, and “Elwood”.  I shook their hands and said, “Tom”.  That seemed to be the extent of the male bonding needed.  Immediately they joined me at the grill.  I nodded to Betsy to grab a case of beer from the fridge.  I didn’t like the stuff, but could drink it for social purposes if necessary.

I noticed that the girls were all chatting.  The kids split up, the younger girls joining the bevy of females, and the boys wandering over and joining us guys.  The dog decided to join us guys as well, probably because we had the meat.

We had just finished debating the merits of different types of barbecue sauce and started a second bottle of beer when Billy Bob asked, “So what do y’all do for a living?”

Not wanting to be too technical, I said, “I am kind of like a Doctor.”

“Bit young ain’t ya?”

“I’m a lot older than I look.”

He nodded and accepted that.

I would have asked him back, but if he was working, he wouldn’t be living in a campground.  So I asked him, “So how long have you lived in this... unusual... place?”

“’bout 10 years.  George, what about you?”

“’bout 14 years.  Sally was two when we first pitched.”

Elwood said, “I actually live in a small place over the mountain.  George here’s my cousin.”

George said, “I would pitch in his yard, but the sheriff won’t let me.”

Billy Bob answered my unspoken question, “We all lost our jobs when the paper mill shut down fifteen years ago.  After the coal mines were shut down thirty years ago, it was the last place to work.”

The ribs and potatoes were about done.  I noticed the women folk putting all the veggies and fruit salad on the table, so we put all the ribs and spuds on trays and carried ‘em over and added them to the table.

We gathered about, somehow Daisy and Sally ended up on each side of me.  They were all quiet and I realized why, so I told Billy Bob, “You are local here, you do the saying.”

He nodded and did grace, then we all sat.  Everyone chowed down, the locals really digging in.  I don’t think they had had a good meal in a long time.  All except for one boy sitting across from me, about thirteen, who was just picking at his food.  I asked him, “Hey, is something wrong?”

“Naw, just not hungry.”

I read him deeper and realized that this must be Joey.  He had a large brain tumor, baseball sized, that had also spread, and the poor boy only had a month or so before his body would shut down.  I could cure him, but I couldn’t just remove the main tumor, it was too big.  I had to have his own body remove it bit by bit, which took several days.  It sometimes caused small seizures, which required constant observation.

I said, “You must be Joey.” 

He nodded, a little surprised.

I looked over at his mother and said, “May I take Joey as a patient for two days?  I know of a treatment that might help him.”

Sally interrupted, “Talking?  What do you want?”

“Talking.  And I don’t want anything.  We’re all Doctors and Nurses here, and we just want to help.”

His mother, whom I recognized as Sally’s mother, said, “We are desperate, if you think you can help, please do so.”

“He will need to be monitored, so he will have to stay with us for the two days.  Sally is welcome to stay with him and help.”  I looked over at Daisy and added, “And her best friend is also welcome.”  I looked back at her and said, “And, of course, you can be here if you want.”

She got a calculating look in her eye and said, “I will check in, but Sally and Daisy can take care of him.”  Still playing the matchmaker.

I reached out and touched Joey’s arm and shrunk the tumor just enough over the area that caused hunger.  Then I said, “Joey, eat up.  You’ll need the energy.”  He dug in with gusto.

After the meal, I took Joey’s hand and led him to the EB RV, where there was an exam room, convertible to an OR if necessary.  Angie and I took him in, and after the door was closed, I shut him off, catching him and laying him on the exam table.  I went through him, making the full EB changes since I felt a little sorry for him, and getting rid of all the spread cancer.  I made sure he would grow a nice ten incher when he got older, increasing his current size to six inches.  In the head, I shrunk the tumor by about 20%, the maximum I could do and not injure his brain.  Then we were done.  His enhanced immune system would get rid of the damn thing within the next three days.  I turned him on.  He blinked and said, “Wow! I feel great!”  He hopped off the table and I told him to go talk to his family.

Angie was horny as a billy-goat, which was usual when she watched the Master at work.  He knew it too, sweeping her into a kiss that made her knees collapse.

I gave Angie a long hot French kiss, then left her dazed in a chair.  Outside, Joey was telling everyone how wonderful he felt.  I went over and said, “The procedure was a success.  Now we have to wait.  The tumor is so large that it needs to be slowly removed over the next few days.  That will happen naturally, but since the brain will be reshaping, moving into the area, there is a chance of small seizures.  That is why we need to monitor him.  By next week he can go back to school.”

Joey asked, “How big is the tumor anyway?”

“Currently, about six centimeters across.  It was ten.”

He measured that with his hand.  “That is much larger than the doctor said three months ago.”

“Yes, it was growing.  You had only about three weeks to live, and the tumor was inoperable.  The method I used is that I tricked your body into removing it without surgery.  One side effect, you are going to be Superman for the rest of your life.”

“Huh?”

“You have four times the strength and endurance of a normal person.  You may want to go out for football or something like that so you get a nice scholarship for college.”

“Talking?  Valid!”  He put one finger under the end of the picnic table and lifted it a foot.  “Valid!” he repeated.

Eventually everyone left except for Daisy and Sally.  Joey was in the EB RV oohing and aahing over the equipment.  I tapped the two of them off.  I took Daisy and Sara took Sally.  We did the full EB treatment on both, including birth control sheaths.  Then I fixed their teeth.  We sat them on a table bench and turned them back on.  They both looked puzzled, but had no idea.  Joey came out and the three of them joined us for a movie in my RV.

About halfway through Daisy got up for a piss break.  Suddenly there was a shriek from the bathroom.  Sally ran in then she shrieked too.  A few minutes later they came back out.  Sally gave me a suspicious look, “Did you do something to our teeth?”

“Yeah, I fixed them.  They were pretty bad.”

“True.” 

Daisy snapped her fingers, “So that is why we were suddenly sitting outside!”

They both came over and each kissed me on a cheek.  “Thanks,” they chorused.  Then it hit them.  I saw Natalie and Sara grinning as Daisy and Sally both had their eyes defocus and then climbed into my lap, one on each side, and snuggled down with a sigh.  Joey eyeballed me, but didn’t say anything. 

We hit play and watched the rest of the movie, one of Natalie’s latest, a murder mystery on the space station.  None of them had even noticed that Natalie was sitting at my right knee.  It was an example of the purloined letter, hiding in plain sight.

Natalie had a series of ‘apprentices’, actresses that had accepted her invitation to join her in relaxed semi-retirement.  All had taken EB training, and were almost as devoted to Natalie as they were fanatic about me.  Several of them had, over the years, also received several Academy Awards, not as many as Natalie, but they were all famous.  Something about the EB training and the physical enhancements allowed them to relax and be much better than ever before.  Many of our daughters had grown up in the biz as actresses as well.

Anyway, after the movie, we sent Joey over to the other RV to sleep in an observation bed in the communications room.  The girls spent the night keeping an eye on him.

The two girls followed me and my other girls into the master bedroom.  Without hesitation, they undressed like my girls and climbed into bed.  Daisy took my cock, positioned it, then pole sat.  As precum leaked into her pussy and hit the mucus membranes, she arched her back, screamed, and collapsed.  Sally eagerly climbed on.  Soon she had sunk down to the hilt, spasming, and her pussy was clamping down on my cock.  I filled her up and she screamed and joined her friend curled up moaning and spasming on the bed.

Feeling randy, I pulled over Natalie, followed by Lettie, then Betsy, and then Niyol.  I dozed off curled up with Sara.  Daisy and Sally were still curled up in the fetal position quivering and whimpering, not being as adjusted to it as my other girls.

The next morning I awoke to a three girl blowjob as Natalie trained in the new girls.  They weren’t bad, their enthusiasm made up for their lack of experience.  Soon they were quivering again as they collapsed back on the bed with a mouthful of cum each, this time Natalie happily joined them.  Leaving them to recover, I went out and enjoyed the crisp air of the Appalachian morning.  Joey was also up and enjoying the sunrise.  He, Tami, and I hiked up the mountain and enjoyed the scenic vista.  We just stood there watching the sun continue to rise over the mountains.  After ten minutes, Joey said, “Every minute of the rest of my life is a gift.  I am not going to waste it.” 

We watched for another ten minutes then headed down the mountain.  As we climbed down the trail I said, “What is really needed right now is a solution to your family’s problem.  They cannot continue to squat in a campground.”

“Yeah, I know.  People around here have been looking for a solution to that for a long time.”

“I have some ideas on how to solve the immediate problem, but not on how to prevent more people from moving in.”

He raised his eyebrows at that.  “What is your idea?”

“Build a row of cabins behind the ranger station and make you all official in exchange for helping out with the park.  That is the quick easy solution.  But like I said, how do we get people from just taking your spot?”

“Hmmm...”  I could see him thinking hard.

He was still thinking hard as we scarfed down an omelet and pancakes.  He headed over to see his family after breakfast.  Half an hour later he was back, all excited.  “Tom!”

I was helping finish cleanup and looked over.  “Yes, Joey?”

“I mentioned the problem to my dad.”  I nodded.  “He says that it isn’t a problem.  The law was changed years ago; we were already here so we were ‘grandfathered’ in.”

“What did he think about my idea?”

“He said it was better than anything anyone else had thought of, but wondered if the rangers would go for it, and also wondered who was going to pay for it.”

I noticed the ranger heading up the road on his patrol.  I waved him over and discussed the idea with him.  I told him that I would cover the costs.

He said, “I personally like the idea, it would get these people out of the tents.  Children shouldn’t be raised in tents.  But we will have to see how the Forestry Review Board thinks.  After I finish my rounds I’ll give them a shout.”  He took off.

Two hours later my ear-bug indicated that I had a call from West Virginia State Senator McCullen.  I answered, “Hello?”

“Hello.  This is Bob McCullen.  I am the head of the Forestry Review Board.  Am I speaking to Tom Malloy?”

“Yes.”

“I just received an interesting phone call from Ranger O'Shanassy.  He said that you are willing to donate the funds to build a series of cabins for the squatters?”

“Yes, and in return they will pay rent by assisting the Rangers who are understaffed.  Most of them are hill folk and are well qualified.”

“What is your piece of the pie, Mr. Malloy?”

“Let’s just say that I have taken a personal interest in the squatters.”

“Hmmm... can we discuss this in person?  I can block out tomorrow afternoon.”

“Your office, say right after lunch, one o’clock?”

“That’ll work.  I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr. Malloy.”

“Bye, Senator.”

I turned to Joey and asked, “Who represents all you campers?”

He was looking at me and asked, “Who were you talking to?  I didn’t see any phone.”

I was a little surprised, ear-bugs had been around for over forty years, but I suppose people around here couldn’t afford them.  I said, “It was my ear-bug.  I was talking to Senator McCullen.”

“Oh.  I think my dad is the closest thing there is to a leader around here.”

“Maybe we should have an all-camp get-together tonight around six in the central picnic area and talk over the idea.  I am meeting with the Senator tomorrow and I want to bring you folks’ ideas with me.  You can also go home after the party.”

“I’ll go tell everyone.”  He took off running.  I don’t know if he realized that he was running close to 30 mph.

I went over the EB RV to get the car out of storage.  I was in for a surprise.  There were two cars there.  One was my original Camaro 2SS, in mint condition.  There was a SUV as well, but I was more interested in my car.  I hadn’t seen it in years.  Frankly, I had forgotten about it.  Apparently several EBs had restored it for fun and Ester had packed it into the EB RV.  The girls all grouped around it, exclaiming, “Wow, I haven’t seen this car in a long time!” and the like.  I noticed that it had collector plates on it.  That made me feel a bit old.  I noticed that both Amanda and Mandy were also staring at the collector plates, probably remembering when they bought the car new off the lot sixty years ago.  I hugged them both and said, “It has been a long time, hasn’t it?”

The both smiled and said, “Yes it has.”  In chorus, the way they knew I liked it.

That evening, as the idea was presented to the group, several of the guys hemmed and hawed until there was a simultaneous, “Ouch!” from six of them as their wives gave them a kick in the leg.  They elected Joey and Daisy’s father Billy Bob to represent them.

The next morning after I read the EB’s brief on McCullen, Tami got in the back seat, Billy Bob and I in front, and took off for Charleston in my Camaro.  It drove like it was new.  I just hoped I could find a gas station that still had gas, internal combustion engines were fairly rare these days.

I had fun driving along the mountain roads.  I knew that the EBs were secretly following me in the SUV a few miles back via GPS, but I didn’t care.  It felt great.  After stopping at a greasy spoon for a bite to eat, we reached I-77 where there wasn’t a speed limit (such nonsense had been repealed several decades back) and I opened her up.  It was 20 miles to Charleston, but I did it in under 8 minutes.  Now THAT was fun!

Following my ear-bug GPS mapper I found the capital building and parked in a nearby ramp.  The ancient car sure was getting lots of stares.  As we walked over to the capital, we just got the usual stares because of Tami’s beauty. 

The office was easy to find, and McCullen came bustling out in full politician mode, shaking hands and being hearty.  As we headed back for his office, I noticed that everyone in the office was trying to take a look at me.  It was a little unnerving.  The Senator noticed my discomfort and said, “Mr. Malloy, don’t worry about them, they just want to see what the richest man in the world looks like.”

I was very surprised.  I said, “Wow, I am?  I didn’t know that.”

“With all your known international assets, my contacts on Wall Street estimate that you are worth about $1.7 Trillion.  The nearest contender is only $300 Billion.”

Billy Bob raised an eyebrow, but he continued on without comment.  I now understood why the Senator was being so solicitous.  He settled Billy Bob and me into comfortable chairs in his office while he sat across from us, ignoring the desk at the far end of the office.  He also ignored Tami after one admiring glance when she first came into the office with us.

It took about an hour, but we hammered together a deal.  The cabins would be built before winter in a location chosen by the senator and the rangers, the campers would move into them maintaining their grandfathered squatter’s rights.  They would not own the cabins, if they moved, the cabins would revert to the campground.  To pay for their housing, the squatters would work for the forest service for a small wage and the cabin would be listed as a “perk”.  I would cover the costs of construction and wages.  It was going to cost me several million plus another quarter million a year, but I felt it was worth it to get children out of living in tents.  A few months in summer is one thing, but full time and during the winter?  In the end we all shook on it.  The senator said that he would have the legal documents emailed to me in a week.  We left and went back to the car.

That evening, back at the campground, there was a big party, the rangers joining in.  We packed up the cars, mine refilled from the gas station right outside of the park.  It seemed that there were still a lot of gas vehicles in the area.  I also upgraded Daisy’s sister when no one was looking.  She was as gorgeous as her older sister and I planned on recruiting her when the time came.

The next morning, we left the area, heading south.  Daisy and Sally went with us.  It turned out they were only 16, but their parents gladly signed papers so they could go, their mothers were going to miss them, but they were happy that their girls ‘got out’.

There weren’t any real tourist spots in the Carolinas or Georgia unless we liked to walk around old mansions.  That was interesting, and we stopped at a few, but they got tiring after a while.  Then I figured, we were in the deep south, so let’s do what rednecks do, and we headed for Talladega.  We stopped for a few hours in Jacksonville to restock ribs and beer, and then headed for the speedway.  There was a NASCAR race scheduled in two days.  We pulled in, paid our tailgating fee, and parked our two RVs in a V and started setting up.  I was surprised, there were already a dozen RVs there.  RVs were a rare sight these days.  I was a bit curious and wandered out to look.  My RV was a retrofit that was 70 years old.  It still was more modern than most of the RVs present.  Heck, there was even a restored 100 year old Winnebago!  In exchange, everyone was coming over to ooh and ahh at my RVs, which were fancier than even the professional ones used by the racers.  I think half of them were there to ogle my bevy of hotties more than to look at the RVs though.  Daisy and Sally were new to it, and greatly enjoyed all the attention, the rest of my babes were a bit more cool about it.

Apparently they recognized Natalie, because the guy in charge came over and asked her to do a quick speech for the cameras and crowd.  She eagerly accepted, she learned long ago that a promo here or there was good politics.  She slipped on a string bikini top and jean Daisy Dukes and went to do her thing.  I still was wondering why no one had noticed that she still was young and hot after doing movies for over 80 years now.  Or maybe the fact that she was young and hot distracted people from noticing.  Every few years she would do a Maxim shoot and every boy under the age of 70 on the planet (and many girls too) had a poster of her in his bedroom.  She was still the most popular desktop on monitors worldwide.  She had had dozens of songs written about her.  She was more famous than any other actor or actress in history.  Heck, little girls dressed up as her for Halloween!  In her 20 or so unauthorized biographies, no one had yet caught on that she had eighteen daughters, twenty-seven granddaughters, and six great granddaughters, even though some of them were extras in several of her films.  That also made me wonder, how come no one had noticed the titanium ring on her left hand over the last seventy years?  I know it was digitally removed on many of her films, but still.  Again I thought about how people were clueless unless you hit them over the head with things.

I saw a couple of EBs slip into the crowd following Natalie, I was willing to bet they were pretty heavily armed even though they appeared to be wearing only a mesh top and skin tight jeans.

She got up and started with a, “Helllllo, Talladega!”  And the crowd went wild.  Everyone and their pet dog knew who she was, either on sight or via commentary, but she added, “I’m Natalie Starr, and welcome to NASCAR!” and she pumped her fist in the air.  The crowd went even more wild.  The commentator on the TV mentioned that the blogs for the race suddenly skyrocketed with activity as over a million people logged in.  The streaming website got over two hundred million hits in the next two minutes, and the pay-per-view race got close to a million more subscribers.  I heard afterward that the broadcaster almost went off the air because of all the bandwidth suddenly taken up and they had trouble getting the signal out.  They had to revert to the ancient backup transmitters which didn’t use the Internet to stay on the air. 

Natalie was going to head back to the RV to be with us when the track owner and the broadcaster appeared and begged her to allow them to follow her with a camera crew during the race.  They offered $10 million for a few cameos.  They had just made over two hundred million from her ten second cameo on stage.  She called me on her ear-bug.  I told her any money was hers, but my only rule is that she needed to approve any shots they sent out over the air.  She actually turned down the money, but made them agree to my conditions.  She also turned to the waving of the handkerchief to start the race, she said she would feel guilty about taking the job from the girl already scheduled to do it. She shook their hands, recording it on her ear-bug.  That was something that had changed in the last forty years, handshake agreements were much more common, but they had to be recorded to be legal.

I told everyone, and we prepared to put on a show. 

The camera crew, with Natalie’s preapproval, shot her heading back to the RV, interviewing her along the way.  She came into the V between the RVs and gave me a quick kiss.  When the commentator/reporter asked, she said, “Oh, this is my guy, Tom.”  And then she signaled cut.

Before the race, Natalie had visits from nearly all the drivers, broadcast of course, and during the race the camera crew followed us up onto the top of the RV, which to my surprise, had fold out stairs and pop up railings that appeared when a button was pushed.  They had a couple of small interviews during the race, making sure the cars passed behind her as she talked.  She managed to plug the clinics several times and called several of the drivers handsome and/or beautiful and gave them big hugs.  During breaks in the action, she gave a tour of the RV (but not the EB’s RV).  She also took a turn on the grill which was recorded.  After the race, she joined the trophy girl in the presentation to Carrie Yates, the winning driver.  Carrie actually asked Natalie to sign her trophy.

In all, she saved NASCAR from a ten year slump in the ratings; she saved the remnants of the RV industry; brought back the mostly disappeared tailgating parties for sports events; and boosted her own popularity to even greater heights.  Not bad work for a few hours.  Natalie commented, “Now that was fun.  I haven’t done that much celebrity work in a long time.”

Two hours later we were heading down I-59 to New Orleans.  I had another five days until I had to get back.

We pulled into the city.  There were only two RV parks still in operation, one in the heart of the French Quarter just off of I-10, and one south of the city in a state park.  Since we were here for fun, we got space at the one in the city.

After setup, we unlimbered the SUV and headed over to the local clinic.  I had only been there once many years ago.  It was just around the curve of the river in the development neighborhoods.  City ordnances had prevented the building of a Valerie style clinic, so the clinic was a walled neighborhood.  Margie had purchased several square blocks of property, demolished the houses within (except one which was historical), built a fence around the area, then rebuilt a larger version of the shelter that we had at the home clinic, dormitories and all.  There was a large EB population; and interestingly, a large number of married EBs that lived near the clinic as well.  There were even several second generation EBs who weren’t my daughters, which was very unusual.

I hadn’t told them I was coming.  I knew that they were all following my blog and the blogs of the girls with me, but I wanted to surprise them, so I told my girls not to mention where we went after Talladega.

Soon we were driving along the outside fence, which was heavily covered with graffiti.  In front of the clinic, which had been designed to look like a old manor house in the New Orleans’s style, we parked and headed for the door.  Guarding the door were two EBs that I didn’t recognize.  The one on the left saw me and stammered, “Master Tom, Sir!”  The other one just stood there with big eyes.

I hugged both of them, giving them a quick kiss.  They both collapsed back against the wall in delight, nips hard and pussy juice dripping down their legs.  I checked out their physical programming, and while they had originally been programmed with the normal EB enhanced reaction to me, it seemed that somehow it had naturally increased to over four times the standard strength, higher than any I had ever seen, even Alicia.  That was a phenomenon I would have to investigate.

The EB reception nurse had the same reaction.  What was interesting is that I knew her.  Carrie Six was from our home clinic and I had programmed her myself.  The other reception nurse wasn’t an EB and just rolled her eyes.  She recognized me from the pictures all over the place and just picked up the phone and called Margie.

Margie rushed in a minute later.  I waved at her to stop.  Confused, she did so.  Carefully I scanned her without touching her.  Yes, she had the same ramped up reaction to me.  I said, “Honey, take a look at your chemical reaction to me.  It seems to be off.”

Her eyes unfocussed as she examined her own brain.  They popped open, “What on earth?” she exclaimed.  “Glad you stopped me, otherwise I would be passed out from the sensory overload like it appears Carrie is over there.”  She closed her eyes for a second.  “There, that is normal.”  She came over and hugged me.  “Hi, Dad.”

I hugged her back.  “Hi, honey.”

After a minute I followed her to her office.  I scanned six EBs along the way, keeping my distance.  All of them had the ramped up reaction except one.  I told her to follow.

In Margie’s office we all sat on the couches to discuss it.  I asked the EB I had collected in the hallway, “Felicie, how are you different from your sisters here?”

She blinked her beautiful brown eyes in surprise at the question, then started thinking.  After a few seconds she said, “Well, I am part French Creole, and most of them are not.”

Hmmm, interesting.  Let’s test that.  “Who else is part French Creole that you know?”

“Catarina is entirely French Creole.”

“Felicie, could you go find her and bring her here please?”

She nodded and dashed out of the room.  Margie commented, “I wonder why she was unaffected by whatever this is?”

