Chapter 40

At mid-afternoon, the masked black boy came in and undid Fernando's bindings. He said two words -- "Behave yourself," -- and walked out. Fernando got up and went to the bathroom to shower and shave and get human again, feeling like a stranger in his own home.

At some point, Maddie and Pietro had come home; they were in the house, but they avoided him. It was just as well; after the past few days, Fernando had no idea what to say to them.

Marta was up and around, putting the house back in order after their absence; Fernando stayed out of her way, but she tended to ignore him, anyway.

The black boy was still around, wandering here and there and watching Fernando directly or hovering near Marta or the children. Obviously, he was a guard. It bothered Fernando to be in his presence; for a while, he didn't understand why, but then the light dawned: Fernando had already submitted to him on more than one occasion -- what would he do if the boy snapped his fingers and waved him off somewhere to dominate him again in some manner?

That Randy would want some homosexual act from Fernando was a lot less likely than Fernando thought it was, since Randy wasn't really interested in such things -- but Fernando didn't know that, and he'd been conditioned over the past few days pretty thoroughly. Much -- MUCH -- more likely was the possibility that Randy might crawl back into bed with Marta -- something they both enjoyed.

Dinner was surreal. Everyone acted more or less as though the last several days hadn't happened -- except Marta sat at the head of the table and NO ONE deferred to Fernando. To a certain extent, it was as if he wasn't there. The black boy was, and he got more attention from Marta, who called him 'R' and treated him as if he was one of the children's friends. After dinner, Fernando went to his office -- but it was more like banishment than retiring for some peace and quiet. He logged into his computer and checked the household accounts; some were empty and some he no longer had access to. Well, he would fix things -- Marta knew nothing of finance. Eventually, no matter what, she would turn to him. Fear led him to stay away from the hidden portion of his empire -- who knew who was watching? He surreptitiously felt for and found his journal -- and breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn't found THAT! Maybe things were recoverable... He sat for a long time, thinking. It boiled down to a matter of escape. Would they follow him, the secret society? Not if they were local. The family was a loss -- well, he could build a new one, somewhere. He would collect his far-flung accounts, resign, and walk away -- probably to Central America, where the value of his money would be multiplied. That would take a few days -- but first, he needed to feel safe -- and he didn't.

He was right. Toby was watching him from three different angles as he sat there -- not to mention the computer screen scraper he was running! Despite Fernando's care with what he was doing, Toby learned a couple of things he hadn't known before -- and made notes to do something about them.

Teela and Sonya left for the Ho's about two o'clock -- a time carefully calculated by Terence to allow Tabitha an interview with Louise before Louise finally went home. Terence made pickup of Tabitha at his house around one-thirty and took her to the clubhouse -- much to Fred's relief. He'd been stuck in the situation of having to console the girl for a LOT longer than he wanted to be!

Louise let her pour it all out. "Sit down, Baby, and tell me all about it." This led to further eruptions on Tabitha's part, but with repetition the shock started to wear off, and Tabitha stabilized. "Okay, Baby, we're gonna take care of you -- I promise!" Louise told her, "but you need to know a few things and understand some stuff that is going on..." She proceeded to recap the situation, ending with, "So Fred isn't a member -- and he doesn't know I am -- and I want it to stay that way until I figure he's paid up. Understand?"

"Well..." Tabitha frowned. "He never did anything bad to me."

"I'm hearing that a lot lately," Louise groused, "but he has an account, you know? This stuff goes back a long time, and there's a lot of water gone under that bridge. Maybe at some point I'll give him time off for good behavior -- but he needs to serve some time, first."

Tabitha frowned. "Okay. So what have I got to do with it?"

"I want you to help me turn the screw. We're going to bounce you around for a while -- because you're Fred's responsibility. I want him to worry where he's gonna put you tonight -- EVERY night -- until he comes to me and I rub his nose in it!" Louise explained.

"So..."

"So you're sleeping over with Sonya and Teela tonight -- but you'll need a new place tomorrow -- and another the day after -- and so on..."

"Okay. I guess. What else?" Tabitha asked.

