Chapter 9



When they got back to the house, Father asked to be excused to go print the maps for the facility. "Sure, but Father, don't tell anyone where it is yet. In fact, don't let them see the maps yet either. I'd like to surprise them with it," Carl said.

Father bowed slightly and walked quickly up the stairs.

"So Gran, are you ever going to marry Maria?"

Wally chuckled; "You don't miss much do you? I want to, but I don't know what she'll say. She comes from a poor family, and while it's only her sister's family left, they mean a lot to her. I think she'd worry I'd ask her to give them up."

"Why don't you try talking to her? Or better yet, since you're both active now, let her read how you feel? I'm actually surprised you haven't read each other. When the girls and I got together, it was almost impossible to stay out of each others' heads," Carl said.

"That's just it, she hasn't... we haven't been together since you awakened our abilities. It's like she's avoiding me," Wally admitted with a worried look on his face. "It's like she's afraid I'll see something in her that I won't like."

"You two really need to talk. I know she loves you; it's clear every time she looks at you. Just like I know you love her. Sometimes I wonder why you haven't married her before now."

"I don't know either. It just seems like the timing has never been right, or I was always too busy." He sighed; "You're right, I need to talk to her. I really want her to be a part of my life. Hell, with you and the girls taken care of, she is—or was—rapidly becoming the center of my life. I don't want to lose her now."

"Well, with everything going on in our lives right now, I'd do it sooner rather than later. Perhaps we'll end up recruiting a priest or a minister soon!" Carl teased.

---

About an hour later Brian stuck his head in Carl's office. "Sir, Bree called and said that she and Abby are going to pick up Renee on the way. Apparently, Abby got a call while they were out. She said to tell you they should be here in about forty-five minutes. She asked that you have Anne Marie with you at the door when they get here."

"Will do; thanks Brian," Carl replied. "Anne Marie dear, are you busy?"

Carl heard the girl's chuckle in his mind as she answered, "That's true. Do you think it'll become a problem when we find a place for the base?"

"No, I think he can handle it. Besides, the location for the base has already been decided, and we should be able to move in to it in a couple of days at the latest," Carl answered. "And no, I won't tell you where it is. I want it to be a surprise."

"Spoil sport! Just wait 'till I tell my mother and sister! We'll gang up on you!"

It was Carl's turn to chuckle as he thought there might be worse things than having three women ganging up on him. "See you in a half hour or so, Beautiful."

He felt a soft kiss before her mind touch left his. Damn, telepathy was nice!

---

Thirty-three minutes later, Bree arrived. "Since I knew there would be a problem, I scanned her. She's been conditioned. Any major break-throughs she makes or learns of, she is compelled to report. If she makes a break-through in cold fusion, she would have to publish a paper on it. Our abilities would definitely fall in that category. As soon as she learns of them, which will be difficult for her to accept, she'll immediately set about learning everything about them she can. She will attempt to convince one of us to accompany her to the university so she can run tests and I think you know the rest. So, the first thing we need to do is break the conditioning or reprogram her."

Abby introduced her lover to Carl and Anne Marie. "Renee, this is the man I told you about. Carl, Anne Marie, this is my wife, Renee. Renee, this is Carl and his wife Anne Marie."

"Wow! You weren't kidding about how pretty she is," Renee said, then turned to Anne Marie and Carl. "It's a pleasure to meet you, both."

Renee was a tiny woman. No more than five feet tall, she had the body of a young girl that had just entered puberty, but the bearing of a refined and poised young lady. With her red hair, green eyes, and freckles, she was a pedophile's wet dream.

Carl took the lead; "We have offered Abby a job working for us. Since we are really just a small family, we asked if we could meet you as well. Dinner won't be for a couple of hours yet, so why don't we camp out in Wally's den and we can answer any questions you might have?"

"That sounds great. I don't know if Abby told you, but I just finished writing my thesis. I thought we were going to get it printed up tonight, but it can wait until tomorrow. However, I could use a drink. It's been a long few months," Renee said.

Carl smiled and teased the diminutive woman, "A drink? Are you sure you're old enough?"

Renee chuckled as well. "You know, I once swore I would beat the shit out of the next person who teased me about that. But in your case, I don't think there would be anything left when I got done."

Anne Marie let out a bark of laughter. "Man, she's only known you for all of five minutes, and she's already got your number!"

Carl rolled his eyes in mock resignation. "Just what we needed around here; another smart-assed female!"

Renee smiled sweetly; "Well, someone has to do the thinking for you; we wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."

