A Long Time from Home Pt. 02 Ch. 10

Author's notes:

This is the continuation of A Long Time from Home and if you haven't read that, I advise you to do so. The series is self-edited, so any mistakes are mine, though I now have a proofreader, that can catch missing words ect. Thanks to Jessejames932006 for doing that.

Some of the chapters will take place in the ancient past and while I have done a lot of research for that, there might be small errors here and there. If you think you found such an error in the story, please double check to be sure that you're correct and then PM me about it, so I can fix it. :)

Due to its length, I placed ALTFH under the 'Novels and Novellas' section, but as you can see, ALTFH II is placed in the 'Sci-fi and Fantasy' section, which fits it better due to the elements of magic that's in it. At least in my opinion :)

Have fun and while you're at it, please rate the chapter and leave a comment :)

About timing on uploads

Trust me, when I say that I do the best I can to upload as frequently as I can. Unfortunately, my RL is pretty hectic at the moment, and as this is a hobby and not a job, it can take a while from time to time.

About the notation:

Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"

Some warnings:

This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

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10 -- The week before the wedding pt 2

Late September/Early October 2000

Karen was sitting in her room, drinking coffee and doing her homework, when there was a knock on her door and a moment later Rita came walking in with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Hey, Angel," Karen greeted with a smile, setting her mug aside. "Come on in, make yourself at home."

"I am," Rita replied, flopping dramatically onto the bed. She stared up at the ceiling for a moment before turning her head toward Karen. "I need your advice."

Raising her eyebrows in surprise, Karen saved her work and swirled her chair, so she was facing the bed. "Rick acting up?"

"No, no, he's still his usual sweet, irresistible self," Rita said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "It's my assignment. Professor Robinson loved it so much he wants me to write a full paper on it."

Karen nodded slowly and gestured to Rita to continue.

The brown girl sighed. "Well, since Ivan's drawing showed there was another tomb right next to the Royal tomb, I concentrated on that and found an American archaeologist, who searched for it as well, since it was mentioned in an old text. So, I searched the archive and found a translation of a 3000-year-old papyrus, that told of an attempt by robbers to plunder the royal tomb by digging a tunnel from another tomb belonging to a private individual." She gestured vaguely, her energy picking up. "Basically, everything matches what Ivan sketched for the twins. This time, X really does mark the spot."

Karen leaned forward, her eyes wide. "Seriously?"

"As a heart attack," Rita confirmed. "Professor Robinson has already asked if he could forward my assignment to a German professor, who is currently looking for the tomb."

"That's fantastic!" Said Karen with a wide smile and then tilted her head. "Wait, why're you not happy?"

Rolling over to stare at the ceiling, Rita slowly said. "Because I feel like I'm stealing Ivan's work. I mean, he has obviously done the same research as I have and came to the same conclusions... He might not remember it, with the memory loss and all, but it's not really something you can just make a wild guess at."

"Call him up and ask him." Suggested Karen. "Or send him an email... It's not like he's living on the moon. Just explain exactly how it happened or simply send him the paper you wrote."

Rita blinked, then slowly nodded. "That... actually makes a lot of sense. This way, he can see the sources I found and know it wasn't just me copying his work."

"Problem solved." Karen chuckled and tilted her head. "Your turn to solve my problem... which also happens to involve a certain blonde guy we met in Spain."

"Oh, Interesting," Rita teased, propping herself up on an elbow. "Do tell."

"Read this."

Rita took the piece of paper Karen gave her. It was a print of an email from Ivan, where he explained that a friend of his had asked for some suggestions for a ship name for a small cruise ship in Asia. Ivan had suggested Peach Blossom and the friend had been so satisfied with that suggestion, that he not only followed it, but also wanted the one that had inspired it to be present at the ship's christening, which was to happen... Rita blinked a few times... Monday the 2nd of October in Le Havre, France.

Rita blinked a few times before looking up. "Is he aware that we have matches on the 30th of September and the 3rd of October?"

Karen nodded. "Yes, and according to the plan he sent along, it can be done with a direct night flight from LA to Paris on the 30th, meaning I will arrive in Paris the next morning. Then I'll have most of the day in Paris, before flying to Le Havre on Monday, in ample time to do the christening. Then it's a flight back to Paris and then back home with time left to join the match on the 3rd. I'll miss some training, but that's all."

Rita snorted. "You're gonna get cramped. Flights are not good for us tall people."

"Not a problem. First class all the way." She smiled and then grimaced. "I really don't know what to do... On one hand, it's a once in a lifetime experience. On the other hand, it's a lot of flying for very little time on the ground."

"If that's your only worry... get a grip and tell Ivan you're going. We spend more time than that on the team bus during volleyball season." Rita said seriously. "Besides, they're paying for everything, right?"

"Oh yeah." Karen nodded vigorously. "I did a little research and apparently shipping people take both christening and this Godmother business very serious. Everything is paid for, up to and including any outfit I would like to wear, a trip to the beautician and some spending money."

"Girl, you're going!" said Rita firmly. "And if you happen to miss the match on the 3rd, it's not a disaster... We can beat Irvine without you."

"Good point." Karen said slowly. "I think I'll ask the coach if I can sit that one out and return for the match against UCLA on the 6th." She smiled. "Getting a few days in France would be nice."

"Do that." Said Rita and then looked like she remembered something. "... Oh... talking about dates... I tried to use the computer at the university to determine Ivan's age."

Karen looked confused. "I don't get it... How could you do that?"

"Well, you did say that Ivan's mom told him that he was born in Egypt during a solar eclipse at the winter solstice, right?"

"Yes."

"Then his mother lied." Said Rita with a sad expression on her face. "The solar system moves in predictable ways and in archaeology we use solar eclipses to determine dates, using a program developed by NASA. If we find a manuscript saying that there was a solar eclipse in this or that area in the year whatever, we can just enter the area and year in the computer, hit enter and it will give us an exact date."

"Nice! And you tried it with Ivan?"

"Yeah. No luck. The last time that happened was December 20th..." She paused for a moment, before adding "... 1246 BC."

Karen blinked a few times and then laughed. "Petty... It was a good story."

"Yeah." Said Rita with a sigh. "I can't bring myself to tell it to him."

"Then don't tell him."

----- Ivan and Petra ------

"This is going way too fast!" Complained Petra as she carefully packed yet another piece of clothing. She looked at me. "And don't laugh!"

I wasn't laughing, but I also wasn't stupid enough to point it out to a stressed woman. Especially not one who had brought the stress upon herself.

For some reason Petra had decided that Karen, whom she had never met, would be lost if allowed to travel alone. So, instead of taking the plane from Rastede to Miami and then to Paris, Petra had asked me for permission to use one of the company jets to fly to Los Angeles, pick up Karen while the plane refuelled, and then continue to France. That way they could stay in France a few days, use the same plane to fly home and, since they had to land in LA anyway to drop Karen off, pick up Alejandro and the twins and then continue to Oldenburg. Due to a family celebration on the weekend, the twin's friend Chloe would have to take a regular flight to Oldenburg Monday or Tuesday.

I had agreed, since it solved all the logistical problems and lessened the number of things that could go wrong.

While it wasn't a big deal, a tropical hurricane, for some reason called Keith, had appeared in the path of her planned flight at the worst possible moment and in order to get around it, Petra had to leave Oldenburg earlier than she had originally planned and that seemed to stress her. So now, she was running around in her kimono like a headless chicken, packing way too much for what was meant to be a short trip.

"Stop!" I said, my voice firm enough to make her freeze mid-motion. She turned to me, wide-eyed, clutching a pair of shoes.

I waited until she put them down before continuing. "You've got your company credit card, right?"

"Yes, of course," she answered automatically, still clutching the edge of the suitcase like it might escape.

"Okay, now name one thing you could possibly need on this trip that you can't buy if you forget it."

She frowned, clearly running through a mental checklist. Finally, she sighed. "I can't think of anything."

"Exactly. You're stressing over nothing." I crossed the room, wrapping her in a hug before she could protest. At first, she was as rigid as a wooden plank, but eventually, her shoulders dropped, and she melted into the embrace. I kissed her briefly. "You'll do just fine, Babochka, but you need to relax."

"I know..." she murmured, though her voice was tinged with doubt. "It just feels like I'm back in the army, prepping for a mission."

"Well, you're not. And Jan den Adel has everything under control in Europe. You're not responsible for anything except showing up."

"But--" she started, only to stop when I placed my hands gently on her shoulders and channelled Vis in a calming pattern.

A soft laugh escaped her lips as the tension visibly drained from her body. "You, sir, are cheating with your unfair tricks."

I grinned, kissing her again. "I just want you to relax and enjoy this. You can even take a direct flight back to Oldenburg if it makes things easier."

Shaking her head, she smiled faintly. "No, I promised Cyra and Zena I'd pick them up. And honestly, I like them. We spent a lot of time together in the warehouse in Malaga. They really helped lighten the mood." She chuckled. "They remind me of my little sister, Nadya."

Since Petra rarely mentioned her family, I asked. "You miss her?"

"Yeah, from time to time." She answered. "We were close before I joined the army, but then we grew apart somewhat. I was busy with my career, and she was busy with school."

"Invite her to come visit some time."

Petra hesitated, her smile fading. "I can't. I'm still a wanted criminal. I don't want her involved in this mess."

I paused, debating for a moment before deciding to share. "Well... I was going to save this for Christmas, but with all the travel and being a ship's godmother it's probably better, you know now. I had Giles Cornell dig into your case. It's been reopened, and the investigators found out it was your ex-boyfriend who committed the crimes, just as you told me. This included getting rid of you by selling you on the black market. He's now arrested and as a result, you're not listed as a deserter or criminal anymore. You're technically still 'missing', but that is not a crime."

For a second, I wasn't sure how she'd react. Then she threw herself into my arms, hugging me so tightly I could barely breathe. Her lips met mine in a passionate kiss, and when she pulled back, her face was lit up with joy.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she gushed, her voice trembling.

I hugged her back, not bothering to say anything--mostly because, for once, I didn't know what to say. Since I couldn't remove the loyalty codex Parker and Curtis had implanted in Petra, Riya, Esther and Delina and as I had become the focus of that loyalty, the least I could do was to make sure that the loyalty was deserved. Making the false charges against them go away didn't even take that much of an effort, since Giles had taken care of it. I had just paid the bill for bribes and whatever else was needed, using money I hadn't even earned myself.

Still, seeing her like this, lightened by the news, I couldn't help but feel it had been worth every penny.

Sensing that the feel of Petra's body against mine was having an effect, I gently tried to push away, but she just tightened her grip on me and rotated her hips slightly on my erection as she whispered "Oh... I love the feeling of your dick against me."

Giving up, I stopped trying to push her away and pulled her in for a kiss instead.

As always, her lips were incredibly soft as she pressed them gently to mine. Her tongue gently touched and teased my lips until I opened, and our tongues slipped into each other's mouths, playing a little duel of lust. My right hand wandered over her body, until I found her large soft breasts and started massaging them gently, causing her to moan.

Her hands went to my front, where she opened my pants and pulled them down, wrapping a hand around my cock as soon as it was free and started to stroke it.

Breaking the kiss, Petra bit her lips and whispered. "I want to be fucked... roughly... Use your powers."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded again as she let the kimono fall to the floor and stood naked before me. "Just fuck the shit out of me. I need it."

With a nod, I levitated her off the floor and activated an Ars Mentalis trick called Vinclum (Baylon: Restrain). Ropes of mental energy appeared around her wrists, locking them together. A slight wave of the hand secured the other ends of the mental chains to the wooden roof beams in the ceiling. A heartbeat later, similar ropes secured her legs by the knees to two other wooden beams, dragging her legs upwards, forcing them apart and giving me free access to her pussy. More ropes of mental energy appeared, tying her body to the bed, so it wouldn't swing. Another went around her head, gagging her.

She stared at me wide-eyed, the expression on her face one of disbelief.

Ignoring it, I took a step forward and touched her soft wet pussy, playing with it as I stroked up and down her slit, running my finger over her hard clitoris and then back down again until I reached the entrance to her hot tunnel. Wetting my fingers in her juice, I did it time and again, while she moaned and yanked against the mental ropes each time my wet fingers rubbed her clitoris.

With her arms above her head and suspended in the air as she was, her beautiful breasts looked even bigger than normal and as they were the same height as my head, I leaned forward just a little, taking a hard nipple into my mouth, sucking and flicking my tongue over it.

My finger continued to stroke up and down her slit, sliding across her clitoris, but without warning, I pressed two fingers into her wet tunnel, which lovingly gave way to the intruders.

Petra moaned against the gag and then squealed when I fucked her hard and fast with my fingers for a few moments, before taking them out to stroke her clitoris again.

I repeated the process of stroking her clitoris, then fingerfucked her roughly, before returning to stroke the clitoris again several times, each time driving Petra closer to an orgasm.

Just as she had grown accustomed to the rhythm, I went down on my knees and licked her clitoris the next time I fingerfucked her, causing her to squeal even more against the gag, before I removed the fingers again, but continued to tease her pussy with my tongue.

She shivered and several drops of sweat dripped down her beautiful body.

With a smile to myself, I sucked her clitoris into my mouth and flicked it with my tongue, before slowly working my way down the slit, using my lips and tongue to tease, lick and nip everything.

When the tip of my tongue reached her pink little butthole, I gave it a long, wet lick and to my surprise, Petra moaned louder as she trashed against the ropes.

I gave her pussy the same long wet lick and while the reaction was good, she had moaned louder before, so I slurped my way down to her ass again and ran my tongue in circles around her pink star. The groans grew louder again and soon, she was panting and mewling.

I kept caressing her clitoris and pussy with one hand as I slowly licked her anus, kissing and nipping the edges and lightly poking it with the tip of my tongue, teasing her.

Licking my way back up to her clitoris, I removed my fingers from it and as I flicked my tongue over it, I gently nudged a fingertip into her butt. Petra moaned louder, shaking all over her body.

Egged on, I wet a finger in her juices and eased it into her tight ass, while sucking and licking her clitoris. My tongue danced, playing with her clitoris as I carefully started to fingerfuck her ass.

Tremors of pleasure ran through her body, only to be magnified, when I inserted the two first fingers of the same hand into her wet pussy.

Her body started to trash against the mental ropes, and she screamed against the gag as she came, shuddering and panting as she did, while her juices flowed down my hand and arm.

When it felt like the orgasm was over, I removed my hand and stood up. A few mental commands later, the ropes had lowered her, so her pussy was at exactly the same height as my cock.

Taking hold of her hips, I pressed my hard cock against the wet lips of her pussy, stroking up and down a few times to make it slick and then pressed it inside.

"Mmmmmmm!" Petra groaned, as the head reached deeper into her tunnel and then slid deeper and deeper into her.

Since she was hanging almost as in a swing, I stood still and used my arms to pull and push back and forth over my dick, taking my time to enjoy her wet hot pussy around my dick.

I fucked her like that for a while, ignoring the sounds and trashing she made as she came again.

Instead, I strengthened my grip on her and started to fuck her hard, using my body to ram my hard cock into her again and again, driving myself towards an orgasm.

Petra was moaning and groaning almost constantly, adding to my pleasure of just fucking her.

A thought removed the gag from her mouth, and I kissed her hungrily, while pounding her.

She kissed me back, clearly loving the treatment.

So did I and not holding back in any way, made me reach orgasm a lot faster than usual, as the telltale feeling started to course through my body.

She had just come again, when I withdrew from her. The mental ropes lowered her to the ground and as soon as she reached it, I took hold of her hair and stuck my dick into her mouth.

She didn't need to be told what to do, as she started to suck and lick it almost immediately.

Holding her head with my hands, I fucked her mouth roughly, using it as a pussy, until her lips and tongue made me explode in her mouth with a groan.

Surprised, she still managed to swallow my load while I moved my cock back and forth between her soft lips.

Smiling she looked up, expecting it to be over, but then yelped as the ropes pulled her into the air again, leaving her hanging horizontally this time.

I didn't waste the time but pushed two fingers into her pussy and started to finger fuck her again, adding a finger in her lovely ass after a little while. She started to tremble, when I leaned forwards and sucked her clitoris into my mouth.