"Act needy. Lean on him for support. Be dependent."

"But he didn't cause this!"

"Yes he did, Baby. I won't fault his intentions -- and he's right, too -- your momma is a piece of work. But his timing sucked. Frankly, it was probably better if you didn't know, because then you wouldn't have let your momma know you knew -- get me?"

Tabitha sighed. "Everybody keeps telling me I'm an idiot. You know how that feels?"

"I'm sorry, Baby." Louise patted her hand. "But we all have our problems -- and sometimes it's best to recognize them so you can keep them from getting you in trouble. Point is, Fred isn't blameless for what happened -- and he knows it. I just want you to make it a little worse than it already is." She cocked her head. "Just how much do you like Fred?"

Tabitha blinked. "Well, he's okay... I only seem to catch older guys, like him and Ed -- and Rico..."

"Rico." Louise pursed her lips. "I didn't think of that. Of course, you've had sex with Rico."

"Uh huh. A couple of times. Is that a problem?" Tabitha asked anxiously. "I like Rico..."

"No, it's okay," Louise assured her, "but I'm glad you mentioned it. I like Rico, too."

"Umm..." Tabitha eyed Louise dubiously.

"No, it's okay, really," Louise reiterated. "It just keeps me from being surprised. You aren't romantic with Rico or anything, are you?"

"No, we just have a good time," Tabitha related.

"That's fine, Baby. We probably really ought to find you a guy your own age."

"Good luck with that," Tabitha mumbled.

"It happens, Baby," Louise assured her, squeezing her arm. "Sometimes it takes a bit." She leaned in. "Will you help me? I promise you'll be taken care of."

"I guess," Tabitha agreed reluctantly.

"It's all gonna be fine." Louise waved Terence forward. "Fred gave you his number, right?"

"Yes."

"Call him in the morning. Tell him you need a new place. Call him early, if you can -- say, six o'clock. I want him to take it at home..."

"Okay."

Louise married Tabitha up with Terence and sent them off to the Ho's. In the car, Tabitha asked, "What do you think of all this?"

"It's Mama's game. I don't want to be involved," Terence replied. "But I know why she's playing it. If you're asking me whether you oughta do it or not, don't. I can't get in it like that. Best I can advise you is go with your gut. You promised Mama you would play, so..." He shrugged. "But if it seems to be goin' on too long or whatever, do what you gotta." He pulled up in front of the apartment building and Sonya and Teela trotted out. Tabitha was repeating her tale of woe before Terence could pull away.

The three girls -- Teela, Tabitha, and Sonya -- had takeout pizza and ice cream and TV and girl talk late into the night. Tabitha wasn't going to manage any six a.m. wakeup call...

Louise and Terence went home; Fred and Damian were already there. Louise went to bed early, pretending to be tired -- but she was actually well-rested, so sleep came with some difficulty. Fred had his own problems.

Looking back on it after things quieted down, Fernando was amazed that he'd been so stupid. Bedtime had come and he'd gone and gotten into his pajamas and settled in bed. Marta came and looked in and left, and Fernando dozed off, thinking, 'Let her find her own bed.'

In short order, however, he was awakened; the black boy and the blond boy were both hovering over him. "Tsk, tsk, tsk," the blond boy chastised. "You just don't get it, do you? What part of 'Marta is mistress here' didn't you get?"

Defense wasn't possible; they whipped the sheets back and threw a loop of some type over his ankles before he got over his shock. After that came those silly fur-lined binders on his wrists and his arms were connected behind him. That done, the black boy opened the bedroom door. "Marta!"

Marta came in. "Fernando's sorry -- aren't you, Pussy Boy?" the blond boy prompted.

"Yes," Fernando nodded. "I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry about?" the blond boy trapped him with the query.

Fernando hesitated. "I don't know," he admitted.

"This bed is for your mistress," the blond boy related. "You don't sleep in it any more. You're a guest in this room. You only come here if you're invited -- and the only reason you would be invited is to fulfill one of your various functions." He sighed in some asperity. "That being the case, I guess we need to give you a reason for being here... Let's get him undressed."