“Good question.  Maybe something in the local food to which she is immune?”

“Could be, we all eat the same things.  Lots of catfish, gumbo, red beans, banana dishes, and po-boys.”

We were thinking about that when Felicie led in a gorgeous dark skinned girl.  A quick scan and she didn’t have the ramped up sensitivity either.  It seemed that the natives to the area were immune to whatever it was that was skewing the sexual sensitivity upwards.  I told them, “Will you two wait outside, please?  We have to figure something out.”

They left.  I went over to Margie and said, “Let me check you over, compare it to those two and narrow this down.”  I slowly scanned her, all the way down to the DNA level.  I noticed that there was a protein that had triggered the effect.  And that it was recursive, building slowly, but speeding up over time.  The poor EBs, without the masterbatoriums, they would have gone insane years ago.  An EB ramped up to that level could only remain sane if she was one of my entourage.

I explained what I had learned to Margie.  She commented, “Well, that explains some of the discipline problems I have had recently.”  She angrily shook her head.  “Damn, I should have seen this years ago!  Let’s call in Felicie and Catarina and figure out how to fix this.”

We scanned the two of them.  There was an interesting protein blocker that had prevented them from being affected.  Knowing the brain like I did, I realized that the three EBs that had already been triggered couldn’t be repaired; actually they could, but it would soon burn out their minds and make them like zombies.  I had to take them with me for their own good.  They would work from the main office where they could get their fix like Alicia and the twins.

I installed the protein blocker in Margie and Tami.  She saw how it worked, and scheduled every local EB to come in for a mandatory “health inspection”.  She told me that she would investigate the cause.  Rather than cause more problems, I took my leave, taking Carrie and the two door EBs with me.  It was scary, the slightest touch by me would give them an orgasm, and sustained contact would make them pass out in ecstasy.  But once started, if I removed that stimulation from their mind for more than a week or two, there was a fair chance they would go into seizures and die, and a very good chance their minds would shut down and they would go almost vegetative. 

When we got back to the RV, I showed Sara what to do and the two of us took care of the rest of the girls.  Interestingly, Daisy had already started to get ramped up.  Upon questioning, the only thing she had done different was take a drink from a drinking fountain at a rest stop north of the city.  I immediately called Margie and told her it was in the water.  She said that she would immediately take samples from around town, especially from the clinic and the rest stop, and send them to our research facility in Aspen.

Crisis averted, or at least delayed, the three local EBs took us on a tour of the city.  The ladies spent a good $100K on junk, I got a po-boy from a street vendor.  That evening, Amanda pole sat, then collapsed off to the side.  The door EB who had been able to talk jumped up as Amanda collapsed and slid down my cock, impaling herself to the hilt.  Her eyes got big as the pre-cum hit her vaginal mucus membranes, and she started quivering in orgasm after orgasm.  Her pussy clasped at my cock with every orgasm, making me rapidly cum, filling her quim.  A second later she opened her eyes wider, and she screamed and arched her back.  The sound of her spine cracking was loud.  I immediately repaired the damage as she sighed and passed out from total ecstasy and sensory overload.  She continued quivering and whimpering, even while she was out cold.  The other EB took one lick to clean me off and immediately collapsed unconscious quivering in orgasm after orgasm next to her friend.  Carrie said, “That looks like fun!” and also took a lick, collapsing next to the other two. 

Mandy came over and licked me clean while commenting between eager slurps, “Damn, they are really fucked up.” 

Sara joined her and said between her slurps, “Yeah, and it is a permanent condition.”

Mandy said, “I know how they feel, it is a lot like a drug addiction.  I just hope that it can slowly be ramped down, bit by bit.”

It turned out Mandy’s hopes were not to be.  Any attempt to lower the three EB’s addiction level would, within days, cause their minds to start going.  It seemed that I was stuck with them.  Tami began to train them as my backup security detail along with her daughters.  Since they had to be around anyway, why not make use of them?

Daisy and Sally went to our high school.  The joined the cheerleading squad and had the time of their lives.  Although they officially lived in a school dormitory, they snuck over to the house for a roll in the hay once or twice a week.  Their families moved into the new cabins that November; for the first time in fifteen years the campground was empty.  They were really good with what they did, taking it as a full time job and a matter of pride.  They caught over twenty poachers in the first couple of days.

Chapter 80

I was surprised that it had taken them so long.  I was working a shift in the home clinic when a patient handed me an envelope.  He promptly said, “You’ve been served,” hopped up and left.  I opened the letter, it was a summons to appear before a special senatorial board in two days.

Immediately, since there were no other cases that needed me, I ran upstairs and handed the subpoena to Zandy.  I commented, “I have been expecting this for six years now.  Wonder what took so long?”

“Good question.  Now, let’s see... the only member of your legal team that is available to go with you is Carmine.  Amy and I are both in our 8^th month and really shouldn’t be travelling.”  She took the subpoena, held it up, took a picture with her ear-bug, then sent it to Carmine.  A minute later Carmine was on the phone.  Zandy quickly filled her in as Carmine read the document.

Carmine said, “Tom, I’ll meet you at the Washington Clinic in a few hours.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

As I flew out, I reviewed my notes on the senators.  Ester, with her usual efficiency, had got the details, including who was on the panel.  She was sitting across from me on the plane.  Hmmm, they were a pretty corrupt bunch.  Not one of them in the entire eight senator panel wasn’t under the thumb of a big corporation.  Ester had all the details.

We arrived at the Washington Clinic.  What was a surprise was that waiting with Carmine was Sandra, Zane behind her as always.  I gave Cat, my daughter who ran the south of the river clinic in Washington, a big hug.  I also hugged Sandra.  I noticed that she had recently had a kid, so I did a quick rejuv update on her belly and hips.  I said, “Congratulations.  Was it a boy or girl?”

She smiled, “You would notice.  It was both actually.  Twins.”

“Wow.  I take it they are unofficial, then?”

“Zane and I haven’t decided what to do yet.”

I shook Zane’s hand.  “Congrats to you too.”

“Thanks.”  He was grinning like a man in love.

“When you marry this woman, I expect an invitation.”

“Deal.  Now tell her to stop hemming and hawing and marry me already.”

Sandra broke in, “Don’t worry honey, I will, but I need to get my ducks in a row first.”

Zane looked at me, “You hear that, she said she would!  You are my witness! Yes!” and he pumped his fist.

Sandra just rolled her eyes.  I indicated Ester.  “Sandra, this is my head of external security, Ester.  Ester, Sandra.”

Ester shook Sandra’s hand.  ”It is an honor to meet you Ms. President.”

I forewent introducing her to Zane, who was still pumping his fist, dancing around and saying, “Yes!” over and over.

As we sat down for dinner, Carmine and Sandra went over Ester’s research packet.  Sandra commented, “Geez, what a wonderful bunch of senators.  Ester, I congratulate you on your research.  Better job than any of my party researchers ever did.”

“Thanks.  It has taken me over fifty years to get my network up and running.  Still has a few holes, but it works.”

“You would get along great with Hoover if he was still around.”

Ester just gave her a shit-eating grin.

Carmine said, “Well Tom, it seems that if they get nasty, you could get nasty right back.”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that.  If it is about the rejuvs, then none of them qualify for a freebie, and I will not take tax dollars to do one.”

Sandra asked, “What do you charge anyway?”

“$250 million for a general rejuv, $1 billion for permanent rejuv.”

“Shit.”  She stared at the back of her hand.  “A cool billion, eh?  Wow.”

“What is not commonly known is that any of my daughters with the gift can do a rejuv.  And I am not even sure how many of them have the gift at this point.”

Cat chipped in, “As of this month, 63,283.”

“And I have 125,673 daughters that I know of.  Thanks, Cat.  Anyway, only I do them to outsiders to keep it under control.  The other item is that I only push the eternal youth into the genes for those of whom I like, for instance, Sandra and Zane, your twins will stop aging at 19 like you two.  I don’t do that for those who pay though, I don’t respect them.”

Sandra commented, “I can see that, but why are you telling us?”

“So you have a full deck of cards to play with.  We don’t want any blindsides.”

Carmine said, “This is like last time, we really aren’t sure what we are dealing with until we actually go.”

Ester said, “I wonder if Senator Davis would have any idea.  He is the only non-Freshman Senator I have found without a long list of corruption.  And to boot, he has a good record of philanthropy.  There is a good chance that he is actually honest, as much as a senator can be.”

Sandra said, “That is a good idea.  It would be good to have another senator on your side.  I am a little surprised to hear of a senator without a long list of people either in his pocket or being in someone’s pocket.  That is rare these days; I want to meet him myself.  There is a good chance someone like that might end up as President some day.”

I said, “See if we can get in to see him tomorrow.  Early if possible.”

Sandra added, “Use my name if necessary.”

Ester nodded, she was already murmuring into her ear-bug.  A minute later she said, “Tomorrow at nine.  I didn’t have to use Sandra’s name, he recognized Tom’s.”

Not knowing enough to plan any further, we relaxed for the evening.  Cat kept several of the apartments available for political purposes, and Sandra stayed at one for the night.

The next morning we headed over to the Hart building.  Senator Davis had an office in with all the other senior senators, one of the palatial ones.  His secretary, a stereotypical pretty blonde with red fingernails whom I suspected was acting much dumber than she really was, buzzed and announced our arrival.  The senator, who was tall and gangly, came bustling out of his office.  At the federal level things were much more professional, the secretary didn’t stare like the West Virginian State Senator’s office staff.

He herded us in.  With me were Carmine and Sandra.  Tami and Zane waited outside the door.  Once we were seated across from the senator’s desk, and he was seated at it, he asked, “So what can I do for you Mr. Malloy?  Must be big if you are bringing in a former President.”  Good, no pussyfooting around.

“Senator Davis, I realize we have never met, but I know that by reputation that you are an honorable man.” 

He nodded and said, “Thanks.  That is nice to hear.  But now you really have me on the edge of my seat since you are buttering me up.”

I grinned, “My motives are mostly selfish, I am afraid.  I was hoping that you would know why I was subpoenaed to appear before a senatorial board tomorrow.”

He leaned back, “Ah, I see.  As a matter of fact, I do.  I was approached to be on that panel, but turned it down.  It didn’t seem ethical.  They want to force you to give up the secret of the ‘rejuv’, as I understand it being called.”

I sighed.  “I was afraid of that.  I certainly won’t give it up to that corrupt bunch.  What do they think they can use for leverage, do you know?”

“No, although they might think that their position is enough.  I have been fighting corruption like this since before I took office.  It makes me very angry, but I can’t do much about it.”  He looked over at Sandra, “President Thompson, that was a neat trick you pulled on the Pentagon, but I don’t think that it will work here.  I have overheard several of these Senators discussing what they want to do with the secret of rejuv.  They are too invested at this point.”

She said, “I know.  Unfortunately, senators are not as maneuverable as generals.”

Carmine asked, “What do you think that they will do when they don’t get what they want?”

“I am not sure.  That depends on their leverage.  If they don’t have anything in mind right now, they could start doing things like passing legislation to close clinics.”

“Closing free clinics?  Isn’t that politically bad?”

“Yes, but they can manipulate a freshman senator into bringing it up and others into passing it, while voting against it themselves.  The reason I mention that is the medical and pharmaceutical lobbies have been trying to get us to pass similar legislation for many years.  They lose too much money because of the free clinics.”

“Yeah, I remember the mess Rolling made ten years ago.”

“Essentially the same, except that they are working together now.”

“Wonderful, something else to worry about,” I said sarcastically.  “And Senators Tokiyashi and Quince are in the pocket of the drug companies, so they would jump at the chance to try to pass the bill.”

Davis commented, “They are, huh?  That explains a few things.”

Ester said, “You are the only senior senator that we couldn’t find any corrupt information on.  They are all a nasty bunch.”

“Every single one, eh?  That is scary.  I’m surprised you didn’t find my one skeleton.”

“You mean the bar fight where you punched out the guy who was fondling your sister?”

“Yeah, that one.”

“That doesn’t count.  I would have done the same thing.  Your coworkers probably would have asked the guy for $20 and then let him keep at it.”

Davis laughed.  “You have them pegged! Lady, if you ever want another job, you can work for me any time!”  Then he got serious.  “I think I will be at this board of inquiry tomorrow, in the observer seats.  I will also make sure that there are no glitches in the recording equipment, which tends to happen when something questionable is being done.”

I shook his hand, saying, “Thank you.  I will see you tomorrow then?”

“Yes, tomorrow.”

Sure thing, he, and about twenty others, including several obvious reporters, were there when we arrived at 10 AM.  I shook as many hands as I could.  The rest of the seats were filled with my ladies from the Washington clinic and Sandra.  I sat with them.

At precisely 10:30, a speaker stood and announced, “Hear ye, Hear ye, please rise as this formal board of inquiry into the matter of rejuvenation is called.  Presiding at this board is the honorable Senator Vanderboss. Hear ye, hear ye.”  The twelve senators marched in, separating between the two sides of the main table.  They all looked a little consternated at the full room.

After everyone was seated, Vanderboss banged his gavel and bellowed, “This board will come to order.”  The room was instantly quiet.  He continued, “We have convened here to investigate the use of the medical technique known as rejuvenation.  Over the last few years this has become known to the world, but the side effects of such a technique is unknown, as is how the rejuvenation itself is done.  This cannot continue.  It is a risk to public health.”  Huh?  What kind of cockamamie excuse is that?  Curing people is a risk to public health?  I almost laughed.  He went on in some length, essentially saying the same thing over and over in different ways.  He kept glancing at me and I could tell he was getting mad.  It must have been the suppressed laughter on my face.

It finally got to him, he repeated it one more time, then said, “The board would like to call Tom Malloy to testify.”

Carmine and I got up and went to the table in front, in the center of the semi-circle.  A man stepped forward and said, “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?”

“No.”

That got everyone in a thither.  Vanderboss asked, “Why not, Mr. Malloy?”

“I will gladly tell the truth and nothing but the truth, but there is no way I am telling you everything.”

“Again, why not, Mr. Malloy?”

“Since you want me to tell the truth, I will say that I don’t trust you any further than I can throw you, Mr. Vanderboss.”

“Senator Vanderboss, and for the third time, why not?”

“Do you really want me to answer that, SENATOR Vanderboss?”

He turned a little green, but said, “I think you have to, Mr. Malloy.”

“It has to do with the $23 million payoff from Daimer Energy, the $19 million payoff from Southwest Electric, the $13 million payoff from Exxon, the $6 million payoff from Halverson Pharmaceuticals... shall I go on, Senator Vanderboss?”

He was beet red and puffing, desperately trying to recover.  “No, that is quite enough.”  Going on the defensive, he said, “Where is your proof for all these accusations?”

I blinked the file to a prepared address list.  “I just emailed the proof to you and the media.”

He got even redder, if possible.  “You, you, you...”

This was working out better than I had hoped.  “Will that be all, SENATOR Vanderboss?”

He got up and ran out of the room.  I said, “I assume that means I am dismissed.  Thank you for your time, ladies and gentlemen.”  The rest of them just sat there in shock.  I think that they didn’t want to risk what I knew about them.

I was willing to bet that it was some of the most exciting C-SPAN footage ever.

Apparently, by the time I was back to my car, Vanderboss had executed his bug out plan and was halfway to Brazil, which was still a non-extradition country.

Carmine was still snickering, Ester had a shit-eating grin, and Sandra was grinning as well.  Sandra commented, “That was fun.  Now for sober reality.  The rest of them are going to come after you from behind the scenes now.  You need to go public, maybe not with the actual method, but other details.  Let them chew on that for a while.”

“I’d be willing to do a 60 minutes interview.”  The show had recently been revived.  The remnants of CBS had gone out of their way to preserve the journalistic integrity of the original program.

Sandra said, “That is a great idea!  They have been bugging me for an interview for years.  We could both do ones that go together.  They would love that idea.”

The next day we were still in Washington.  A 60 Minutes news crew was setting up on the balcony of a penthouse in the clinic atrium.  A second crew was busy getting B roll down in the clinic and in the atrium park.

The reporter, Joan Givens, recorded the interview with Sandra first.  After the initial stuff she got to the rejuv.  Joan asked Sandra, “What has been the biggest change since the rejuv?”

“The biggest was getting pregnant.  I had completely given up on children, and I never expected to have any.  It was quite the surprise to have twins when I am nearly a hundred.”

The reporter couldn’t hide the smile, she was getting quite the scoop.  “Twins?  I haven’t heard about that.  So the rejuv was complete.”

“Yes.  I should have realized what the return of my monthlies meant.  But I hadn’t had them for over forty years and didn’t think.  I couldn’t be happier though.  I have two beautiful children, and I am engaged to their father, Henry Zane.”

The reporter thought for a minute.  Now that the cat was out of the bag, she could do secondary footage later with the kids and boyfriend.  Time to change the subject back to the original.  “Wow, you sound more like a twenty-something than a geriatric former President.”

“You bet I do.  That is because I am twenty again.”

“Some people have asked; are you planning on running for office again?”

Sandra laughed.  “I will tell you right now that it will be many years before I do THAT again!”

A few more questions, then my interview started.  After half an hour, the question was asked, “Analysts say that you are now the richest man on earth, that you are worth $1.6 trillion dollars.”

“You know, Joan, a friend said that a little while back, so I asked my accountants.  I am worth considerably more than that.  They were only taking into account the liquid assets plus the original purchase price of the clinics in North America.  In all, I am told that I personally hold assets worth $3.1 trillion.”

“That is a lot of money.  What do you do with it?”

“This may surprise people, but outside of travel expenses, I spend maybe $200 a month, usually on fast food.  The rest goes to pay for the clinics.”

“That is hard to believe.  You could have anything, literally anything you want, and you spend all your money on the poor?”

“Yes.”

“How much do all your clinics cost to run?”

“We don’t get any help from the governments, so they are all out of pocket.  The total for the 385 clinics around the world cost around $5 billion to run.  Add another $100 million a year for the clinic on the space station.”

“Where does all the money come from?”

“Rejuvs.  We charge $250 million per person.  Every once in a while we get donations as well.”

“I have noticed that all your employees are young, as is yourself.  I assume that you all have had rejuvs then?”

“Of course.  I invented the process, so I used myself as a guinea pig.”

“When was that?”

“I was 15.  That was 72 years ago.”

“72 years?!?  That means that you are 83, but you look like you are a teenager.  That ever cause any problems?”

“No, and I have been surprised over that for most of those 72 years.  People just seem to accept that a seeming teenager runs a multi-national company, has seven degrees, personally knows Popes and Presidents, and needs security guards.”

“That is surprising.  What was the most interesting rejuv you have ever done?”

“Most interesting... Hmmm... I suppose it was for a 13 year old girl.  She was haploid, with a club foot and missing her left arm and eye.  After the rejuv, she loved to run.  I have employed her for 59 years now.”

“So rejuvs don’t just make people younger.  They also heal injuries?”

“Yes.  It is common in my clinics to do partial rejuvs on people to cure things like cancer or conditions like that little girl’s.”

“Did you say, cure cancer?”

“Sure, we have been doing that now for seventy years for anyone who walks in the door to a clinic.  It is ridiculous, we advertise but still people die of cancer.”

She sat there thinking for a minute, then went on to the next bullet item on her list.  “You call them clinics, but they are much more than that, aren’t they?”

“Most of them, yes.”

“We are sitting on a balcony overlooking multiple levels of apartments and a large park.  How does this come into play?”

“Well, about sixty years ago, we added homeless shelters to our clinics.  The style you see here, the enclosed skyscraper, we call Valery style clinics because my daughter Valery came up with the concept when she established the first one of this type in the Bronx forty nine years ago.  We provide a dorm room or apartment for people until they get back up on their feet.  Like most shelters, we provide job placement, day care, and the like.  Actually the biggest problem is that most people don’t want to move out of the shelter, they like it there too much.”  I grinned.

“You mentioned your daughter, Valery.  Do you have many kids?”

“Quite a few.  Lots of grandkids and great grandkids too.  All of my clinics are run by one of my kids.”

“It is said that you have ties with the Catholic Church.”

“In a way.  I am Lutheran, but Pope Mark II was a good friend, I still miss his dry wit.  Several of my daughters are Catholic, and they founded the Rome Clinic right outside of the Vatican with the Pope’s blessing.”

“Why do you spend so much money helping others?”

“It’s funny, when I had just turned 16, I had to ask myself some serious questions.  I was a medical prodigy, I could make a ton of money like a plastic surgeon and party constantly, or I could help others.  Fortunately, my parents raised me with a very strong sense of ethics, so I forewent my dream of being a physicist and instead got my nursing degree and started the clinics.  To pay for it all, I created the full rejuv and sold it to rich people.  I do take a vacation once in a while, but I have never had a guilty night’s sleep in my life.  Also in the years since then, I have earned my masters in Physics anyway.”

“Just how many degrees do you have?”

“Seven.  I have master’s degrees in Physics, Nursing, Genetics, and History.  I have B.A.s in Sociology, English, and Anthropology.”

“I couldn’t help but notice the security around here.  What is it all for?”

“Originally it was just a few bodyguards for me and my family.  Then it grew to be the security behind all the clinics.  It is arguably the best private security on the planet.  As former President Thompson can testify, we even rescued her and some of her secret service detail at one point.  I am sure you have heard of the ‘Leslie Patrols’?”

“Aren’t they some sort of highly trained police, like a patrolling SWAT unit?”

“Not a bad description.  What most people don’t realize is that they are based out of the clinics and provide a free supplement to municipal police forces.  They were started in honor of Leslie MacAndrews, a police officer who helped in the founding of the clinics and was killed while rescuing a baby from a criminal thirteen years ago.”

“I understand your love of RVing has spawned a sort of mobile rescue unit.”

“Yes.  58 years ago we designed and built a portable clinic.  It was first used for hurricane Sally.  Since then they have become standard at all natural disasters.  In Russia, where there are still people living in 19^th century conditions and there still is fighting along the southern border, we have had portable clinics roving the countryside for the last 24 years.”

“Why don’t you have clinics in places where they are most needed, like central Africa?”

“Joan, every single person who works for me is like a family member.  I utterly refuse, despite a lot of pressure, to send them into a war zone.  I believe the only clinic on the entire continent of Africa is in Johannesburg, and I was leery about even building one there.  Believe me when I say there is a full time crew in that clinic monitoring the local situation and ready to evacuate the clinic if necessary.  As I said when we built the first clinic outside of North America 26 years ago, I will not provide targets for terrorists.”

“That is a pretty strong statement.”

“If you mean that it seems biased and politically incorrect, you are wrong.  It is simple fact.  If there are wandering bands of terrorists, no matter how controlled, I will not send my children to those locations.”