"Oh shit!" She hissed and trashed against the ropes, before giving a yelp as I added a second slick finger in her tight ass, finger fucking her with two fingers in each hole. "OH SHIT!"

One of the ropes curled around her head, gagging her again and a moment later, the combination of a tongue on her clitoris and two fingers massaging her two other pleasure zones, made her explode with a muted scream.

I removed my tongue from her clitoris but didn't stop using my fingers. Instead, I used an Ars Mentalis trick to connect with her nerve system and temporary twist the Pleasure/Pain balance, so she became more sensitive to pleasure and less sensitive to pain at the same time.

Another Ars Mentalis trick sent mental energy surging through my own body, removing the sensitivity of the recent orgasm and finally a mental command to the ropes that held her, made her turn on the side, with her ass towards me and a leg into the air, giving me free access to do whatever I wanted.

My fingers returned to her pussy, making her moan as I pushed them into her now extremely sensitive wet channel. The sensation of her pussy clenching my fingers made me hard again and I could feel the blood pumping in my dick as I pressed the head of my slick cock against her butthole.

Petra stiffened for a moment, but then relaxed and moaned louder, as she wriggled her ass, nudging the tip into her orifice and then let out a surprised gasp as her little hole relaxed and surrendered to my gentle pressure, and with a final wriggle of her hips, my cock slipped inside.

I moved my hand from her pussy to her clitoris and started to massage it. She bucked as if struck by lightning and I realized I had forgotten the added sensitivity, but by then her bucking had driven my cock even deeper into her and she was groaning with every tremble of her body.

She might have asked me to fuck the shit out of her, but I didn't want to hurt her, so I eased my cock further into her a little at a time. I pushed in and then I stopped, pulled back out a little and pressed in again, going slightly deeper, setting a slow in-out buttfucking rhythm.

It took some time, but I could feel her snug slippery ass opening up for me, resisting a bit at first but then accepting me, letting me slide deeper and deeper inside warm velvety tightness. Her anal muscles clenched and unclenched, massaging my hard cock and it felt fantastic.

The sight of her body shaking with lust and pleasure, her big breasts gently wriggling with each move, only added to the feeling and we both groaned as her stretched-out muscle clamped around the root of my shaft.

Another mental command made Petra turn in the air, so her back was upwards, and I wrapped my other arm around her, right across her heavy tits. Filling my palm with a soft heavy boob, I clutched onto her voluptuous body and held her tight. Still caressing her clitoris and pussy with my other hand, I started to fuck her, making her moan uncontrollably as her anus began squeezing me erratically. She started shaking her head, moaning each time I buried my hard cock in her wonderful ass. I massaged her clitoris a little faster, which was all it took to make her come again.

Despite the gag, her scream of pleasure was loud. Her body trembled and trashed in my arms and juice squirted out of her pussy into my hand, while the muscles in her butt milked my cock as they clenched and unclenched around it.

When it was over, Petra lay still, looking like all energy in her body had been spent, presenting me with a dilemma. I really wanted to come again, but it would take a while and Petra needed to get to the airport and didn't look like she could take much more fucking without passing out.

With a shrug to myself, I pulled out of her and used a healing Ars Mentalis to remove any soreness, before lifting her over to the bed with telekinesis and gently placing her on top of the bedspread.

She wasn't out cold and when she felt the silky fabric of the bed under her, she opened her eyes and looked at me with a smile. "I've tried anal before and didn't really like it, but that was freaking awesome!"

I smiled back. "Yeah, it really was, but we're out of time."

Petra looked at the clock and sat up. "Damn... I need to get done with this!"

Her legs almost collapsed under her as she tried to get out of the bed. Shaking her head, she sat on the edge of the bed and looked at me with a wide smile plastered on her face. "Well, I think I can safely say that those powers of yours are a huge turn on!" She stood up, walked over to me and gave me a hug, pressing her curvy body against me while caressing my still hard cock with one hand.

I gave her a short passionate kiss and slapped her bare ass. "If you continue like that, you're not going to get out of here anytime soon."

Petra sighed and let go of me. "Yeah, you're right... Please leave the room. I need to finish packing and you're too tempting."

With a last kiss, I turned and walked out.

----- Alice and Karen ------

Alice was curled up in the living room, a book resting lightly in her hands, when Karen strolled in and collapsed onto the couch with a dramatic sigh.

"Hey," Karen mumbled, her tone somewhere between exhaustion and amusement. "Tell me it was worth the time."

Alice glanced up, her eyes adjusting to the sight in front of her. For a moment, she just blinked, stunned, before exclaiming, "Oh wow."

Karen's hair was a striking blend of deep red streaks and her natural black, styled into a softer, more elegant cut that framed her face perfectly. Her hazel eyes seemed to pop, brighter and larger than ever, thanks to impeccably sculpted brows, fluttering lashes, and makeup so expertly applied it could've been done for the red carpet.

Karen giggled, brushing a stray strand from her face. "Judging by your expression, I'm guessing it's a yes?"

"Oh, it's definitely a yes," Alice breathed. "You look incredible. It's not even that different from your usual style, but somehow..."

"It's the details," Karen said with a knowing grin, stretching her arms overhead as she yawned. "But, man, this day has been one of the most surreal experiences of my life."

Alice tilted her head, curiosity lighting up her face. "Go on..."

"Well," Karen began, her voice carrying a mix of disbelief and excitement, "the shipping company arranged everything, but I wasn't remotely prepared to spend half a day at Jose Eber, getting the full works--while sitting between Julia Roberts and Halle Berry!"

Alice's jaw dropped. "No way!"

Karen nodded, her grin widening. "Totally. It was insane--I felt like I was sandwiched between Erin Brockovich and Storm from X-Men!"

Alice burst out laughing. "Okay, but how were they? What were they like?"

Karen leaned back, her expression turning thoughtful. "Honestly, sweeter than I expected. Jose told them I'd be christening a sailing cruise ship in France, and luckily I'd skimmed the material Dream Voyage sent me, so when they started asking about it, I actually had answers. That led to this whole conversation about ecology and pollution." She paused, chuckling to herself. "It was crazy but kind of fun, you know? Oh, and then I went to Trés Grande to try on dresses. In the same room as Elle Macpherson."

Alice froze mid-laugh, her eyes wide. "You mean Elle 'The Body' Macpherson?"

Karen smirked, nodding. "Yup. And, let me tell you, she's every bit as stunning in person. Did you know she's six feet tall? That's why she shops at Trés Grande."

"Wow..." Alice breathed, her voice tinged with envy. "Okay, now I'm officially jealous. Not just of the clothes but of everything. You look amazing."

Karen smiled warmly. "Thank you. But don't worry, your time's coming. With the way Ivan pulls strings, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a ship named Golden Goddess in your future."

Alice nodded slowly, her gaze lingering on Karen, something unspoken flickering in her blue eyes.

Karen raised her eyebrows in surprise. With school, volleyball, a part-time job, and raising two kids, Alice rarely had time to focus on herself. But in that moment, Karen saw it--a spark of longing in her friend's expression, a silent desire for something more.

As she watched, Alice blinked a few times, causing the look to fade a bit.

Karen sighed. She normally didn't like being in charge, but it seemed like it was the only way to get Alice's thoughts to focus on something else than practical problems.

Quickly, she stood up, took the few steps over to Alice and dragged the blonde to her feet.

"Hey! What?" She protested, but Karen stopped it by taking hold of her neck, dragging her in for a passionate kiss. After a slight hesitation, Alice started to kiss her back and a moment later, their tongues began to dance in each other's mouths. Karen began to slowly move her hands all around Alice's body, eliciting moans and whimpers from her as the kiss continued.

In return, Alice had taken hold of Karen's ass, giving the buttocks a groping that sent shivers of lust through Karen's body.

Karen finally broke the kiss. "I want you naked in the bedroom. Now!"

A few minutes later, Karen pressed the now naked Alice against the locked bedroom door and kissed her with passion. Their tits rubbed against each other, causing them to moan as they kissed.

Karen moved her hands down Alice's sides, caressing the soft skin, before moving to the backside. Alice pushed away from the door just enough to allow Karen to grab her and fondle each cheek while their kisses continued.

Without warning, Karen broke the kiss and used her hold on Alice to turn the other girl around, so she was facing the door. A hand sneaked around Alice to grab and fondle a breast, while the other continued to caress her butt. Alice shivered and moaned, as Karen leaned forward and started to kiss and lick her back, taking her time as she worked her way upwards towards the neck. Once she reached it, she gently bit an earlobe, followed by a kiss and whispered. "Spread 'em."

Alice shifted her position, placing her feet further apart and then sighed happily as Karen's hand slowly made its way down between her legs. The hand stopped on Alice's clitoris and slowly began to massage it.

Leaning her head against the door, Alice closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling, as Karen played with her pussy, using a gentle, but firm touch, while the other hand was still fondling her breasts.

The fingers drifted from the clitoris, going a bit further down, sliding in between the wet lips of her pussy a few times, before going back to the clitoris.

The Asian alternated between the clitoris and the wet pussy for a while, making Alice squirm as she could feel the pleasure build inside her. Then she yelped as Karen without any warning slid two slick fingers into her, hitting all the right spots on the way, before the fingers retracted and went back to the clitoris again.

"Fuck!" Alice mumbled with a shiver, as Karen did it again and then again.

"Yes, that is the term for what we're doing." Whispered Karen with a chuckle and pumped her fingers in and out of Alice with a lot more speed than before, making the Blonde shiver and groan.

Karen could feel Alice was close to coming and slowed down. If she was forced to be the aggressive one, Alice would have to 'suffer' a bit.

Taking a decision, Karen removed her fingers and stood. "The bed is more comfortable, move."

Alice looked at her in disbelief. "Now?"

"Now." Confirmed Karen with a smile and smacked Alice's tempting ass. "Move."

With a grin, the tall blonde walked over to the bed and lay down on her back with slightly spread legs. The sight made Karen's mouth water.

"Like this?" Alice asked teasingly and then slowly spread her legs, giving Karen an unhindered view of her pussy. "Or more like this?"

Karen walked over to the bed and without warning placed her hand on Alice's pussy. "More like that."

Strong fingers found their way in between moist lips and Alice groaned, as Karen leaned down to kiss her. Still finger-fucking her slowly, the Asian moved down the long, slim body, leaving a trail of kisses until she reached Alices nipples.

Karen smiled to herself. The nipples were hard as stone, showing that Alice was a lot more turned on than she pretended to be.

She licked and sucked those nipples, biting them lightly, causing Alice to groan happily. The groans became deeper as Karen moved her fingers to Alice's clitoris, rubbing it firmly, but gently.

"Shit, it's good." Alice hissed.

Nodding, Karen buried her fingers in her friends leaking pussy once more, and moved her head downwards over the smooth stomach until her head hovered over Alice's pink pussy.

Removing her fingers, she licked Alice's slit from the top to the bottom, making her squirm and moan. Then she did it again, moving her body to get into a better position.

Finally sitting between Alice's long shapely legs, Karen dived in, attacking the clitoris directly with a few hard licks, before flicking the tip of her tongue back and forth. Alice gasped and grabbed the bed covers.

Another trip with her tongue down and up the lips made Alice whimper, so Karen went back to the clitoris, licking up and down, faster and faster.

"Fuck, yeah!" The blonde groaned. "So good!"

Karen removed her head long enough to ask. "Do you want it?"

Alice's blue eyes burned with lust as she lifted her knees to give Karen more room to move. "Yes!"

Then she gasped, as two of Karen's strong fingers penetrated her again, finding the G-Spot with practiced ease and began massaging it, as the mouth returned to the clitoris, sucking it in and teasing it with the tip of the tongue again.

A shiver started in Alice's body, as Karen slowly increased the speed of her fingers, pumping them in and out while hitting the G-spot with each move.

The shivering increased as Alice's breath became ragged. "Shit... fuck... don't stop!"

Nothing could have been farther from Karen's mind at that moment, but instead of saying so, she simply increased the pressure of her tongue on Alice's clitoris.

Less than a minute later, Alice arched her back, her body shuddering as she gasped. "I'm coming!"

Her face contorted as she clenched her teeth to avoid screaming as she exploded in an orgasm, her pussy spasming wildly around Karen's fingers.

Pausing for a few seconds, Karen closed her eyes and absorbed some of the energy Alice had released, smiling when she felt it enter her. It was like a warm hug and she was starting to understand why Ivan had thought that his own orgasm was secondary to making those he was with come.

Thinking of Ivan conjured up a lot of pleasant pictures in her head, but she suddenly remembered something Alice had told her he had done to her.

With a grin, she placed a slick, wet finger on Alice's anus and gently pressed it inside, while her tongue kept dancing on the clitoris. Then she started pumping again.

"Shiiiiiiiit!" howled Alice as the triple action sent a wave of pleasure through her body, and a moment later she came again, howling and trashing on the bed.

Karen slowed down but continued to move her hand until Alice tried to crawl away. Then she removed her fingers and stood, feeling lust running through her body like a fever, but before she had a chance to do anything, two almost simultaneous 'bing's' sounded from the pile of discarded clothes.

Frowning, Karen walked over to the pile and picked up her phone, looking at the display. "Damn."

Alice lifted her head from the bed and looked at her. "That better not be Cyra or Zera."

"Relax, it's Rita." Chuckled Karen as she picked up Alice's phone and threw it to the bed. The blonde caught it easily and looked at the display before turning red as she read the message.

'Could you keep it down a little? I'm trying to sleep here.'

"Hypocrite!" Alice snorted, flopping back onto the bed with a grin.

Karen burst out laughing. "Oh my God, that's priceless! I know we weren't exactly quiet, but I didn't think we'd get complaints!"

"At least the twins are in the other end of the house and can't hear a thing."

"I know." Chuckled Karen and moved with a suddenness that made Alice yelp, as Karen was suddenly sitting high on her chest. "But, now... I would like my pussy licked."

"But..." protested Alice.

"No, no." Whispered Karen. "Unlike some whose name I will not mention right now, I can keep silent while having an orgasm." She moved a bit forward, so her pussy was close to Alice's mouth. "Get to work!"

They locked eyes for a moment. Alice's blue eyes meet Karen's brown for a long moment, but then the blonde smiled and raised her head to run a tongue over Karen's lower lips. "Like that?"

"Good start." Said Karen with a groan and a smile, moving her hips forward to make it easier for Alice to use her tongue. "Now finish the job."

The blonde chuckled and fondled Karen's buttocks, obviously enjoying the feeling before diving in.

------------------------------

The escorts

Early October 2000, Oldenburg Islands

Getting most of Parker and Curtis' High-End escorts to Oldenburg had proven less of a logistical nightmare than I had feared. The few that couldn't come had appointments they couldn't cancel, except for one who broke her leg the day before the flight, forcing her to stay in Los Angeles.

The thirty-eight that did arrive proved to be a diverse group, though all were good-looking and dressed extremely well. Having read Parker's files on them, I knew most of the Africans came from Uganda and Nigeria, while the Europeans were mostly from Russia, Bulgaria and Ukraine. The Asians were a mix of Indian and Chinese, with a handful from Japan and South Korea completing the roster.

Since I only needed to be able to see them to examine them, I had a disguised Delina conduct the meeting while in mind contact with me and kept myself hidden behind a two-way mirror.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long to determine that Parker's and Curtis' mind-controls were just as deeply anchored in them as it was in everybody else, making it extremely difficult to remove. The heavy-handed way the mind control had been applied, had also damaged their intelligence somewhat, making them less intelligent than they had been before.

On the bright side, the escorts' personality was still intact and despite being less independent in their thoughts, they were on many levels very similar to Ayanna, Riya and the rest of the five women I had liberated in Malaga.

None of them wanted to return home on a permanent basis. Many of them would like to visit their family at some point, but they found the life they had now so much better they wanted it to stay that way. In fact, what most of them really wanted was to be able to date and perhaps even marry some of their wealthy customers, so they could keep the lifestyle forever.

While I didn't think that was going to happen, I'd heard stranger things, so I accepted their dream and altered the loyalty codex as much as I could to make it possible. They were allowed to date or marry, and didn't have to send any money to Erebus anymore, which also meant they didn't have to work as escorts anymore.

