Chapter 38
I sat and thought about how much to reveal to these people. John already knew I had some abilities, but did not know all that I could do. This Jeffery Milhouse, while apparently a paragon of virtue, was the likely cause of the attack on the house.
"Ok, I will say this just once. Yes, I am responsible for the seeming disappearance of the attackers. The seven men are not hurt or dead. They are sort of, in a place of storage. I can bring them back, just as easily. We need to figure out who we want to bring back first, and how we are going to deal with them," I said a bit grimly.
Questions flew at me, and I told them I had said as much as I was going to about the subject. I then told them we had to decide which people to bring back to the 'now'. Of course, me saying that made them ask even more questions, such as: what did I mean by 'now'?
"This is getting us nowhere. By 'now', I mean that when I put them into this storage place, absolutely no time will seem to have passed for them. When they emerge, they will think it is exactly the same time as when they went in. To them, no time will have gone by whatsoever. AND, they will still have their guns out and ready for use," I said in response.
The five of us finally got around to discussing who to bring out. I mentioned that all were apparently armed and ready to use weapons, except for the man who had waited outside.
"When you bring him through... uh, into the room with us, which way will he be facing? Where will he be in relationship to us?" John asked interestedly.
"I can put him anywhere in here, facing in any direction. The question is, who will be in the room, and do we really need the ladies present?" I asked with concern.
"Don't be ridiculous. Of course we will stay. We became involved as soon as they kidnapped Courtney. Then they threatened to shoot us. I for one, will not be relegated to the position of 'hysterical woman', sent to my room for my own protection," Evelyn said firmly.
Courtney said she felt the same way. Jeffery started to say something about state security, but everyone except for me shouted him down. There was that dreaded word. Or words, actually. 'State security'. For the 'state', never mind the people. This Englishman was already parroting the government party line. ANY government, apparently.
"Sorry. Did you have the impression I worked for your government?" I asked Mr. Milhouse sarcastically.
"Come, Sir. Surely you can see the need to maintain security concerning this astounding ability of yours..." Jeffery Milhouse started with mounting enthusiasm.
"Exactly," I said interrupting him, "My ability. Not yours. Not your government's. Hell, I have enough problems with MY government wanting to control every moment of my life.
"No! I do not recognize your right to tell me, or these people, what can or cannot be revealed to them. I only took the steps I did, to protect the people I have come to care for. And I do NOT care for you, Sir," I finished in a surly manner.
"Well, aren't you sweet," Evelyn told me, patting my cheek.
"This bickering is accomplishing nothing," John said with a grimace. "I think we should bring the person who was waiting outside back, and question him. I think there are enough men available to handle anything he might try. Just let me get my shotgun, and everyone stay well away from him when he comes through," John said.
John went and got a shotgun. He said it was loaded with birdshot, but at short range, it was more than enough to do the trick. The ladies were standing behind the desk. John stood centered, in front of it. Jeffery Milhouse was to one side, and out of the way. I was opposite John, but out of the direct line of fire. I brought the guy who had been standing outside into the room.
The expression on his face was priceless. From his perspective, he had just been outside. Now he wasn't. He had no memory of moving through intervening space at all. I'll give him this, he adjusted pretty quickly. His hand darted towards his jacket, only to freeze at the sound of the shotgun's firing hammers clicking into place.
"I think you should remove your jacket, and your communications gear. And you should do everything very slowly," John told the man, who complied.
"Now then, Tom, if you would be so kind as to relieve this gentleman of his pistol, we will all feel much better," John asked of me when the removal of the jacket showed a pistol holstered at his hip.
I collected the pistol and the commo gear her had, then I patted him down, and removed everything I came across. I felt him tense once, and I placed a hold on him, mentioning into his ear that I was a black belt of several degrees, and I was not in the mood for any shit. I guess that changed his mind, because he relaxed. I finished my pat down with no other problems.
I moved back carefully, staying out of John's line of fire, and the man turned around. John told him to place his hands on his head, fingers interlocked together. I had a small treasure trove of his property, including a wallet, which revealed several pieces of information. One was his military ID card, which identified him as Major Walter Southland.
"Now then major, who ordered you to attack this house?" Jeffery asked.
"I am not at liberty to discuss anything with captors," the captive Major Southland responded.
"I see. Jeffery? You have access to the appropriate computer databases. Why don't you run a check on our erstwhile major, here. Let's see what comes up?" John suggested to his friend.
I quietly asked Evelyn about rope, or objects which could be used to secure our prisoner. John, in the meantime, had instructed our prisoner to sit in a corner with his legs extended, feet crossed at the ankles, and hands on his head.
Evelyn told John we were going to fetch manacles. I was then led off to a basement area, which I had never been to before. Apparently, there had been a jail under the house at one time. Nothing very large, but there was a pair of cells, and a cabinet with very old style leg and wrist irons.
Evelyn had me grab one set of each. She carried a strangely designed key. I grinned at her, and we made our way back to the upstairs study.
"... definitely on the list, under enforcement. Close to the top, too. Third name down from the Director of Enforcement, no less," Jeffery was saying.