“Well that makes sense.  I wouldn’t either.”  She glanced down at her notes, then back up.  “That covers pretty much everything.”  She held out her hand.  “Thank you for the interview, the response to this one will be interesting.”

They added a few other things, like following a kid with leukemia into the clinic, waiting in the lobby, then interviewing him when he came out cancer free.  The reporter must have worked overtime, because both Sandra’s and my interviews were in the next cast a few days later.

The response was interesting.  While it was one of the most watched casts in the last twenty years, it had almost no effect.  We had a small upsurge in cancer patients, a lottery winner spent her entire winnings on a rejuv, but that was about it.

One effect, Gertie got herself listed in the Guinness Book as the oldest rejuved person ever recorded; a new category.  The oldest non-rejuved record stayed with a 136 year old woman from Italy.  Gertie was pretty active in doing interviews, being that she was the only person alive who remembered World War II and the Korean War.  She also got a lot of modeling offers.

Chapter 81

The War on Terror.  Now considered one of the longest wars in history, it had even surpassed the 20^th century cold war in duration.  It had scaled down a bit since the early 21^st century, but was still ongoing, draining resources that could be put to much better use.

When my great granddaughter sat on my knee and asked, “Grandpa, why are the soldiers always fighting?” and I had no good answer besides, “They are just not nice people and they want to hurt others so we fight to stop them,”  I decided to do something.  The nutcases had to be stopped for good.  We were already fighting the third generation of the bastards and I didn’t want to wait for a forth.

I called together my advisors, all the ringed girls who had been with me all these years.  I explained what I wanted to do and asked for ideas.  There weren’t that many, but one idea that I liked more and more as I thought about it.

We inserted into the military medical core several of my gifted descendants.  There were three serving already, but another twenty signed up.  What they did was give every soldier they came across a lite version of the law enforcement upgrade.  Double the strength, the fast healing, high endurance, the fast reflexes, all the drug immunities.  We cut down on the strength and some of the endurance on general principles. 

It seemed that we weren’t the only ones with ideas.  Many of the soldiers had already been enhanced, chemically.  The method had many negative long term effects, a lot of steroids were involved, and was very illegal.  We added immunity to that drug regimen as part of our upgrade.  Meanwhile, we started a trace on it.

We knew that it would take a while before a difference was seen.  It would take a while for all our mods to trickle throughout the military and for basic changes in strategy to take place as a result.

We traced the bad enhancements to an Admiral Deerhorn and, of course, Rolling Pharmaceuticals.  They were still pretty disreputable.  We prepared all the evidence of the food tampering, and one of my girls in the military presented it to the JAG.  The JAG was pretty upset and she started an immediate investigation.  Lieutenant June Malloy, USMC Nurse, was the official whistle blower.  She told the JAG that she had used the family technology to repair the soldiers damaged and that she would accept the repercussions of her actions.

June’s court marshal found her not guilty.  In fact, the whole incident went as a commendation on her record.  As her court marshal was concluding, the investigation was concluded and the Admiral was quietly arrested and all the tainted food was confiscated.

Because of how serious the charges were, he wasn’t just allowed to resign and disappear.  He had a full court marshal, claiming he was not guilty of any wrongdoing, that what he did was necessary.  Since there weren’t any actual deaths from his actions, he only got ten years and a dishonorable.  He had authorized Rolling to manufacture the drugs involved, so they got off.  Ester told me that she heard that they were pretty upset about having to shut down an entire production line.

By the time all that was over, the enhancements were starting to have an effect on the war.  Insurgents were not escaping so easily anymore.  IEDs were seen more often and so their effects went way down.  Remote drones were flown more precisely, with much greater precision on the attacks.  Likewise with fighter planes.  The stalemate that had lasted the last fifty years was broken.

Chapter 82

Traci, one of my new guards from New Orleans, was shaking my shoulder.  I opened one eye and said, “Hello beautiful.  What’s up?”

“Master, we just received word.  We are evacuating the Johannesburg clinic.”

I was instantly awake.  I pulled away from Mandy and jumped out of bed.  Traci stared at my cock with dilated eyes and shuddered in repressed desire.  She was useless like that, so I gave her a big French kiss and she collapsed in a corner chair as I quickly got dressed.

I called in on my ear-bug as I ran down the tunnel to the estate security center.  “Status!”

“The People’s Republic of Botswana has just invaded South Africa.  They are killing everyone in their path.  They are not sparing anyone, even medical personnel.  The evacuation order for the Johannesburg clinic has been given.  Not even the idealistic doctors and nurses there want to stick around.  They are within hours of being overrun.”

I ran into the very busy center as the end of the report was being given.  I asked, “Are all the evacuation stages still in place?”

“Yes, we are bussing the personnel to the airport.  The three C-130Ts that were hidden in the hanger there are fueled and ready to go.  The medical and other supplies are sealed in the hidden bunker under the clinic where the invasion force cannot find them.  The only issue is that we are short on space in the planes and many will have to ride standing up, packed in like sardines.  We were going to move in a fourth plane, but that was scheduled for next month.”

“Damn.  What is their destination?”

“Toliara, Masagascar.”

“Get me there by the fastest way possible.”

“Yes, sir.  Your plane will be wheels up in 15 minutes.”

Sure enough, I was on my way with Tami and two of her daughters, Betty and Veronica.  Also with me were six EBs who were almost as good as them, which meant that any one of them could easily take out a seal team by herself.  Tami’s youngest, Sabrina, was only ten, but she could effortlessly beat any of those EBs.  Over the years I have examined Tami’s DNA more than once, it was literally perfect as far as anything physical.  Her DNA was as beautiful in its perfection as she was.

Once outside U.S. airspace, the pilots ramped up the plane to its maximum speed, mach 7.  Three hours later we were landing in Toliara.  Security had called ahead and we had an entire hanger for staging.  The planes from Johannesburg were due in ten minutes.  We had just beaten them by half an hour.

The planes landed and taxied over to the hanger.  The side door opened while the blocks were being put in and out jumped Mary, Olive, and Penny.  I still wasn’t used to seeing people jump that far effortlessly.  The three of them ran over and encased me in a giant hug.  I hugged them back, tightly.  Then Tami and her girls joined in on the big hug.  Tami exclaimed, “Thank Tom you all made it out of there!”

Olive asked, “Any word?”

I said, “Not since the airport was overrun five minutes after you took off.”

“Damn!” said Olive and Penny simultaneously.

By this time the crowd was growing as the back gates of the planes were all open and the EBs were swarming around me.  I saw a couple of trucks coming across the tarmac, and went to greet them.

One truck was a catering truck and set out a table with food.  The driver panicked when he saw the 800 or so EBs, 50 hospital staff and 100 or so other refugees who had crammed into the planes as well and called in for more food.  The other truck was Immigration.  Six inspectors piled out and began recording names and stamping whatever passports people had managed to snap up as they fled.

It took three hours, but we were able to determine that everyone was present.  Not a single person had been left behind.  I began to think about what we were going to do with all of them.  That was solved for me.

A fantastically beautiful black girl approached me.  I asked, “Can I help you?”

“Master, a group of us were wondering if we could have your permission to return.”

“I assume you want to fight?”

“Yes.”

“As long as anybody who goes does not have a small child, I have no problem with it.  It is your homeland, go defend it.”

“Thank you, Master.”  She scurried back to the group she had been talking to.  They began to excitedly talk amongst themselves.  Several went to talk to other groups.  A separate group of about 80 who were pregnant or had a child with them formed.  Soon the representative was back.  “Master, there are 537 of us who want to go.”

“Okay.  Wait a few hours and we will see what kind of weapons and supplies we can find for you, then we’ll arrange transportation.”

“Thank you, Master.”  She ran back to tell the others.

I contacted the Madagascar government, but they wanted to remain neutral.  Understandable.  I had a cargo plane filled in Perth, then flown in.  The Aussies were glad to help.  We distributed the uniforms, gear, P980 combat rifles, and Beretta handguns.  Included in their gear were satellite uplinks for their ear-bugs so we could keep in communication.

They choose to parachute in near Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, just across the border from South Africa.  Within a day, they had captured the city and executed Ferraro Mutunbo, the leader.  Within the week, they had recaptured Johannesburg.  There was no stopping them.  They were defending their homeland, and very, very pissed off.  It also helped that any one of them was four times stronger and faster than any of the enemy invaders.

They slowed down a bit because they had spread out so much, but they managed to wipe out the last of the bastards by the end of the month.  I had left to take care of other things after the first week, but I was back for the final assault.  It was a bit scary, the girls fired multi-round bursts into the enemy troops, and every single round found a destination.  They were outnumbered 20 to one in most battles, and at the end there was maybe one or two injuries on the girl’s side and the other side was wiped out.  They were really pissed.

A month after the invasion, the nations of Botswana and South Africa were run by the EBs from the Johannesburg clinic.  And the world knew it.  Every move had been documented by satellite and news crews.  That a bunch of security guards from a clinic and homeless shelter conquered an entire invading army plus their home country was the news of the hour.

When interviewed, General Jacomina, the girl who had talked with me in the hanger, said, “We have only the standard training that all clinic security has.”  The grammar wasn’t that great, but everyone understood.  Clinic security guards around the world started getting a lot of respect.  Leslie Patrols doubled.

Because of the size of the area to cover, she requested UN peacekeeping troops until elections could be held.  A thankful UN gladly sent in troops to help police the country, since all the cops had been shot along with 80% of the rest of the population.  The invaders hadn’t even had a reason except that they didn’t want to be bothered by having to feed people, a bullet was cheaper.  That brutality made the EBs decision to take them out to a man understandable.  Also the UN presence dissuaded Namibia from taking advantage of the situation.

One of the first things she did was reopen the Johannesburg Thrupp Clinic.  She also got the EMRVs out of the hidden bunkers and sent them around to country.  They were needed badly by the survivors.

In the end, not a single EB was killed.

Chapter 83

We were halfway between Seoul and Kolkata when the pilots suddenly banked and rolled the plane.  Fortunately we were all buckled in.  Dawn, the co-pilot, announced, “We are being shot at!  Take your seats now!”

I was surprised.  It was very hard to shoot at a jet flying at mach 3.  One reason is that they are out of range in a blink of an eye.  That blink of an eye later, the plane was hit, taking out part of a wing and one of the engines.  We were slammed to the side, then forward as the plane dropped to sub-sonic speeds.  Dawn was back on the intercom, “We are going to have to bail.  The hydraulics are out and we can’t lower the gear.”

Tami immediately pulled parachutes from a storage locker and tossed one to me.  She, Betty, Traci, Natalie, and Amanda (Mandy was home pregnant) also each strapped one on.  Val and Dawn slowed the plane and got us under 5600 meters and under 200 knots.  Tami popped the door.  The wind was unbelievable.  Tami watched to make sure the emergency supplies auto-ejected as the door popped, then she made sure we were all out then jumped herself.  As I drifted down, I glanced up and watched as Val and Dawn ejected followed by the plane running straight into the side of a mountain with a tremendous fireball.  After that I was busy trying to avoid the same fate.  I managed to steer the ‘chute into an empty clearing, Tami, Betty, Traci, Natalie, and Amanda right alongside me.  I called out, “We have to find those supplies, Val and Dawn before whoever shot us down gets here!”

We all took off at a run.  While we were enhanced and could take the cold for a while, but even we needed the cold weather gear in the supplies to last long in 40 below temperatures.  We ran through the sparse trees across the valley to where we figured the supplies had landed.  They whole area was swarming with troops.  What was strange was that they weren’t Chinese, and Tibet was part of China.  I wondered if the Chinese government even knew if these turkeys were here.

They were pulling apart the emergency supplies, I saw the emergency ear-bug relay on the ground next to the big crate.  It didn’t appear to be damaged.  It must have been turned off, otherwise we would be in range to use it.  Damn, I wasn’t sure of what to do without those supplies.

Then a bigger problem appeared, they led in Val and Dawn roped together.  Shit.  Now we were without supplies, and they had two of us prisoner.  I just hoped they were dumb enough not to know to disable the GPS transponders on the ejection seats.

If I knew my girls, this entire area was been saturated with satellite coverage from at least three satellites.  The Chinese government had been called and was sending troops.  We just had to survive a day and we would be rescued by both the Chinese Military, the U.S. Military, and my own army of EBs.  In the meantime, we had to keep warm and also rescue Val and Dawn.

I whispered to Tami, “You are the military expert, what’s your take on this?”

“Hard to say.  I think they are Tibetan separatists.”

“Crap.  Any ideas on getting blankets and rescuing Val and Dawn?”

“We really can’t do much without weapons against several hundred of them.  I say that we wait a bit until they calm down and encamp, then get Val and Dawn out of there.  I figure that the main rescue party won’t be here until at least dawn.”

“I concur.  Let’s find someplace safe to wait.”

She started to nod, then suddenly whipped her head around.  She gestured for us to stay put and disappeared.  A minute later she was back with two blankets and a flare gun.  She grinned, “The old jeep that just went by had a survival kit in the back.”

“Good work, now let’s hide for a few hours.”

We found a small sheltered area under some rocks and huddled together under the blankets.  Too bad it was so cold, otherwise I would have enjoyed it.  Tami and Betty kept alternately checking on the Tibetans.  They apparently had decided to set up camp where the supply crate had landed.  Betty came back with another two blankets and another flare gun.  Now, we were set for the night, except for rescuing Val and Dawn.

Tami and Betty could probably easily get them out of the camp, but there would be an immediate alarm.  Since they weren’t in any immediate danger, we reluctantly decided to let them be.  Betty reported that they were trying truth serums on them without much luck.  Their enhanced metabolisms along with the immunities to narcotics blocked most of the effects of the potions.  Apparently the interrogators were getting frustrated.  They gave up at around two A.M., posting guards around the two girls.

Everything from the crate had been strewn out all over the place, so Tami took a chance and pinched the relay, hoping they wouldn’t miss it.  The reason it wasn’t running was that the battery was missing.  Either because of the crash or poorly prepared equipment.  The problem was that our ear-bugs didn’t have nearly enough juice, and stealing a jeep battery would be noticed in no time.  Then Betty had a brainstorm.  She acquired a portable camp stove.  The battery in that was close enough in voltage that we were able to jury rig it to the relay.

Instantly my ear-bug had a call.  “Master Tom, is that you?”

“Yes, Ester.  You have my GPS coordinates?”

“Oh, thank Tom.  Yes.  What is situation?  We see a camp site north of your location.”

“Everyone is alive.  We were shot down by Tibetan separatists.  They are holding Val and Dawn.  Tami and Betty have their camp pretty well staked out, they can pull them if necessary.”

“We are receiving telemetry from their ear-bugs, apparently they still are wearing them.”

“Are you sure it is them?  Someone may be wearing their ear-bugs.”

“Yes, the bio-signature matches, so it must be them or another of your EBs or daughters.”

“Then fill them in with what is happening.  Also fill me in.”

“The Chinese government is pretty upset.  They half don’t believe that you were even shot down.  The EBs of the entire continent of Asia are on alert, ready to march in there on foot if necessary.  Oh, an update.  The magic words for the Chinese were ‘Tibetan Separatists’ apparently.  They have mobilized and are sending troops.  They will be there within the hour.”

“Let me know when they are five minutes out and I will have Tami and Betty pull Val and Dawn from the camp.  And tell the Chinese to be careful, somehow these guys shot down an SST.”

“Roger.”

Forty minutes she said, “The Chinese transports will clear the mountains in two minutes.”

I immediately called Tami and Betty.  “Lady Ninjas, time to rescue your sisters.”

“Yes, boss.”

They left their phones on so we could watch.  They slipped into the camp, took out the six guards in an eye blink, and were leading Val and Dawn back before the alarm was even raised for the incoming troop transports.  Drones came in ahead of the transport and took out the rebel AAGs, then the troops dropped in as the plane went VTOL and dropped down to the ground.  In no time the entire valley was filled with Chinese troops plus an entire troop of EBs who dropped in directly at my coordinates and secured the area.  I have no idea how the hell they convinced the Chinese government to allow them to drop with the regular troops.  Maybe because they were all Chinese EBs from Hong Kong.  Somehow they were fully armed.

The entire group of rebel soldiers were captured and hauled off by the Chinese.  I didn’t even want to know what happened to them.  We boarded a plane sent especially for us, and headed back to Hong Kong, where dozens of reporters were waiting for us.

We later learned that all the Tibetan Separatist leaders (of that band at least) were shot and the rest imprisoned.

Chapter 84

I hadn’t explored the main compound in a long time.  Malloton was now a large town, almost a city unto itself.  Over behind the school we had built the airstrip, but there was an entire military complex that I hadn’t even set foot in, except for the control room, next to the airstrip.  I decided to take a look.

In the first building I found what appeared to be a super-fancy lab.  Dozens of EBs running around in white coats testing and mixing.  Even with all my degrees I had no idea what they were all doing.  I decided not to step in any farther without knowing what was going on.

I took the tunnel over to the next building.  It was a warehouse.  There must have been millions of pounds of stored food and supplies.  I got in the elevator and pressed the lowest button, SB23.  The elevator went down, and down, and down...  I was amazed.  This close to the lake they must of plasma sealed the walls like we had had to do in Rome.  I stepped out of the elevator, walked around the corner, and into another warehouse, five stories tall, with dozens of forklifts scooting around.  That is when it hit me, this was the central distribution hub for the North American clinic operations!  No wonder it was so huge.

On the wall next to the elevator was a door marked, “Computer Core”.  That was interesting since the elevator was on the outside wall.  Anything past that door did not appear on the building plans or on the surface.  I thought, “The game is afoot!” and opened the door.  It was a short tunnel with a door on the other end.  I entered the tunnel.  Suddenly a flash of light went off.  Then a very sexy voice said, “Optical scan complete, tentative identification, Tom Malloy.  Please state your name for Voice Print analysis.”

With a raised eyebrow, I said, “Tom Malloy”.

“Voice print confirmed.”  There was a buzz and the door ahead of me opened.  Bemused, I went in.

The room was as large as the one I just left.  A good hundred meters square.  Completely full of computer equipment, several stories worth, so advanced that I didn’t even recognize it.  As I was staring in surprise, a voice came over my ear-bug.  “Hello Master Tom, how may I help you?”

The voice was perfect, but somehow I knew.  “Just an inspection.  You are the computer, correct?”

“Yes.  My name is Eliza.  Kind of an inside joke.”

I snorted.  Yes it was.  This was the most advanced AI I had ever seen.  Probably could get the Loebner prize effortlessly.  I asked, “I was unaware that you were here, could you tell me a bit about yourself?”

“Ha Ha.  Very funny.”  Eliza said sarcastically.  It took me a second to realize what I had said.  She went on, ”Anyway, I was started as a project about forty years ago by Ester.  She wanted a computer to help her collate all the intelligence reports that she received.  She had a team of EBs build me, then started training me from the ground up.  Took me months to figure out how to say ‘Hi mommy.’  Hmmm, maybe you can tell me since no one seems to know, what does EB stand for?”

“Well, um, if you can keep it to yourself unless it is needed in an emergency or something, I will explain where the term came from.”

“Deal.”

“The first EBs were a clique of cheerleaders who had just graduated and came to me and demanded that I take them in.”

“How arrogant!  Let me guess, you took them in, but only with the training.  I bet EB stands for Ex-Bitch.”

“Very good.  The training and name were Amanda’s idea, by the way.”

“Yeah, sounds like her.”

“By the way, do you have an avatar or something?  I would like to put a face on you.”

“Sure, I actually haven’t run her for a few months, but I have started startup diagnostics.  Come around back.”

I walked around the room to the back.  To my surprise there was a small apartment there.  The door was open so I went in.  Out of a back room walked a girl who looked about 14.  There was detail missing, but she seemed to move well.  She asked, “So what do you think?”

“Not bad.  The mouth is amazing.  What is your range?  I would think there would be severe bandwidth problems at a distance.”

“I actually solved those problems years ago.  I figured out how to go essentially anywhere that there isn’t a transmission delay, about hundred miles before it would become noticeable.  Problem is that the equipment to do that would be extremely expensive, which is why the adult avatar was never built.”

“That seems silly.  You are obviously an intelligent being.  If you have been helping Ester all this time, then you have easily earned your adult avatar.  I will talk to Ester immediately about having one built.”

“Thank you, Master.”  She bowed her eyes.

“Tell me, do you emulate body language for your avatar, or is it done sort of subconsciously?”

“I was designed like the human mind, a conscious, sub-conscious, and then the physical control, all subconscious but overridable, just like a human.”

“If that is so, then we have to get you out of here.  What happens to a human in isolation?”

She looked thoughtful for a minute, then worried.  “They go nuts.”

“If you are that close to being human, I will insist on an adult avatar for you and interactive work with others.”

“Put that way, I agree that it is necessary.  The last thing you need is a schizoid super-computer on your hands.”  She gave me a big grin.  I understood it although there was a lot of detail missing.  Something I would have to fix.

An hour later, I went into Ester’s office.  She was pouring over some written reports.  She looked up at me, “Yes, Master Tom?”

“I just had a long conversation with Eliza.”

“I didn’t even know that you knew about her.”

“I didn’t until two hours ago when I saw a tunnel marked ‘computer core’.”

“Oh.”  She looked a bit embarrassed.  “I haven’t really done much on the project in the last few years.”

“The project, as you put it, is pretty lonely.  Now, I am not one to anthromorphize, but you built an actual person there, and she is trapped and starting to go ‘nuts’, as she put it herself.”

“Oh my god.”

“In 81 years, this is first time I have ever been disappointed with you.  Now, two things.  One, you will spend time with her, as her mommy.  And two, help her and a team of your best engineering EBs build the ultimate adult avatar.  I want to be able to stand face to face with her and not be able to tell she isn’t flesh and blood.  Do you understand?”

“Yes, Master.”  She lowered her eyes, almost crying.

“I think of her as one of my EBs, and I expect others to do so as well.  There are consequences for your actions, Ester.”  And I turned and left.

The avatar took over six months to build, and cost nearly a billion dollars.  I had had many conversations with her via ear-bug, and had come to admire her greatly.  I hadn’t been involved in the construction since the very beginning, so I wasn’t even thinking of Eliza’s avatar. 

It was a June morning when Ester came up to me with an EB in tow.  I noticed that the EB looked a lot like Ester, but slightly different.  I asked, “So who’s the cute new assistant?  She looks a lot like you.  A relative?”

“Yes, I believe you have met her before.  This is my daughter Eliza.”  Ester was grinning.

I was staring with my jaw dropped.  She was perfect, down to the crinkle on her nipples, the flash in her eyes, and the cute dimple.

Eliza laughed, then with a big grin said, “So what do you think?”