Due to the way the Loyalty Codex was set up, they couldn't function for long without something to do, so I had them continue sending information to me. In addition, everything they have sent to Erebus so far, was to be placed in a savings account, so they would have some money when they retired. That made most of them extremely happy, so I had Delina dismiss everybody, except those who weren't quite satisfied with the deal.

"< They're not all that bright, are they? >" Delina asked through the link I had established between us. "< Did the Mind Control damage their intelligence? >"

"< To a certain degree, yes >" I replied. "< At least their ability to make decisions. On the bright side, at least they still function as human beings >"

"< Praise Allah for the small blessings >" She sent back sadly.

"< Indeed >" I said, studying the remaining women. Two of them were Russian, while the others were South Korean, Japanese and Danish. "< I'm guessing that they have had enough of being escorts and don't want to join the search for a husband... Now let's hear what they have to say >"

The first Russian wanted to know how much money she would get for retirement, because she wanted to retire right away and use some of the money to buy a house in a small city in the UK, where she could raise dogs and work part time.

"< Please say yes! >" commented Delina. "< That is a much better dream than the others >"

"< Oh, I agree and tell her yes... She got almost two hundred thousand dollars... The problem is going to be finding something for her to do for me or Erebus >"

"< Can't you let that one slide? >"

"< I could, but then she would most likely kill herself with-in a year. She needs a mission >"

"< Oh... She could maintain a hide-out >" Delina suggested. "< You know... a safe place to hide, if needed." She thought for a moment. "It could even be a small Bed and Breakfast guest house. >"

"< Excellent idea! Go with that >"

She did, and it also solved the other Russian's problem, as she had almost the same idea, just with a small guest house in Spain. The South Korean had a different request: she wanted to access half of her retirement funds immediately, enough to cover her bills while she finished her education to become a real estate broker. That, too, was an easy yes, with the condition she send me a heads-up whenever an especially promising property came onto the market.

The Japanese girl, or Sora Akane as she was called, made me want to shake my head. Despite having a bachelor's degree in literature from Rikkyo University in Tokyo, she wanted financial support while she tried to become a model in the soft-core porn industry in Japan.

Instead of guessing about her reasons, I simply reached out and read her mind. What I discovered instantly made me feel sorry for her. Parker and Curtis' mind control had gone slightly wrong and while it did work as intended, they had managed to scramble some of her memory. As a result, she remembered only small parts of her higher schooling and the bachelor's degree she had worked so hard for was now useless. That she knew she used to be smarter and have a better memory was even worse and she had no confidence at all in her own ability to hold any job.

However, she knew she had a pretty face, a good body and, unlike most Japanese women, a pair of large natural breasts. All of which made her a good gravure model, though I had no idea what exactly gravure was.

"< Is she dumber than the rest? >" asked Delina in my head, sounding and feeling furious over Sora Akane's plan to support herself.

"< No, desperate and partly destroyed >" I answered with a mental sigh and explained the situation to her, instantly feeling Delina's mood change from anger to pity. "< Poor girl! >"

"< Yeah, and there's nothing we can really do about it at the moment... Just say yes and then we can figure out some bogus mission later >"

"< Will do >"

That left only the Danish woman. Called Dana, her real name was Trine Henriksen and she was the last escort Parker and Curtis had managed to create. In a way, she was lucky, because as Parker and Curtis became more experienced, their control improved and the less damage they did.

Consequently, Trine's intelligence and decision-making hadn't suffered as much as the rest, but as the newest escort, she hadn't made much money. It certainly wasn't due to her looks, because she was very good looking and like most Scandinavian girls I had seen so far, she was blonde, tall and slim, with a well-formed body and very long legs.

She was educated as a chef and her dream was opening a restaurant at some point in the future but while still being young, she was focussed on learning more before doing so.

"< She sounds smarter than the rest >" Commented Delina approvingly over the mind link. ""

"< Finding a place isn't the problem >" I replied, my mind already spinning through possibilities. "< Finding the right place might be... Let's hear some more >"

"< Yes, sir >" Replied Delina and asked a series of questions, that quickly laid clear, that what Trine Henriksen really wanted was an additional education as a Sushi chef. She had fallen in love with the food and while she had tried her luck in learning how to make it herself, she would prefer a formal education.

"< She is smart >" Declared Delina. "< Can we please make it happen? >"

I quickly search my memory. "< Yes... and she can even stay here. The Department of Culinary Arts at the University offers a six-month full-time course in the making of Sushi &g" I told her. "< She's still missing in Denmark, so she'll need to use the identity Parker has given her to enter the course. If she chooses to do so, I'll pay for the course and the apartment, while she can use the money she has earned to cover the expenses &g"

Delina's response was immediate, warm and filled with a quiet appreciation. "< You're the best >" Her gratitude flowed through the link like a soft breeze. Then, after a moment's pause, she added, "< What about her mission? >"

"< If she works directly for us, she doesn't need one, >" I replied with a mental chuckle. "< Learning sushi at a professional level is her mission >"

Delina considered that, her presence thoughtful. "< Would it make sense to add a Yacht Chef Certificate to the plan? Most chefs here seem to have one >"

"< Smart idea. Let's do it >"

"< Yes, sir. Give me a second to phrase all this for her >"

It would work, I determined as I leaned back in the chair. The escort in L. A. could wait until I travelled there for Christmas as I had promised the Twins. As for the remaining three escorts Parker and Curtis had left behind, they could head to Oldenburg once their current engagements wrapped up, enabling me to clear yet another loose end.

----- Zarita -----

Zarita stretched lazily in the jacuzzi, the warm water soothing her skin as she let out a contented sigh. The soft bubbles tickled her skin, and a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

According to the information from the Baker-twin's school, they would be here for at least two weeks and after having spent just a single day on Oldenburg Island, she was sure this was the best mission she had ever been on. The Baker twins wouldn't arrive for the next few days, the weather was better than in California, the food was fresh and delicious and Royal Gyldenskiold was at least a five-star hotel, making it the best hotel she had ever lived in.

She had followed Caspian Shammo's advice and travelled in her official capacity as a member of the Diplomatic Security Service, who was there to see how the counterterrorism was done, since there were several high-ranking American managers among the wedding guests.

Even then she had been surprised when the plane she was in had unexpectedly been escorted by two different fighter jets as it neared the island and the plane's speaker system came to life, as the captain explained that the two-plane escort was a celebration gesture from Starlight Merchant Group due to their CEO getting married. He went on to explain that the fighter jet on the right side was the new Raptor 35 Draak, while the smaller plane on the left side was the equally new Raptor 40 Kingfisher.

Like many other passengers, Zarita had taken pictures of the two planes, but she hadn't had time to send them to Agent Caspian Shammo, since she had been scheduled for a meeting with the ones responsible for the security during the wedding immediately after arriving on Oldenburg.

The meeting had turned out to be a quick walk-through of the various countermeasures used to secure the security of the guests at the wedding, and while Zarita wasn't an expert in counter terrorism, she had enough knowledge to be impressed by the amount of tech Starlight was using, and how well protected the island was. Considering she was tasked with trying to ensure the security of the Baker twins, that was good news, as it made her job so much easier.

After the meeting, she was told her car wouldn't be available until the next day, but an official car had transported her to this luxurious old hotel in downtown Rastede where she had finally been able to send the pictures off to Caspian Shammo in an encrypted format, asking what he could tell her about those aircraft.

That done, she had gone to take a lengthy bath in the room's luxurious bubble bath, where she was now, drinking the complimentary champagne the staff had placed for her. It wasn't often she had the chance to indulge herself and she was determined to make the best of it. At least until the Baker twins arrived, which gave her time to do some research and determine how to best tackle her assignment.

The water in the jacuzzi had lost its soothing warmth, turning lukewarm, coaxing Zarita to finally emerge. She wrapped herself in one of the luxuriously soft bathrobes provided by the hotel, its fabric a comforting embrace against her skin. Running a hand through her damp hair, she stepped out of the bathroom, her footsteps soft on the plush carpet.

Still thinking, she found some new clothes and dressed. The bath hadn't helped and she might as well get something to eat while thinking.

----------------------------------

Kongens Bord (Danish: King's Table), the restaurant area of the hotel, was almost empty when Zarita arrived and the few people in there hadn't gotten any food yet, though she could see waiters walking around or talking with the few guests.

She was still debating if she should find another, and livelier, place to have her dinner, when a voice from behind said, "Zarita Alvarez?"

Surprised, she turned around and then smiled as she discovered a well-known person standing behind her: Agent Sheena Rao from Department 55. The European version of Unit-X. She wasn't alone though, but unlike the other times they had met, the other person wasn't Maya Honeycutt.

Next to Agent Rao stood a tall woman with short blonde hair framing her face, complementing her large, expressive brown eyes behind delicate glasses. Her colourful dress reminded Zarita of the few locals she had seen so far and did little to hide her curvy figure.

"Sheena Rao!" Zarita exclaimed with a grin. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Exactly my thoughts." Said the Indian-Australian with a grin and gestured to the woman next to her. "Oh, and this is Angie Larsen."

They greeted and then Sheena asked. "Looking for a place to eat?"

Zarita nodded and glanced into the restaurant. "Yes, but the restaurant here doesn't seem to be popular, so I was considering finding another place."

Angie laughed softly. "Kongens Bord is an extremely good, if somewhat expensive restaurant, but people here rarely eat the evening meal before eight, so you're a few hours early... oh... and the main meal of the day is what you would call lunch."

Zarita sent her a smile. "You're local?"

"Yes."

"Can you recommend a place to eat then?" She glanced at Sheena Rao. "Preferably a place where we can't be overheard. I have a feeling we have something to talk about."

"Yes, that would be nice." Added Rao.

The blonde woman smiled. "I know just the place. It's a bit outside the city, but it's spectacular and the food is very good. Follow me."

They walked to the parking lot at the back of the hotel, where Angie remotely unlocked an ordinary looking car and got in at the driver's seat, while Sheena took the backseat, allowing Zarita to ride in the passenger seat.

She quickly determined that the smooth, minimalistic interior had to be a European style. It certainly wasn't American.

"Buckle up." Said Angie with a smile and as Zarita fastened her seat belt, she reached out and pressed a button.

Zarita waited for the usual growl of an engine, the shaking rumble, the faint jolt through her seat that marked the beginning of motion. But instead, a quiet hum, barely audible, settled into the space around them.

"Problems with starting?"

"No." Chuckled Angie and a moment later the car smoothly pulled forward. No gear shift clunk, no rev. Just smooth, steady motion, as Angie drove out of the parking lot. "It's an electric car."

That caught Zarita off-guard. She blinked at her. "Electric? Like... no engine?"

"Well, no combustion, but it does have an engine to go with the battery." Explained Angie as she carefully stirred the car onto the road, ending up behind a car looking a lot like the one she was in.

Zarita shook her head. "Why electric? Why not a good old petrol car."

That made Angie laugh. "Between windmills, geothermal energy and solar power, Oldenburg produces a lot of electricity, making it cheap and efficient here, while we would have to import petrol. So, the government put a lot less tax on electric cars than on petrol cars, making electric cars cheaper as well." She shrugged. "They're not as fast as petrol cars, but they get us from point A to point B when we want it, and it's easier than taking the tram."

There wasn't much she could say to that, so Zarita leaned back in the seat and enjoyed the smooth, quiet ride.

Half an hour later, Zarita shook her head slightly, as she took her place at an elegant set table at a romantic restaurant perched on the cliffs above the water. Each table was placed beneath a canopy of tropical foliage or perched on a private terrace, ensuring intimate seclusion. In short, they were so far from each other it was impossible to hear what was being said at another table from where she was sitting, she couldn't even see the other tables.

To make it even better, even the faintest whisper of conversation was drowned out by the gentle murmur of waves crashing against the rocks far below, and the scent of salt air mingled with the delicate aroma of freshly grilled seafood and exotic spices, carried by the warm evening breeze.

"This," she declared with a chuckle, "has to be the most romantic setting I've ever seen."

"Yes." Agreed Sheena, looking around as well. "This place belongs in a romantic movie." She chuckled. "I'm beginning to think Maya should have chosen Oldenburg instead of the resort in the Seychelles for her honeymoon."

Zarita blinked in surprise. "Honeycutt has gotten married?"

"Yes," Sheena nodded with a smile. "A whirlwind romance and for once, I can understand that. Hector is a good guy."

"Good and yes, this place would be perfect for a couple on their honeymoon."

Angie laughed softly. "Oh, absolutely. But it's also one of the best spots on the island for a private conversation." She reached into her bag, retrieving a small electronic device, and placed it on the table. With a press of a button, the readout flickered before three LEDs turned green.

"And there's no microphones within twenty meters of us." Glancing over at Zarita, she added. "That's sixty feet."

Zarita arched an eyebrow, making Sheena laugh. "Angie might be a local, but she's also a member of the Department." Turning towards Angie, she explained. "And Zarita here is a member of Unit-X, our American counterpart."

"Oh... that explains the need for privacy." Angie smiled, her gaze shifting as a waiter approached. "Let's order first and then talk."

Once the waiter had departed with their selections, Zarita leaned forward slightly. "Alright, Sheena. What really happened with the Baker Twins in Málaga? I requested a full report, but I had to leave before it arrived."

While Unit X and Department 55 did exchange information on a regular basis, it wasn't as simple as sending an email for the simple reason that no report was ever stored digitally in a computer with access to the internet. While that eliminated any chance of hacking, it also meant that for reports to travel from the USA to England or the other way, it had to be printed and then sent across the ocean with a courier, making the exchange cumbersome. Consequently, reports were sometimes a long time underway and while Alvarez had seen the brief on the actions in Malaga, there weren't really any details.

Sheena lifted an eyebrow in surprise. "The Baker Twins? Why're you interested in them?"

"Well... they're psychics," Zarita said matter-of-factly. "Naturally, I'm interested."

Sheena's expression shifted to stunned disbelief. "Are you sure they're psychics?"

Zarita's turn to be surprised. "You didn't detect it?"

Sheena shook her head, her long black hair swaying with the motion. "Not at all..."

Zarita whistled softly. "Okay... right there you have the core of my problem: They're telepaths and we detected them by accident years ago. Naturally, we have kept an eye on them ever since, but after they came home from their vacation, we can't detect anything from them. It's like the kidnapping made them stop using it or they had a traumatic experience that did the same and that'll be a damn shame."

"I agree..." Sheena said thoughtfully. "How are they doing, by the way? They seemed like good kids."

Zarita chuckled. "Never underestimate the mental toughness of youth. We arranged some sessions with the school psychiatrist for them and they're doing fine... which is why their sudden stop in using telepathy puzzles me." She tilted her head. "What really happened in Malaga and how did you finally catch both Parker and Curtis?"

"Pause." Said Angie suddenly. "The waiter is coming back."

They fell silent as the server placed their drinks before them, then retreated back up the stone path.

Sheena took a breath, then recounted the events in Málaga. The attempted kidnapping of the Baker twins and the death of Curtis by the hand of an unknown Psychic. The kidnapping of everybody and how they were rescued by the same enigmatic figure, who then disappeared without a trace, leaving a neutralized Parker behind for them to interview. She finished off by describing how that had led to the arrest of numerous paedophiles as well as the rescue of hundreds of children.

"Damn," Zarita murmured, exhaling. "That's... wild." She sighed, shaking her head. "But it still doesn't explain why the Baker Twins stopped using their powers."

"Pause," Angie interrupted with a soft chuckle. "Food's coming."

Their conversation paused once more as their meals, beautifully plated and fragrant, were set before them. As the waiter disappeared again, Sheena leaned in.

"I'm guessing Zyra and Cena Baker are here on the island since you're here?"

Zarita speared a bite of grilled fish, savouring the smoky char and delicate seasoning before responding. "Not yet, but they'll be here soon," she confirmed. "They're visiting a guy named Ivan Emilian during fall break and staying a week after that."

Sheena paused mid-bite, then let out a short laugh. "As in the Chairman of Starlight Merchant Group?"

"Yes," Zarita replied, tilting her head slightly. "And you don't sound even a little surprised."