The black boy waved Marta grandly to her bed, where she perched while watching the boys undo Fernando's binders and pull his pajama top off, then reconnect them and undo the web strap around his ankles to get off the bottoms. All the while, they discussed dispassionately exactly what Fernando should be made to do, periodically offering suggestions to Marta.

Apparently, the basics were clear; Fernando owed Marta oral sex, in any case. At issue seemed to be the payment for fixing it so that Marta had to summon two of them to ensure his 'cooperation'; since he seemed to have no concept of his place, they had to dispatch enough muscle to handle him if he became balky. In the process, of course, each of them had to insist that he could have handily subdued 'Pussy Boy' all by himself -- and prove it by muscling Fernando.

The upshot was that Fernando once again found himself with his face in Marta's crotch, while the blond boy and the black boy conducted a scholarly dispute over whether he was really male or not and thus whether sodomizing him was a homosexual act or not. The blond boy seemed convinced that Fernando's sex was indeterminate -- that he had obviously gotten his undersized manhood as some cosmic flip of the coin. The black boy insisted that he HAD fathered children, needle-dicked or not, so he was technically male. To illustrate their points, someone was fondling Fernando's manhood and someone was fingering his anus.

"Well," Lon summed it up, "Even in the unlikely event that he's technically male, he's functionally as queer as a three dollar bill. I did him last time, and I'm not really into it, either, so..."

"I dunno," Randy complained, "Can't we just bypass that end of things?"

"How do we make a point, then?" Lon countered.

"Oh, all right..." Much of this was for Fernando's benefit, as had the other posturing. Marta made sure he couldn't see the grins on their faces as they talked their way through the charade. Randy climbed up on the bed and extracted two well-lubed fingers and replaced them with an equally well-lubed cock at Fernando's anus. "The things I do..." He pressed it home, not being particularly solicitous.

It hurt some, but Fernando was practiced. He let out a single "OOOMPH!" as Randy pressed his cock home and settled down. Randy undid Fernando's binders. "Play with your dick -- or your clit -- or whatever the fuck it is," he directed, holding onto Fernando's hips and working to get a rhythm going. Fernando did as he was told.

Meanwhile, Lon climbed up on the bed and presented his cock to Marta. "It's all his fault I'm here, but he's busy for now, and I thought you might enjoy something on the side..."

"Yes, I'd like that," Marta played up. Tapping Fernando on top of the head, she said, "Look, Fernando, I'm doing your work for you..." Bolt upright, she took on Lon's cock., making a production of it. After a moment, she pressed Fernando's head back down into her crotch. "Give me an orgasm, Fernando!"

Fernando had too much to do to wander off too far mentally. He had to masturbate and lick Marta and stay tight so the black boy could enjoy his sodomy... Someone swatted him on the ass periodically to facilitate that -- and Fernando though it was the blond boy, because it was generally only on his left side.

The blond boy apparently added something, because Marta finally began responding to Fernando's efforts. In a couple of minutes, she peaked, wailing and clutching Fernando's head to her, then settled back, husking, "Go away, Fernando -- I need a cock!" The black boy pulled Fernando back and away, still burying his cock in Fernando's ass, while the blond boy shifted around to crawl between Marta's spread legs and slide his cock into her weeping vagina.

At that point, the black boy withdrew his cock and swatted Fernando on the ass. "Roll over and get up in there," he directed, "you know what to do." Fernando scuttled over and stuck his face in the sex act and the black boy pressed his legs back until his ass came up and re-entered Fernando's ass. "Keep diddling," the black boy puffed. "You know you love this shit."

This time, Fernando was there for the whole show -- the black boy flooding his guts with his seed, the blond boy flooding Marta's vagina after Marta reached orgasm twice, and his own completion, spraying droplets of seed on his chest and belly. He was there for the cleanup, too, managing to deal with the slimy deposits in Marta's vagina and the goo on the blond boy's still-hard cock -- but when the black boy presented him with his shit-encrusted erection, Fernando vomited, which triggered more grumbling and complaints while they supervised his cleanup.