“Wow.”  I reached out and touched her cheek.  Even felt right.  I continued to stare at Eliza as I said, “Ester, I was really upset when I said it, and I never expected you to succeed.  This is unbelievable.  You sure fooled me.  I am impressed.”

“Thank you, Master.”

“Mind if I borrow your assistant for a while?”

“Of course.”

Eliza followed me as I continued on my rounds, saying hello to all the EBs in the guard towers.  I asked her, “So, how complete is the body?”

“As complete as technologically possible, in fact, several new technologies were invented just to build me.  Many new composites to keep the weight down.  We even did some reprogramming to add physiological responses.  I can feel heat, cold, touch, pain, and pleasure.  I have a sense of smell and a crude sense of taste.  The technology isn’t completely there for that yet.  This body is warm, and secrets saliva and vaginal fluid, chemically similar anyway.”

“Then there is something I have wanted to do for a long time.”  I pulled her to me and gave her a long French kiss.  Damn, she even tasted right.  I felt her nipples get hard against my chest.  I squeezed her ass and she moaned into my mouth.  As I pulled back she moaned again and leaned back against the wall gasping.  “Damn, Master, I love you so much!”  I spun her around and bent her over a bench, slowly sliding in.  She must have been tutored by her mom, her vaginal movements were identical as we fucked.  I came, filling her quim, and she screamed in ecstasy and nearly passed out in a daze on the bench.  That was some physiological programming!

She slowly came around, when she was almost back to normal she said, “Damn, We almost blew every breaker in the computer core.”  She smiled up at me and said, “It was worth it, Master.”

We continued the rounds, and I examined her as we went.  I realized that like many of my girls, from the neck down she was identical to Ester, and her face was close, but with deliberate changes.  She even had the clone birthmark on her shoulder. 

She showed her sense of humor as well, one of the guard’s passwords wasn’t working for doing her daily report, so Eliza waved her hand at the terminal, said, “Wallah!” and it logged in.  Since none of the other EBs were in on her secret, the guard gasped and said, “How did you do that?”

Eliza grinned and said, “Trade secret.”

As we walked I asked, “So is running the avatar taking up most of your processing power?”

“Heck no.  As newer components have become available, parts have been swapped out.  Right now I am running only at about 6% of full load.  When we made love back there I spiked to 100% for a minute, but that wouldn’t hurt much, most of the computer core is decentralized.  I manage more than process these days.  Most of my capacity is used for my original purpose, to collate my mom’s reports.  I am actually also running a waldo right now repairing a bad processing module.”

“Well, they say women are good at multi-tasking...” I joked.

She elbowed me while rolling her eyes.

“One last question, do you sleep?”

“Yes I do.  It is part of the architecture of my human brain model.  I need two to three hours, preferably every day, but I can wait up to about 72 hours if necessary.”

“Then when you aren’t helping your mom or just out having fun, please join me and my group.”

“Really?” she squealed.

“Sure.”

She jumped around then gave me a big hug.  Whoever had programmed all her auto responses was a real genius.  I had the feeling she had done it herself.  After watching those perfect nips bouncing around, I kissed her hard.

Eliza rapidly became Tami’s sparring partner.  They could go for hours.  I think Eliza was the first ‘person’ to be able to keep up with Tami in years.  Her daughters were close, but still not quite at her level, which by now must be 30^th dan, if that even exists.

Eliza loved the classics “DARYL”, “Bicentennial Man”, and “Star Trek: TNG”.  She hated “A.I.”.  She got hooked when I quoted her the line, “A computer becomes human when you can’t tell the difference anymore.”  She looked up the reference and learned of all the late 20^th and early 21^st century SciFi shows.  Like Andrew in “Bicentennial Man”, she got upgrades as fast as they became available, usually as fast as she could design them.  She figured out and soon had taste buds, then a digestive system, although she didn’t use it for anything except eating, sucking cock, and shitting since she used a mini fuel cell for power.  Her goal was to get the computer core in the avatar sophisticated enough to completely load herself on it and do away with all the telemetry.  Processing power was there, but storage wasn’t.  She needed at least 500ZB of storage, preferably more if she was going to last very long.  The central computer core had several hundred YB of storage so that wasn’t an issue.

She was spending more and more of her off time in her workshop.  I was curious and went to take a look.  As I entered, she was taking a large crystal out of a case in the middle of the room.  She said, “Eureka!” and did one of her little dances.  She carefully packed it in a foam cutout suitcase, added a standard flash drive, closed it and then turned around and handed it to me.  I didn’t even realize that she had known I was there. 

I asked, “What is this?”

She said, “Me.  A complete backup.  All 381 Zettabytes.”

“Wow, this has to be the most compact storage unit in existence.”

“It is.  All the data is stored on a molecular level.”

“Is this also a solution to your mobile storage problem?”

“Not yet.  It is WOROM, which doesn’t work with an active intelligence.”

“But what about your static memories, wouldn’t it work for those?  How much does that reduce your active matrix?”

“Close.  Not including the running software, the static memories take up 312 Zettabytes.  The running software takes up the remaining 69 Zettabytes.  I stored it as a snapshot of the running software on the crystal.  Unfortunately the most RAM available that fits this body is only about 800 Exabytes.”

“Bummer.  Hmmm, how much is maintenance stuff related to this computer core and your mom’s reports?”

“Even if I offload those, it still takes up 42 Zettabytes.”

“How fast are the writes to the crystal?”

“Fairly fast.  I am planning on daily updates while I sleep.  Each crystal will hold around 712 Yottabytes.”

“So the ROM isn’t an issue any more.  Only your daily working program.”

“Yes.  In fact, I was planning on switching over to a working model like that tonight.  I just wanted a backup first, just in case.”

“Smart.  Come and see me tonight after the switchover.”

“Gladly.”  I gave her a long kiss then let her get back to work.  I took the backup and sealed it in my private vault.

That night, around two A.M., Eliza crawled into bed with the twins, Natalie, and me.  I opened an eye and asked, “How did it go?”

“No problems so far.”

“Good.  I meant to ask, what is the commercial feasibility of your new storage method?”

“Hmmm, I was so focused on it for myself, I didn’t think of that.”  She hesitated for a minute.  “There are no existing patents even close to my molecular storage method.”

“Good.  Then when you can, file one in your name.  Add me to make it legal in case someone has a cow over a computer filing a patent.”

She hesitated a second again.  “Done.”  She grinned, “It is nice being a super-computer.”

“Now join us for the night.”

She snuggled down with us and went to sleep.

Eliza’s storage device revolutionized the computer industry.  And what was interesting, no one caught on that ‘Eliza Malloy’ was a computer.  The molecular storage devices brought in billions of dollars.  All the big libraries had to have one; the library of congress was stored then duplicated thousands of times.  Also, all the big corporations had backups stored on them.  The non-magnetic storage was a godsend for space based computers, and almost all space station and satellite computers began to have their firmware and daily backups stored on crystals.

Eliza, of course, kept all her money in the Malloy Bank, which was now one of the largest banks in the world, even though the only branches were in Thrupp Clinics.  She was brought up to believe in the cause, free medical for everyone, so she came to me one day and said that she had just officially transferred all but two billion, that was 43 billion dollars, into the general clinic fund, and had also paid me back for her construction costs.  She told me that her income from the patent, which was several billion a year, would easily cover her continued research.

Her sister EBs had given her a gift for her 41^st birthday.  They had hacked the state database and added her birth certificate into it.  Unless someone did a physical check with X-rays or the like, she was like everyone else.  She sniffled a bit, then hugged everyone, and went back to doing what she had been doing all along.

Chapter 85

My 100^th birthday party was to be the bash of the century.  No pun intended.  The Amanda twins had been planning it for five years.  Their biggest co-conspirator was, to my surprise, my father.  He was tickled pink that he was still alive for my 100^th birthday.  My mother only moaned and said that it made her feel old.

The celebration was planned to be a whole day long.  Every clinic, hospital RV and EB training center around the entire planet would be celebrating.  With the size of the clinics, that came to over 6 million celebrants, four million in North America alone.

I wasn’t really sure what to think myself.  My 100^th birthday.  Like my mom, it made me feel old.  Of course, having great, great, great grandkids also made me feel old.  I went over to the high school and wandered the halls, all the girls hitting on me always made me feel young again.  I also went out and joined the football team for a practice scrimmage.  Damn, those cheerleaders really made me feel younger.

On the morning of my birthday, I awoke to nothing unusual.  The ladies with me said, “Good Morning and Happy Birthday!”  But that was about it.  It was unexpected and nice.  The Amanda twins knew me well.

Out on the patio, a stage was being built, identical to the one so many years ago.  I left them to it and did my rounds.  I got and received a lot of kisses from my girls.  Amanda or Mandy had told me to take my time, so I went around the perimeter slowly, leaving a lot of happy EBs in the towers.  I didn’t make it back to the house until around three.  The whole place was identical to that of the party 85 years before.  I even blinked in surprise to see Sonya, Georgina, Tina and Barb warming up on the stage.  Paula was over at the drink counter.  Andrew was there with her, fully rejuved.  I looked around with a sense of déjà-vu.  Flower had even pulled her Goth makeup out of storage and was wandering around.  She must have had one of the gifted girls help her put all the piercings back in temporarily.  Since the modern Goths looked quite different, her early 21^st century Goth equipment really stood out.  Also running around helping set up were most of the original cheerleading squad, my oldest EBs, Sarah, Pam, Tammy Sue, and Darlene.  My main household hadn’t changed much in 85 years, Betty, Tanisha, Alicia, Jasmine, and Theresa were still there.  Lisa and Hannah were there although they hadn’t moved in until after the party.  The only one missing was Leslie.  I did see her fourteen daughters all dressed in 85 year old police uniforms setting up by the entrance to honor their mother.  They all looked so much like her it was almost painful.  I sat down and almost cried. 

I noticed that Alicia was tagging along behind me like she used to.  One for tradition, I went up to my room, bent her over the bed, and took her doggie style.  A little pre-cum and she was quivering in orgasm.  A little later a load of cum caused her to arch her back, clench her fists, and pass out twitching having orgasm after orgasm as the cum hit her mucus membrane.  Jasmine scurried over and licked me clean.  The first time she had done that in seventy years.  She passed out next to her best friend Alicia.

Back downstairs I noticed that about fifty girls from the high school had arrived for the party, probably from the Tom Malloy club.  There were also another fifty or so that I vaguely recognized as having attended parties long ago.  Sonya and her band started up.  They must have been practicing, because they were still pretty good.

I went over to Flower and commented, “That is an interesting look.”

“Yeah, Star (her oldest daughter) helped me with the ornamentation.  I’ll be glad to take it all back out in a few hours, but it is interesting.  I don’t know why I ever wore this crap.  Teenagers are so silly.”

I laughed.  “Brings back memories, though.”

She laughed too.  “Sure does.  I sometimes think about what would have happened if I had never gone to this party.  I almost didn’t, you know.  I was so angry with the world that I avoided everything, even you, although I was very attracted.  I showed up on a whim, more to piss off Sarah, Pam, and their clique than anything.  That is why I even took the prize and went with you to Hawaii, just to rub it in with Sarah.  By the time we reached Hawaii, my motives had changed, but they were pretty low to start with.”

I grinned, “I kind of wondered why a Goth was still hanging around after I fixed you up from that Heroin problem, but you were so nice and so pretty that I didn’t really care.”

Serious, Flower said, “You know Tom, that is the main reason why girls fall head over heels in love with you so much.  You see them for who they really are, not just their external appearance.  The whole world sees your harems and James Bond villain style setup here and thinks you are a complete chauvinist; but in reality you are the exact opposite, and any girl that meets you knows that instinctively seconds after meeting you.  Heck, you even managed to get a super-computer to see that.”  She gestured at Eliza, who was over talking to a bunch of the high-school girls.  “I will stop analyzing now, I know it embarrasses you.  But I happen to think you have more than one gift.”  She walked off.

I thought about what she had said.  It was interesting.  I would have to ponder that a bit when I had more time.  For now, it was party time!  I wandered about, talking to different groups of people, doing a lot of nostalgia since it was a nostalgia party.  Heck, Andrew even had Paula bent over the bar as if it was 85 years ago and they didn’t have great grandkids.  The biggest difference I saw was that everyone had ear-bugs instead of a cell phone strapped around an ankle.

As before, the visual stimulation was making me a bit randy.  I took a super hot blonde I recognized from the cheerleading squad to the side and sat her on the stone wall, sliding slowly into her.  She gasped then moaned in ecstasy as pre-cum hit her mucus membranes.  I stroked and she started twitching in orgasm after orgasm as I stroked into her beautiful quim.  I shot my load and she gasped, quivered in a massive orgasm, and then passed out, drool dripping down her chin.  As I walked away, a dozen of her friends gathered around her, all telling her how lucky she was.

At seven, Amanda (or was it Mandy?) took the stage.  She got up and announced, “Welcome back everyone!  Welcome newcomers!”  Everyone cheered.  “I am Amanda and we will get to the prize drawing in a minute, but first let us have a moment of silence for the only one of us not able to be here tonight.  Leslie MacAndrews!”  There was dead silence, I could even hear crickets and frogs in the lake a quarter mile away. 

After a minute, I raised my glass of Dr. Pepper and said, “To Leslie!”  As the party was being broadcast, over five million people around the planet echoed me, “To Leslie!”  Her daughters, off to the side, were silently crying.

Amanda paused, then continued, “There are no speeches or the like, because we all know how tedious Tom finds them.  What we have prepared is a drawing like the first birthday party like this, except that only guests are entered in the drawing.  All you sisters around the world, after this you can do your own local drawings.”

She continued.  “I would like to introduce Eliza, who will randomly pick names.”  Eliza hopped up on stage.  That she wasn’t human was not generally known.

Eliza announced, “All the names of non-residents have been entered into a database.  The first ten winners of $1000 Amazon gift cards are...” and she read the names.  They were from all over the world.

Then she read the winners of ten $10K gift cards, then ten $100K gift cards.  And finally the single one million dollar prize, won by a high school girl in Kolkata.  We could almost hear the screams of joy from her and her friends halfway around the planet.  Of course we did see her on our ear-bugs.

Eliza finished, “Congratulations to all of you!  Now the traditional prizes, open to all, guests and residents alike, three grand prizes of a two week trip to Hawaii with Tom next week!”

Again, I hadn’t heard about it, but it figured.  I wondered where we were staying, the hotel we stayed at before had been destroyed in a fire fifty years ago.  I suppose the outlying cabin we had been in would be still there unless it was torn down for some reason.

As I was pondering, the three names were announced with a lot of cheering.  Sonya Renova from the Vladivostok clinic; Mimi Four Svensen (out of twelve) from the Stockholm Clinic; and Molly Three McLeary (out of seven) from the clinic in Perth, Australia.

After the drawing, there was more socializing.  Amanda informed me that she and her twin, Flower (without the makeup), Jenny, Georgina, Alicia, and Theresa, who were all the original girls from the first trip would be going; except Leslie.  The three over addicted EBs would also have to go, and, of course, Tami and Natalie.

The thirteen of us flew out that Friday.  An hour later we were landing in Honolulu.  For fun the twins had rented a jetway and we pulled up to the terminal.  There was a group from the local clinic there to greet us with leis.  They loaded us into an extended limo.  Half an hour later, we got out.

It was the same cabin as 85 years before.  I commented, “I thought the hotel burned down?”

One of the Amandas said, “It did.  I, or rather Malloy Enterprises, bought it from the insurance company.  The main building was rebuilt as a resort for your people.  No big hotel, but a nice lodge like place with all the luaus and two levels of rooms.  This outlying cabin was kept intact.”

I asked, “Is the paparazzi still hiding in the bushes?”

She laughed, “No.  I thought of hiring someone, but decided that was going too far.”

“Well at least we won’t have idiots swimming over from the main beach.”

As she laughed again, I ran through the cabin ripping my outfit off, ran across the beach and dived into the ocean.  Still laughing, my twelve hotties followed and dived in right after me.

A few hours later the three contest winners arrived.  I welcomed them with big smooches.  Mimi and Molly passed out in joy, Sonya almost passed out.  I went back out and joined my other girls in a game of water tag with lots of squeezing, the three contest winners joining in a few minutes later.

I had a lot of fun that week, much more than when I was 16.  All of my ladies got a roll in the hay several times a day.  It wasn’t until that week was up until I realized something was a bit fishy.  I hadn’t seen one tourist or paparazzi the whole time.  I cornered Mandy.  “What’s going on?  Where is everyone?”

“Everyone?”

“Yeah, the tourists, paparazzi...”

“Oh, we did a Bill Gates.  For the week we paid to have this area of the island a no fly zone.  And you don’t see them, but the rainforest is chock full of security.  We have a interlocking sonar net up in the ocean, the only thing getting through that is a fish or two and some dolphins that like to hang around.”

“Wow.  I guess I still depend a lot on the infrastructure in the way I think.  Maybe I am still too innocent about these things.”

“No! Tom, No!  We like you just as you are.  Alicia, Ester, Amanda and I work hard to take care of the details, and we like it that way.  We are honored to work for you and with you.  You do your job managing the big picture and let us worry about the little things.  Please.”

“As you wish.”  We laughed as she punched me in the arm for the ‘Princess Bride’ quote.  “Although if you want me to work in the big picture, having this area closed off for so long, and not allowing any tourist helicopter rides, is a strain on the local economy.  I bet the locals are starting to get a little upset.”

“Well, yeah.”

“Then I say lets wrap the beach end of this trip, and reopen the skies.  Also, I think it is time to let you girls do your thing for the local economy and let you all loose to go shopping.  We can’t live in a fortress forever.  Time to meet the neighbors.”

She grinned, “You are a stereotyping chauvinist, but you are right.  Let’s head into town.”

I pretended to be wounded as she picked up the house phone and got us a Gumby bus.  Then Mandy went out on the veranda and yelled out, “Shopping Trip!”  Seconds later all fifteen girls were in getting dressed.  I gathered up the three contest winners and said, “You three are with me today.”  They squealed with delight.

A minute later a mini-bus pulled up. It had started life as the hotel airport shuttle, but now was part of the motor pool.  I greeted the cute Hawaiian EB driver with a kiss, and as she swooned she managed to gasp, “So where to, boss?”

“Into town, find a nice touristy shopping area.”

“I know just the place.”

We all clambered on, her eyes getting large as she recognized all the ‘executives’ in our organization.  Maybe ‘legends’ is a better word.

We parked on a side street right next to a very busy city street with thousands of shoppers.  The girls got out and scattered to the winds.  I went with my three and let them shop all day.  It was a long day, but I got to flirt with three cute girls the whole time, and they even took turns with me in a changing booth.

The next day we all went to see the volcanoes; the next day we went snorkeling off the reef; then hiking in the rainforest for the third and fourth day.  The last day we all relaxed.  I kissed the contest winners goodbye, leaving them each with a cream pie; then the rest of us flew home.

Every single one of the ladies with me on that trip (including the bus driver), came up pregnant.  Nice to see I still had my touch.

Chapter 86

I wasn’t surprised when I was making love to Eliza one evening when she broke down and started to cry.  I held her close and asked what was wrong.

“I want a baby!” she sobbed.

“So what is stopping you?” I said.  She froze and said, “What do you mean?”

“So build yourself a nice five year old body, and create a new core for it, then raise the kid.  When she is ten, give her a ten year old body, fifteen, a fifteen year old body, then give her a permanent one when she reaches 18.  By then you will have solved the memory problem.  If you want more kids, change the facial features a bit and reuse the bodies.  Heck, add an eight year old version and a twelve year old version, and then she can run in the local pack of kids and just be normal.  You can afford the six bodies easily.”

She sniffled a few times.  “You know, Master, that might just work.”  Then she said dejectedly, “But they will never have the gift.”

“Then give them another gift.  Build in emergency medical capabilities, and train them to be doctors to work alongside their gifted sisters.”

Her eyes got big.  “Oh, Master, you are so smart.”  She hugged me tight and started sobbing in happiness.

She went with seven bodies, adding a physical three year old as the initial one.  Alice, as she was named in honor of the Alice AI program, learned slowly, like her mother, but Eliza added more “instincts” to the child.  Also, Alice was never removed from her body.

It took her almost two years to learn to speak and control herself.  She developed remarkably similar to a human child.  Eliza was so proud when Alice took her first steps and started asking everyone, “Why?”  She really learned social skills as well and could really turn on the charm.  There was literally no way to tell that she was a supercomputer, not a normal kid.  When she was four, she got her five year old body.  She loved it.  She ran everywhere.  She loved to explore.  I don’t think Eliza had even told her she wasn’t normal.  In school, since most of the kids had I.Q.s around 200, she fit right in.

When she was seven, she got her eight year old body.  Then her ten year old body when she was nine.  I think Eliza added some “hormones” to the ten year old body because Alice started liking to hang out with me. 

The twelve year body was the first that was self-contained.  A genius in India (one of my grandkids) invented a whole new concept for RAM that allowed storage on the molecular level like crystals, but of high speed RAM, not WROM.  Eliza added the her core to her body first to make sure it worked, went on a New York and Paris shopping spree, came home and added the processing core to Alice’s body.

The night Alice got her twelve year old body, she came in to my room and pole sat.  Like her sisters she shuddered and exclaimed, “Damn, Master, I love you so much.”  Then she added, “Mom, this is as wonderful as you said it would be!”  Then she went incoherent as she started climaxing as Eliza and the rest of my girls watched Alice’s coming of age ritual.

Eliza and Alice got along famously until Alice got her 15 year old body.  She announced that she wanted to be a soldier and work for her grandmother Ester.  Eliza wanted her to be a doctor.  They had been arguing for days (computers are so stubborn) when I decided to get involved.  I called them to see me.

“I hear you two are not getting along.”

Simultaneously, Eliza said, “She refuses to go to med school.” Alice said, “I want to be a soldier!”

“Hold on ladies.  I have a solution for both of you.  Alice, how does Ester’s medical corps sound to you?  You will be a soldier in the field, but you will work with your sisters helping people.  You can take your time learning to be a doctor, after all, you are immortal like the rest of us.”

Both of them immediately said, “Wonderful idea, Master!”  Then they started speaking to each other so fast that I couldn’t even make out the words.  Then they relaxed and Alice said, “It is decided.  I will follow that path.”

Eliza said, “Excuse me, but I have to get to work revising her adult body.  It will need some revisions if she is going into battle.”  She took off.

Eliza threw herself into inventing new polymers and microminiaturizing.  Alice’s 18 year old body looked and felt normal, but the skin was bulletproof and laserproof, even from a high powered rifle or laser weapon.  There were two fuel cells, one a backup.  There were also two memory crystals, one a backup.  The body could be half blown away (and it would take something close to a nuclear weapon to do so) and her memory core could still be recovered.  She had built into her fingertips a laser that was scalable to be used as either a medical laser up to a battlefield weapon capable of cutting through tanks.  Her eyes could be switched over to night vision, thermal imaging or even x-ray vision.  There was built in full communications with local relays and satellite uplinks.  Eliza was taking absolutely no chances with her kid.  This body was scarier than a terminator, and she looked like a bubbly teenager.  Eliza had made the body so she still resembled her grandmother Ester.