"I'm not." Sheena wiped her mouth with a napkin, setting her fork down. "But before I say anything, let me be clear: we don't know exactly who the Unknown Psychic is. However, we suspect that he's a European and thus belongs to us according to our agreement."

Zarita grimaced, pushing a piece of roasted plantain around her plate. The Unknown Psychic sounded incredibly skilled for someone they'd never identified, and that Interpol had found him was not gonna sit well with her boss, who seemed to think that every Psychic in the world should be an American. Especially the good ones.

"It's fine with me," she said, finally popping the plantain into her mouth. "But I'm sure my boss isn't gonna like that."

"Then your boss can duke it out with our boss." Said Angie firmly, stirring her iced tea before taking a sip. Her sudden interjection surprised the others. She had been silent until now. "The agreement is crystal clear."

Zarita nodded, swallowing her food. "Got it. Now get on with it."

Sheena twirled her fork in a bowl of fragrant rice, taking a moment before speaking. "We're not entirely sure, but we suspect the Unknown Psychic might be..." She hesitated, then finally said, "... Ivan Emilian."

Zarita froze, her fork hovering midair. "What?" she blurted, then caught herself and lowered her voice. "Sorry, but I guess that means that he was in Malaga this summer."

Sheena nodded, scooping up a bite of food. "Judging from the timestamps on the photos we recovered, he spent about ten days with them. And it's very possible that during that time, he taught the Baker Twins how to use telepathy in a way that makes them completely undetectable."

Zarita exhaled slowly, drumming her fingers against the table. "That... makes a lot of sense." She looked up, smiling a little. "I assume that Ivan Emilian is the reason for your presence here."

Sheena nodded. "Yes, but since we're not sure of anything we're just observing, while trying to ensure that special abilities aren't used to make better deals... not that it's likely... the deals made here are so big that they require loads of lawyers and most political approval, which usually takes at least a year."

"Good point." Said Zarita and thought for a moment. "Look, right now it sounds like we're all having problems. Can we work together on this?"

"If the boss agrees, we can." Said Sheena with a smile and took her encrypted phone. "I'll text my boss, you text yours and while we wait for a response, we can enjoy the meal."

"Sounds like a plan." Declared Zarita.

An hour later, Angie pushed her plate away. "Sad as it is, I'm full."

"Same." Said Sheena and leaned back in her chair. "I hate waiting, but at least the atmosphere and the food are hard to beat."

"Yes. If international missions always come with meals like this, I need to go on more of them," Zarita chuckled. "That was damn good."

Angie raised an eyebrow. "This is your first mission?"

Zarita's smile widened a bit. "International, yeah. The U. S. is massive--we're usually busy keeping an eye on our own backyard."

"Fair." Grinned Angie. "I imagine that's enough to keep you engaged."

Zarita nodded. "Yes, but my job is to keep track of the 'homegrown' talents, so to speak, and it rarely becomes exciting..." She glanced around. "or leads me to places like this."

"Nothing happening in Hawaii or Puerto Rico?" Asked Sheena lazily.

Zarita shook her head. "Not much. What ab..."

The almost simultaneous 'bing' from three phones interrupted her.

Zarita looked at her phone and lit up in a smile. "It's an 'okay' from my boss."

Sheena nodded absently, as she read and then looked up with a frown. "The same from our boss, but... and this I don't understand... According to my boss, Unit-X received the report from Malaga with a courier almost a week ago... and Ivan Emilian is named in that report."

Zarita blinked in surprise. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," snorted Sheena. "Honeycut and I wrote it before she went off on her honeymoon."

"While we're at the subject," said Angie slowly. "You're here to keep track of the Baker Twins, right?"

"Yes," answered Zarita a bit wearingly.

"How exactly are you going to do that?" Angie asked curiously. "I mean, unless they were on a regular vacation and you booked a room at the same hotel, I can't really see how a single person could keep a reasonable watch over anyone."

Zarita exhaled. "Look... it's not like they're in immediate danger. I'm just here in case something happens."

Sheena chuckled. "Considering what went down in Malaga, I get the concern, but unless you planned to seduce Emilian, there's no way you'd get close enough to watch them. Not that you need to. The odds of a kidnapping here are about as likely as a kid stealing the crown jewels."

"I know, "said Zarita with a sigh. "I got a briefing from the Gendarmerie and Starlight Security... And for what it's worth, you're right. I've been trying to figure out how to get close to them since I got on the plane, and I still don't have a plan."

There was silence at the table for a moment, but then Angie cleared her throat. "I don't have a solution, but I might have an explanation."

Zarita narrowed her eyes. "Oh? Do tell."

"There's no point of sending you to Oldenburg to 'watch the Baker Twins' with Ivan Emilian... or perhaps I should say that there's only one point."

"Which is?" asked Zarita and noticed that Sheena was leaning in as well.

"You're bait," Angie explained with a grimace, causing the two others to look at her in shock.

"The only reason I can see for you to go to Oldenburg and try to get close to the two girls, is to provoke some kind of response from Ivan Emilian in the case that he actually is the Unknown Psychic. If he panics and makes a move, they'll have proof. Worse, if he attacks you, your boss gets justification to demand his extradition to the U. S. for assaulting a government official. If nothing happens, he loses nothing and can try a new approach later."

Zarita and Sheena stared at her in stunned silence.

"What? It's a tactic taken out of the spy game during the Cold War," Angie said with a shrug. "And it just might work."

Zarita let out a slow breath as the realization sank in. The logic made sense. Too much sense. Unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing she could do about it, as it was still only a theory and Mr. Smith might have a reason none of them knew of or could even guess.

"I'm not fully convinced," she said carefully. "But with the information we have, it's a possible scenario."

Sheena nodded to what Zarita said. "I agree. The scenario you describe, Angie, demands that Ivan not only is the Unknown Psychic, but also that he discovers that we have special abilities as wellandthinks that we're a threat to him."

"Listen," said Angie. "I didn't say that it was the only explanation, just that it is a possible one."

"True," conceded Zarita and looked at Sheena. "If we go with this scenario, what is the chance that Emilian will panic and do something stupid?"

"Next to none." Said Sheena with a snort. "I talked with him while in Malaga and even with him knowing that I'm an Interpol agent, he was relaxed, charming and even helped in the investigation by making a drawing of Parker, so we could put a face to the name." She took a sip from her glass. "Not to mention, that it was the Unknown Psychic that saved Maya and me from Parker in Malaga, and it seems unlikely that Emilian would go through all that trouble just to attack us later."

"Good point, which renders the entire possible plot rather pointless." Said Zarita as she took her glass and leaned back in the chair. "Oh, by the way, do you happen to have a picture of him? I couldn't find any pictures of him, so I have no idea how he looks."

"Not on me." Said Sheena with a smile and fell silent for a moment as if she was considering something. Then she nodded to herself and placed a hand on Zarita's leg. "Ready?"

Knowing what was coming, Zarita nodded. "Yes."

Images flooded into her mind and they all showed a good-looking platinum blonde man, with sparkling blue eyes and a charming smile, that made him seem friendly. The blonde hair was a nice contrast to the golden tanned skin and the broad-shouldered body looked muscular and well built, reminding her of an athlete... a far cry from the slightly overweight older man with glasses, she for some reason had envisioned when hearing about him.

Looking up at Sheena, she said. "I hope you're not kidding me. This guy looks more like the cover model of Vogue or Cosmopolitan, than the Chairman of a billion-dollar company."

Angie chuckled softly. "My feelings exactly, but it is him."

"How tall is he?" Zarita wondered. "He looks very tall in the images."

Angie's smile widened. "According to my cousin who happens to train Dutch Kickboxing at the same gym as Emilian, the guy is just above 191 cm..." She paused for a moment to think. "Which is six foot three... oh... and he spars in the heavyweight class, which puts him at more than ninety-five kilos or some two hundred and ten pounds."

"Big guy." Commented Zarita.

Sheena nodded. "He is, but more importantly, he's well-educated, perceptive and smart." She smiled a little. "Unless I overestimate your sources, I'm sure you already know that he speaks a lot of different languages and has studied Ancient History."

Zarita nodded. "But unfortunately, I know next to nothing about the subject. What else can you tell me about him?"

Sheena hesitated for a moment and then said. "Let's make a deal. We tell you about Emilian and you tell us about the Baker Twins. We rarely discover emerging psychics, so that would be interesting to hear."

"Deal." Smiled Zarita.

------------------------------------------

A pre-wedding cocktail party

Early October 2000, Rastede, Oldenburg Islands

One of several events before the wedding was a company sponsored cocktail party held at the beautiful Ritz-Carlton resort, just outside Rastede. Despite being labelled as a cocktail party, which in my head was a small party, this was anything but. Over a thousand guests had gathered, representing a colourful tapestry of cultures and industries from around the globe.

I spent some time weaving through the crowd, exchanging pleasantries and making connections, before spotting Angela Scott, Starlight's Chief Legal Officer. She stood across the room, subtly waving me over with a smile.

As I walked over to her, I saw she was talking with a young Spanish looking woman, dressed in an elegant black cocktail dress that enhanced her curvy figure and long legs. Even more intriguing was the eagle pendant hanging from a delicate gold chain around her neck, making the pendant rest just above her generous cleavage. The intricately crafted eagle, wings spread wide with its head turned in profile, bore a small blue crystal clutched in its claws. It looked a lot like the eagle the Roman Army had used, and I instantly recognized it, as I had seen it on several contracts. It was the company logo of Scipio International, a private company owned by the Scipio family.

Operating mostly in Europe, Scipio International was, like Starlight Merchant Group, a private conglomerate with a vast area of interests, but primarily the company dealt in engineering, transportation and production of high-tech equipment. Their subsidiary, Scipio Electronics, delivered some of the instruments used in the Pegasus series of commercial jets built by Titan Aerospace. They must have liked the jets, because Scipio International had bought three Titan Aerospace Pegasus 12's to be used as private and company jets.

My eyes left the pendant and went to her face instead. Not only was she beautiful, with high cheekbones, full lips and a pair of deep blue eyes that glittered in the light from the chandeliers, but there was also something classy over her that was immensely attractive.

Angela Scott must have felt the same, because the dark-skinned lesbian lawyer emitted a low-key desire, tempered by her self-control.

"Ahh... Mr. Ivan." Said Angela as I came over to her. "Allow me to introduce you. This is Paula Scipio, board member of Scipio International. Miss Scipio, this is Ivan Emilian, Chairman of Starlight Merchant Group."

Paula Scipio fastened her eyes on me and smiled, showing a perfect row of teeth, just as I detected a muted spike of lust coming from her.

"Good evening, Mr. Emilian... or should I call you Mr. Ivan as everybody else seems to do?"

With a chuckle, I replied. "Whatever you prefer, Miss Scipio, though most people call me Mr. Ivan."

"Mr. Ivan, it is then." She said with a slight smile. "It's always refreshing to encounter someone who doesn't follow the normal social rules of the business world."

With a slight bow, I said. "Thank you... and it's equally refreshing meeting someone here under the age of forty."

Her smile widened as she gestured subtly toward the crowd. "Yes, it's not a party for the young... with a few good-looking exceptions."

Scattered among the guests were several beautiful younger women, most of them clinging to the arm of an older man.

"Some women are drawn to power," I remarked, matching her amused tone. "And this room certainly has no shortage of powerful men."

"Right you are... oh that reminds me..." She turned as if to ask Angela Scott something but discovered that the lawyer had quietly walked away while we were talking. "Hmmm It seems like we have been left to ourselves... Do you happen to know if the 170-foot sailing yacht named Dream Finder II is still for sale?"

I nodded. Dream Escapes were selling off some of the larger yachts, since the large yachts weren't as profitable as the medium ones and they were so expensive that for each of the large yachts sold, Dream Escapes could buy three or four medium yachts. Added to that, Dream Escapes already had some very lucrative offers on the two biggest ones, Dream Seeker and Dream Lady II, as well as some tentative requests on Dream Quest II and Dream Finder II. "We have a few offers, but it's still on the market. Are you interested?"

"Not me personally, no." She said and signalled a waiter for a refill. "Like your CEO, my elder brother Leonardo is getting married, and my parents thought it would be a good wedding gift... They chartered it last summer and loved it."

Somehow, that statement made perfect sense coming from a member of the Scipio family.

"It is a very beautiful yacht... Shall I consider it sold?"

Paula laughed, her voice melodic. "That will depend on the price. What do you say to 30 million?"

I considered it briefly. 30 million was a little on the low end. "How about 36?"

For a moment, we looked at each other and smiled, before saying "33" at the same time.

Being the average of the two prices, it was the logical place to end, we had just jumped over the steps in between and 33 million dollars was a fair price for both of us.

"Deal?" Paula held out a hand which I took. "Deal."

The moment our hands touched, I felt a discrete mind probe from her, looking for any dishonesty from my part. Surprised, I didn't have time to construct the usual fake mind for her to see and her probe bounced off my mind-shield, causing her to widen her eyes ever so slightly. She quickly caught herself, though.

"Nice doing business with you, Mr. Ivan." She smiled.

"Likewise, Miss Scipio." I said, while thoughts whirled in my mind. That she was a Mentat had surprised me, and it shouldn't have. There were more Mentats in the world than I had originally thought, and Parker couldn't have been the only one smart enough to enter the business world.

However, as Interpol had investigators with Mental powers and as I was reasonable sure that using Mental Powers against another human was illegal according to them, those Mentats in the business world also had to be very subtle in their use of powers or they would have been detected, and presumably shut down or removed, a long time ago. But even if they just used those powers to ensure they weren't getting cheated, that would grant them a huge advantage, and in many cases ensure the survival of a company.

Another interesting aspect was that Paula Scipio had shown good skills with her discrete probe, making it possible she had been trained by another Mentat. Perhaps even one from the Scipio family, which would account for at least some of the company's success.

"Let's get the lawyers to do the boring bit." Paula said as our hands separated again. "Then we can celebrate it with a drink."

"You brought your lawyer?" I asked with a chuckle.

"The invitation was for the usual '+1' and since I'm not married or even engaged, my uncle Marcus accompanied me here and he's a lawyer."

"Makes sense." I nodded. "Let us do that then. I'll get hold of Miss Scott."

Paula Scipio and I spent some time talking, but then we separated as other guests wanted to talk with us as well and the rest of the evening, we drifted into separate orbits.

It didn't take long before I was very happy that I had taken the time to learn a lot of languages. Like in the past, people tended to react positively when I talked with them in their own language. The Chinese guests lit up when I quoted Confucius or recited an ancient proverb. The Indians beamed with pride at my ability to reference verses from the Vedas. As it had always been, words had their own kind of magic, capable of breaking barriers with a single syllable.

Another timeless tendency was the way people grouped together. In the courts of the old empires, military people talked with other military people, sages talked with sages, nobles talked with nobles and merchants talked with merchants. Of course, there had been some overlap between the groups, but common interests couldn't be denied. The same was happening at the cocktail party, where the different industries formed groups according to interests.

The group I was walking towards was a prime example as it consisted of airplane people. There were manufacturers like Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Embraer Air, all of which made jets in cooperation with Titan Aerospace. There were the operators who used the jets, like FedEx, Southwest Airlines, China Southern Airlines and the Indian Jet Airways, and finally there were the representatives from various companies that functioned as subcontractors to the others.

After spending time talking with the airplane people, I drifted to a group of sustainable energy people where I spent some time talking with a representative from Vestas, a Danish company collaborating with EcoTech on building windmills, while others chimed in from time to time.

From there, I wandered to a cluster of car industry people, foremost among them a young Chinese man I recognized from his picture as Li Shufu. Despite being just thirty-seven, Li Shufu was the owner of Geely, the company that made the Adler in China. Four years ago, Geely had been a small motorcycle manufacturer, but when Starlight Motors needed a partner for producing cars in China, Parker invested in the company and talked his already existing Chinese partners into supporting Geely's application for car manufacturing.

That Li Shufu was a member of the Chinese communist party didn't hurt the application either and less than a year later, the first Adler rolled out of the factory. Since then, another factory had been made and sales for both the Adler and Geely's own cars were steadily increasing. The Indian producers had been easier as the car industry was already well established there.