A couple minutes later, our prisoner was firmly under control, with leg and wrist shackles. A short chain ran from his wrist shackles to his leg shackles, forcing him to bend slightly. He definitely was not going anywhere.
"Well, that's good news, anyway. It means that they have not infiltrated as far as I thought that they had," John responded.
"What have you learned while I was gone?" I asked with interestedly.
"It seems our major is not only a member of the military, he is with the SAS, and a highly placed member in the enforcement arm of the 'council'," John responded, his voice dripping with contempt.
I looked at the major with a new respect. The British SAS was a highly trained elite group of military, similar to our special forces: the Delta Force, or the Navy Seals.
He was a man of about 5' 10" tall, in his late twenties to early thirties. Brown hair, green eyes went with a tanned complexion, as if he spent a lot of time outdoors. He was uncooperative. I decided on a direct approach.
"Southland? I suggest you start telling us what your instructions were, or you are going to disappear. There will be no body. No one will ever find you. I will put you where I had you before. There is no one except me, who is capable of retrieving you. You will be stuck in limbo, forever," I finished in as menacing a tone as I could manage.
I heard a gasp from Courtney. Damn. I looked at her, and she had such a look of horror on her face. I sure as hell didn't want to make her afraid of me! But there was no way I could tell her I was bluffing, or that the man would not be hurt.
In the meantime, I suggested we start bringing the assault team back, one person at a time, and disarming them. I suggested they be kept in the dungeon area, and grinned. John looked startled a moment, then he too grinned.
"Perfect, really. There are two cells remaining from the old time, that are sturdy enough to hold them. A little barbaric; but then, those were barbaric times," John said with another grin.
I took Jeffery and Evelyn with me, and we all trooped downstairs. I went into both cells, looked around, and placed something in the NTZ to make the connection. Then I exited and we locked the cells.
The first man we brought out of the NTZ was startled enough that he hardly put up a fight. We got his weapon away from him and had him strip. I then teleported him through the NTZ, and into one of the cells. To say he and those with me were startled, is an understatement of British proportions.
One of the things I noticed was that each wore some sort of armored vest under his dark shirt. Typical, really. The second guy was more difficult and it resulted in a short fight. We finally got him stripped, and I popped him into the next cell.
Two down, and four to go. I rubbed my chest where an elbow had caught me. Damn, but these guys could move when they had too! I thought about it for a moment, then I grabbed a .45 revolver out of the NTZ where I had placed it some time ago. If I had to shoot, I would hit them 'center chest', if possible. The vests should prevent penetration, but the impact and transfer of shock should be enough to allow us to disarm them easily.
I only used my weapon once. Let me tell you something. A .45 going off in an enclosed area, is LOUD! The impact knocked the man back, and off his feet. He got off one brief burst, despite my intervention. Luckily, no one was hurt.
I sighed with satisfaction as we went through what we had collected. While we were doing this, Jeffery was looking at me more and more peculiarly.
"Ok, spit it out. What's your problem?" I asked after catching him for the eighth time, staring at me.
"I'm sorry. It's just your very sudden with your abilities. One moment you're standing there, the next you have a gun and are firing it at someone. While I am not complaining, the thought of what you could do if you were to get angry at someone, is rather frightening," he finished quietly.
I sighed. "Yes, and others things have no doubt occurred to you. What's to prevent me from causing people I dislike to vanish? How about: I would make the greatest smuggler in the history of the world? Oh, yes! These and many other such questions have already popped into my head," I finished in a neutral tone of voice.
"You must admit, you could cause a lot of trouble if you wanted," Jeffery replied.
"And that's the problem. It all boils down to what I CAN do. Not what I have done, nor what has been done to me. No, the governments, any government's first thought is: 'Oh shit, we don't have any controls on this man!'
"Well, I am tired of that thought process. My own government was just as guilty. They tried to have me committed, 'for my own safety', of course. Then on top of that, they wanted me to work for them while I was committed! Seems they weren't all that worried about my safety, as long as they had me under their thumb," I said, putting as much contempt and vitriol into my answer as possible.
"It seems they were not unjust in their thoughts. I have seen you do things that are illegal and well, amazing," Jeffery said.
"Let's see. What did I do that was so wrong? I saved this family from invasion and attack, by a group of people doing illegal activities, and you're worried about MY actions? There are laws against what they were doing, but you're more worried about me," I said, shaking my head.
"No, you're right. You did well by my friend and his family. But surely you can see my point. What you can do is unbelievable. I can see why your government is interested in maintaining a close watch over you," Jeffery said, relenting a bit.
I pulled out my CIA identification, and showed it to him.
"You will be pleased to know that my government does retain a bit of control over me. They were very particular in maintaining a working relationship with me. While it might seem fair to you; it is slavery, pure and simple.
"Governments talk about 'civil rights', and then try to make you a slave if you can do something unique. Let's just get on with what we were doing. We need to focus on what to do about the attack," I said brusquely.
By the time we were done with sorting the attacker's items, we had collected six more military ID cards. Jeffery said he thought that he could get the ball rolling with a call to the proper general officer, which is how yet another person arrived within the hour.
He arrived in a very fast looking helicopter.
Edited by TeNderLoin