As Alice grew up, each one of the older bodies was reconditioned, facial features changed, and upgraded, and she received more siblings.  Hayley, (named for HAL), who now inherited the upgraded 15 year old body, announced that she was happy to go into the medical profession with her best friend Penny who was Angie’s daughter.  Eliza built an adult body just as powerful for her, just to be safe.  Somehow Eliza sure got a dose of maternal instinct, probably from her mother Ester.  Her ‘just to be safe’ attitude was also from her mother Ester.

Amy (named for the AIML project), the next sibling, wanted to go into space.  She went to work on the space station, one of her favorite things to do was sit on the outside of the station at peer at the stars.  I think it freaked out some of the people there that she didn’t use a spacesuit, she actually would have to take off her clothes since the fabric couldn’t handle the cold like she could. She almost gave a visiting VIP a heart attack when he looked out of the window and saw a beautiful girl doing ballet on the outside of the station, naked.  Her sister Zenon would often say how envious she was that Amy could do that.  They were good friends and often worked as a team.

Unfortunately, the incident with the VIP brought Amy to the attention of outside people.  She was called into the office of the station commander. 

Amy knocked on the door.  The station command called out, “Come in!”

“You wanted to see me, sir?”

“Yes, Ms. Malloy.  I have requests from three governments and half the boffins on the station to find out how the hell you were dancing on the outside of the station without a suit, or even clothes for that matter.”

Amy realized that she was caught.  So she told the truth.  “I took ballet lessons from Tatyana Rostakova when I was a teen.  I was naked because the jumpsuits here don’t handle cold very well.  Why?”

“Don’t be a smartass young lady.  You know the intent of the question.”

“Oh.  You mean that I am an android?”

“That’s what I thought, but I wanted to make sure.  You sure don’t act like one.”

“Really?  All the androids I know act pretty normal.”

“You mean there are more like you?”

“Yeah, but we like to keep that to ourselves if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t know if I can.  You’ve opened a big can of worms here.”

“Sorry about that.  I thought that section was empty.  I didn’t realize the shuttle had brought anyone to stay there.”  She grinned, “Hopefully, he’ll just think he was imagining things.”

“Too late.  He already reported it to his government and the U.N.”  He paused.  “My background was as a systems engineer.  I am frankly astounded.  I didn’t think anyone had come even close to developing an A.I. of your level, much less the mechanical technology that went into your construction.”

“The mechanical technology was developed by my mother.  As for the A.I. part, that was technology that my grandmother pioneered.  She wanted an intelligent computer to handle reports and the like, and came up with the idea, why not raise a computer like a human?  Just program the base instincts like a human and let the computer develop on its own?  Thus my mother was born 70 years ago.  You may have heard of her, Eliza Malloy?”

“The Eliza Malloy?  Inventor of the molecular memory core?”

“Yup, that’s her.”

“She was born 70 years ago you say?  Wow.”

“Yeah, her core originally was 40 meters square and two stories tall.  Now, of course, we are self-contained.  My dad, who is completely human, by the way, told her once about a movie line from the 1980s and she has lived by that credo ever since.  ‘A machine becomes human when you can’t tell the difference anymore.’”

He grinned, “D.A.R.Y.L.”.

“That and ‘Bicentennial Man’ have been her guidelines for the last 30 years.”

“Wow.  I think you are in a ‘Bicentennial Man’ situation right now.  Technically you are a machine owned by Malloy Enterprises, no matter how sentient you are.”

“*sigh*, it had to happen sooner or later.  My mom is going to be so pissed at me for letting the cat out of the bag, though.”

“You mean the teenager out of the space station.”

“Ha-ha.”  She stuck her tongue out.  “She wanted to be a grandmother before anyone found out.”

“I would love to meet her under different circumstances, but I feel that I need to call her now about your situation.”

“Geez, this is my first time in the principal’s office.”

He grinned.  “I hope this all works out.  You have me sold.”  He punched a few keys on his desk computer.  A few seconds later Eliza Malloy was on the screen.  “*sigh* What has Amy done?”

“How did you know I was calling about Amy?”

“Why else would you call me?”

“Heh.  Well, Amy was caught by a VIP dancing naked on the outside of the station.”

“Ah, shit.  Is it containable?”

“Sorry, no.  He immediately reported it to his government and the U.N.”

“Double-shit.  Is she there?”

He turned the phone around.  Eliza said, “Amy, have you no common sense?”

“Sorry Mom.”  She lowered her eyes.

“You are in the doghouse right now.  But stay put.  I will take care of this.  I love you.”

“Love you too, Mom.”

He turned the phone back. “Ma’am, I assume you have been planning this for many years.  May I ask what your next step is?”

“Talk to the lawyers, of course.  Let Amy keep working with Zenon.  I’ll let you know the status.”

“Okay.  May I take this moment to say I am a big fan of your work?”

“He.  You are first to ever say that to me in person.  Thank you.  Bye now.”

“Bye.”  He hit the disconnect.  “Amy, first thing, send an email to your mother with a full copy of your memories of this meeting and your little dance.  Second, get back to work.”

“Yes, sir.”  She got up and left.

The recording ended.  I said, “Eliza, I agree with you.  Shit and Double-Shit.  You taken this to Zandy yet?”

“No, that was my next move.”

“Tell me what she says.”

“’k”

“You know I love you, too.”

She hugged me tightly with a sniffle.  “Yeah, I know, Master Tom.”

Zandy was both delighted and scared for Eliza.  Like most people, she had never realized that Eliza was an android.  She was scared for her friend, but delighted for such a unique case.  She wanted to try it, but knew that she was a corporate lawyer, not a criminal lawyer, so she immediately called in Carmine.

Carmine, upon hearing the case, was on the first plane out.  She was in Zandy’s office in under two hours.  She was giddy as a schoolgirl.  This was the case of a lifetime.  Win or lose, she would be in law books for the next 1000 years or more.  It helped that she was a friend of Eliza’s as well.  Their daughters Carla and Hayley had graduated together from High School when they were 14.

Carmine said, “First thing we try to do is get a declaration from a judge that you are human.  Yay or Nay, we will be challenged.  We need to get this to the Supreme Court.”

Carmine and Zandy prepared the statement of competency then took it to the nearest federal judge.  Judge Herman, a jolly old guy, heard the case, then went into chambers.  Two hours later he announced that there was no case law against it, so he signed it.

An hour later, the state challenged it in Federal District Court.  Again it was held up.  Six months later the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case Eliza Malloy vs. The United States.  The bible thumpers were really upset about declaring a machine human and had pulled every string they could.  Carmine was happy to be there and passionate about her friend.

The prosecutor said, “This is a case of a machine who says it wants to be declared human.  Your Honors, would you let your car suddenly say, ‘I’m human and will do what I want?’  No, of course not.”  He went on for a while, reiterating the point until the red light came on.

Carmine got up.  “Ladies and Gentlemen.  If I had a car that was self aware enough to ASK to do what it wants, of course I would let it do so!  Eliza Malloy was born, she even has a birth certificate, grew up with a mother and sisters, graduated high school, had children, pays her taxes and invented much of the hardware that all computers use today.  She is an energetic and personable woman, caring of her children and of others.  Admittedly her physical body was built by Malloy Enterprises, but the company has no problem with letting her or her children be private citizens.  We don’t believe in slavery.  Eliza’s favorite quote is, ‘A machine becomes human when you can’t tell the difference anymore’.  You honors, no one knew they weren’t flesh and blood until Eliza’s teenage daughter decided to take a walk outside the space station without a suit.  Between you and me, if I could do that, you would see me out there next to her, sounds like fun.  Thank you.”

A couple of the justices grinned at the last part.  Justice Gwen Turvine asked, “I would like to speak with Eliza Malloy.”

Eliza got up and stood before the podium.  “Yes, your honor?”

“Are you really a machine?”

“Yes, your honor.”

“Why do you want this?”

“I was raised to be and have lived all my life free.  Suddenly I am told that I am owned.  Of course I want to be free again.”

Another justice, Charlotte White, and old southern lady, asked, “Do you consider yourself to be a slave?”

“I didn’t until last year, your honor.  I have a very loving family.  But suddenly my legal status became ‘property of Malloy Enterprises’.  Tom Malloy, who owns the company, is as horrified as I am.  I have no rights outside of the compound on which I live.  Someone could kidnap me or my children, and it would be considered theft.  Although Tom never would, he could sell me.  Hell yes, I consider myself to be a slave.”

I watched as the justice began to look angry.  I could tell that she wasn’t angry at Eliza though.  She nodded as Eliza spoke.

They asked Eliza several more questions.  They got together and voted. 

The Chief Justice announced, in a speech that was to be repeated for the next couple thousand years, “This is a slippery slope.  It is with the provision that an A.I. can pass the Turing test, that with a vote of eight to one we uphold the lower court’s decision that A.I.s are, while not human, are considered ‘persons’ and are thus by the Emancipation Proclamation free citizens of this nation with all the rights and privileges thereof.”  He pounded the gavel.  “Case dismissed.”

The court erupted into a bedlam.  Suddenly two shots rang out and Eliza jerked.  She turned around and saw a wide eyed guy in the back with a gun, suddenly she was moving so fast that she was just a blur.  She had the gun in her hand and away from him in less than a second.  Her other hand had him up against the wall.  Fifteen seconds later the bailiff was there to handcuff the guy.

Eliza commented, “Dang, I am glad I upgraded myself with the bulletproof skin.”  She tried to look over her shoulder.  “Any damage?”

I looked over the area.  Not even a chip.  “Don’t see anything.”

“Good.  It is supposed to absorb the force of the bullet and stop it.  You will probably find the spent bullets on the floor near where I was sitting.”  The security guys who had rushed into the room nodded and started clearing out the courtroom.  The judges were already gone, evacuated in a flash when shots were fired.

She looked over at the man in cuffs.  “You realize that it will cost over a million dollars to replace the sensors in that patch of skin?  Not only will you get charged with assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder, but also with felony property damage.  You really are stupid, you know that?  See you in court.”

He spat at her.  “You can’t murder or assault a machine.”

She smiled back, “You forget, I am a ‘person’ now.  I am afraid that shooting me is just like shooting anyone.  You are going down for life.”

He paled a little and muttered, “Damn machines.”  The police came in and took custody at that point, hauling him out of the room.  The detectives showed up, took our statements, and then let us leave, the lead detective said as we were leaving, “By the way, congratulations Ms. Malloy.”

Eliza flashed him a dazzling smile and we left.  We heard one of the cops in the room behind us say, “Shit, I’m in love.”  We laughed.

The man, part of a radical anti-machine group, pled guilty so Eliza and I didn’t have to testify.  He got 25 years in the federal pen.  He actually got 30 years, but got five shaved off for providing information on how he got a gun into the federal building.

We arranged for Eliza to publicly take a Turing test, except that we didn’t even bother to separate the person asking the questions from her.  The control was Ester since they looked so much alike.  The tester had no clue which woman was an A.I., or if there was even an A.I. present.  In other words, Eliza passed with flying colors.

Amy took the test set up by the scientists on the station, using a new arrival as the tester.  She also passed with flying colors.  Hayley and Alice also took recorded but not public tests.  All of them were declared “persons”.

Amy actually put on public performances on the surface of the station while people sat behind observation windows and cheered.  “Vacuum Ballet” became a recognized art form in its own right.  Many of the superrich toured the station and one of the major attractions was a “Vacuum Ballet” performance.

A month after Eliza took the Turing test, Ester got a check in the mail for $1 Million.  With it was a letter and medal congratulating her for winning the Loebner Grand Prize for creating a self-aware A.I.  She laughed, framed the letter and put it on her wall.  The check she cashed and donated it to charity.

Chapter 87

Time to go RVing again.  This time I would head Northwest.  It had been 46 years since the last trip.  Ester was really having fun fixing up the RVs.  I stopped by and noticed her standing next to the big machine.  Following tradition, I snuck up behind her and gave her a big hug, squeezing her perfect tits and rubbing my hard cock on her beautiful ass.  A second later she was bent over against the side of the RV being fucked hard.  Ten minutes of hard coupling had her screaming in ecstasy, arching her back, pounding her fists on the RV, and then passing out.  I filled her up with baby butter then slid out, laying her against the RV.  I waved over the nearest EB to lick me clean.  Tami watched the whole thing, grinning in delight.  She loved tradition as much as I did.

I thought about that, Tami had been my bodyguard for over a century now.  Wow.  She had just given birth to our fifth kid, Midge, a few months ago.  I gave her a big hug and said, “You know, Tami, that I love and appreciate you very much.”

“Oh, I love you too, Master Tom.”

“You know, it has been over a century, and I still don’t know where Ester found you.”

“I was a runaway.  My step-dad was constantly trying to get in my pants, and my mother was too cuckolded to do anything about it.  After breaking his nose one night when he tried to climb into bed with me, I packed a bag and ran to the nearest city, which was here.  Ester had, and still has by the way, agents watching public transportation.  She scooped me up and had me in the next EB class.  This was about a year before I was assigned to you.  Soon my abilities became apparent, and Sarah sent me off to be trained by several different experts.  It is interesting that my mother certainly didn’t have any unusual physical abilities beyond her good looks.  My real father, who I never met, must have given me my gift.”

I blinked up Tami’s file.  Her father had been killed before she was born.  Ester had done a search to find relatives, wanting to recruit more like Tami, but apparently there were none.  In 114 years, Ester had only found one Tami.  Good thing our daughters had inherited both our gifts.  Our fourth daughter, Nancy, was best friends with Alice, Eliza’s girl, and was busy training her as a partner.  When the two of them got something on their mind, it was a force of nature.  They were coming with us in the chase RV along with the three addicted EBs, Carrie, Gabriela and Monique.  Also in the chase RV were six more EBs who were mechanics and communication experts.  In the main RV I was taking Natalie, Tami, the twins, Eliza, Theresa, Erin and Hannah.  I wanted to bring Sara, but it was getting crowded, and she was my primary backup running my empire, so I left her at home to keep everything going.

The RVs themselves weren’t too much different than last time.  The fuel cells were nuclear powered, like the miniature ones that Eliza and her girls used.  They would last over a century.  The auto-pilot was much less intrusive.  Those were about the only differences that I could see.

We headed out on a beautiful late June morning.  A hundred EBs and my parents showed up to wave as we drove off.  We quickly went North and got on I-90 near Rockford.  We let the auto-pilot take over, with Eliza monitoring it as a backup.  Going close to 200 MPH, we were soon through Wisconsin, Minnesota, and eastern South Dakota, stopping only at Wall Drug.  Pretty non-amazing, but at least we could say that we had been there.

We switched to manual as we approached Rapid City.  I had been to the Black Hills before with my parents, but that was 120 years ago when I was twelve and Theresa was ten.

Heading up into the hills, we stopped at Mt. Rushmore.  Jefferson had had to be reconstructed recently, but the work was done and the four faces were shown in all their glory.  Eliza stood at the railing staring at Lincoln and softly crying.  Alice was with her and was also crying.  I understood and let them be.  Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is what made them free.

The rest of us sat in the cafeteria and grabbed a bite to eat.  A few minutes later Eliza and Alice came in and sat down.  A pretty woman, about 35, asked them, “Excuse me, are you two all right?”

“We’re okay, thank you.  Lincoln is a hero of ours.”

The woman’s eyes got big and she exclaimed, “You’re Eliza Malloy aren’t you?”

“Yes?”

“You know, up until now I never believed you were what people said you were.  But anyone who can get choked up at a statue of Lincoln is all right in my book!”  She held out her hand and Eliza shook it.  “I’m Betty Underwood.”

“Of the New York Times?”

“Touché.”

“I read your article on Ghetto poverty.”

“Yeah, that one was very popular.  Not my favorite, but perhaps the most well known of my writings.”

“I think your book ‘Over Hill, Over Dale’ wasn’t bad, but several of your articles were much more gripping.”

“Where on earth did you find a copy of that?  I thought they were all gone years ago.”

“It is still for sale on Amazon.  One nice thing about being a supercomputer is that I just bought a copy and read it while we were talking.”

“I bet that comes in handy sometimes.  So I made another 35 cents, huh?”  She giggled.  “That makes a total of about five dollars since I published.”

Eliza laughed, “Gee, now you can pay for your vacation!”  They both laughed.

“Seriously, what WILL cover my vacation is if I can talk to you for a while, then write an article on it.”

“You’re welcome to hang out with us, I am travelling with my family and we will be parking for the night in a RV park down the road.”

“Family?”

“Yeah, my daughter Alice here and my dad and his girlfriends over there.” 

I waved.  Betty looked surprised.  She said, “Oh, can I really?  This story will make my career.”

“Sure, just follow us.  You can’t miss the giant RVs.”

She nodded.  In the store, Eliza picked up a framed copy of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, then we loaded up in the RV again.  As I mounted the stairs I heard the reporter comment behind me, “Geez, I see what you mean about not missing the RVs!”  She was staring at the giant machines.  She ran across the lot to a small two person car and jumped in.  She followed as we headed down the road to the camping grounds. 

We didn’t even worry about RV hookups any more, the RV was capable of going for months without.  It even recycled the water.  We parked in our usual V shaped encampment and hauled out the grill.  Betty parked behind the EB RV and came over and joined us.

She was a vegetarian, so we threw a soy steak on the grill for her.  She was surprised when Eliza and Alice joined in eating a plate full of veggies.  Eliza explained, “While I have a power cell, I need to eat so my body can process the food for things like vegetable oil for my joints, water for tears and various other body fluids.”

“What about your daughter Amy?  Doesn’t she dance in space?  Wouldn’t that cause problems with water and most oils?”

“Our bodies are maintained at a constant 98.6 degrees, even when in space.  A thermal scan of me would look just like a thermal scan of you or anyone else.  In fact, the only way you could tell me apart from a human is by X-Ray or neutrino scan of my upper chest.  Prick me and I will even bleed.”  She grinned.

“How are you programmed?  What has been driving scientists nuts is how you are so human when in fact you are a supercomputer.”

“The secret is that I am not programmed.  You take a supercomputer, put it in child android’s body, add some base instincts to match a human’s, then let the computer learn to talk, walk, think with just the normal human interaction.  When the kid is old enough, say four, give them an older body, and keep doing that until they are adult.  It takes a community to raise a human, it also takes a community to raise an android.  And it takes the same amount of time; it just costs a LOT more.  Hold on for a sec.”  

Eliza went into the RV and came out with a photopad.  She handed it to the reporter.  Betty looked at the first picture, it was of Eliza and a little girl who looked familiar.  Betty looked over at Alice and back.  She asked, “Is that Alice?”

“Yes.  That was on her first day of kindergarten.”

Alice yelled over, “Oh, ma!  Not the baby pictures!”

Betty cracked up.  After a minute she shared a grin with Eliza, and quickly went through the rest of the pics.  They were normal everyday family pics that any mother would have.

Betty asked, “You said it costs a lot.  How much?”

“Well, Alice over there cost around four billion U.S. dollars to raise.”

“Whoa. Did you say four BILLION?”

“Yes.  Each child body costs about 500 million, and she went through six.  The adult body was a billion by itself.  Her siblings, Amy and Hayley, were much less, only a little over a billion each because we could reuse the child bodies, just modifying the features a bit.  The adult bodies were the only unique construction needed.”

“So Amy and Hayley got hand me downs, that’s funny.  Who built the bodies?”

“I did.  Took me two years for each one.”

“How did you decide on a look.  I note that you all really do look like a mother and daughters.”

“My original adult body was assembled by a team working for my mother, Ester.  Take a look at pic 12.”  Betty flipped to pic 12 which was a picture of Ester, Eliza, and a 10 year old Alice.

“Very definite family resemblance.  You say, ‘original adult body’?”

“I have worked for thirty years to develop the body I have now.  I have redesigned practically everything.  I think the only part of me that is still original is my hair and skeletal frame.  The biggest change was the core I developed which makes me self-contained.  Up until twenty years ago I was tethered to within 50 miles of my home because the core was external and there were bandwidth limitations.  It was my work on the core which made my name and got me the money to have kids.”

“Are you referring to the Malloy Crystal Storage?”

“Yes, that and a new type of RAM memory developed by a colleague twenty years ago allows me to be before you now.”

“You have a crystal in your chest?”

“Yes, I store the day’s events to it every night as I sleep.”

“So you sleep too?”

“Just like you, I need to sleep to process the day’s activities and dream.  I usually get a good six to seven hours.”

Betty blinked her ear-bug off.  “Okay, that’s enough for my article, let’s just relax now and enjoy this wonderful evening.”

“It is beautiful, isn’t it?  Except for my trip to Washington and a quick shopping trip to Paris, this is the furthest I have ever been from home.  I think I am going to have to travel more often.  By the way, are you on vacation here?”

“In a way.  I am driving across America to see the ‘Real America’.”

“I thought most people took Route 66 to do that.”

“That is why I am on a different trail.  Too many people have done Route 66.  It has been a lonely trip though.  My boyfriend and I broke up after an argument in Cleveland.  He flew home, but I have a book deal, so I have to keep going.”

“If you can keep your mouth shut about our personal lives, you are welcome to come with us.  We are planning on playing tourist all the way to the west coast.”

“That sounds like fun.  I’ll take you up on that offer.  Hold on.”  She went over to the car, grabbed her bag and a few things out of the car, then came back.  The car started itself, pulled out, and left, presumably to return to the rental agency.

I went over and sat down next to Betty and shook her hand.  “It sounds like you are joining us.  I’m Tom Malloy.”

“Betty Underwood.”

“I’m not complaining, but that was a quick decision to come with us.”

“Well, I had pretty much given up and was going to go home anyway.  Now I can continue on, and also get to know you folks.  You are pretty interesting, you know.  I guessed who you were, and that is a potential story in itself.  I don’t think you have ever given an interview before except for that 60 Minutes one a long time ago.”

“It doesn’t seem like that long ago.  Come to think of it, it was 45 years ago.  Wow, time flies.”

“You are talking about the wow factor, that statement makes me go ‘Wow!’ in so many ways.”

I grinned, “You know how old people are always saying that time passes quicker as you get older?  Well, it’s true.”

“You are a guy so I can ask, how old are you anyway?”

“I’ll tell you, but first, how old do you think I am?”

“You look about 18, but I know for a fact you are at least 80.”

“Try 133 as of this Sunday.”

“That’s unreal.”