After I was done talking with them, I spotted Riya and Esther and walked over to them to ask for a dance. I didn't make it all the way. Martin LeFevre, the CEO of Starlight Defense, intercepted me to introduce me to one of the other younger persons at the party, Prince Salim Al-Sabah of the Royal House of Kuwait.

During the years Parker had spent in the Middle East, he had gotten to know many people there and Starlight Merchant Group made a lot of business in the area, especially with Kuwait, which was the most progressive country in the area. The Royal House alone had bought five Pegasus 12's and three modified Pegasus-75 airliners, all produced by Titan Aerospace. Their armed forces used Starlight Defense's detection systems and another of their many princes was the CEO of Royal Eden, Dream Resorts luxury hotel in Kuwait City.

Prince Salim turned out to be fun to talk with. Just shy of forty, he had an education in both business management and political science from a British university and had spent most of his youth there. The two lovely women standing by his side were his wives. He had met Tabitha, the first wife, at the university in England and the second, Namid, during an international business congress. After they were introduced, the women politely retreated a few steps, allowing the Prince and I to talk.

Fortunately, I had dealt with many different royals during my time, from Ramses III of Egypt to petty warlords of the steppes to the powerful rulers of India and China, so I switched to Arabic and more or less automatically weaved a few complimentary words into every other sentence.

At first, he looked slightly surprised that I even spoke the language, but he recovered in no time and soon we were having a great time, talking about everything else than business.

As it turned out, he was one of the many wedding guests that had decided to turn the invitation into a small vacation. Not only had he planned on staying for several weeks, but he had also brought his eldest daughter and the two youngest sons. The eldest son couldn't attend, as he was in school in Kuwait.

"It's not often we're in this part of the world." Prince Salim explained with a smile. "And I wanted them to see something else."

"Very wise of you, Your Highness." I replied. "Traveling and experiencing different cultures, broadens the mind... especially in the young."

He nodded. "It does. And speaking of broadening horizons, you must visit us in Kuwait sometime. We'd love to return the hospitality you've shown us."

Bowing slightly, I said. "I'll be happy to, Your Highness, but I'm afraid the hospitality you're experiencing is due to the CEO of Starlight Merchant Group and not me."

He smiled wryly. "Forgive me for asking, but you did inherit from Mr. Oldershaw, did you not?"

I nodded. "Yes, I did."

"Very well. In that case, I promised my father I would show you this and extend our condolences."

He held up a small necklace with a golden horse head pendant, which I recognized after a few heartbeats and a quick memory search. While preferring to live in anonymity, Parker had found it useful to let a select few people know the extent of his wealth, mainly the extremely wealthy people in the Middle East and Asia, who had financed his first adventures on the stock market.

However, being careful as always, he had also employed a mind trick where the people he told could only pass on that knowledge along with the horsehead pendant the prince was holding, ensuring the knowledge stayed a secret.

All in all, it meant that Prince Salim knew that I owned Starlight Merchant Group.

I acknowledged it with a nod. "Thank you... and yes, I do recognize the pendent."

"Excellent." He said and pocketed the pendant again. "Then I have done as was promised to Mr. Oldershaw a long time ago. Anonymity is fine, but occasionally, it's nice not having to pretend and you need to know, that we know."

I got his point. It wasn't to gain any favours that he had shown me the pendent. It was simply to fulfil an old promise.

We talked some more, before he excused himself as he had to go talk with another guest.

All in all, it was a good evening, and I was in a very good mood when the party ended, and people started to leave, lining up for cars, since the warm tropical rain was pouring down outside.

However, instead of being tired and sleepy, I was wide awake and hungry.

With a shrug, I decided to get some food, so I grabbed my hat and coat from the wardrobe, draped them over my arm, and stepped outside to signal the doorman. The air was thick with petrichor, carrying the scent of wet pavement and sea salt, and I was enjoying the moment when the door swung open behind me.

A striking Chinese woman stepped out, scanning the rain-slicked street with a slight frown. I recognized her from the party. She had been near a representative from a Chinese shipping company, and I had assumed she was his mistress. But now, standing here alone, I realized I had probably jumped to the wrong conclusion

The car I had requested arrived at the same moment, but as she looked like she needed it more than I did, I simply walked into the rain, opened the door for her, saying "Here you go, ma'am."

With a slight nod, she hurriedly entered the car to get out of the rain, accidentally giving me a fleeting glimpse at a shapely leg as the dress opened slightly when she got in. With another smile, I closed the door after her and gestured to the driver to drive. He gave a quick nod and took off, the taillights vanishing into the rainy night.

The next car arrived before long and a little while later, I walked into a cozy little place near the canals called Ziggy's. Mostly frequented by the locals, Ziggy's had live music and a dance floor, but there was also a patio to relax on, when you needed some cooling off and a truly excellent barbeque for the hungry. Another advantage with Ziggy's was that it was owned by Sandra Rodriquez's husband and had a table permanently reserved for the board members of Starlight Merchant Group, eliminating any worry about finding a place to sit.

The moment I stepped inside, Tion, the bartender, spotted me from across the room. The tall Jamaican lifted a bottle of cider with a questioning look.

I nodded, and he gestured towards the usual table to indicate that I should just take a seat.

The familiarity of the place was comforting, and I felt much more relaxed when I sat down in one of the soft chairs by the table, placing my damp hat and ditto topcoat on the table to dry.

The waitress, a middle-aged woman by the name of Melissa, appeared a moment later with a bottle of cider and a glass to go with it. Like so many of the people of Oldenburg, she had the lightly golden-brown skin that looked like a tan, but wasn't, as it was the result of mixing light-skinned Scandinavian and Dutch people with the darker people of the other Caribbean Islands.

She also had an easy smile, as well as a great laugh, and we had talked quite a few times over the last two months.

"Thank you, Melissa."

"You're welcome, sir."

The cider was wonderfully cold, and I drank three of them, as I just relaxed and enjoyed the music. The house band was playing popular songs and there were lots of people on the dance floor, some better dancers than others, but everybody looked like they were having fun.

My thoughts drifted back to Paula Scipio and the fact that she was a well-trained Mentat. She was everything Parker had hoped to find to build an empire, and yet there was no information about her in Parker's memory, which I guessed was her fortune. It seemed like Parker had only ever dealt directly with Marco Scipio and according to his memory, he had never detected anything from any member of the Scipio family.

Of course, that didn't mean that they didn't have powers, just that they were smart enough to keep them hidden. A strategy that made sense considering the Interpol mentats I had met in Malaga. I was also pretty sure that the Scipio family only ever used their powers to ensure they weren't cheated on deals, because using powers to force good deals would be noticed sooner or later. Something even the megalomaniac Parker had understood and had avoided in his later years.

I suddenly noticed that Ziggy, Sandra Rodriquez's husband, musician in the band and the owner of the place, was waving for me to come to the stage. Short and lean with a well-trimmed beard, Ziggy had bought the place a long time ago and made it into the local institution it was now. It was also the place where he had met Sandra almost three decades ago. He was usually great fun to talk with and having known most of the board members for years, he had stopped regarding them as something special a long time ago, which was refreshing compared to so many other people on the Island.

With a smile, I stood up and walked over to him, feeling slightly tipsy from having drunk three ciders on an empty stomach.

I arrived just as they had finished one song and were preparing to start the next.

"Hello, Mr. Ivan. You looked lonely over there." He said with a grin. "Waiting for someone?"

"Naah. Just rewinding after hours of cocktail partying, with business thrown in for good measures." I replied. "What's up?"

"I need a big favour. Johan's wife just called. Their daughter is sick, and he needs to go. Could you step in for him and play the guitar? It's just for the last four or five songs."

Coming from a culture where the ability to play music, sing and dance was considered an essential part of every learned person's education, I had been taught all three since I could walk, and it had been a great help in the thousand years I had travelled the world, as everybody loved a guest who could entertain. Having a good memory also helped, as I could usually remember most songs after having heard them a few times. After waking up, I had discovered that the instrument most resembling my old lute was the Middle Eastern oud and after trying it out, I had bought one.

However, after coming to Oldenburg Island I realized that nobody really played the oud in the west, where its descendant, the guitar, had taken over instead. Fortunately, compared to the unfretted oud or lute, the fretted guitar was relatively easy to play, and it had only taken me a few months to make the transition, enabling me to play the guitar. Ziggy had discovered it during a lunch and had badgered me into playing with him a few times, but it was the first time he had asked me to play with him in public.

Looking first at him then at the rest of the band and then at him again, I chuckled. They were dressed in jeans or shorts to go along with a T-shirt, while I was wearing a suit. "You know it's gonna look, stupid, right? I'm dressed for a cocktail party."

"Don't really care." Ziggy replied with a smile. "Do you?"

With a sigh, I shook my head. "No really. Just ask me if I know a song before you start playing it."

"We'll keep it simple." He promised and nodded to Johan, who handed me his guitar and thanked me, before running off.

As he had promised, Ziggy kept to simple popular songs and after a few mistakes in the start, which nobody really noticed but me, I discovered that playing for an audience again was just as fun as it had been a thousand years ago.

"Wanna try singing?" Ziggy asked with his usual smile, when we had finished the five songs he had talked about, and the audience was chanting for an extra. "I know you can."

I hesitated but then nodded. "If I can choose the songs."

"Sure... What do you have in mind?"

With a smile, I looked at him, letting my eyes linger with his worn jeans and faded T-shirt, "I think 'Sharp dressed man' by ZZ Top would be a good choice to start."

"Smartass." He grinned and took a step back from the microphone. "Go nuts."

I did a short introduction and started the song, with the band falling in as if we had been playing together for years. Normally, I would have changed the words slightly to fit my clothes a bit better, but with Ziggy singing along with me, that wasn't possible, so I just stuck to the original.

People seemed to like it, so I played a few more songs, before it was time to close off. Remembering a song I'd heard in Malaga, I asked the band if they knew it. They did, so I finished off with 'The Parting Glass', which the whole bar apparently knew, because they all sang along.

That was the end of the live music and after Ziggy had started the stereo, I walked back to my table. To my surprise, it was no longer empty. By accident, I had placed my jacket over the 'reserved' sign and the cute looking Chinese woman from the cocktail party was sitting in one of the chairs, sipping a drink and looking around.

She looked at me in surprise when I sat down, but after a moment she said. "Oh, you're the one who held the car door for me at the party." Her eyes flickered to the jacket and hat and back to me. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it was your table."

"Not a problem." I replied with a smile. "Are you okay? You looked somewhat distracted when you got into the car."

"It was nothing. I just needed to get away from another guest, who apparently thought he could make inappropriate suggestions." She glanced over at the empty stage. "Is that like your second job?"

That comment alone told me that she hadn't seen me at the cocktail party and had no clue who I was, which wasn't unlikely considering the size of the party. "Nah. I just did the owner a favour, because a band member had to go... Oh, I'm Ivan and you are?"

"Janet." She smiled. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise... hmm... one of the reasons I came here was to get something to eat. Care to join me? Their BBQ ribs are awesome."

Janet hesitated but then nodded. "Thank you, I am actually slightly hungry."

"I'll be right back."

I stood up and walked over to the bar, where Tion greeted me with his usual. "Hello mon. Wah gwaan?"

As always, I found his Jamaican accent difficult to understand, but from experience I knew that his greeting was something like 'What's up?'.

"Just hanging out, Tion... The woman at my table and I would like to have the famous Ziggy's BBQ ribs."

He looked at Janet for a moment, before giving a wide grin. "Big up, mon... Dat gyal be crawb up! Be dere wit da bickle in five."

Translating in my head to 'Respect, that's a good-looking girl! The food will be there in five minutes.' I asked him to put it on my tab and walked back, after getting a new cider.

"Why're you shaking your head?" Janet asked as I sat down.

"Oh... Tion, the bartender, is Jamaican and I have a hard time understanding him." I drank some cider and continued. "And I know he is using the accent on purpose, because he has spent years in London studying marine archaeology and only works here during the hurricane season. When he wants to... usually when female tourists come into the bar... he speaks perfectly understandable English."

That made her laugh.

"However," I continued with a smile. "The food will be here in five minutes... or to quote Tion 'Be dere wit da bickle in five.'"

The last was said with my best imitation of a Jamaican accent, making her laugh even harder.

"He talks like that?" asked Janet as she dried her eyes from tears of laughter.

"Yeah... and that was one of the more easily understood sentences." I said with a grin. "Don't get me wrong, he's a nice guy and I like him a lot... It just always takes me a half a minute to understand what he is saying."

"Yeah, I know the feeling. I'm from Hong Kong and there's a lot of strange dialects there."

"Oh, I've never been there... How is Hong Kong as a city?"

"Complicated." She said with a chuckle and started a longer explanation about the city, only interrupted by Melissa, who brought a huge tray of ribs, two plates and cleaning tissue to wipe our fingers.

We dug in, while Janet continued her explanation about Hong Kong and after that, I made an effort to find out who she was and why she was here. As it turned out, she wasn't anyone's mistress. Her full name was Janet Kwon and she had inherited a small shipping company called Kwon Maritime Transport from her father. Now, a decade later, she had built it into a large shipping company with twenty-seven bulk carriers. From what she was telling me, I gathered she was in her late thirties, which was a surprise, as she looked at least ten years younger than that. She had been married but was now divorced.

It was fun talking with her, even though she did most of the talking, but it was getting late, and she started glancing at her watch with regular intervals.

"You need to go soon, right?" I asked right after she looked at the clock again.

With a slight smile, she nodded. "Yes, I need to go to bed." She hesitated for a heartbeat but then added. "Do you want to come along for the night?"

"To your bed?" I asked, just to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding her intentions.

"Yes."

"I would be honoured."

She smiled widely and stood up, extending a hand to me. "Come."

When we got out of Ziggy's, the rain had finally stopped, and we took a taxi to the resort where she was staying and at her insistence, we took a side entrance, avoiding the main building, with its manned reception.

She was very proper all the way, right until the moment she closed the door to her room and turned around to look at me speculatively. "You're very tall. I'm gonna need a ladder to kiss you."

That made me laugh. Reaching out, I scooped her up in my arms. Besides being slim and short, she was light as a feather. "No ladder needed."

She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me with a passion that was in stark contrast to her earlier properness.

We continued to kiss each other deeply, while I walked the few steps over to the bed.

However, instead of laying down, she placed her feet on the bed and continued to kiss me, standing with her legs slightly spread, making us the same height.

As I kissed her, my right hand travelled down her body, reaching her tight little ass, squeezing it and causing her to moan, as she broke the kiss with a sigh. "God, I'm so horny... but we need to get out of these clothes, and I need to go to the lady's room."

I laughed as I realized that we were both still wearing our jackets and removed my hands from her.

"I'll be right back." She said with a twinkle in her eyes, and she jumped down from the bed and walked towards the toilet. "Make yourself comfortable."

I closed the curtains, undressed and sat down on the edge of the bed. The kisses and the feel of her body against me had made me hard and with a chuckle, I pulled the duvet over me and settled down to wait.

It didn't take as long as I had feared, before the door opened again and Janet emerged. She had taken off her dress and her long black hair hung down her back allowing me an unobscured sight of her, but she wasn't naked, as I had expected.

Instead, she was wearing a bra that pushed her smallish breasts upwards and around her rounded hips were a girdle, holding up stockings that showed off a pair of beautiful legs. She was still wearing her high heels, making her legs look longer. A small turf of black hair showed between her legs, framed by the girdle and the straps that held the stockings.

Janet smiled seductively as she walked towards the bed, every step causing her hips to sway and her breasts to bounce slightly.

"Damn, you're sexy." I breathed.

She stopped at the edge of the bed, looking at my naked upper body. "You're not that bad yourself."

Reaching out, I dragged her closer, so she was standing between my legs, with her breasts right in front of my face. Leaning forward, I let my tongue slide on the naked skin right above the fabric of the bra, followed by a kiss. Hearing her satisfied sigh, I did it again on the other breast, while my hands caressed the soft skin on her back.

Two slender arms wrapped around my head, as she hugged me closer, pressing my mouth against her chest, while running her hands through my hair.