Now, it was probably one a.m. Fernando was lying at the foot of the bed on the rug with a blanket thrown over him, his hands again bound behind him and his right leg bound to the bedpost, listening to Marta's soft moans as the black boy slowly fucked her. He could see nothing, but it was clear what was going on from the sounds. The blond boy had departed -- whether it was just the room or the house was unclear -- promising to be back in the morning to "get things rolling." Fernando hoped he was reading too much into that -- he was exhausted and sore and listening to lovemaking was not conducive to sleep, since the woman involved was his wife -- the woman who had promised to cleave unto him only -- and man was a black...

It was eight-thirty p.m. and Frank was sitting up in bed watching TV -- naked. Jiang Yi was lying with her head in his lap and her ass in reach; Frank was fooling with her asshole with a finger -- and Jiang Yi wasn't complaining. "What time you got to go to work?" Frank asked.

"The restaurant is closed on Mondays," Jiang Yi replied.

"Oh, so you can clean house..."

"Yes..."

"Don't get all testy -- I had to say some fuckin' thing before your head swelled too much," Frank chuckled, rubbing her ass.

"Frank, what are we doing?"

"Makin' each other happy, I figure. Am I wrong?"

"No." After a moment, Jiang Yi added softly, "I will clean house."

"Damned straight you will!" Frank retorted. "I can about keep up with me, and Teela does her shit, but I don't see me keeping up with the pair of you -- and I ain't gonna try!"

"No, Frank. I will do the housework!"

"I know. Shut up, willya? I don't want to have to say anything lovey-dovey."

"Yes, Frank." She kissed his cock. Frank stopped fingering her ass and ran his hand through her hair. Jiang Yi said, "Eww!" but she let him do it. Frank figured they were about twenty minutes from a fuck. He played with her hair for a bit and she kissed and licked for a bit, then, "Frank, do you like me?"

"Shut up, Woman."

"No, I mean like..."

"No, you mean love. I ain't stupid. If I get started with that word, then you're gonna want me to say it all the time and you'll give me shit constantly..."

"Okay."

Frank stopped his diatribe. "Okay, what?"

"I got my answer. You love me."

"I never said that! You're jumping to conclusions!"

"Fine." She started gobbling his cock.

"You can't just decide I said something like... Aaahhh! You little bitch! Lookit! I never, ever so much as... Jeezus! Where did you learn that? Where was I? Oh, yeah -- you can fool yourself if you like... Fuck it! Get up on your hands and knees, Woman -- we're fuckin'!"

"Yes, Frank!"

"I don't hafta SEE that smirk to HEAR it!"

Frank tried his best to make the fuck use and abuse, but Jiang Yi was built to take it; it was just hard and fast -- and Jiang Yi LIKED it hard and fast! She yowled happily through two orgasms before Frank let go in her and stopped pumping. "I wasn't thinkin'!" he puffed. "Next time, I'll wait until you're getting' ready to pop and pull out, dammit! THAT'll fix your ass!"

Jiang Yi turned her head -- resting on her crossed arms -- to regard him, her lips curved in a satisfied smile. "Yes, Frank."

Frank grimaced. "You make that phrase a cuss word." He reached up and mussed her hair. "Maybe -- just maybe -- I'm a little bit fond of you. Kinda like a good coon dog or somethin'..."

Jiang Yi actually giggled.

Monday morning arrived, and the black boy released Fernando when the alarm went off. Forty-five minutes later, Fernando was technically free for the first time in five days. By nine a.m., he was sitting at his desk at work, dazed. The outside world had no idea where he'd been or what he'd been doing; to disinterested queries, Fernando supplied the automobile accident tale -- and nobody questioned it. After a bit, he got going on his work as if it was any other day, bemused by the apparent lack of any changes. Everything seemed so normal...

Until he came back from lunch and the telephone rang. "Pretty weird, isn't it?" the voice on the other end asked. "Nobody has any idea what's been going on or that your little charade as a person of importance has been revealed. I'm sure you'd like things to stay that way, so don't piss us off! Think about all that video we have of you with one or more dicks in you..." The line went dead.