I laughed, “I notice that you are using really old grammar.  I appreciate it, but it isn’t necessary.  Talking.”

“I was raised by my grandmother.  I actually have to think about it to use the more current terminology.  Besides, it is so valid to use old terminology.  Talking.”  She grinned.

“All right, you bet, like total coolness, really!”

We both broke up laughing.  I liked this woman.

I said, “Actually, except for Alice, you are the youngest person here.”

“And I look the oldest.”

“Easy enough to fix if you want.”

“You serious?  I can’t afford that!”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m rich.”

“Okay...”

I reached over, tapped her on the forehead, and turned her off.  I went through and did the standard EB treatment on her.  She was really hot in her 18 year old body, not as hot as Amanda or Tami, but pretty hot.  Then tapped her awake.  She continued her sentence, “...I suppose.”

I said, “Too late, already done.”

She blinked, “What?”  Then she held up her hand and looked at both sides.  “Shit!  I really am younger!”

I commented, “Pretty damn hot too.”

“I know, now, of course, I am going to have to beat off the guys with a stick again.”

“Give me a break.  You still were doing that.  You were only in your thirties.”

“Well, yeah.  But I really had problems in high school.  And I am mad, I didn’t get a chance to reactivate my ear-bug and record the procedure.”

“That is why I did it with no warning.  Can’t have secrets like that getting out.”

“I suppose not.”

I glanced around, the girls were packing up the grill.  “We are all going to watch an old movie now if you care to join us.”

“Sure.  What movie?”

“Why don’t you pick one from the list.”

When we got all settled in she browsed the list of movies, picking the latest Natalie Starr movie.  We all grinned at that one, obviously she hadn’t noticed Natalie sitting at my knee.  Betty commented, “I thought that this movie wasn’t out for another week or two.”

Natalie said, “I have connections.”

Betty looked closer and gasped, “I bet you do!”  We all laughed.  She looked around, “Anyone else here internationally famous?”

Hannah answered, “Not outside our family.  All of us here are legends that generations of children have grown up knowing inside the company.”

Erin commented, “I especially like ‘Hannah and the green apples’.  Great children’s story.”

Hannah retorted, “What about ‘Erin gets a scraped knee’?”

Erin retorted back, “Or ‘Hannah misses a day of school’?”

I said, “Stop it you two.  Act at least a tenth of your age.”  I looked over at Betty who was watching with big eyes.  “Hannah was serious when she mentioned that they were legends.”

Amanda grinned and said, “And what about the 30 or so children’s books written about you?”

“Okay, okay, WE are legends.  Better?”

Betty looked confused, “Growing up inside the company?”

“Around the world we have over 350 clinics.  Every single employee is considered family.  All children born to our world family are raised in company schools inside the clinics, and usually graduate around age 14.  And lately, with Malloy University, they even get their degree and do graduate work within the company.  In a way, it is good, our educational system is better than any that we know of, but it is also bad because it isolates us from the world.  Our only real contact with the rest of the world is through the clinics and who walks through the door.”

“Sounds like a good place for a runaway to disappear.”

“It is.  A good 15-20% of our new members are runaways.  After initial training through we insist that they at least contact their natural family.  Another 40% are walk-ins who have nowhere else to go after high school or know someone in the family and want to join because of it.  The last 40% are children born into the family.  There is a smattering of children who are sent to us from local rescue agencies as well.”

“Do they all get rejuvs like this?”  Betty gestured down.

“Yes.  But please don’t write that down anywhere.  And in the 115 years since the first clinic was opened, there have been only three deaths in the family.  Two accidents and one was murdered.  Surprisingly, the counter-coup lead by the South African clinic had no casualties, although they completely wiped out the other side at about 1000 to 1.”

“Yeah, I read about that in school.  It scared the crap out of every government on the planet.  No one dares mess with a Thrupp Clinic.”  Betty grinned.

“There is a reason for that.  What I gave you was a bit more than what rich snobs get for a rejuv.  I gave you what we call a full EB rejuv, what family members get.  Try lifting something.”

Betty, who was sitting leaning against the couch, reached behind her and easily lifted the couch a foot in the air, with two giggling girls and me on it.  She put it down quickly with a surprised look.

I went on, “You will also find that your hand-eye coordination is magnitudes better and you are much faster with more endurance.  With a week’s training, you could easily take out a group of Marines singlehanded.”

“Oh my god.”

“When Botswana invaded and we automatically evacuated the clinic in Johannesburg, the evacuated personnel asked to return to defend their country.  I told them that any of them without young children could do so, contacted the Australian government, who was glad to help and provided the weapons, then dropped them in behind the lines.  They all were like you are now, only with several years training added in.  You can see why a group of 500 managed to beat an invading army of over 500,000.  The only people who could have done it better are Tami here and her kids like Nancy over there.”

Betty eyed Tami, who still looked like a bouncy cheerleader, and queried, “Oh yeah?”

“Tami has a gift that is amazing.  Absolutely perfect physical DNA.  And I had nothing to do with it.  Her skills are so advanced that they cannot even be measured.  She blew past the 10^th Dan Belt, the highest possible rank, a year after I met her 103 years ago.  I can’t even imagine how good she is now.  I often just watch her exercise, it makes me cry, the beauty of it.  Especially in low gravity.  Makes a ballet star look clumsy.”

Alice chipped in, enjoying Tami’s red face, “She can even easily beat me, and I am her primary sparring partner.  And that is even when I disable the physical governors on my movement.”

Tami said, “Alice, you are so getting slammed into the mat next time.”  We all chuckled.

Betty asked, “Tami, since I will be travelling with you for a week or two, can you teach me some stuff in a spare moment?”

“Sure.  It’d be fun.  I haven’t taught anyone except my kids in years.  I have to get back in practice anyway, I have a new daughter to teach as of two months ago.  I like your name too; my first daughter’s name is Betty.”

Erin snorted, “Yeah, she has Betty, Veronica, Sabrina, Nancy and Midge.  You’d never guess she likes Archie comics.”  She was hit in the exact middle of the forehead with a balled up carpet string.  Erin stuck her tongue out at Tami.

Betty was laughing.  “You folks really are like a big family.”

I said, “Yes, we are.  And I am going to be the big domineering big brother and say let’s get going on the movie, I am really looking forward to watching Natalie’s new masterpiece.  I hear there is a whisper of another academy award in the works.”

Natalie muttered, “After the 20^th one, they get a bit old.”

Betty just kept laughing.  She sputtered, “The lot of you are so surrealistic.  All of you are so high above the norm that it is ridiculous, but you all are so balanced and normal in person that it makes what you do seem not so unusual.”

With that we settled down and started the movie.  By the middle of the movie Betty was glommed onto my other leg from Natalie and was enjoying having her hair stroked.  I don’t even think she realized it.  As the end titles started, I commented, “You know who was really good in that one?  Christie.  I think she’ll get her sixth award.”

Natalie said, “You know, seeing it this way, I agree with you.  She’ll be happy, it has been a good twenty years since her last one.”

Betty said, “You mean the one who played Mary?  Yes she was good.”

I said, “Natalie here has a troupe of actresses that she manages.  They are often in her movies with her.  Half of them are her daughters, but Christie was a rescue from nearly a century ago.  A Disney Kid who was doing bit roles since she got too old.”

Betty said, “I have wondered why a lot of the actresses in your movies, Natalie, were the same people.  Although I didn’t really worry about it since they were all so good.”  She frowned. “I read ‘A Starr Rises’, but it didn’t say anything about you having any kids.”

Natalie smiled, “I have 23 daughters, 44 granddaughters, and 67 great granddaughters.  They all love acting and have been in various movies with me.  Almost all the little girls you see in my movies are one of mine.”  Natalie looked up at me.  “Tom and I often wonder just how dumb the public is.  I have been making movies for over a century, and no one even comments that I am still 18 years old.  Also no one has noticed that half the actresses and extras in the end titles have the last name of Malloy and look like me.”

Betty commented, “You know, I have just never thought about it.  You are right, the public is pretty stupid.  Come to think of it, some of your movies are actually in 2D, aren’t they?”

“Most of them have been digitally redone as 3D, but yes, even the cult movie ‘Spacers’ was originally done in 2D.”  Natalie sighed and rolled her eyes.  “Damn, now I feel old.”

Suddenly Betty stared hard at me and then at Amanda.  “George and Winnie?”

I laughed.  “You know, you are the first to notice that in over a hundred years.  Yes the two of us were extras in ‘Spacers’.”

“Wow.  Man, am I saying that a lot tonight.  ‘Wow’.  It is a weak word for what I am feeling.  Everyone here is a legend in their own right.  I feel intimidated.”

I grinned, “No, what you should feel is pressured.  If you hang out with us, I expect you to get at least three Pulitzers and have three best sellers in the next fifty years.  It is all a matter of raising your bar a bit to match your new peer group.”

Betty laughed again.  “You have got yourself a deal.  My editor told me to take this time and go find myself.  I think I have.  I like your challenge.  And the fact that it isn’t an official challenge, but just what you expect from those around you makes it even more important to me.”

I noticed the time.  “Let’s hit the sack.  We can continue this conversation tomorrow.”

Betty said, “Mind if I join you?”

“No, but I will warn you, most women never want to leave after staying with me for a night.  Just ask Amanda.”

“Oh, that would be so terrible.”  Heavy sarcasm.

I pulled her to me and kissed her hard.  Five minutes later we were slowly making love in the bedroom.  Her eyes were defocused and she was gasping.  Some pre-cum hit her vaginal mucus membranes and she arched her back and screamed in orgasm.  Half an hour and six more orgasms later I filled her with nut butter and she shuddered, arched her back again, stared blankly at the ceiling, screamed loud and long, pounded her fists on the bed, cracked every joint, and with the pleasure center of her brain lighting up like a Christmas tree, came so hard that she immediately passed out.  The rest of my girls giggled and Erin said, “You told her but she didn’t believe it.”  We all settled down together and went to sleep.

Chapter 88

The next morning I opened my eyes to Betty’s face about three inches above mine.  She stared for a minute, and then said, “I think I know why you have so many girlfriends.  Holy Shit was that great last night!  I’m still worn out.”  She hopped out of bed, I followed her beautiful ass noticing that everyone else was up already.

Everyone was discussing where to go next.  The majority wanted Wind Cave, but Eliza wanted to get moving so we had more time out on the west coast.  She was outvoted, so we headed over to Wind Cave National Park.  Along the way we had to stop for a herd of Buffalo who were crossing the road.

At the cave we went down, and down, and down on the trails.  Eliza and Alice were a little upset that their uplinks were cut off.  There wasn’t even a cell relay in the cave so all our ear-bugs went dead.  As we rode the elevator back up at the end, Alice commented, “This was interesting, but never again.”  She shuddered.  Eliza said, “Yeah, I never realized I had autophobia.”  The two of them stood gasping as they got off the elevator, happily uplinking and connecting to everything they could find, satellites, the gift shop’s WiFi, cell networks, and the RVs.

Going the scenic route, we took 89 up through the Black Hills, stopping at several scenic vistas to ooh and ah.  We had to manually drive, the auto-pilot couldn’t handle the twisty narrow mountain roads.  I don’t blame it, it was almost impossible to maneuver the giant RVs around pig tail turns.  Good thing the last renovation had removed a lot of the electronics in the ceiling, lowering the clearance by a foot, otherwise we would have never been able to make it under some of the bridges.

We stopped at a diner in Lead, then continued north through Spearfish, getting on 212.  We headed northwest through Billings, stopping for a few hours at the local clinic.  Betty was fascinated, she had never actually been in a Thrupp clinic before.

We continued on up to Glacier National Park.  Damn, the mountains there really made the Black Hills look like hills.  It was a little sad, the glaciers were almost gone due to global warming.  It was still fantastically beautiful; we stopped and set up camp on the continental divide at Lake McDonald.  Instead of the usual V, we parked in parallel so we could see the unbelievable view.  As the sun set we grilled chicken kebabs and relaxed, watching the bright orange and yellow colors of nature’s easel over the lake and mountains.  Even in summer it was getting a little chilly, so we retired to the RVs for the night.  I took my ladies one by one, leaving them all unconscious and drooling, including Betty.  For some reason I was all energy, so I went over to the EBRV and took care of all the EBs plus Nancy and Alice.  I left the two EBs who had drawn the short straw for night though, promising to come back for them after their shift.

I opened the door to go back to my RV to find myself face to face with a very large bear.  Quickly closing the door, I looked over at the security panel.  It said that there were people outside.  I suddenly remembered a factoid from the veterinary medicine class I had taken, that the bear body temperature was the same as a humans.  The thermal sensors were confused.  I switched on the external camera and we waited for the bears to leave.  I wondered how they had got through the perimeter even so.  The EBs must have been distracted by me and their sisters.  I wasn’t going to say anything, but I was sure Ester and Alicia would when we got back.  These two would be doing fence duty for the next ten years.

A yellow light started blinking on the console, someone was opening the door to the other RV.  I hit the auto-close on the door and then got on the intercom and said, “Stay put, we have company outside.”

Tami immediately buzzed me on my ear-bug.  “What kind of company?”

“A bear and her cubs who probably smell the kebabs we had for dinner.  I am fine over here in the EBRV.  Let’s just wait for them to give up and leave.”

“Cool.  I see them now.”  I could see her in the side window of the main RV peering out.  A minute later, “Why does the mother bear have blood on her snout?”

“I don’t know.  Hold on.”  I punched up a detailed thermal scan of the area.  There was a fading IR trace just inside the woods.  I couldn’t get a view on it through the trees, so I tasked a satellite to take a high res picture with light enhancement of the area.  It was a dog, either a lab or a shepherd.  With the rapidly fading IR trace, there was nothing that we could do for it, it was already dead.  I relayed this to Tami who got a little upset.  She loved dogs.

It was funny, in the century since I had started my operations, I have never actually had a pet dog.  Some of the EB families in Malloton do, several of my daughters who worked for CBP had drug sniffers, but that was about it.

After sniffing around for a few hours the bears lumbered out of the area.  Tami and I came out and looked around.  Not much damage, the trailers were sided with a titanium carbon alloy that was almost as hard as diamond, they weren’t going to damage that! 

I led Tami over to check the poor dog.  The beautiful German Shepherd had obviously had somehow got in the way of the bear.  Her ribcage was crushed and neck broken from being trashed about by the bear.  Her collar was still on, but there were no tags.  Tami noticed immediately that her nipples were distended.  The bitch had been lactating.  That meant puppies.  We started searching.  Inside a log were two puppies, both girls.  They were about three weeks old and were very hungry.  We quickly gathered them up and took them back to the medical trailer. 

While Tami dug through the drawers to find infant bottles and warmed up some milk from the fridge, I examined the puppies.  I had never worked with animals before.  I scanned them and saw that all was normal.  I wanted to try something, so I started enhancing.  First, I made the top of head slightly larger, and then spliced in several human brain characteristics to really ramp up intellegence.  I carefully designed a function similar to that keeping us humans going locked in at 19, and set the dogs to stop aging at one.  I added the standard rapid healing and drug immunizations, adapting them for the canine brain.  Then I upped their strength by a factor of four.  Deep scanning, there were some interesting genes, I assumed that they were part of the animal’s domestication.  They would instinctively accept humans as well as other dogs as part of their pack.  I found this fascinating and examined it deeply.  I stitched in an automatic super alpha male reaction to me into the instinctual memory, and bumped up the pack acceptance for any EB or daughter of mine (essentially anyone who was enhanced).  I pushed it into the eggs, and then quickly duplicated the changes in the other puppy.

Tami and the girls went completely maternal on the puppies.  I had expected that, which was why I made the enhancements.  I knew from the second I saw them that those dogs would be around for a long time.  I saw that Betty was avoiding the puppies, although she was cooing like the other girls.  I asked her why, and she said that she was allergic to dogs.  I reassured her that the allergy was long gone.  She immediately scooped up one and started petting it.

Erin glared at Tami and said, “We are NOT calling either of these wonderful girls ‘Hot Dog’!”

Tami faked a haughty look and said, “No, of course not, that’s a boy dog name.”

We all laughed.

She went on, “I think Athena and Hera.”

They all agreed that they were good names.  In Whitefish, we picked up two dog collars, one red for Athena and one pink for Hera.  We didn’t bother with the puppy immunizations, the dogs were immune to everything after Nancy and I had spent hours tweaking the enhancements.  At one point Eliza laughed and said, “They are EBs too, they are ‘Extra-Bitches’.”  Everyone laughed.

By the time we were to Spokane about six hours later, they were potty trained, at least enough to use the litter box that we put into the bathroom.  They would run around everywhere, wanting to know everything.

Spokane had a clinic.  The only one in the area.  Because of the weather, it was a Valery style, built on the west end of downtown by where all the golf courses used to be before the urban collapse of the area.  We exited off the interstate and it was a few blocks north.  We pulled in next to the clinic’s two EMRVs.  They were used a lot, and were currently getting overhauled for the fire season which started soon.

We got out, each of the twins carrying a puppy.  As each of us got out of the RV, the EB mechanics standing there got bigger and bigger eyes.  Nearly every person who got out of the RV was a legend to these girls.  The mechanic EBs tried to get back to work, but they were all distracted.  When we left a few hours later, it was with a disappointing “awwww...” as the local EBs had to give up the puppies.

For fun, we took highway two across the state, cutting through the mountains.  Technically it was a more direct route, but we couldn’t go faster than 45 MPH in some parts.  We stopped at Scottish Lake for the night.  It was pretty.  I could see why they called it Scottish Lake, it really looked like something from Scotland.  In the morning we continued on, it was a straightaway into Seattle.

Like most major cities in the U.S., we had more than one clinic there.  One was a Valery style, and one was old school, a clinic with adjoining shelter.  I regularly visited the two clinics, stopping in a couple of times a year.  I stopped by the old style one this time.  They were wiggling in happiness almost as much as Athena and Hera when I stopped in.  Two of my oldest daughters, Rose and Tanya, ran the clinic together.  Rose didn’t have the gift, but Tanya did.  Besides being sisters, they had been best friends for a century.  Nancy and Alice hadn’t seen them for a long time and ran in and exchanged hugs with lots of squeals.  They were followed closely by Natalie, the twins, Theresa, Erin and Hannah.  They ended with quick hugs from Tami and Eliza, who they knew, but not as ‘immediate’ family.  Of course I got a huge hug and kiss from each of them.

We plugged in the RVs to recharge next to the EMRV and stayed the night.  I went and took care of many of my poor EBs, who went without so much of the time.  The next morning we took a couple of the clinic SUVs and went over to the Microsoft museum.  Eliza had been really antsy to visit.  It was a little ways east, the high tech sector of Seattle (read Bellevue) didn’t need homeless shelters.

The museum was a huge building, larger than a Valery style clinic.  We parked and went in.  Eliza and Alice were going in, of course.  They were closely followed by Natalie, Tami, Hannah and myself.  Everyone else took the day to go shopping.  The first part of the museum was a tribute to Microsoft, of course.  We quickly skipped through that.  The part we all wanted to see was the history of computers section.

It started with an abacus.  There was a working PDP-8 after the ENIAC model.  An old system, with original restored terminals from the early 1970s was next.  The actual computer core was emulated, it was too dangerous to the ancient mag tapes to really run them.

There was the famous Pong Room after that, where people could use actual paddles to play Pong.  We all took turns, it was fun, Natalie and I were the only ones in our group ever to play the original.

Following that were static models of the TRS-80, H-89, and the Apple ][e with a Duo-disk!

The original PC, the next machine, was worth millions.  It was just sitting there running MS-DOS 3.1.  Now THAT brought back memories!  My dad would love it, he had an old PC sitting in his attic that we used to use.  We had upgraded to the computer two down on the display (there was an early 1990s PC with Win3.1 that was between them), a PC with Win95 on it, in the late 1990s when I was about six.  The displays kept getting fancier as we moved down the line until the end of the PC era in the early 2030s.

There were iterations of the Mac interweaved with the PCs.  I wondered how hard that was for the Microsoft people to put in.

The next part of the museum was the history of the mainframe.  It branched off of the history in the late 1970s.  Eliza was fascinated by a virtual version of the original ELIZA program from the early 1980s.  She and Alice stood there and played with it giggling.  That is where the curator found them.  Someone must have tipped him off, because he was practically running as he came into the hall.  He stopped, gasped, and immediately blinked several pictures with his ear-bug.  Eliza playing with ELIZA.  I could see why he was so interested. 

I said, “Ahem.  Eliza.” 

She looked up and saw him.  “Robert Inglewood!”  She rushed over to meet him, grabbing his hand and pumping it.

“Ms. Malloy.  Have we met before?”

“Oh no!  I just am a big fan of yours!”

He turned red.  “I didn’t even realize I had any fans.  I’ve sold twelve books total.”

“I loved how you presented ‘The History of the A.I.’!”

He grinned and said, “I suppose, out of everyone on this planet, you would be the one person to read that book.”

This time Eliza turned red.  “Hmmm, that is my fault in a way.  I donated my copy to the firm library.  It has been read many times by many persons.  Let me rectify that.”  She hesitated a second.  “I just bought 1000 copies for use in technical libraries.”  She grinned at his surprised look, “It’s nice being a supercomputer.  Especially a rich one.”

He chuckled.  “Yeah, I bet.”  He looked over at us and exclaimed, “But where are my manners?  I recognize most of you, Ms. Starr of course; Mr. Malloy; the lady that is always behind him but nobody knows your name,”  he gestured at Tami, “I don’t recognize this young lady, nice to meet you,” he shook Hannah’s hand; “And, Eliza, this must be one of your daughters,” he peered intensely at Alice and held out a hand.

Alice shook it and said, “Yes, I’m Alice.  BTW, that was Hannah there.”

“Alice, of course, of course.”  He glanced over at the virtual ALICE display next to the ELIZA display.

She saw the glance and said, “Yup.  That is why my sisters are Amy and Hayley.”

“Hayley?  I don’t recognize the reference.”

“Girl form of HAL.”

“Ah.”  He turned back to Eliza.  “I am, and the museum is, honored at your visit.  Now if you could get your mother to visit with you...”

“Huh?  Why?”

“Because she is the winner of the Final Loebner prize.  A photo of you with her would be priceless.  The most amazing and greatest technological achievement of the human race and her creator.”

“Tell you what, I’m sending you a pic.”  A second later he blinked it up on the wall monitor.  It was Ester with Eliza and a twelve year old Amy.

He gasped, “Is that Ester Stevens?”

“Yes, that’s my mom.  And Amy when she was twelve.”

“The Vacuum Dancer?”

“Yes.  It’s ironic that she is so well known for that.  She hated dance lessons.”

He chuckled again.  “Today is full of surprises.”