My right hand found her exquisite ass and squeezed her soft, yet firm, buttock. They were like two little bubbles, perfectly round and supple.

She shivered as I continued to lick and kiss the top of her breasts, while massaging her tight ass.

My left hand drew a lazy line on her back until I encountered the strap of the bra and trailed it to the lock. A quick squeeze with my fingers made the lock open and the bra became loose.

"Sneaky." She said with a soft laugh, let go of my head and took off the bra. Her breasts were small, but perfectly round and suited her body, sitting high and proud on her rib cage. The nipples were dark, long and hard with excitement, as they pointed directly at me.

Leaning in again, I let my tongue gently play with one of the inviting nipples, causing her to shiver and moan, almost as if I had done the same to her clitoris. Her nipples were obviously very sensitive, so I closed my lips around one and sucked gently, while flicking my tongue over the tip.

Then I did exactly the same with the other breast, enjoying the sounds of pleasure she gave.

Since she behaved as if the nipple was a clitoris, I decided to treat it as one and gave it a good lick, running my tongue around it and nibbling it softly with my lips.

"So good." She moaned in Cantonese and closed her arms around my head again.

I was still fondling her ass with my right hand, but as I kissed and licked my way from one breast to the other, I let my other hand slide down her back, over the butt and into the space between her legs to caress her pussy lips. She was soaking wet and groaned again, as the tips of my fingers slid over her wet lips from behind.

I wasn't in a hurry, so I spent some time licking and sucking on her nipples, while playing with her pussy with the tips on my fingers and fondling her ass with the other hand.

She became even wetter, her juices dripping down on my fingers, as I ran them between the lips of her pussy ending at the anus, where I drew a wet circle around her little hole. That caused her to moan louder, so I did it again, getting the same result.

With the scent of her in my nostrils and her vibrant horny body against me, I was becoming really turned on, so I moved my right hand from her butt and slid over the soft skin to the front to let my fingers slide down on each side of her clitoris.

"Ohhh!" she mumbled and then moaned again, when I slid my middle finger into her hot wet vagina. The moaning became louder a moment later, when I flicked her nipple with my tongue and pressed a finger against her anus. The ring relaxed almost as soon as I touched it, so I inserted just the tip of a finger, slick with her juices, into her snug ass.

Curling the finger in her vagina, I found the pleasure spot and massaged it, placing a thumb on her clitoris at the same time.

She gasped, the arms around my head tightened their grip and her hips started to move back and forth as her breathing became heavier. The movement of her hips made one finger move in and out of her pussy, while the other did the same in her anus and all the while my thumb massaged her clitoris and my tongue and lips played with her nipples.

Her moans became louder, more intensive, and her hips moved faster, going in small circles as she fucked herself on my fingers. I inserted another finger into her tight wet pussy, increasing the friction on her pleasure zone.

"You're making me come!" she whispered, moaning to the rhythm she made.

Carefully, so I didn't hurt her, I lightly bit down on the nipple in my mouth and flicked my tongue over it at the same time.

"Oh... oh... oh... oh." Janet's body trembled, small shudders coming from deep inside as the orgasm drew closer. "Ohhhhhhhh God!"

Her body tensed up, causing her to stand still.

Wanting her to come, I started moving my fingers, sliding in and out of her wet pussy, feeling it clenching around my fingers as I carefully wriggled the finger in her ass and teased her nipples with my mouth. Then I picked up the pace, massaging her pleasure zone firmly with two fingers.

"Ahhhhhhh." She howled, as the orgasm hit her, and she used me as a support to keep standing while wave after wave of pleasure ran through her body.

I kept using my fingers and mouth on her throughout her orgasm and to my pleasant surprise, she just kept coming, having one small orgasm after another. Her trembling fingers dug into my hair, holding on while my fingers made wet sounds, going in and out of her.

"Ohhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmm!" Janet groaned as she finally collapsed on top of me, making any nipple play impossible. "Please... can't... take... any... more."

With her chest resting against my head, I could hear the frantic beating of her heart and her laboured breath as she struggled to come down from her orgasmic high.

I removed my fingers from her holes and caressed her back and legs, until her breathing returned to normal, and her heart had slowed down.

After a while, she started to support herself again. The arms around my neck relaxed and she let go of my hair, running her fingers through it in a surprisingly tender way. Her lips found the sensitive skin on my neck, kissing her way to my mouth.

Then she broke the kiss, smiling sweetly. "Thank you, Ivan... That was wonderful."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it... I know I did."

"Hopefully not as much as you're going to enjoy this." She laughed and slid down my body, taking the duvet with her in the process, until she was kneeling on the floor with her eyes right in front of my hard cock. She looked at it with hunger in her eyes as she reached for it and her small slender hands began to gently stroke it. With a content sigh I leaned back on the bed.

"That is a beautiful cock!" She purred happily and continued to stroke me, as she leaned forward to lick my balls. From there, she worked her way upwards, licking her way up the underside of the shaft, before she took the head into her warm mouth, twirling her tongue around it.

The fingers closed around my shaft again and with the other hand she massaged my balls, while her mouth engulfed the head, sucking and playing.

Her slanted brown eyes kept returning to make eye contact as I watched her weave her magic. My cock stretched her lips wide. She cupped and massaged my balls with one hand while planting her other hand at the base of my cock, drawing back the foreskin and sending shivers of pleasure through my body as her wet lips slid over the head.

She continued like that for a while but then removed her mouth and looked at me. "Sorry, but I need that dick in me now... Move in."

I did as she instructed, pushing myself back on the bed so my head was on the pillow. After taking something from her handbag, she followed and straddled me, holding up a condom. "I'm on the pill, but can we use this anyway?"

I could sense that she was worried about disease and nodded. "Go ahead."

Smiling broadly, she opened the package and put the condom on me, before she moved up my body, put her hands on either side of my head and leaned it to kiss me. We kissed deeply and passionately, both of us getting excited as our tongues explored the other.

We were still kissing, when she reached down between us, grabbed my cock and placed it at the entrance to her wet pussy, rubbing the head against her clitoris on the way.

A moment later her hand was back on my head again and her kisses became even more passionate, as she rotated her hips while pressing down, taking the head into her pussy with a moan, breaking the kiss to let out a breathy gasp.

She raised her upper body and put her hands on the headboard for support, closed her eyes, and began to slowly raise and lower her pussy up and down my stiff cock, moaning with each thrust.

That brought her beautiful breasts up from my chest, allowing me to fondle them, which I did, rolling her hard and sensitive nipples between my fingers. As before, it made her shivers and groans increase in intensity and there was a smile on her face as she worked my dick into her warm wet pussy, until my entire cock was deep inside her.

Then she picked up the pace, still using the headboard for support, pumping up and down on my cock. She rose up each time until my cock was almost out of her pussy, then slammed down all the way to the bottom, over and over again. Her eyes were clenched shut and her mouth was open in ecstasy.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" She began to almost chant and breathe in a rhythm timed to her thrusting, the pace of her ride making the headboard shake under her hands.

Her cute little tits bounced with each move, tugging the nipples between my fingers.

The chant turned to soft moans as she sat up straight and bounced a few final times, before her mouth opened in a silent scream and her body was wracked with an intense orgasm.

The walls of her pussy clenched and unclenched around my cock in the most delightful way. She collapsed on my chest, heaving and breathing heavily. I caressed her sweat-soaked hair and gave her gentle kisses on the cheek.

"That... was... awesome." She panted against my skin and wriggled her hips, feeling my stiff cock inside her. "You didn't come?"

"No, not yet." I said, kissing her cheek again and made my dick twist inside her. "No worries, when you're ready we can take another round."

I could feel her smile against my skin. "Good."

When Janet had recovered, I'd had enough of being passive and turned us around in the bed, so I was on top with her under me, as I rested on my elbows.

Janet smiled widely and wrapped her legs around me.

My dick had never left her pussy, and I started pumping in and out of her wet tight hole, setting a slow, but steady pace.

"Ohhhhgooooddd." She moaned as I reached the bottom, her pretty face contorted in pleasure. "You feel so good."

"Likewise!" I grunted, feeling her tightening the muscles in her pussy each time my dick was on the way out, milking my cock as I fucked her. Even with the condom taking some of the sensitivity, the feeling was fantastic, and I kept fucking her like that for a while, slowly building her up towards an orgasm.

Just as she was on the edge, I changed rhythm. Instead of the slow and steady, I hammered her, driving my stiff cock into her as fast and powerful as I could without hurting her.

Her slanted eyes flew open in surprise, but a thrust later, she started howling. "Ohhhhhhhhhhh... FUCK! Yesss... yess... Ohhh... fuck... YES!"

Her whole body shook, and her pussy clenched around my cock as she came once more.

As soon as her climax had faded, I pulled out my dick and dismounted her. "Turn around."

Still slightly dazzled, she did as I said, turning around and presented her backside to me. Her slim, but womanly curves were a sight to behold, and her bubbly little ass only made it better.

"Spread your legs and lift your bottom."

With a giggle, she did as I said and then yelped as I leaned forward again, sliding my dick in between her buttocks until it reached her slippery pussy. As the head slipped between her lips, I arched my back to get the angle right and then plunged inside her, reaching all the way in one stroke. She let out a gasp as my full length lodged deeply into her tight pussy and groaned, as I pulled it almost all the way out again.

I began a slow steady ride, knowing each move I made would hit directly on her pleasure zone. "Play with your clitoris."

She bit her lips and reached down between her legs, moving one leg slightly more to the side to allow her fingers room to play.

Satisfied, I buried my cock in her again and again, enjoying the feel of her soft butt against my loins, each time I thrust into her and the way the lips of her pussy stretched and pulled at my cock each time I withdrew.

Janet had stopped saying words, grunting in delight with each thrust, one hand grabbing a pillow so hard her knuckles became white, while the other hand played between her legs. Her head was on a pillow, her face turned to the side, eyes closed, and her long black hair flowing everywhere.

It didn't take long before she began to spasm again, howling as the orgasm hit her, making her body shake under me in a most enjoyable way, as the jerking of her hips made her pussy massage my cock from root to head when I buried it in her again.

Now it was my turn to groan as I felt my own orgasm coming closer.

Janet heard it and opened her eyes to look unfocused at me over her shoulder. "Fuck me! Fuck me until you come!"

With another groan, I nodded and picked up the pace, slamming my dick into her drenched pussy.

She howled into the pillow, shaking all over as she kept coming. Her pussy clenching and her hips gyrating around my dick, adding to my pleasure.

That was more than I could take and with a moan I came, in turn setting her off in a final orgasm as I slammed my cock deep into her.

When we both were spent, I rolled onto my back next to her. Janet snuggled into me, throwing an arm over my chest and looked at me with a smile. "Mmmmm... Thank you... That was incredible!"

"Yes, it really was." I agreed and dragged her in for a soft kiss.

We small-talked for a while, before she kissed me and sighed. "I wish we could do this again, but I'm going to be very busy the next few days and then I got to fly back." Before I could say anything, she kissed me again. "I need to sleep now, but if you ever get to Hong Kong, call me. You're always welcome."

I got the hint and got out of the bed. "I will... and if you ever come to Oldenburg again, you can find me at Ziggy's."

That made her chuckle. "I will."

------------------------------------------

Lunch

Early October 2000, Rastede, Oldenburg Islands

"What a week." Said Manuel Estevez the next day, when he, I and Eric van Koppen were having lunch at his house. Considering that I was normally surrounded by women, it was nice to kick back and talk with men for once. "This was supposed to be a wedding, not a sales exhibition."

"If that was the case, you shouldn't have let the various companies arrange their tours." I said with a chuckle. With all the business partners coming to visit, every subdivision with facilities on Oldenburg had arranged tours for the visitors, complete with a chance to personally see, touch and perhaps even try the products. Especially Titan Aerospace had gone all the way with demonstrations, flyovers by their show teams and whatever else they had been able to come up with.

Manuel nodded. "To be honest, I didn't expect it to boost sales, but it most certainly did."

Eric van Koppen adjusted his metal framed glasses with a smile. "Yesterday, the Indians ordered ten more M3 Banshees from Dragonfly, and while I'm certain they had planned on buying them anyway, it still adds up."

"Like the six thousand tons of lightweight SAM alloy Hanjin Heavy Industries ordered earlier this week." Added Manuel with a chuckle.

That made me nod. SAM alloy was a steel-aluminium-magnesium alloy developed by Starlight Alloys, that was almost as hard and light as titanium, but significantly cheaper and easier to work with. Thus, it was very popular for ships and aircraft, but it was still expensive enough for it to be mostly used in military applications.

Manuel took a slow sip from his glass, his eyes distant as he considered his words. "You know, after having had time to talk it over with Eric here and experience the response on the Draak that Titan Aerospace received this week, I think you were right in pushing the development of fighter jets."

Van Koppen smiled at that as he took his coffee from the table. "The timing is just perfect, as the other nations are building their next generation of jets. Sure, the American jets will always be more advanced, and the Chinese are catching up at an impressive pace. The Russians are trying, but it'll be years before they're truly competitive. However, none of these three are buying our planes anyway. Our real competition is the Russians, and honestly, we're already ahead of them."

"I have to admit that I didn't think that at the time. " I said with a smile. "I just heard you say that it would be one of the best jets for the foreseeable future, so not trying to improve on it didn't make sense to me."

"I agree in principle." Said Manuel with a chuckle. "But we're in a special situation. Unlike almost all other producers of military jets, we're not working for a government who can sponsor the development of new jets."

I nodded, picking some grapes from a bowl and ate them as Eric van Koppen took over the explanation.

"As an example, if the US Air Force needs a new jet, they determine the specifications on the new plane and then ask Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and the rest to come up with something. The companies present their proposals, and the winner has the development of their suggestion sponsored." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "The American F-16 cost 3 billion dollars to develop and that was in the 70s, which means that it would cost around 8 billion dollars to develop now." He smiled a little. "If your uncle hadn't been smart enough to buy all these plans and development data from the Russians and SAAB, we would only be making civilian planes now."

"Yes," I said with a nod. "It was an extremely good move."

The admiration expressed by the people that had worked with Parker, or Oldershaw to use his name here, kept surprising me and it really shouldn't. I had met plenty of people throughout the centuries that were fair and well-liked by the people surrounding them, while being total assholes to everybody else.

During the acquisition of the data, Parker had used billions of dollars from Erebus, his criminal network, to pay off various Russians, the Minister of Defence being one of them. An action that caused the Minister of Defence to be dismissed from office later, but by then Parker had already secured the plans he wanted along with a lot of other data, that his gift of Precognition had told him would be useful in the future.

He had also been smart enough to have contracts to prove he had bought the plans in good faith and had done enough legal wizardry to ensure that the Russians couldn't get him legally. Of course, they did try to kill him several times, but he had mentally overpowered the first two assassins and sent them back to kill those who sent them, making it seem like the assassins had been paid large sums of money to do that. They stopped trying after that.

"Agreed." Chuckled Manuel with a chuckle, bringing me back to the present. "I know that the board back then thought it was horribly expensive, but the Raptor 27 alone has justified that, with the Raptor 29 adding icing to the cake."

Van Koppen grinned. "And the Raptor 35 Draak adding candles to said cake."

"I guess that means that the Dragonfly M8 and M3 are the chocolate decorations?" I asked, causing the other two to laugh.

"Yes, and we hope the Raptor 38 will be the cup of coffee to go along with it." Said van Koppen after the laughter had died out a little. "Since we don't have a large country behind us to guarantee a sale, we have to make aircraft that we expect our customers need. That's the reason for the many models on the program." Taking an apple from a bowl, he placed it on the table. "Need an air superiority fighter? Take the Raptor 27." An orange was placed next to the apple. "Light multirole fighter? Take the Raptor 29." The next was a plum. "Need a larger fighter-bomber? Take the Raptor 30." A pear was placed next to the rest. "Need a multirole stealth fighter? Take the Raptor 35."

With a smile, Manuel placed a slice of watermelon on the table. "Need a trainer or close air support. Take the Raptor 40."

Since we were out of fruit, I took an egg and placed it in the line-up. "Need a VTOL fighter? Take the Raptor 38."