It was like a bucket of cold water in the face! Fernando sat there, sweating, looking here and there for a face he might recognize -- but the bank's customers were either waiting for him or waiting in line for the tellers and totally disinterested in him. But Fernando wasn't the type to ever think that paranoia might be unjustified in the first place -- and after the past few days...

After a bit, he got himself under control -- but the illusion of safety was gone. It was clear that he would have to start working on his exit strategy as soon as possible.

Lon had called from swim practice. The guys on the football team were all at practice. Louise and Beth were on the seven to three shift at the hospital -- as was Robert.

And Tabitha was with Fred.

Tabitha had gotten up about nine after a long night hanging out with Teela and Sonya -- and immediately remembered what she was supposed to do and called Fred to tell him she had to leave Sonya's right away.

Fred was working, and had been since seven; having to walk off the site wasn't something he was thrilled about. "Can't you hang out there a while?"

"No, I gotta leave. The girls have to leave, too," Tabitha lied dutifully.

"Awright. Get your shit and be out front -- but I'm gonna be a little bit, so don't expect nothin' for an hour or so!"

"Okay." Fortunately, it was a nice day, because it never entered Tabitha's head NOT to wait out front of the Ho's apartment building. Fred took two hours, too. "Where have you been?" Tabitha groused when he finally arrived.

"I'm workin'," Fred replied. "I just can't walk out."

"Oh."

It took forty minutes to arrange Tabitha's next night -- at the Hayes. Louise had called around and coordinated the whole thing for the next several days -- not that Fred was to be aware. For Fred, every day was going to be a struggle -- the latest installment of which was a requirement not to have Tabitha show up before four p.m. Fred had to find her something to do or somewhere to go for another five hours...

He took her home, knowing that he had to have her back out of the house by three. The boys were at football, and Louise was at work, so it worked out as long as he got her out of there before Louise got home. But it wasn't the safest place in the world, and that preyed on him -- which would have pleased Louise to death, if she had been aware of it.

Vince and Eddie Ray made a point of catching up to Toby and Hank. "Friday night was the bomb, Man! Does that kind of shit happen often?" Vince enthused.

"No, it was a special thing," Toby replied. "Usually, it's just some girls..."

"Uh, yeah, right..." Vince backed off.

"What did you like about it?" Hank asked.

"Everything!" Eddie Ray bubbled. Vince elbowed him surreptitiously.

"It was the power trip, mostly," Vince explained.

"Okay. Well, if we ever have anything like that come up, we'll let you know," Hank assured him.

"Yeah. Thanks!" Vince dragged Eddie Ray away.

"Why don't we just tell them they're out?" Hank muttered to Toby as they broke clear.

"I don't think that's right, do you?" Toby replied.

"Well, there's Fred... I mean, we could send him after Fernando again, but..."

"That won't be around long, if we're lucky," Toby agreed.

"Terence and Clint, too," Hank noted. "I don't think either of them is going to really know where they're headed until they've done a couple of guys."

"Well, it's their problem," Toby grunted. "I've had enough of that kind of thing. I'm staying out of it."

Hank nodded, but he wasn't sure it was over.

Brenda and Bonita -- and Clint and Terence -- had quite a bit to catch up on, they discovered. Terence and Bonita got together during a break, and Clint joined them; Brenda came up after a set of sprints. "Hi, Stinky," she announced herself to Clint.

"Hi, Sweaty." Clint waved her to a spot beside him and slipped a padded arm around her. "How's it going?"

"Jackass Bernice keeps dropping the baton instead of handing it off," Brenda panted, referring to one of her 440 relay teammates.

"Guess you can't dribble that like a basketball..." Clint squeezed her against him.

"Nope."

Terence and Bonita looked on, bemused. "So..." Terence muttered.

"We went out Saturday night," Brenda amplified.

Clint grinned. "We have a semi-committed relationship."

"What's semi-committed?" Bonita asked.

"Others can join in if they're invited," Clint replied. "You're invited -- both of you."

"Very cool," Terence grinned, "very cool."