"Well, I'll be sure that the small jobs get delegated to you then," Carl shot back.

Renee chuckled. "I guess that means I get to take care of you then. But won't that leave your wife out in the cold?"

Anne Marie snorted, "Sweetness, you have no idea what you're getting into with that comment. He'd rip you in half."

Abby was also laughing. "Seven minutes and fourteen seconds. We had a standing bet at the station that no squint could ever go more than ten minutes without some kind of sexual comment or innuendo entering the conversation."

"Squint?" Anne Marie asked.

"Science geeks. The higher the degree they get, the faster something sexual will enter the conversation. The only exception we've found is if it's some old codger; then it takes at least twenty minutes," Abby replied, grinning.

By now they had made it to Wally's den, so Carl asked what everyone wanted. He knew Anne Marie was still only fifteen, but he didn't think she was interested in alcoholic drinks.

"I'll have a rum and coke, please," Renee replied.

Anne Marie grinned; "I'll finish the coke from her drink."

"A light beer if you have it; otherwise, I'll have a coke as well," Abby said as she sat next to Renee on the love seat.

As he went to make the drinks, Carl started talking. "We've already pretty much filled Abby in on the duties of her new job, both the overt as well as the covert ones. It's her hope that you would want to be a part of that, so we asked her to bring you here to talk about it. But there's a problem."

Abby looked a little uncomfortable, but Renee only asked, "Oh? What's the problem?"

Carl continued. "Some of the aspects of our work might cause you a problem with our security requirements. Before you ask, no, we are doing nothing illegal, or even unethical. However, if we tell you about them, you wouldn't believe us. Once we proved it to you, you would attempt to report it either to your professors at the university, or to some other authority. You couldn't help yourself, you've been conditioned to respond to this situation that way."

"I guess it shows you really don't know me very well. There is no way I've been conditioned to anything other than my own free will," Renee said.

"Okay, I'm going to prove it to you, but first, I need to ask you a stupid sounding question. Do you trust Abby? I mean, do you trust her with your life?" Carl asked.

"Absolutely. Abby would never let anything happen to me," Renee said confidently and took Abby's hand.

"Okay, then please give your cell phone and any other communication device to Abby as well as anything you have to make a recording or notes. Abby, this is your first assignment. Under no circumstance can Renee leave this place until we say she can. Don't worry, I don't think this is going to take more than a couple of hours, and no harm will come to her. After we explain everything to her, and prove it, we will give her the opportunity to make an unbiased decision. If she still wants to leave after that, we'll let her, agreed?" Carl asked as he handed out the drinks. "I think you should wait to take a sip of that, Renee. It'll rule out the possibility that we've drugged you."

Renee sat for a minute thinking, then nodded her head. "I agree; tell me."

Abby nodded as well, "I agree."

Carl simply turned to Anne Marie. "You're on, sweet thing. Recruitment is your area. I'll act the guinea pig for you if you want."

Anne Marie took a drink of her coke as she stood. Carl took her seat as she turned to face Renee. "We've been working on how to do this and have agreed to the same way that Abby found out about us, simply letting you see everything at one shot. After I've done this, if you have questions feel free to ask them." She made contact with Renee's mind, and gently 'downloaded' the information that they had shown Mike and Abby two days ago. She intentionally left the woman's conditioning intact, since she felt Carl wanted to make a point about it.

Renee's eyes were closed for a couple of minutes and it was clear she was 'remembering'. "Oh. My. GOD! I need to make a phone call. Quick, Abby give me my phone back, Professor Albrecht has to know about this. Is there any chance I can get Father to come with me to our lab at campus? There is so much we can learn..."

"Renee! Stop a second. You can't tell anyone about what you now know. That would alert the Antioch to our presence and our plans. We would all be dead by the end of the day tomorrow. Now think! Didn't Carl tell you that you would have an overwhelming urge to contact someone, a deep rooted need to make this information known to the scientific community? You can't do that," Anne Marie said to her. "Even Abby would be killed because she knows about us. What we hope is that you will join us instead, to help us work to get rid of the Antioch, and free our planet."

"I... I can feel it; I need to make that call. How could they have done this to me? When did they do it? You have mental powers, can you stop it? I can barely think like this," Renee said.

Anne Marie nodded to Carl, who entered her mind and suppressed the conditioned urge.

Renee looked relieved. "Wow, thank you. But I can still feel it; it's just not as strong now. What did you do?"

"I only suppressed it," Carl said. "If you decide not to join us, the suppression will fade, but by then we will have removed the memory of the information Anne Marie gave you. We would replace it with a nice dinner at a friend's house, which we will be having in a little while."