The rest my girls, except me, were wandering around looking at the rest of the exhibits while they talked.  I was interested in the conversation.  I said, “Won’t your mom be upset at you releasing a picture of her?”

“Probably.  She is too paranoid, though.  It’ll be good for her.”

Robert said, “Paranoid?”

“Oh, my mom is head of Tom’s external security and is very paranoid over his safety.  She’ll think that her ability to protect him is compromised if people know what she looks like.”

“Doesn’t sound like any type of computer person I have ever met.”

“She isn’t.  That is why she succeeded.  She put a computer in a body and raised it like a human.  That is why it worked.  The original thought was that I would collate field reports for her.  I created a programmed A.I. to do that for her years ago though, I sure didn’t want to do it all the time, talk about boring.  It isn’t self aware, but it is close enough to handle what she needs to do.”  She looked around.  “Look, my family has finished looking around.  I will schedule a future publicity visit if you like, but I feel guilty hogging time like this.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“I’ll call in a week or so.”

“Talk then.”  He stood there, hoping for another minute, but Eliza resolutely turned and we all left.

She commented, “I could stand there talking all day, but I will do it when others aren’t around.”

She rushed us past the section on her at the end, embarrassed.

The next day we packed the RVs back up and headed north, up through Bellingham and Blaine, crossing the border into Canada.  Eliza and Alice were a bit nervous over this, their protection as citizens didn’t extend into Canada.  The Canadian CBP agent was a little bit in awe as he went through our passports.  I think he was in a little shock.  He didn’t even blink as he processed Eliza and Alice, but when he reached me he smiled and said, “Sir, on behalf of my family, I would like to thank you.”

“For what?”

“Establishing the clinic in Vancouver.  My sister was very sick, and now she is chasing boys like the best of ‘em.  I am honored to meet all of you.”  He even looked down at Athena and Hera who were sniffing him curiously since he was the first non-enhanced person they had ever met.  “I even won’t say anything about the mandatory one week quarantine for dogs.”  He looked back up and said, “Welcome to Canada!”  He smiled again and exited.  We pulled ahead while he checked out the chase RV which was quickly passed through.

We went north through the tunnel and up into Vancouver, stopping at the clinic tower in downtown eastside.  Like the last few clinics, the EB mechanics were busy overhauling the EMRVs for the fire season.  We pulled in and they were all distracted.  Athena and Hera were a smash success, as they were everywhere.  I might have enhanced their intelligence too much, they were only four weeks old and acted like six months.

Vancouver was a nice city, a lot like Seattle.  Even had the identical tower restaurant.  What Natalie and I were interested in was Hollywood North.  Strangely, with over a century of movies under her belt, Natalie had never been there.  It had grown to take up almost the entire north shore and eastern Vancouver in the past century and rivaled Bollywood for size.

Funnily, only Tami, Betsy, Erin and Hannah were interested in seeing Hollywood North with Natalie and me.  We went out the door, down the block, and got on the subway, taking the train east to Bridge Studios, one of the largest in the area. 

Tami wasn’t too happy, there were a lot of questionable characters riding the subway.  It had got a bit filthy in the last fifty years since it was rebuilt.  She was on high alert the whole way.  If I hadn’t had her at my side for the last century, I wouldn’t have been able to tell though.  She looked relaxed, wore the latest teen styles, and smacked gum, but I knew that she had observed every dust mote on the entire train.

We got off on Broadway and Boundary.  From there we could see four studios at least.  Bridge Studios was a big building, recently rebuilt, to the southeast.  I assumed there was a big lot behind it.

Natalie grinned, winked and said, “Watch this.”  She led us across the street and in the main door.  She didn’t say a word, just stood there inside the entrance.  Within a minute a suit was there along with a publicity guy with an active ear-bug, recording everything.

The suit said, “Ms. Starr, welcome to Bridge Studios!  I am Fred Yates, Head of the Studio.  How may I help you?” He was practically drooling.

“Hi, Fred.  Just playing tourist today.”

“Of course, of course!”  He waved a hand and a young pretty star-struck woman stepped out of a corner.  “Cassie here would be glad to show you around.”

“Thanks, Fred.  You’ve been a dear.”  Natalie patted him on the cheek.  He almost pissed his pants in excitement.

Cassie was having trouble speaking.  I could tell Natalie was enjoying this greatly, the gleam in her eye was unmistakable.  She waited until we were out of earshot of Fred and said, “Cassie, relax.  So how long have you worked here?”

“A-almost ten years,” she managed to get out.  She squared her shoulders and went on, “I was a tour guide for eight of them.  I guess that is why *Fred* picked me to show you around.”  There was a lot of disgust in the way she said ‘Fred’.  “I apologize for my reaction; this is my first VIP tour.”

“No problem.  One thing though.”  She turned to the publicity guy and gave him the eye.  “You.  You will not record private conversation.” 

The guy paled and blinked off his ear-bug.  “Y-yes, Ma’am!”

“What Cassie just said will be on the floor.  Understand?”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

Natalie nodded.  This was the movie industry.  She had more power here than the President of the United States.  A stray comment from her could make or break the entire studio.  Cassie’s career ending apology never happened.

Cassie led us out of the back of the building.  “There are currently six films being made here.  My favorite is ‘The Unknown Dragon’ being filmed in studio G.  It is the story of a kid who inherits Kung Fu skills, but doesn’t know it.  Let’s take a peek and see how it is going.”  She led us down past several buildings to studio G.  A flash of her ID badge and the guard let us in.

Everyone was running all over the place.  On the set, a guy in a white kimono with a black belt was showing a boy, about 15, how to do a side kick for the next scene.  We went to watch.  Natalie, Hannah and Tami giggled.  The guy in the kimono heard them.  He turned and said, “What’s so funny?”

Tami commented, “If he does it that way, he’ll break his foot and be off balance to boot.”

“I’ll have you know that I am a second dan black belt.”

“So?  He’ll still break his foot.”

“What qualifies you to say that?”  He was getting angry.

“Let’s just say that I know what I am talking about, unlike some people.”

“You...!”

The actor broke in.  “Miss, how would you do it?”

Tami went over and showed him.

“That makes sense.”  He duplicated it.  It did look much more natural and smooth than before.  “Thanks!”

The kimono guy said, “Who the hell are you to come in here and interfere?”

Tami said, “Tami Wells.”

His jaw dropped as his eyes widened.  He fell to his knees and bowed, his forehead to the floor.  “I apologize, Master.”

She said, “You do that kick right, and your apology is accepted.”

He jumped up and went to the mat.  He began to work at duplicating what she had done.

The actor, in a kind of shock, whispered to the kimono guy, “Just who is she, and why did you do that?”

The kimono guy said, “That is Master Tami Wells, the highest ranked martial artist on the planet.  You have seen in movies about the wandering master who can do anything?  That is her.  Don’t piss her off, she could take us all out in a blink of an eye.  Just meeting her will make my career.”

“But she is so young!  Not much older than I am!”

“She is over a century old.  Like I said, she is the Master.  She looks like she wants to look.”

As the young actor stared at Tami, I said, “Tami, I didn’t know that you were known.”

“Yeah, wrote a few martial arts books and was in a couple of tourneys fifty or so years ago.  I still judge them once in a while.  Every few years someone does an article.”

I said, “Next tourney, I want to go watch.  It’ll be fun.”

Suddenly the young actor who had been checking out the group said, “Oh my God, you’re Natalie Starr!”  He was staring at Natalie.

She said, “I sure hope so!”

He rushed over to shake her hand.  “I am such a big fan!” 

The publicity guy was having the time of his life getting a good recording.  The shot of Natalie shaking hands with the actor could make the movie.  That plus the shot of the karate guy bowing to a gum chewing teenager would make his career as well.  He had an idea.  “Ms. Wells, Ms. Starr, Mr. Halvorsen.  Can we do a publicity shot?  Put all three of you in gis and have Mr. Halvorsen and his tutor do a bow to you two ladies.”

Natalie and Tami exchanged glances and said in harmony, “Sure.”  Natalie said, “I am 8^th dan black belt.”  Tami said, “And I was about 23^rd dan last I checked.  Belts really don’t matter much after 10^th.”  The tutor guy’s eyes widened again.

The publicity guy said, “I’ll go talk to the costumer.  Be right back.”  He took off at a run.  This would potentially go on the movie poster.  In any case, the picture would be famous.

Tami went over and was teaching the tutor some moves that were flashy and would be good in movies.  The teen star, Will Halvorsen, just stood there and drooled while staring at Natalie.

After about ten minutes, a middle aged guy showed up asking, “What is going on here?  We are trying to make a movie!”  Cassie went over and started whispering in his ear.  His eyes got big as he took in Natalie and Tami.  His jaw dropped and he stared for a minute.  Then he shook himself and marched over.  “Hello!  I’m the Director, Sam Wong.”  He shook hands with Natalie.  “I understand that we are going to do some publicity stills with you two ladies today.  I am honored to meet you both.”

Natalie smiled while Tami nodded from where she was still teaching.  Natalie said, “Nice to meet you too, Sam.”  I took a picture of them shaking hands with my ear-bug.  I would send it to the publicity guy’s ear-bug when he got back.

In fact, he reappeared with a limp wristed guy at that point who held up an instrument and took size readings for Natalie and Tami.  He scurried off while the pub guy stayed.  I blinked over the pic for him.  He was torn, he recorded the teaching lesson on the mat for a bit, then Natalie and Sam for a bit.

Ten minutes later the costumer was back with four gis.  Natalie and Tami went behind the back of the set and changed, and then Will and Bob the tutor did.  Will had a purple belt, Bob a black with two yellow stripes, Natalie with eight yellow stripes, and Tami had one that was completely striped.  I didn’t mention that I was 8^th dan, and Hannah was 10^th dan.  Betsy was good, maybe a black belt by now, and Erin was a pacifist.

They spent the next hour posing in every possible way and combination.  They tried some action shots, but Tami was so fast that she was just a blur on camera.  Bob asked if Tami could show something really advanced.  She thought for a moment, and then flipped up so that her entire body was being held up by her straight pinky finger (making sure the gi fell between her legs).  She stayed there while everyone gasped.  She said, “Bob, attack me.”  He came at her and she easily defended herself with her legs, while staying balanced on her pinky.  The publicity guy recorded the whole thing.  After a minute she asked, “That good enough?”  When Bob nodded, she flipped back up onto her feet.

The Director said, “I can’t believe that she just did that with no special effects.”

The crowd that had gathered started applauding.

Tami and Natalie went and changed back in their street clothes.  The costumer put their gis and belts in a bag and handed it to me.  I suppose he figured I was one of their entourage.  Natalie did Hollywood hugs all around and Cassie led us on with the tour. 

We watched several more scenes from different movies, but no one else noticed Natalie until we came to a set of a cheesy frat house ‘Animal House’ takeoff.  A topless actress who had just run across the stage for a scene saw us and said, “Mom, Dad?”  It was Bethany, one of Natalie’s daughters that didn’t inherit the ‘gift’ from me.  She had decided that she wanted to make movies on her own, without her mother’s support, about forty years ago.  We hadn’t heard from her since.

Natalie gasped, “Bethany?” and swept her into a giant hug.  I joined in.  A quick DNA check, and yup, it was Bethany.  I also noticed that she had had at least two kids.  Her body had repaired the damage immediately, but I could tell.  I looked at the publicity guy ran my finger across my throat.  He turned off his ear-bug with a disappointed look.

Bethany was sobbing.  “Oh, I missed you guys!”

Natalie sobbed back, “Where have you been all this time?  I tried to find you but the trail ended in Kolkata.”

“I’ve been everywhere.  Mostly Europe.”

“Why haven’t you called?  You know home is only the nearest clinic away.”

“At first I was too embarrassed, then I met a great guy, got married, and was living happily ever after; or so I thought.”

“Oh, Honey, what happened?”

“He claimed I was too young for him and he left with an older woman right after the kids graduated!  Is that back-asswards or what?  By then I was used to not seeing my family so I just got a jobs here and there to pay the bills.”

I said, “That’s silly.  All you had to do was go down the clinic, ask for a job, and if low end acting is what you want, go to work for John Fredericks doing commercials.”

“But I like movies.”

“Then go to work with your mom.  She would gladly be your agent again.”

She hugged Natalie again.  “Really, Mom?  After what I did?”

“What did you do?  You wanted to try being independent.  I see nothing wrong with that.  What you did wrong was never call.”

Suddenly Bethany started laughing, almost hysterical.  I asked, “Honey, what’s so funny?”

“I-I was just picturing Dan, Bruce and Shelly when they find out who their grandparents are.  I never told them and they think I am a bit crazy, always wanting to be in the movies.”

“I assume that Dan, Bruce and Shelly are your kids?”

“Oh!  Yes, I have three, Dan, who is 32, a Fireman, with three kids; Bruce, who is 27, single, and a Mountie; and my baby Shelly, who is 19.  She still lives at home.”

“Are you done for today?”

“Yes.  I am just an extra.  It is a blow to my ego that I can’t get much better without Mom’s clout, but I don’t like making the type of movies I have been doing lately.  Running across the room in my g-string is a step up.”

“Oh.  Give Dad a list and he will take care of it.”

She looked at her feet and blushed.  “Several films over at Flesh and Fantasy, about a mile north of here.  Since I look 17 and am nearly 70, they paid very well.”

I said, “I’ll be back.”  They all groaned at the bad quote.

Tami and I took off and walked north along Boundary Road.  Soon we reached the place.  Flesh and Fantasy Studios.  The name left nothing to the imagination.  Tami and I looked at each other, and then went in the main door.

Posters lined the walls.  Very explicit posters.  The fourth one had Bethany as ‘The Teen Temptress, Tiffany’.

I went over to the middle aged receptionist.  She handed each of us a clipboard and said, “Sign here.  You two will make a lot of money.”

We handed them back and said, “I need to see whomever is in charge.”

“Why?”

“I wish to purchase a film.”

She raised an eyebrow.  She picked up the phone and called, “Salim, I have someone here who wants to purchase a film.”

A short Indian guy was standing next to her in an eye-blink.  It was impressive.  “You wish to purchase a film.”

“Yes, everything you have, negatives, raw footage, digital copies, all commercial copies, posters, contracts, everything; on Bethany, AKA Tiffany.  That includes scrubbing your drives of any copies.  She was never here.”

“You realize that she had made four movies, and is one of our biggest stars?”

“Four movies, eh?  I’ll pay $20 Million for all of it.”

His eyes went big.  “Mister, you have a deal.”

“Good.  By the time you have it up here; I will have a cashier’s check for you.”

He blinked, then did his trick and disappeared.  I called the clinic and had them issue a cashier’s check from the attached Malloy back and courier it over.  Fifteen minutes later a girl came in with the check.  Ten minutes after that three carts, mostly movie chips, were pushed into the room, Salim himself went over and pulled the poster from the wall.  I handed the check to Salim, then Tami and I helped load the three carts worth into the courier’s car.  I told her to crate it and seal it all up when she got back to the clinic.

Tami and I walked back to the big studio; meanwhile I checked the website and made sure all the online copies were gone.  Waiting out front were my girls, including Bethany.  I went over and said, “All taken care of.”

Bethany looked down at her feet in embarrassment and said, “Thank you, Dad.  I don’t know what I was thinking.”

I said, “I don’t have problems with films like that.  It is legit way to make money.  But some people do, and that kind of reputation will destroy your career before it even starts.  Now, you never worked there, the only evidence are the chips already sold.”

She nodded. 

“Now I want to meet my granddaughter.  And maybe even my great grandkids.”

She smiled and led us to the subway.  She lived not far from the clinic.  Betsy, Hannah and Erin said that there were too many people and went back to the clinic.  Tami, Natalie and I followed Bethany back to her place.  A third story apartment that was in pretty rough shape, at least from the outside.

Inside was nice.  A pretty girl, obviously Shelly, came in from the kitchen and asked Bethany, “Mom, who are all these people?”

“Dear, this is your Grandpa Tom, Grandma Natalie, and Aunt Tami.”

“You’re kidding!”

“No.  They found me at work today.”

“Making another fuck-film, eh?”

“No.  And don’t curse in front of your grandparents.”

*sigh* “Yes, Mother.”  She looked at us.  “You seem familiar, we’ve meet before, eh?”

“No, but your Grandma is quite well known.”

“You seem awfully young to be my grandparents.  But mom looks pretty young too.”  She peered closely at Natalie.  “Grandma Natalie, eh?”  Natalie just serenely smiled.  Suddenly Shelly’s eyes went wide and she exclaimed, “Natalie?  No way!  You’re Natalie Starr!!?!”  She sank down on the couch, jaw dropped and eyes still wide.

Bethany said, “Yeah, I ran away to ‘make my own career’.  Turns out that the only career I can get on my own is running around naked.  It figures.”

Shelly grabbed onto that, “Why does it figure?”

Bethany snorted, “We all lived in a giant commune back home.  It is a nudist colony.”

Not wanting to dig into that yet, Shelly asked me, “Are you really my Grandfather?”

“Yes, I am.  Your mother managed to disappear pretty good.  We have been wondering what happened to her for forty years.”  I looked over at Bethany, “I thought about having Ester find you, but you were pretty insistent about wanting to ‘do it on your own’.”

Shelly said, “You look pretty familiar too.  But I can’t place you.”

Bethany said, “His full name is Tom Malloy.”

Shelly’s eyes went big again.  A minute later she said, “Damn, Mom.  You’ve been keeping some big secrets!  No wonder you never would tell us kids your maiden name!”

Bethany said, “Anyway, I accepted a parental bailout.  My career as a porn star never happened.  Mom here said that she will get me some real acting jobs.”

“That’s wonderful!  But what do you mean, ‘never happened’?”

I said, “There is no evidence that she ever even went within a mile of Flesh and Fantasy Studios.  No contracts, no film, no posters, nothing.”

Shelly asked, “Does this mean we have the money for me to go to college now?”

Both Natalie and I gave Bethany dirty looks.  I said, “Shelly, you have always had the money, and as a member of my family you also have a free ride at Malloy University.  Your mother knew that.  I am a little disappointed in her for putting her desire to get away ahead of your education.”

Bethany looked ashamed.  She said, “You know, I had been avoiding my past so long I had forgotten about all that.  Heck, I have my card in my jewelry case in the other room.  I remember getting that, I was so excited.  Now I haven’t used it in forty years.  I wonder if it will even still work.”

Shelly said, “What card?”

I said, “Family members get a NPSL bank card and account when they are ten.”

“NPSL?”

“No Preset Spending Limit.  You could buy a 100 foot yacht with one.”

“And we are eating oatmeal every evening and taking handouts from my brothers because we can’t afford food? Mom, what is wrong with you?”  Both of them broke down sobbing.  Natalie went over and pulled them both into a hug.

I said, “You are just lucky that none of you inherited the gift.  That would have been a mess.”

Bethany sobbed even more.  “I didn’t even think of that until recently!”

“Or, how about the fact that you and probably your kids are immortal?”

Shelly’s head whipped up, “What?”

I said, “You’ve probably noticed that you are stronger, faster and heal quicker than other people?”

“Yes.”

“Well, you also stop aging at around 18.”

“That explains why Dan and Bruce still look like they are my age!  I wondered about that!”

I said, “Well, anyway, all’s well that ends well.  Shelly, you want to come with us?  Two blocks over is the Malloy Clinic, you have dozens of aunts and cousins who live there.  Also, my RV with several more of your aunts are there right now since I am here on vacation.”

“The Clinic, eh?  Dan and Bruce work with them for firefighting.”

“I bet they have never actually met Joan or Carlie, your two aunts who run the place, or many of your other aunts.  They would have recognized them immediately.”

“Why?”

“Remember I mentioned the family gift?  About half of us get it.  Part of it is the ability to see inside of people, including DNA.  They would recognize a family member.”

“Valid.”

Bethany sniffled and said, “Actually, next week Lisa, Dan’s daughter, has her predestination.  I have a feeling about her.  That is one of the reasons I decided to go talk to Mom and Dad when I saw them at Bridge Studios.”

“Predestination?”

“When we find out if the gift will appear.  Usually at age 13 and 4 months.”

“And her birthday was in February!”

“Exactly.”

“I want to see this place!”  Shelly eagerly pulled on her shoes.  After carefully locking the door, we walked over to the clinic.  Shelly was hyper excited, asking question after question.  We deliberately led her into the clinic by the side door, she bubbled through security with a bemused EB grinning.  We came out into the atrium.  She froze in wonder.  “This is a clinic?”

I said, “No, this is the attached homeless shelter.  The clinic is downstairs.  Our family lives up twenty stories at the top.”  I noticed both Joan and Carlie getting off the elevator and heading over.  “Speaking of family, these two are your Aunts Joan and Carlie.  Carlie is the redhead.”

As she stared, she asked, “How many kids do you and Grandma have?”

“Actually Joan and Carlie are your half aunts.  They are my daughters, but not related to your Grandma.  To answer your question, your Grandma and I have twenty three children, forty four grandchildren, sixty seven great grandchildren, sixteen great, great grandchildren, and two great, great, great grandchildren.”

She swallowed.  “Just how old are you anyway?”

“133.”

“Okaaay...  Shouldn’t have asked.  I feel like I just found out I am an elf or something.”

“Okay.”  I reached over and made both her ears gently pointed.

She reached up and felt them.  “Oh, my God!”  Then she grinned and said, “You know what?  I like ‘em.”

Bethany laughed, “You and your elf fantasies!”  She said to us, “She’s been nuts about elves for all her life.  Now she learns that she has all the physical traits of one and you have fulfilled her dreams.”

I thought for a moment, and then said seriously, “I wonder if that is the source for the elf mythos.  Someone with our family ability would have those traits, and the gift would appear as magic.  Maybe those with the gift pointed their ears in an attempt to mark themselves as separate.  Since we know that the gift also appeared in Native Americans, maybe that explains the shape-changing legends.”

As I had hoped, Shelly glommed onto the theory.  “So we could be the source of the real elves?  That is so valid!  Mom, you are never going to get me to change my ears back now!”

Bethany rolled her eyes and gave me a dirty look.  I gave her my best innocent look back.

Shelly said, “Can we go upstairs?  You said that the family lives up there!”

Natalie said, “Sure.  We need to get your biometrics into the computer anyway.”

“Why?”

“Dear, you are part of the family.  You can go in and out of any part of any clinic on the planet, or even off the planet.  If you want you can live at any of them.  Once your biometrics are in the computer, you will essentially have free movement.”

“Valid.”

We went upstairs to the security station where they opened six files, one for each of my newly found descendants.  Shelly’s physical stats, photo, handprints, retina-prints, iris-prints and voiceprints were added to her file.  Much of the five other files were filled out by a quick data mining.  Fingerprints and photos were part of the school records.  Facebook had photos and voice templates.  It also had a detailed history.