Jiang Yi finally went home, leaving the Pendergast home VERY clean in the process. Frank had gone to work that morning and he hadn't told her that he wanted her there on his return; Jiang Yi figured it was deliberate. So she cleaned the place -- as she'd promised -- and when she ran out of obvious things to do, she reluctantly headed home to her apartment.

Teela was still there -- but she left soon after. Nothing was said one way or the other about Jiang Yi's arrival; Teela more or less assumed that Frank had sent her home. Teela went home to discover the place as neat as she could remember seeing it and was pleased, but beyond that she didn't really make any assumptions.

Frank was surprised that Jiang Yi wasn't there upon his arrival home, but he figured it was for the best; he couldn't just make her come there all the time. Well the house looked nice -- too bad they were going to have to find their own dinner... He shrugged philosophically and got a beer from the refrigerator and plopped in his recliner.

Jiang Yi was anything but philosophical; she was depressed. "What's wrong?" Sonya asked, after putting up with several hours of her mother's moping around. "You had a date and it lasted, what? Three days? What do you want?"

"I want it to happen again! He didn't say anything..." Jiang Yi brooded.

"Did you ever think he might have figured you would want to go home?" Sonya asked. "It had to happen eventually, you know!"

"Well, yeah -- but he didn't SAY that. He didn't SAY 'Come back tomorrow,' or 'Come back next week,' -- he didn't say anything!"

"He's a guy..." Sonya muttered. "I mean, he doesn't read minds or anything... Why don't you call him?"

"He already thinks I'm chasing him..."

"Well, aren't you?"

"I'll scare him off!" Jiang Yi wailed.

Sonya rolled her eyes. "You know, I just don't get what you see in him. I mean he's nice enough and all that..."

"This is all my fault!" Jiang Yi burst out. "I've turned you into a lesbian! Don't you like men at all?"

Sonya eyed her mother as if she'd grown two heads. "When did YOU start?"

"I ALWAYS liked men! Men just don't like me! Except maybe Frank..."

"It's okay, Mom -- I like men -- enough to use them for sex, anyway..." Sonya grinned.

"Lucky you -- that's an option!" Jiang Yi headed off, grumbling.

Sonya got on the phone. "Teela, Mom's climbing the walls over here!"

"What for?"

"Your dad didn't say anything about seeing her again."

"Oh."

"Do you think it was deliberate?"

"After the way they were acting? Get real!"

"Well, then..."

"They don't think like we do..."

"Tell me about it!" Sonya muttered.

"Hang on a minute." Teela headed downstairs.

Frank looked up from the TV. "Guess we'd better think about dinner."

"Yeah, probably," Teela replied, then got back on track, "Poppa, did you say anything to Ms. Ho about seeing her again?"

"Well, no..." Frank replied. "I kinda figured I'd see her tonight."

The phone bleated. Teela put it up to her ear. "What?"

"She's supposed to still be there?"

"Hang on..." Teela shifted modes. "You expected her to stay?"

"I didn't tell her to go nowhere." Frank shrugged. "I figured she had places to go when I got home and she wasn't here. We didn't talk about it. I sorta figured that since she had the day off..." He shrugged again. "That ain't her on the phone..."

"No, it's Sonya." Teela put the phone to her ear. "Did you get all that?"

"Yeah." Sonya rolled her eyes. "Unbelievable. Are they all like that?"

"Well, probably not," Teela replied. "But it happens. If you look at it from his end..."

"Yeah, yeah..."

"So what's the fuckin' problem?" Frank asked.

"You didn't tell her to stay, so she figured she had to go. You ALSO didn't tell her that you wanted to see her again..."

"SHE WASN'T FUCKIN' SUPPOSED TO BE GONE!" Frank erupted. "Get her on the fuckin' phone!"

"Sonya?" Teela muttered.

"One sec." Sonya chased down her mother. "Telephone."

Jiang Yi took the phone. "Hello?"

"Where the fuck ARE you?" the earpiece roared.

"Frank?"

"Are you shittin' me?"

"I'm... home..."

"Did I TELL you to go home?"

"Well, no..."