"I don't think that'll be necessary. I'd join even if Abby didn't. This is a physicist's dream. Will we be getting powers too?" Renee asked. "I still have to give my dissertation before the stuffy old blowhards at school."

"When do you have to do that?" Anne Marie asked.

"I don't honestly know yet. Once my thesis is submitted, it'll be reviewed and if it's accepted, a date will be set. It won't be for at least another month, most likely two the way those old farts work," Renee said.

"Okay, in that case, we can activate you and Abby tonight. Abby has to go through the full basic training course we are setting up, because she will be working as security. However, you have the choice of additional training beyond mental. We are offering hand to hand, as well as firearms and weapons," Anne Marie said.

Renee smiled. "I've taken a few self defense courses through the college, but I'd like to learn the hand to hand stuff if what I already know isn't good enough."

Anne Marie concentrated a moment and a clipboard appeared in her hand with a small popping sound. She pulled the pen out of the holder and started filling out a form.

Renee and Abby sat quietly watching in awe. Finally, Renee made a comment. "It's one thing to know about the mental powers, but it's very much different to actually see them in use."

Anne Marie smiled as she worked; "Just wait until you two figure out the sexual aspects of these abilities. My other two wives and Carl have almost killed me with pleasure at times."

"Damn, not only don't you look like you're fifteen, but you don't act like it either. I am having trouble understanding the incest thing though. Not that I don't accept it; hell it's none of my business. I'm just trying to understand it. I couldn't stand my family," Renee said. "Since I started living with Abby full time, they've disowned me for being a 'shameless slut'."

"I don't think they would like us at all then. I have three wives; one's my mother, and the other two are my twin little sisters. But now, we're not even genetically related. So the incest is really a moot point," Carl said.

"Well, from what I saw, it wasn't like that at first. I can understand if you don't want to talk about it right now, but I'd like to talk later, if that's all right?" Renee asked.

"I'm sure that would be fine. Now, I think Anne Marie would like to get started. I don't think she can teach you very much before dinner, but at least she can get started," Carl said.

---

"Highness, can I have a word with you?" Father asked later that evening.

"Sure Father, what's on your nano-processors?"

"Brian is going to be bringing a small group of their soldiers in for the orientation. I was wondering if it would be possible to include some of the people I've been watching. If they activate without us getting them protected, the Antioch would get the strongest of the potentials."

Carl thought for a moment; "Exactly how many people are we talking about?"

"Currently, there are several hundred. Some of them are young, so their families would have to be included," Father replied.

"Several hundred? Father, where are we going to put them? From your description of the living area in the facility, there aren't that many apartments. Besides, we need to come up with a better cover for getting these people to disappear for however long training them will take," Carl said. "I think it's a good idea to bring in the other families you have been watching, but we have no way to explain where they are, not to mention, we have no place here to park all those cars."

"I'm sorry, Highness. I am just getting worried about them," Father explained.

"Wanda, Wally and Maria, could you please come to my office a minute?" Carl asked mentally. "We'll figure out something, Father. I've asked Wanda, Wally and Maria to join us, so we can start to plan it out."

A soft knock on the door preceded the entrance of Wanda and Maria. Wally arrived before they could close the door.

After explaining the problem to the three newly arrived people, Wally had an answer for him. "The girls were working on this. I only know part of the plan, and I think they are still working on it. The young ones will be offered something like a summer camp. However, the adults hadn't been decided yet; they were toying with ideas ranging from winning a vacation to out and out abduction."

"Well, with Anne Marie and Bree busy with training, we'll need someone to handle recruitment. Does any one have any ideas?" Carl asked.

"For now, why don't you ask Rose to do it? Renee and Abby can help her until we can get someone else to take over the duties," Wanda offered. "I'll give them help and support from here. Father, I'll need to see a list of those you want brought in. Please prioritize it for the most urgent, and include occupation and employer, if known, in the list."

Father concentrated for a moment, and Wanda felt a curious little 'knocking' in her mind. Almost automatically, she opened up and felt the data flow in from Father.

"Hey! I recognize a couple of the names on this list. The company names I mean. I own them; Well, I should say I own controlling interest in them. Some of these are overseas; those are going to be a problem. A few are even in the military. I wonder if Mike can do anything about those," Wanda wondered aloud. "I'll get right on this. I think you own a few of these companies too, Dad."

"I'd like to call another general meeting tomorrow morning, including Renee and Abby. I've got a surprise for everyone," Carl said.

Sir Winston

Chapter 10