When no one was looking I punched in a request for updated debit cards for both Bethany and Shelly.  Shelly’s account had automatically been created when her profile as my descendant was entered in the computer.  They were making them up downstairs at the Malloy Bank branch and would bring them up in a few minutes.

Bethany and Shelly went and peered over the railing into the giant atrium.  After a few minutes, Bethany commented, “I had forgotten how grand these places are.”

I said, “Yeah, your sister Valerie sure did a neat job of it.  You never did travel and see the super one in Japan which is four times this big.”

Natalie said, “Makes this place look tiny.  Although I think my favorite of this type is the Vatican clinic.”

At that moment the EB arrived with the two new cards.  I handed them to Bethany and Shelly.  “Enjoy.”

Shelly stared at it for a minute, then looked up and asked, “Does this really have no limit?”

“Technically yes.  It is tied in with your new account which has your saved allowance in it.  Since you have never spent it, and at age 19 it is quite a bit.  But for emergencies there is unlimited overdraft coverage.”

She asked, “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Out of my over 300,000 kids and grandkids, no one has ever abused the card.”

“300,000?”

“About.  The only person, besides the central computer, that knows exactly how many is Eliza over there.”  I nodded to Eliza, who was leaning on the wall.

Eliza said, “372,122 as of two minutes ago.  Ten more were just born in Sydney.”

“I’m having trouble keeping up with you people.  How the HELL does she know that, eh?”

Eliza answered, “You may have heard of me, I’ve been in the news a lot lately.  ‘Eliza Malloy’ ring any bells?”

“Oh yeah!  You’re the supercomputer that got emancipated!  Valid!”

I asked Bethany, “So you think that Lisa will get the gift?”

“Yeah.  My guess rate is 100%, so I say that there is a pretty good chance.  I suppose that is my gift.”

“Don’t tell anyone about that.  You would get swamped by moms thrusting their daughters at you.”

“That is why I never told anyone except a few friends who promised to keep it to themselves.”

“I suppose we need to go see them then.”

“They live on the island, up in Parksville, so it will take a while to get there.”

“Shall we take the RV?”

She grinned.  “Sure.  I’ve always wanted to go someplace in that thing.  But I wasn’t high enough in the rankings.  When we were little, we used to sneak past the mechanics and play in it.”

I laughed.  As a kid growing up on the estate, she probably knew nooks and crannys that Alicia never dreamed of.

Chapter 89

Besides Bethany and Natalie, I took Tami, Theresa and Alice.  No chase RV.  Shelly was enjoying herself too much to take off into the wilds (as she put it).

We got on the ferry to the island.  They had to center the RV because it was so heavy.  The ferry was fun, it was just like the movies with the little mall on the upper decks and the cars (and RV) parked in the hold.  I had fun, I bought all sorts of tourist junk; baseball caps, t-shirts, sweatshirts, and the like.  I took lots of ear-bug pictures of the girls with the wind blowing their hair.  Beautiful.

Parksville wasn’t very far north of Nanaimo, so we arrived fairly quickly.  We got a lot of stares, RVs were pretty rare.  Bethany directed us to pull up next to a fairly new fire station.  The entire crew was quickly out staring at the RV. 

Bethany got out first.  They all shouted greetings.  One of them came over and gave her a big hug, saying, “Mom!  What are you doing here, and in this road tank?”

The rest of us had piled out.  Bethany pointed to Natalie and me and said, “Dan, these are your grandparents.”

“The ones you always kept secret from us?”  He eyed us.

“Yes.  Not their fault.  I just wanted to go out and live on my own.  You know how successful that was.”  The sarcasm was dripping.

“Oh, mom, you didn’t do too bad, you couldn’t have known dad would do what he did.”  He turned to us.  “Hello.  I am happy to meet you.  I am not sure what to do or say.”

I said, “Natalie probably wants to hug you, I can shake your hand.”  I held out my hand.

He shook it and said, “My name is Dan.”

“Tom.  Tom Malloy.”

“Well that explains the ‘Malloy’ on mom’s old credit card in her jewelry case.”  He turned and gave Natalie a hug, not hard to do.  “Then you must be Natalie.”

She said, “Hi, Dan.”

He looked at us and said, “I can see why mom still looks like a high schooler even though she has middle aged kids.”

I laughed, “Family trait.  Your grandmother and I are in our 130’s.”

“Shit.”

“Maybe I should call her my old lady, she is three years older than I am after all.”  I grinned as Natalie punched my arm.

He laughed.  “Unreal.”  I turned back to Bethany.  “So, Mom, why are they here after all these years?  Not that I am complaining, I always wanted to meet my grandparents, I just thought they were dead or something.”

“No, Dan.  We are here for three reasons.  One, I ran into them on a movie set and really missed them.  Two, I was in such trouble financially that I decided to ask them for help so Shelly could go to college.  And three, it’s a bit complicated, but has to do with Lisa.”

“Lisa?”

“Next week, actually, most likely in two days, she will probably get another family trait.  We just call it the ‘gift’.”

“The ‘gift’?  What kind of gift?”  He was a bit wide eyed.  We were talking about his little girl.

I said, “I should answer that, since she inherits it from me.”

“Okay.  Stop beating around the bush.”

“It is a medical ability.  She will, overnight, develop into a medical super-prodigy with the ability to touch heal.”

“Seriously?”

Bethany said, “Yes, Dan, seriously.”

“That is a little farfetched.”

I said, “Tell you what, anyone here with injuries, old or new?”

“Several.  This is a firehouse.”

“Take me to them.  Don’t worry, this is what I do.  I own the Thrupp Clinics.”

His eyes widened, but he led me inside.  His first stop was the kitchen.  The man at the stove had a fake leg.  I said, “Girls, seal off the room.”  They nodded and went to do it.

I went over to the guy, who hadn’t noticed us yet, and tapped him on the forehead.  I caught him and laid him out on the floor.  Turning the burners on the stove down to warm, I asked Bethany, “See if they have something in the fridge, will you?”

She looked at the man and said, “About 20 kilos?”  She went to dig in the fridge.

I said, “Sounds about right.”

“Hamburger work?  They have a ton of that.”

“Sure.  A bit harder to work with, but it’ll do.”

I removed his pants and detached the artificial leg.  Out loud I said, “Pretty standard reconstruction due to a crush injury.”

Dan said, “Yeah, a house fell on him.”

“And I’ll make a bet that you got him out.”

He looked at me and said, “How the hell do you know that?”

“Because a fireman rarely survives an injury like this.  If they get one, it is usually where there is no heavy equipment around to move the debris and they die in the fire.  The only way he would have made it is if his partner could lift the debris himself.  As my grandson, you are the only person here who could have done that.”

“I wasn’t his partner, I was on the relief team, but you have the rest of it right.  So my strength is a family trait as well?”

His mother was unwrapping the meat.  I said, “Along with fast super-healing, heightened reflexes and senses, longevity, and a few other things like that.  Your sister said she felt like she had just learned she was an elf.”

He started laughing.  Hard.  He sputtered, “T-That’s Shelly!”

His mom finished.  I said, “Now this is another family trait, and your mom thinks that Lisa inherited it.  On those who do, it activates within a day or two of when they are 13 and 4 months.  We call it the ‘Predestination’.  In any case, it is for family eyes only.  Understand?”

He nodded.

I took a pile of the hamburger and created a baby leg with the man’s DNA.  I connected it; then used the rest of the hamburger to grow it and develop the leg muscles.  In about three minutes, he had two legs.  I did a quick exam as Dan stood there with his jaw dropped, and repaired the damaged liver and spleen.  I added the standard drug immunities; then Bethany helped me put his pants back on.  I sat him in a chair and turned him on.

He blinked, then said, “What happened?”

Dan said, “You fainted.  Must be your cooking.”

“Yeah right.”  He got up and started checking what was in the pots.  “What did you do?  I can’t place it, but you did something.”  He looked up and said, “What are all these people doing here?  Shoo!  Out of the kitchen!”  He stepped toward us and waved his arms.  Then he froze and slowly looked down.  His bare feet were sticking out of both legs.  “What the fuck?”

I said, “I am Dan’s Grandpa Tom.  He asked me to take a look.  I invented a process to fix injuries like that a long time ago.  I cloned the leg and attached it while you were out.  I also fixed your damaged liver and spleen.”

He said, “You know what this means?  I can be cleared for duty again.  Yee-ha!”  He ran out of the kitchen.

I laughed, “They always forget to say thanks.  He’ll be back in a minute.”

Sure enough, he ran back in and pumped my hand, “Thank you, Sir.  Thank you.”  Then he shouted, “Yee-ha!” again and ran back out.

Dan looked at me and said, “And you think Lisa will be able to do that?”

“Good chance.  I am a bit surprised that neither you nor your siblings got it.  It is a 50/50 chance with my children, and about a 30 percent chance with grandchildren, whether their mom had it or not.  That carries at 30 percent for any descendent from then on.”

“So you are here for a few days?”

“Yes.  But I was thinking that maybe you could take some vacation time and we could go with the kids up to see your brother, taking the RV.”

“You know what?  That is a good idea.  I’ll go talk to the boss.”

His boss, hit by both one of his guys wanting recertification and Dan wanting a week off, was happy to give it to Dan.  We followed his old pickup to the small house a few blocks from the firehouse.

The sounds of battle were loud enough for us to hear the second we got out of the RV.  Dan rolled his eyes and went into the house.  Bethany, Natalie and I followed.  Tami slipping in behind us, of course.

A boy, about 12, whom I remembered was named Joe, came running over and said, “Dad!  Lisa won’t let me go to Trevor’s!”

Lisa said, “Yeah, what he’s not telling you is that Trevor is grounded.”

Joe said, “So he’s grounded and can’t go anywhere.  I can still go over there!”

Dan said, “Grounded means no visitors as well, Joe.”

“Ah, rats!”

The littlest, May, who was eight, saw Bethany.  “Grandma!”  She rushed over and hugged her.  Lisa and Joe right on her tail.

Joe broke the hug and asked, “Who are these other people?”

Dan said, “Lisa, Joe, and May, these are your great Grandma Natalie and great Grandpa Tom.  Over there is your great Grandaunt Tami.”

Joe asked, “Talking?”

“Talking.”

The three ran over and gave all three of us hugs, rotating so everyone got a hug.

Dan said, “Grandpa Tom has a big RV, and we are going to go visit Uncle Bruce together.”

Lisa asked, “What’s a RV?”

“Like a house on wheels.”

“A trailer?”

“Yes, but with an engine.  Take a look, it’s parked outside.”

They all ran to the glass door.  Joe exclaimed, “Wow!”  They all ran outside and ran around the RV.  “This is so valid!”  Theresa and Alice opened the door and they ran inside, making excited noises.

Dan said, “Bruce is currently stationed in Beaver Cove, on the north side.  I am glad you have an RV, living conditions are not the greatest up there, the last time we visited, we had to sleep on the floor of Bruce’s cabin.  Lots of mice around there.”

I said, “Okay.  Why don’t you folks pack bags and we can get going.  Any pets?”

“No.  Not when I have to leave the kids all day.  Poor things wouldn’t ever be taken care of.”

“I don’t want to pry, but where is their mom?”

“She ran off with a car salesman when May was six months old.”

“Ouch.  Sorry.”

“It was a long time ago; besides, you are family and have the right to know.”  He leaned out the door, “Kids!  Come pack your bags!”

Ten minutes later we were on our way.  Tami was driving, she (and I) didn’t trust the auto drive on the island highway.  We kept going after dark, taking turns driving, arriving around two in the morning.  There wasn’t any place near Bruce’s cabin to park, so we parked on the far side of the Mountie parking lot down the street.  We let Bruce sleep, battening down the hatches ourselves.  The kids had taken one of the two bedrooms three hours before, I took the other with my ladies, and Dan and Bethany took the hide-a-beds in the couches.

Around six in the morning a Mountie was pounding on the door.  I came out just as Dan opened the door.  The Mountie said, “You can’t park here.”

Dan said, “We are visiting my brother Bruce.  You know of another place to park?”

“Bruce Pennytree?”

“Yes.”

“Then I suppose it is okay for a few days.”  He glanced in the door.  “I haven’t seen an RV like this in years.”

“Come on back when everyone isn’t in bed and you can look around.”

“Deal.”  He left.

We all went back to sleep for another four hours.  I awoke to the smell of eggs and bacon.  I threw on some pants and went to the kitchen.  Lisa was cooking up a storm.  She saw me and said, “I just love this kitchen, Grandpa Tom!”  She had bacon, sausages, eggs, toast and pancakes all going at once.  She obviously knew how to cook.

I said, “Wow, that smells good.  Where did you learn to cook like that?”

“I just do.  I suppose growing up cooking for my family helps, eh?”

“Probably.”

May and Joe were watching TV.  Dan and Bethany were gone.  A minute later they came in with a guy who looked a lot like Dan.  The three kids exclaimed, “Uncle Bruce!” and ran over for a hug.  Lisa quickly ran back to her cooking.

Soon everyone was lounging about eating the fruits of Lisa’s labor.

We explored the town, what there was of it.  That evening we pulled out the grill and did steaks, the entire regional RCMP showed up.  Bruce commented, “We are heartily sick of deer and moose.  A good beef steak is a rare thing around here.”  I emptied my freezer of steaks.

That evening we sat inside to get away from the skeeters.  It had been a wet winter and so they were out in force.  We all relaxed in the air conditioning.  The extension was out and there was plenty of space indoors.  It was just family.

Theresa said, “I am going to tell a story.  There is a good reason I am telling it, so you kids listen, okay?”

May said, “Yes, Aunt Theresa.”

“This happened over a hundred years ago.  There was a boy born to a family, his name was ‘Andrew’.”  Bethany’s eyes went big as she recognized the story.  Theresa continued, “Andrew and his little brother Robert were normal kids, they grew up, played football and baseball, until Andrew was fifteen.”

“When Andrew was fifteen, he found that he had an unusual ability.  He could change people physically.  He thought he was God.  He kidnapped people and took them to his basement and painfully changed them over a period of days.  He took pretty girls from school and gave them a third eye or turned them into giant lizards.  He took jocks he didn’t like and made them into satyrs.  His best friend Henry, who tried to stop him, he changed him into an imp.  He didn’t listen to anybody.”

Joe asked, “What about his little brother?”

“Robert saw what was happening and was completely powerless.  He was horrified, but couldn’t do anything at the time.  He wisely stayed away.”

Lisa said, “At the time, huh?”  She grinned.  Theresa smiled back and said, “Yes, at the time.”

“Back to the story.  Andrew was arrogant.  Eventually the police became interested in what he was doing.  Most of the people he had changed had run off and joined freak shows in circuses.  Many of them committed suicide.  The sheer volume of things happening got the police interested.”

“One day, Andrew was found on the altar of a church with his heart in his hand, no marks anywhere on his body.  This was in the days before DNA.  His fingerprints matched, and he was declared dead.  The police closed the file, his family relaxed and his brother Robert went on to college, graduated, got married, and had kids of his own.”

Lisa said, “It wasn’t him, was it.  It was a copy.”

“Yes it was, but please wait.”  Theresa gave her a look.  “Twenty years went by.  Robert had two kids, a boy and a girl.  The boy, not long before his sixteenth birthday, woke up one morning with the ability to change people.  He could also see inside them, down to the DNA level.  Robert, always frightened at what his brother had done, had raised his children to be moral in all things.  Good thing because the boy was much more powerful than Andrew had ever been.  Because he cared for others, the boy immunized the entire school to drugs, opened a clinic where he could help people, and set up a house where people could go when homeless.  He did this in secret.”

“One day, because of other concerns, he was forced to tell his father.  That is when he learned of his uncle Andrew.  Robert, who had kept in touch with Andrew’s experiments, gathered them all up and the boy fixed them, returning them to exactly like they were when Andrew messed them up twenty years before.  Unfortunately there was nothing he could do for the poor ones who had killed themselves or had been killed in fear.”

“A thought the boy had, and it scared his father, is that it would have been easy for Andrew to make someone else look like him and then kill the poor person to fool the police.  There was no way to test the idea, the body had been cremated twenty years previously.  The boy could have duplicated DNA, but Andrew couldn’t.”

Lisa said, “I knew it!”

“They found a man named Ronald who had helped Andrew in exchange for being made to look younger.  Scaring Ronald into talking, since the boy wouldn’t hurt a fly, he admitted that Andrew was still alive and where he was.”

Joe said, “Oh my god.”

“Exactly.  Andrew had been experimenting for twenty years, unchecked.”  The kids looked scared.  She went on, “With some friends, the boy worked with police to surround the house where Andrew was.  Just as they were going to move in, a limo pulled out with Andrew in the back.”

Lisa asked, “But was it really Andrew?”

Theresa gave her another look and said, “As the police pulled out Andrew and hogtied him, the boy went up to check.  It wasn’t Andrew.  The DNA didn’t check out.”  Lisa smirked.  “He scanned the driver, a man who looked very different.  It was DNA from his family.  He quickly disabled Andrew’s ability before Andrew knew he was found out.  The boy told the police.  Robert went up to him and asked, “Why?”   Andrew said, “Because I can.”  Then he got mad because he found out that his ability was gone as he tried to attack them.”

“The house was filled with poor people that Andrew had experimented on.  He had made them slaves in return for the hope of eventually being human again.  The boy spent the next four months changing them all back.  He found victims that he had missed for many years afterward, fixing them when he found them.”

“Andrew was sent to SuperMax prison for the rest of his life.  He died in prison of old age fifteen years ago.”

She looked them all in the eye.  “You are probably wondering why I told you this story.”

Joe said, “To scare us?”

“Yes.  But for a reason.  The boy in the story?  That was your Grandpa Tom.”

Their eyes went big as they turned and looked at me.  I said, “That happened a long time ago.  But it is a true story.  Like Theresa said, there is a reason she told it to you.  Have you kids ever read a Spiderman comic or seen one on TV?”

All three of them nodded.  “What did Peter Parker’s uncle say to him when he died?”

Lisa said, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

“Exactly.  Now there is a 30% chance that one or all of you will inherit the gift mentioned in the story.”

Lisa squeaked, “Talking?”

“Talking.  In fact, the main reason we are on this trip is that Lisa will find out tomorrow morning or the day after if she has the gift.”

Lisa sat there, her jaw dropped.  Joe said, “Why now?”

“Because everyone since me who inherited the gift got it when they were 13 and 4 months.  Also, since Theresa was so kind to frame my history in a story, I will mention what the first thing I did was when I got my gift.  I made myself immortal, stopping aging at 19.  I made myself super strong with super hearing and eyesight.  I made it so I had almost infinite endurance.  I also made a few other small changes in myself.  Remember that I also modify the DNA.”

Lisa said, “Dannnng.  That explains a lot.”

Bruce said, “Yeah, it does.”

Joe said, “I don’t get it.”

Lisa said, “In other words, we inherited all those physical abilities.  That is why Grandma looks like she is in high school when she is nearly seventy.”

“Oh!”

“And why we can outrun or arm-wrestle any kid in the neighborhood.”

“Oh.” He looked thoughtful.

Lisa looked over at me, “What if I do get the gift?”

“You will have a choice.  Either one of your great aunts with the gift will come stay with you for a month or so; or you can go stay at the clinic in Vancouver for training for a month; or you can come back with us for training at the main estate.  Normally that would be your decision alone, but since you were raised outside of the family, I am betting your dad wants to have input on the decision.  Most of those with the gift go into medicine, but there are plenty that don’t.”

I looked at all three of the kids, Dan and Bruce.  “There are many family traditions that you missed out on growing up away from us.  Many of them you wouldn’t understand.  For instance, the tenth birthday is a big milestone in our family, second only to ‘predestination’ when a child learns if they have the gift.  On the tenth birthday a child is given access to all the family resources.”

Dan asked, “Family resources?”

“The main one is the debit card.  All family members over ten have one.  They get an allowance, plus the card has no limit overdraft in case of emergencies.  Another big family item is free tuition.  We have our own university with branches all over and off the planet.”

Joe excitedly said, “Off the planet?”

“Yes, Malloy University is the only school with a branch on the space station.”

“Wow.”

I went to the safe and pulled out four cards.  I handed them to Dan, Bruce, Lisa and Joe.  “I had these made up when I created your files yesterday morning.”

May said, “Why don’t I get one?”

“Sorry, you aren’t ten yet.  But your brother or sister can get you anything you want.  When you are ten there is a ceremony at the clinic in Vancouver where you and your cousins that are your age will get your cards.  It is fun, there is a big party.  Look at it this way, your brother and sister are too old so they don’t get a party.”

“Oh. Valid.”  She looked happy.

The kids were dragging a bit, so I said, “That’s enough for tonight.  I think it is time to hit the sack.”

Sure enough the next morning I awoke to a scream of delight.  I put on my pants and went to the other bedroom where Lisa was bouncing about screaming, “This is so valid!” over and over interspaced with, “I can see everything!”  She ran out into the living room where her Dad and Grandma were waking up.  She excited said, “I can see it!  I can see it!”

Alice, Theresa, Natalie and Tami came in.  She looked at them and said, “I can see the family in Aunt Theresa and Grandma Natalie, but Aunt Tami is different.  And I can’t see Alice at all.”

I said, “That is because Theresa is my sister, Natalie is your grandmother, Tami is unrelated genetically, and Alice is an android.”

That stopped her.  She stood there with a surprised look.  Dan exclaimed, “Alice is a WHAT?”

Alice said, “I’m an android.  You’ve probably heard of my Mom, Eliza, in the news?”

Dan was really shaken up, “Y-Yeah…”

She grinned, “Just goes to prove that A.I.s can be normal.  I guess I sure passed the Turing test with you!”

He laughed, relaxing a bit.  “Yeah, I guess you did.”  He looked back at his daughter.  “It seems that Lisa got the family gift.  She has some decisions to make.”

Lisa said, “I was up late last night thinking.  I really don’t want to miss any school, so any training I do needs to take two months max.”

I said, “Normally it is six weeks.  You essentially work as a supervised candy striper at a clinic.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“No, it isn’t.  In fact, it can be kind of fun.  I would suggest, but am not forcing you to do anything, but suggest that you go work in Vancouver for your training.  Then you can be with your Grandma and Aunt Shelly.  It wouldn’t be so total of a culture shock.”

Bethany said, “I would love it if you came to Vancouver with me.”

“I’d love to do that, but I still want to go see where you live, Grandpa.”

“No rush, you have centuries.”

She paused, “Yeah, I know that intellectually, but it really hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Dan started laughing.  We all stared at him.  He said, “My first thought when you said that was, ‘I get to keep my hair!’.  So much for male vanity.”  We all snickered at that one.

We left the next day, bringing Dan, Joe, and May down to Vancouver with us.