"Exactly!" Said Manuel with a smile, while van Koppen nodded.

Leaning back in the chair, I asked. "Why the jump in numbers by the way? I mean what happened to 28, 31 and the rest?"

Van Koppen let out a weary sigh. "The 28 was a disaster," he admitted, shaking his head. "Not every design hits the mark, and some are bound to fall short. The Raptor 28 was one of those failures, it just didn't measure up. Same story with the 31, which was essentially an early prototype of what would eventually become the 35. We crashed the 32 and 33 in an effort to get the design right but skipped 34 because we decided to start stealth designs at 35 as homage to the Saab 35's original design. Sometimes, you've got to leave the missteps behind and move forward." He smiled a little. "That proved to be a good move, because at 35 everything just clicked."

I nodded slightly. According to the papers I had read, designing and testing aircraft normally took decades and was horribly expensive. Building from the data and plans Titan Aerospace already had and keeping the need to invent new things to a minimum, they had been able to do it much faster and cheaper.

"And what about the Raptor 40?"

Van Koppen looked embarrassed, which caused Manuel to smile, as van Koppen continued. "The Raptor 40 was a naming error. During the design, it was named A0, but someone misread it as 40, so it became the Raptor 40." He shrugged. "If we're allowed to use the Fokker name, we'll need to rename the plane anyway."

I looked at the fruit on the table. "This reminds me of the car companies Petra's talking about. I mean, having some different models, so the customers can pick whatever they need or want."

"Good analogy." Stated Manuel. "Because that is exactly what it is and with the Raptor 38 coming out next year, that line-up is complete."

"Which allows us to focus on improving the various military aircraft even more than we're already doing and do some development on our civilian aircraft." Added van Koppen with a smile.

"You presented the Raptor 35 Draak as a stealth fighter and I know that it means that it's hard to detect with radar, but how good is the stealth really?"

He shrugged. "According to the stealth specialists, it has about the same radar return as a large bird. It's far from being as good as the American planes, but it's still good enough to avoid radar detection in most cases. Basically, it's good enough to be called a stealth fighter and..." He paused as his cell phone started to ring. Picking it up, he looked at the display. "One moment, gentlemen. I need to take this."

He stood and walked away as he answered the call.

Manuel chuckled and picked some fruit from his place. "Which for some reason reminds me, that I've never heard about someone selling a 33-million-dollar yacht at a cocktail party before."

"The credit goes to the lovely Miss Scipio." I said and drank some of my chilled cider. "She was the one buying the ship."

He nodded and swallowed the food he was chewing, before saying. "Ah yes... Miss Paula Scipio... One of the most coveted young women in Europe."

"I wouldn't know about that, but she is good looking, well-shaped and, more importantly, a very intelligent young woman."

"Oh, I agree." Manuel said immediately. "However, most people have trouble seeing past the wealth of the Scipio Family and Scipio International." He looked thoughtful for a moment and then smiled. "You know, if more people knew you, you would have the same problem. A lot of young women would like to marry a handsome multimillionaire."

"The Roman poet Ovid once wrote 'Bene vixit, bene qui latuit', which can be translated as 'To live well is to live concealed'." I said with a chuckle. "I tend to agree with him."

Manuel nodded slowly. "You know, before I met you, I would never have thought that a degree in Ancient History was useful in the business world, but it impressed the Indians and Chinese to no end and that you speak the language only made it better." He paused, "But how did you convince China Southern Airlines to order forty-seven PA-155, thirty-nine of the new PA-200 jets and fifty PA-101? Even with a five-year delivery window, that's a massive order."

"Sorry about that. I thought Eric Van Koppen briefed you this morning." I said and started to explain.

During a conversation with airline executives, Zi Zang of China Southern Airlines mentioned the need for 200--300 regional jets over five years. Wan Fang Tan of Shenyang Aircraft Corporation suggested ordering the PA-200 to make it happen. Not to be outdone, a Southwest Airlines board member expressed interest in at least 70 PA-155 or PA-200s if built in the States. United Airlines, SkyWest, Air India, Delta, FedEx, and UPS also showed interest for their regional routes.

Tired of the boasting, I proposed a joint venture: if they placed firm orders before the wedding, Titan Aerospace would build new plants in the U. S. and China, with early orders fulfilled from existing facilities. Wan Fang Tan immediately committed, ensuring compliance with China's foreign investment laws.

Word spread quickly. HAL India inquired about the same offer after Air India's interest, followed by Singapore Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Thai Airways, and Malaysia Airlines. By evening's end, I committed to two more plants in India and Japan--provided we secured enough orders.

Manuel's eyes widened as I laid out the plan, but the smile creeping across his face told me I'd hit the mark. By the time I finished, he was chuckling softly, shaking his head in amazement.

"That's actually brilliant," he said, his voice tinged with admiration. "Especially with China Southern's orders on board. Considering how fast China's air travel is expanding, we're looking at a conservative estimate of five thousand jets in the near future." He paused, his eyes narrowing with curiosity. "Tell me, where did you learn to make deals like that?"

I leaned back, a small grin forming. "Joint ventures aren't exactly a modern invention, Manuel. The Phoenicians were using the same basic system to finance trade expeditions thousands of years ago. I just figured it was time the airline folks put their money where their mouth is."

He laughed. "You and your Ancient History. Always full of surprises." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "Do you think the American airlines will bite?"

"Southwest Airlines already has. I'm a shareholder and just signed off on the suggestion myself, so they're moving very fast on this. FedEx looks serious about joining, but SkyWest..." I shrugged. "That's more your domain--or rather, Starlight Invest's."

Manuel nodded, his fingers tapping lightly on the table. Starlight held a significant thirty-percent stake in SkyWest, so if something was brewing, he'd know soon enough. "Haven't heard anything from Cedric Keer yet," he said thoughtfully. "But even if Delta and UPS stay out, the deal will still stand strong."

"Exactly," I said with a firm nod. "With Southwest and FedEx in, the U. S. plant is practically a done deal. Delta and UPS would just be a bonus."

Before the conversation could continue, Eric van Koppen returned to the table, his grin as wide as the horizon. "Sorry about that, gentlemen. But thanks to Mr. Ivan's joint venture proposal from yesterday, the office is in overdrive."

Manuel laughed, leaning back in his chair. "We were just talking about that."

Eric took a seat and grabbed his coffee. "It's absolute madness," he said with a touch of wonder. "I can't remember a time when orders were coming in this fast."

"Neither can I," Manuel agreed, still smiling. "Four new assembly plants are a huge gamble, but it'll be worth it." He glanced at me, his tone turning playful. "As I said before, your Ancient History degree is really proving its worth."

"To be fair," I said, returning the smile, "Starlight's history of partnering with local companies and using local components will probably pay off even more. Especially in India and Asia."

That caused van Koppen to smile. "At least as long as their components are up to specs... and they will be. Shenyang Aircraft Corporation is owned by the state and like all governments, they would rather produce locally and export, than import. Same with all other countries, including the US, which is why we have a plant there already."

"Makes sense," I mused, considering the logistics. "But do we have the capacity to handle all these new orders? For the commercial jets, I mean."

Van Koppen shook his head. "Not with the present manufacturing plants. The ones in Brazil, US and India are already at 78 percent, so even if half the orders we get are annulled, we still need those new plants. However, it's not just the manufacturing plants we need, but subcontractors as well. We simply can't make everything ourselves and for that reason, both India, South Korea and Japan are good places, since they have the subcontractors in place. China is going to be trickier, but I think they can pull it off. They've come a long way in the last two decades and I think it's going to work just fine."

Manuel nodded and leaned forward. "Indeed... hmm... You better get hold of Paula Scipio again, sir. If this deal goes through, we'll need a lot more airplane instruments and we need to know if Scipio Electronics can deliver... They might even be interested in joining."

"Good or bad?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Anything under ten percent is good," Manuel said with a sly grin. Then he chuckled, adding, "You know, Mr. Ivan, when you first showed up as Mr. Oldershaw's heir, the Board was bracing for some rocky years ahead. But I have to admit, you've blown us all away."

Eric nodded, a glimmer of pride in his expression. "He's right. Mr. Oldershaw told us his nephew was a quick learner, but you've exceeded every expectation."

I almost grimaced at that but managed to control my facial expression. Parker aka. Oldershaw had planned on taking someone else's body and come back as his own non-existing nephew, so naturally he would describe that person as a quick learner, since the person he was describing was himself and he already knew everything about his own company.

Manuel interrupted my thoughts, his voice warm. "You might be young and inexperienced in business, but you've got a natural instinct, a phenomenal memory, and excellent leadership skills."

"Thank you," I said, inclining my head.

"What's more," he continued. "We're not the only ones thinking that. Lee Collins of Oriental Dream Estates told me, that he had overheard some of the Chinese and Hong Kong connections mention among themselves, that it was good that Starlight Merchant Group had a Taipan again. Even one as young as you."

I frowned. "You have to educate me here, Manuel. I know that Taipan means 'top class' in Cantonese, but the way you say it, it probably has another meaning as well."

He laughed. "Yes. Taipan is a westerner in control of a company that does business in Hong Kong or China... But there's more to it than that. A Taipan is a man of his word, a true leader and a shrewd businessman, who still manages to stay humble and show respect for other people."

"Ahh... well," I said, smiling, "there's not much I can say to that, except that it is nice to hear."

"It's good for business as well." Manuel said in a serious tone. "Most Asian companies are extremely traditional, and they like to know who is in charge. The flat hierarchy some businesses use irritates them." He blinked a few times and then laughed again. "You know all this business talk has gotten my thoughts off the wedding for the first time this week."

Eric van Koppen grinned. "Getting cold feet?"

"Not about Ayanna... more about the whole concept of being married." He said thoughtfully. "It's a big step for me and I know it's a big thing for her as well."

"You'll do fine, Manuel." I told him with a smile. "And I doubt you will find a better combination of beauty, sweetness and sheer hotness anywhere."

"Yeah, she's wonderful." He agreed with a dreamy look on his face, immediately transforming him from the leader of a multibillion-dollar company to a man very obviously in love with his future wife.

With a smile, I drank the rest of the cider. Those two would work out just fine.

-------------------------------

After lunch van Koppen dropped me off in Rastede, as Manuel Estevez had to go greet his parents at the airport and I had a meeting with Sandra Rodriquez.

Thankfully, van Koppen drove an electric car, sparing me the unsettling rumble of a traditional engine. The sleek hum of the motor was almost soothing, and like most modern people, he handled the car with effortless ease, managing to keep up a steady stream of conversation while navigating the roads.

"Oh, by the way, sir," he said casually as we cruised down the highway. "The PA-101 and the 200 haven't been presented to the public yet. Originally, we planned to debut them alongside the Draak and the Kingfisher at the Paris Airshow next summer, but I think it's better to move things up and unveil them at the Dubai Airshow next month. We'll already be there, so why not bring the rest along?"

I raised an eyebrow, amused. "And I'm guessing you need my blessing for that?"

"Yes. The Chairman has to be informed about significant changes in the timeline." He explained, glancing at me briefly before returning his focus to the road. "And debuting four new aircraft six months early definitely counts as significant."

"Well, if you think it's feasible, go for it. Next time, though, just inform me. You don't need my approval to do your job." I paused, mulling over the number he gave. "Hmm... Does that mean Titan Aerospace plans to unveil the Raptor 38 at the Paris Airshow?"

"That's the idea, sir," he replied, a wide grin breaking across his face. "Along with three variations of the M19 Libel and the military transport version of the 101. Paris is going to be quite the spectacle... even bigger than Dubai. You should come if you have the time."

I chuckled. "Remind me again after Christmas. Then I'll have time to think about it. Right now, there're so many new things to absorb, that I don't have the mental surplus for much more." A thought hit me, causing me to ask. "By the way, how do the military planes get to Dubai or Paris? I mean, as military planes they haven't got the certificates of the commercial ones."

He shrugged lightly. "We load them onto Queen Wilhelmina after the wedding and sail them there. That's how we usually do. Much easier than trying to get permission to fly them there."

"Good thinking."

"Thank you, sir."

A few minutes later, we pulled up in front of Starlight's headquarters. Van Koppen braked smoothly and turned to me with a polite smile. "Here we are, sir."

I stepped out, stretching slightly as I turned back to him. "Thanks for the ride. Have a good day."

"You too, Mr. Ivan." He gave a slight wave before pulling away, leaving me to dive into another whirlwind of meetings and decisions.

----------------------------------------

The Chief Financial Officer looked up from her desk with a warm smile as I entered her office. "Ah... Hello, Mr. Ivan. You really do know how to keep us busy, don't you?"

I chuckled, dropping into the chair opposite her. "In my defence I didn't expect it to snowball like this. Sorry about the chaos."

That seemed to amuse her even more. "Never be sorry for getting the company contracts worth billions of dollars. Sure, the profit margins could be better with all the new assembly plants and the joint venture costs, but this is a huge win. Especially if the orders keep coming at this pace."

"Good to hear," I said, leaning forward. "But I'm guessing that's not why you called me in."

Her smile lingered as she tapped a folder on her desk. "You're right. It's about Johnson Controls. You have a decision to make, since it's your private stock we're talking about."

I nodded. Sandra Rodriguez wasn't just the CFO of Starlight Merchant Group; she also managed the labyrinthine structure of holding companies and funds I'd inherited from Parker. Among those was a significant stake in Johnson Controls.

Guided by his precognition, Parker had invested in Johnson Controls back in the 70s, when it was just a small company. Decades later, it had grown into a global conglomerate with billions in annual revenue. Recently, they'd been aggressively buying back stock, and for the past two months, my holding companies had been swamped with requests. Sandra had mentioned it before, but it had slipped my mind until now.

"They're getting impatient," Sandra continued, her tone casual but firm. "They're really pushing for a deal."

I leaned back "What is their latest offer?"

"Sixty-five dollars per share."

That caused me to cough in surprise. Originally Parker had bought a million shares at $7 each, but with stock splits and reinvestments, that amount had grown to 128 million shares. The numbers flashed through my head. "8.3 billion dollars... That's a lot of money."

Sandra shook her head with an exasperated smile. "I'll never understand how you calculate so fast... but you're right, it's 8.3 billion dollars." She slid a document across the desk. "They're proposing half a billion in cash and $8 billion worth of stock in various companies. It's a gamble, but honestly, this mix looks better than most."

Taking the list, I leaned back in my chair and studied it. There were a lot of different stocks there. Some in large companies and some in smaller, but three names stood out as Parker had already invested in them using either Starlight Invest or his private companies. L-3 Communications Holdings, United Technologies Corporation and Wells Fargo. The combined value of the shares in just these three companies was around $7 billion, with the remaining stocks scattered across smaller firms I didn't recognize, but which made up much of the remaining billion.

"You're right... It actually looks good on paper." I said slowly. "But you'll need to identify the smaller companies. I have no idea what they are."

"Neither do I." admitted Sandra with a smile. "There are so many companies that it's impossible to know them all... I'll get Starlight Invest to take a look at them." She thought for a moment. "If they check out, we can greenlight the deal. If not, I'll recommend we take the big three stocks and negotiate cash for the rest."

"Sounds good."

Sandra studied the list for another moment, her brows furrowing. "You know... I think Johnson Controls is planning to relocate to a low-tax country. Most of the stock they're selling are from American companies that rely on government contracts."

I raised an eyebrow. "Could that be a problem for us?"

"It might," she admitted. "The U. S. government could scrutinize the holding companies before awarding contracts. It would be much cleaner if Starlight held the shares instead of you personally. Starlight is already cleared for government dealings."

I considered this, recalling the weekly updates on Starlight Invest's portfolio. "Easy fix. If the deal goes through, I'll trade you all my United Technologies and L-3 shares for Wells Fargo shares. That should shift the government-reliant stocks under Starlight's umbrella."

"That might work." Agreed Sandra. "I'll talk it over with Starlight Invest and hear what they say."

Going through the list of shares in my head, I sighed. Parker had loved flying just as much as he had loved sailing and the shares he had bought showed it. Unfortunately, many of the American aerospace companies also made planes and equipment for the US Defense department. "What about the shares in Boeing, General Dynamics and Lockheed?"