"So why ain't you here?"

"I thought..."

"Sounds like you been doin' a lot of that!"

"Frank, I..."

"Shut the fuck up, willya? Lookit -- it's too fuckin' late tonight, and I need to sleep once in a fuckin' while. When you get off work tomorrow night, you drag your ass over here -- understand? And BRING FOOD!" Frank hung up.

Teela took the phone and redialed it. Sonya answered. "Well?" Teela asked.

"She's ecstatic. What did he say?"

"You wouldn't believe it."

Fernando arrived home, sat quietly through dinner, and went to his home office. There were no extraneous males present, but there was some heavyset girl named Bonita; Fernando didn't figure that she was capable of physically abusing him, but that didn't mean he trusted her.

After sitting for a moment, he got up and spent twenty minutes looking for a camera or a microphone. Failing, he sat back down and recovered his journal from its hiding place and started his computer. For the next twenty minutes, he collected this item or that and boxed them or used them as a reference for some financial transaction.

And Toby, who was a lot better at hiding cameras than Fernando was at finding them, learned a great deal by watching him and recording every keystroke.

Fernando revealed a safe under some decorative tiles in the floor; Toby didn't get the combination, but he didn't worry too much about it. The FBI or whoever could empty it. In the meantime, Toby found a bunch of things he'd not managed to surface before -- and he would need to do a few things to add to Fernando's pain and the group's war chest.

Someone -- Candace? -- had thought of the fact that more throwaway cell phones were required. She'd been right; undoubtedly, the FBI would go through Fernando's telephone records back until he was a teenager. When Fernando sat back to gloat and write in his journal, Toby called Marta on the one they'd given her.

"The booby-trap has been activated and the clock is ticking," he told her. "Take this phone to Fernando -- I need to talk to him. He'll probably shut down his computer -- after he's settled in, go back and turn it on."

"All right," Marta agreed. "Anything else?"

"You might want to look at his journal to see what he's writing in it right now. Don't disturb it and don't let on -- but if it says you're in danger, let us know right away!" Toby advised.

"Okay." Marta went to the office and opened the door; Fernando scrabbled about for a moment and glared at her, but she masked her fear of him. "You have a telephone call," she told him, handing him the phone.

Fernando took the phone, staring at it as if it were a snake. Were they going to gloat and tell him they'd been watching? "Hello?"

"Go to bed where you're supposed to, Fernando, and you won't have to entertain anyone tonight," the voice on the other end directed. "Do you understand?"

"Yes." Fernando somehow managed to mask his glee. They didn't know!

"Run along, then -- we'll want to see you go to where you're supposed to be." The phone went dead.

Marta held out her hand and Fernando gave her the phone, then told her, "I'll be going to bed in a moment but I need to put my things away, first."

Marta just nodded and left. Fernando wrote a bit more in his journal -- a diatribe about his genius in keeping his secrets from his enemies -- put his journal away, shut down his machine, and went meekly off to bed. Exhaustion claimed him quickly; he hadn't recovered from his imprisonment.

When he was settled, Marta went to examine his journal and turn on the computer. While she sat there, reading, the machine came to life and she watched files being manipulated and applications being run. It was positively scary! "Toby?"

A word processor document opened on the screen and 'Yes?' appeared.

"Just checking."

'The journal?' appeared on the screen.

"He's thrilled to death he hasn't been seen. He's apparently putting together departure plans -- for Costa Rica."

'As long as he leaves everyone here alone in the process,' the screen displayed.

"Are you going to allow that?" she asked.

'Escape? No. That isn't the plan. But even if he gets away, there will be surprises on the far end. He won't have any money. In the meantime, you can see what he thinks of you,' Toby typed.

"Yes, that's all too clear." Marta got up. "Will I need to shut off the machine?"

'No, I can do that from here,' appeared on the screen. 'In fact, turn off the monitor.' Marta did as Toby asked and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Fernando's sleep was troubled -- and at least once, late in the night, he was awakened to sounds at his door. Someone was keeping an eye on him. Well, so much the better; he would be a model prisoner until he made his escape...