"Leave them as they are," Sandra advised. "The US government hasn't raised any flags so far, and as long as you don't buy more shares in those companies, I doubt they'll dig into it."

"Fair enough," I said with a stretch. "Anything else?"

She smiled and shook her head. "That's it. Thanks for taking the time. I know these decisions aren't always fun."

"Don't be sorry about that. It's your job... or at least part of it." I chuckled and stood up. I stood, returning her smile. "Keep me posted."

"Will do. Have a good day, Mr. Ivan."

"You too, Sandra."

-----------------------------------

After that, I walked to my office and got hold of Giles Cornell of Starlight Security, inquiring if he knew the whereabouts of Paula Scipio, since Manuel had advised me to speak with her again and I wanted to avoid a formal meeting.

With his usual efficiency it only took him a few minutes before he was able to tell me that Paula Scipio was downtown, shopping, but that he didn't know her exact location.

However, downtown Rastede wasn't that big and just by sitting there, there was a fair chance that I might spot her, so I strolled over to a cozy café by the water, ordered a steaming cup of tea, and sank into a chair with a view of the bustling boardwalk. The gentle lapping of waves and the hum of people passing by should've been calming, and my body certainly played along, lounging comfortably as if I had all the time in the world.

At least my body relaxed, but my head was still focused on business, or to be more precise, the billions tied up in Johnson Controls and the stock market at large. The sheer scale of it was staggering, almost surreal.

The more I thought about it, the more uneasy I felt. Something didn't sit right. I couldn't quite pin it down, but it all seemed... too easy. Parker's ability to see the future had given him an edge so massive it felt like cheating, but the amount of money he had earned by just investing and doing nothing was mind boggling. Like watching money grow on trees while everyone else toiled.

I've been wealthy many times before, but not to this extreme. Back then, I'd always earned it, usually through hard work or by healing those in power. Kings, emperors, and other rulers had always valued a healer who could keep their fragile lives intact, and there was something satisfying about that, knowing my wealth was tied to effort and skill.

This, however, was a different beast entirely. It wasn't just wealth. It was power, influence, and a whole lot of responsibility. And no matter how beautiful the waterfront view was, my thoughts kept circling back to that gnawing sense that something about this game felt... off.

"Mr. Ivan?" A woman's voice called out from behind me, smooth and confident, pulling me from my thoughts. I turned, pleasantly surprised to see Paula Scipio, and she wasn't alone. Beside her stood a striking blonde woman, and behind them, two large men with the unmistakable look of armsmen.

"Miss Scipio. What a pleasant surprise!" I said, standing and shaking the hand she offered. Her grip was firm, her smile just as poised. "Please have a seat, if you're not in a hurry."

"Thank you and we have lots of time. My uncle is out testing the yacht, so we decided to skip the waves and go shopping instead." She gestured to her companion. "This is Kristina Loken, a friend of mine. Kristina, this is Ivan Emilian--better known as Mr. Ivan. Don't let his youth fool you... He's the Chairman of Starlight Merchant Group."

I gave Kristina a slight bow. "Miss Loken, it's a pleasure. And the offer stands for you as well."

"Thank you, Mr. Ivan," Kristina replied with a warm smile. The two women exchanged a quick glance before Paula gracefully settled into the chair opposite me, followed closely by Kristina.

The bodyguards remained unintroduced, but as Paula and Kristina sat, the two men gave the area a quick scan, then stationed themselves at a nearby table, their eyes subtly scanning the crowd.

"So, what're you doing on a wonderful day like this?" Asked Paula with a slight smile. "I doubt you're out shopping like we are."

"Good grief, no." I laughed. "Wandering around for hours looking for just the right item to buy isn't exactly my idea of fun. I started the day with two meetings, so now I'm taking the rest of the day off."

"Oh, getting the joint venture up and running?" Paula asked sweetly, though there was a sharpness in her eyes now. "I overheard some whispers about it over breakfast at the hotel."

"There're no secrets here." I replied with an easy chuckle. "Yes, the meetings were about the joint venture... So, tell me, would Scipio International be interested in joining?"

There was a slight change in her facial expression and suddenly I was not sitting with a young woman out shopping, but a sharp businesswoman. "How much per percent?"

"25 million, with a max of ten percent. We already have a lot of hard orders."

Her eyes glittered for a moment, and I could almost see the gears turning in her mind. Then she nodded. "We're in for ten percent, if Scipio International delivers at least twenty-five percent of the electronics."

That fit perfectly with what Manuel had asked me to find out, so I pretended to consider it for a moment, leaning back in my chair. "Only if the electronics used in Asia are manufactured there."

"They are," she said confidently.

"I'll have to warn you." I said with a little smile. "So far we have orders for three more production plants... which we're going to build."

That caught her off guard, and she blinked, but she recovered quickly, keeping her expression composed. "Is Scipio International invited to all four?"

"Yes."

Her full lips curved into a slow, satisfied smile. "Then we're in."

"Deal." I said with a grin. "Shall we do as last time and let the lawyers take care of the rest while we enjoy the day?"

"Deal." She said with a grin to match mine and held out an elegant hand.

I took it gently and we shook on it, in a gesture as old as... well... me. Like last time I felt a discreet probe, but this time I was prepared and let her feel the honesty in me... along with me thinking that she was one of the most interesting and beautiful women I had met in a long time, which caused her to blush just a little. Interestingly, it was followed by a spike of lust.

Kristina Loken looked from Paula to me and back again with a choked expression on her face. "Did the two of you just make a two-hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar deal?" she asked, her voice choked with disbelief.

Paula gave a casual shrug, as if discussing the weather.

"Per manufacturing plant," she clarified, her tone light. "So, multiply that by four. Of course, it'll need some fine-tuning, and there's always the slim chance it could be overturned by either of our Boards of Directors. But with all the orders rolling in, this deal is practically guaranteed to bring in profit. And if not," she added with a sly grin, "Starlight Merchant Group stands to lose a lot more than Scipio International."

Kristina leaned forward, whispering with the intensity of someone who couldn't quite process what she'd just heard. "One billion dollars? That's... that's insane!"

Paula arched an eyebrow, clearly amused. "The movie Titanic cost two hundred million to produce, and that was just a movie--not a company that's about to manufacture aircraft." She turned to me with a grin. "Kris is an actress. She's not exactly used to hearing numbers like this in day-to-day conversations."

I offered Kristina a reassuring smile, trying to soften the blow of corporate-scale sums. Mostly because it was only months ago I had experienced the same, and for me it had been easier, since I didn't have much experience with the value system they used now. To me, it was mostly just numbers. "Don't worry, Miss Loken. This isn't how business is usually done. Deals like this typically involve endless back-and-forth negotiations, spreadsheets, and more coffee than anyone should drink. Miss Scipio and I just prefer to let the lawyers handle that mess."

"Exactly," Paula chimed in, flashing a knowing smile. "We just make sure it's a win-win for both companies. They take care of the boring part."

Kristina shook her head as if still trying to process the sheer size of the deal. "I guess that's one way to do it..."

Paula glanced around, then turned back to me with a smile. "Does this place serve champagne? I think this calls for a celebration."

I chuckled. "Not sure, since I don't drink champagne... but they do have excellent cider."

"Cider it is then," she said with a laugh. "Let's celebrate in style... your style, apparently."

I ordered some cider, which the waiter brought right away and we were about to toast, when I heard a strange clicking sound to my left. Looking over, I saw a man with a big camera pointing at us, obviously taking pictures.

Both women saw me looking and turned toward the photographer at the same time.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Kristina muttered under her breath, clearly annoyed, while Paula sighed and nodded. "Yeah... it gets old fast."

"That can be fixed." I said, looking around. A moment later I caught the eye of Rang Su-Yun and nodded in the direction of the man with the camera. With a smile the short North Korean nodded and rose from the table she had been sitting at, followed a moment later by the much larger Svetlana.

Kristina raised an eyebrow. "How are you going to handle this? He's not just going to walk away."

"Watch." I told her with a slight smile.

The photographer, oblivious to the change in atmosphere, was still busy clicking away when Svetlana slid up behind him and grabbed him by the shoulders, while Su-Yun calmly took the camera from his hands. The man started to protest, his voice growing louder, but before he could say much more, Svetlana whispered something in his ear that immediately shut him up. Then they discretely walked away with him between them.

Kristina blinked, clearly impressed. "What just happened?"

I leaned back in my chair, watching the trio walk away. "It's illegal here on Oldenburg to take photos of people without their consent. The law requires permission before any photos can be snapped." I explained. "The two ladies are just making a citizen's arrest Oldenburg style. He can choose either to spend some nights in jail or pay a fine, but in both cases, the pictures are going to be destroyed."

Kristina's lips curled into a grin. "Nice! I might have to come here next time I just want some peace and quiet."

Paula was looking at the unlikely pair of Rang Su-Yun and Svetlana and chuckled as she turned towards me, an amused glint in her eyes. "Your bodyguards?"

"Yes, I replied with a nod. "I normally don't have any, but due to the wedding the security department insisted."

"Wise of them... hmm... can my bodyguards do the same?"

"To be honest, I don't know. You'll have to ask the Gendarmerie for that." I said, adding. "But it's also worth remembering that while law makes it harder for people to take pictures of you, it doesn't make it impossible."

"Fair enough," chuckled Paula and raised her glass. "Now let's have this toast. Uncle Marco will dock soon and I need to talk this deal over with him, before we go out to eat."

We clinked our glasses, and the light, fleeting moment of quiet satisfaction passed between us.

"By the way," Kristina said, as she settled back into her chair, "can you recommend a good steakhouse around here that's not packed with tourists? I'm craving a real steak, and most of the places here seem to be all about seafood."

I grinned, already knowing the perfect spot. "Go to Tango. It's an Argentine grill. They've got the best meat dishes in town and are usually light on tourists."

Kristina smiled, clearly pleased with the suggestion. "That's exactly what I'm looking for."

"And with these words... we need to go." Said Paula as she stood. "Thank you for the company and the deal, Mr. Ivan. As last time, it was a refreshing change of pace."

"I have a feeling that talking with the two of you will always be a refreshing change of pace." I said with a slight bow, causing her to blush just a little and a giggle from Kristina Loken, who immediately covered her mouth with her hand. "Sorry, but I'm not used to European gallantry."

"No need to be sorry, Miss Loken." I said and sent her a smile. "Have a nice evening."

Sitting down I leaned back in the seat, watching the two beautiful women leave, their bodyguards falling in behind them, moving with an ease that seemed almost choreographed.

While Kristina Loken was undoubtedly a beauty, Paula Scipio had intrigued me the first time we met and our encounter here had only enhanced that. Highly intelligent, well-educated, beautiful and well-shaped, I could understand why men admired her... or women for that matter.

The way Kristina Loken looked at her left little doubt in my mind, that actress wanted her.

Normally, when someone with same-sex attraction lusted after a heterosexual person, there was a muted quality to it, an underlying resignation. This wasn't that. Rather it was the kind of lust normally aimed at a regular partner, which made Paula Scipio bi-sexual, as a homosexual wouldn't have given off the spike of lust I had felt from her earlier.

I drank more of the cider while thinking back on the women I had met since I came out of the trance. Especially those with special powers that set them apart from the rest of the human race. Alice's extraordinary endurance. Sheena's detection powers. Paula Scipio's probes. Shelly Ocampo's weak, but developing, powers. Maya Honeycutt's powers were unknown, but considering the work Parker had put into breaking her mind-shield, she had to have some.

Thinking for a moment, I added Karen and her exceptionally tough mindshield and ability to use Vis to the list. It wasn't mental powers, but it still made her unique.

What wasn't unique was her sexuality.

In the short time I'd been awake, I'd encountered more women with special abilities than I ever had before, and an overwhelming number of them fell somewhere on the bisexual spectrum, from being almost homosexual to being almost heterosexual.

I had no idea about Maya Honeycutt's sexuality, but even if I disregarded her, it was still four out of five. Compared to the rest of the population where only one in ten was bisexual, it was an extremely high rate, which in my experience was too high to be a coincidence, indicating that there was a correlation between the two.

So, if my current sample was anything close to the normal rate, eight out of ten women with powers would be bisexual.

Taking another sip of cider, I sighed.

While interesting in a theoretical way, it wasn't useful. Not only would two out of ten women with powers be heterosexual, but with six billion people on the planet thinking that Powers didn't exist, having them had to be exceptionally rare. My guess was somewhere near one in five million, which still left twelve hundred people with mental powers, though there was a good chance that more were working for the various governments around the world. However, the number of 'free' people with powers had to be large enough to merit a special law enforcement group, but still small enough to keep the knowledge away from the public in general.

I also had no idea about how many males there were compared to the number of females. According to Parker's memory, he had met four and killed three of them because they didn't fit into his plan. The only one he spared was Curtis, and only because Curtis was his son.

However, judging from the abilities Parker and Curtis had demonstrated, there was no reason to believe that men were less powerful than women, though their powers might be different from that of their female counterparts. So far, none of the women I had met had displayed any skill in mind-control, but as with so many other factors, this might just be a coincidence.

Shaking my head slightly, I drank the rest of the cider, before I stood and walked towards headquarters. There was little point in speculating more on the subject before I knew more about it, and as the Twins were my only reliable source of information, that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. It would take a decade for them to fully develop their powers.

Sheena Rao, Angie Larson and their new American friend, Zarita Alvarez, would be better sources of information, but while I was sure that Sheena had powers, I couldn't say the same about the two others. They might just be ordinary government officials without any special knowledge working with Agent Rao.

I nearly stopped walking as another thought hit me. We, or rather Titan Aerospace, had just revealed one of the first stealth fighters in the world. A fighter that would give whoever fielded it a huge advantage in air superiority, which meant that every jet producing nation in the world would like a piece of that project.

There was no reason to think that if several nations had government sponsored Mentats working as investigators, they wouldn't have spies that were Mentats as well. After all, it was almost two sides of the same coin.

That would make many of the security measures taken by Starlight Security useless, and with the amount of money and political power at stake, the question wasn't if they would come, it was when they would come and how many attempts we would have to fend off.

I let out a long breath as I reached headquarters and went through the security measures there. They were good, but not nearly enough to stop Mentats. Something more was needed and while we would never be totally secure, at least we could make it as difficult as possible for any spying Mentats to penetrate the system.

Parker's loyalty codex might prevent the key people from straight up delivering plans to someone else, but a skilled Mentat could still pick passwords right out of the mind of an engineer, so combining passwords with a physical key was a good idea.

Just like it had been back in Baylon times.

The thought made me smile a little as I realised that there was a whole host of techniques from Baylon that could be applied here. Like doing a mental scan of the security personnel to find out which ones had a tough mental shield and then place those people in key locations or positions and using the Adamant Mind trick to protect key personnel from mental attacks.

The last had the drawback of not being permanent, but by lowering the power of the trick just a little, I could make it last longer, and it could be done while in one of the meetings about employee satisfaction we were required to have.

The more I thought about it, the more I liked it, with one exception. While Adamant Mind did strengthen the mindshield of the employees to a high degree, it would also make it obvious to Mentat spies that something unusual was going on.

I thought it over for a moment and then shrugged. It was a risk I simply had to take, if I wanted Titan Aerospace to keep its secrets.

More countermeasures from Baylon times surfaced in my mind, simple in concept, devastatingly effective in the right hands. And all of them could be presented as perfectly reasonable security upgrades, without ever revealing that they were aimed against Mentats.

Instead of going to my office, I walked straight to Giles Cornell's. Fortunately, the head of Starlight Security was in and he looked up as I knocked on the door frame, smiling when he saw me.

"Ah, Mister Ivan. Did you find Miss Scipio?"

"Oh yes." I replied. "That is all taken care off." I closed the door after me. "But we need to talk about security and... " I searched for the right word and finally found it. "... industrial espionage. I have some suggestions."

Looking slightly surprised, he nodded. "Sounds interesting." He gestured to the chair across from him. "Have a seat and let's talk about them."

I sat down, leaned forward and began talking, laying out the countermeasures I had been thinking about. With just a little bit of luck and some fast work, they would be in place before the first attempts of stealing the secrets started.

-------------------- To be continued ----------------------

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