They also learned that there'd be no more physical meetings between Dr. Sandman and his three henchpeople. They'd be using Sandman's High Security communications instead. They did not know that communications to Dr. Sandman from now on would be by text only and only from Nod. Texting was a very old and cumbersome way to communicate. Even if they had known about the messages, and even if they had managed to read them, nothing in the messages would have incriminated Dr. Sandman. That was part of their High Security precautions. Their text messages would always appear innocent. Lucas and Theo didn't know that a sniper now had instructions to kill all three of them. Nor did they know that the sniper knew where they were spending much of their time.
# # # # # # # #
In terms of their personal lives, Lucas and Theo had decided that they should clean up their act. Literally, as in clean up with soap and water. They had been invited to see the dorm rooms of two practice roster players and were shocked at how some teenage boys kept their bedrooms. The words neat and tidy sprung to mind when they saw how basketball players lived in the residences. For anybody seeing their rooms in the Wilizy/Asia, the words pig and sty would spring to mind.
The practice roster was the group of players who were one step away from being considered for the university's Varsity Blues team. The players on the practice roster would pretend to be the team that was scheduled to be the Blues' next opponent. When the Blues prepared for their next game, the practice roster would pretend to play like their next opponent. Learning how to copy another team's offense and defense every other week took a lot of concentration and effort. If they were able to learn quickly enough, and if they played hard enough in these practices, some players on the practice roster might be given a chance to try out for the varsity team the next year.
Theo and Lucas had been invited to attend one of the nights when only the practice team players were on the court. The coach hadn't been particularly encouraging about the invitation. "The two of you aren't working hard enough. Tuesday night, 7 p.m., here." That comment had bothered both of them since they thought they had been working hard.
The Tuesday night practice had been grueling. It had been entirely focused on basic skills, but run at a high tempo. The coach had finished the practice with a Let's see if you have anything left drill. "Lines," he announced and everybody grabbed a ball and went to the end of the court. "Two minutes left in the game," he announced and whistled the start. Players had to dribble the ball to one of the lines on the court, touch the line with one hand, change dribble hands, return to the start, touch the line with one hand, change dribble hands, dribble to another line on the court, return to the start, and so on. Near the end of the two minutes, Lucas and Theo were well ahead of everybody else. Lucas beat Theo by a sliding head when he flung himself past Theo as the coach raised the whistle to his lips and inhaled. Lucas slid several feet on his stomach before he came to a stop. Theo helped him up and both clapped each other on the shoulder. That's when the two players who came last in that drill were told to show Theo and Lucas their dorm rooms.
Theo and Lucas were invited to only two more practices with these older boys. But they did start to have practices with two Blues players who had already graduated. The former Blues started to drop into the gym where Theo and Lucas practiced in the evening and they'd compete in two-on-two games. First duo to make ten baskets won. Lucas and Theo were lucky to score one basket. But the other guys would show them what they were doing wrong, and in time, the games got closer.
# # # # # # # #
With Theo and Lucas' living conditions now rising above the previous levels that were only frequented by members of the animal kingdom, that meant that the Wilizy/Asia was suitable for guests. Lucas and Theo were using vertical closets like normal humans. Since Dreamer was in the ship full time, all three were now sharing the chores. They rotated them weekly so that one person wouldn't get stuck with the bad one – cleaning the bathrooms.
After she had described her most embarrassing moment ever to Momaka, Dreamer began to improve. The connection to her father's parents probably played a part in her improvement. She had had a long visit with the Bucks back in Barriere and was now emailing them on a regular basis. Seeing how her grandfather behaved, walked around, and interacted with his wife gave Dreamer an idea of what her father had been like. Highly athletic were the words that her grandfather used to describe him.
At 15, Dreamer was the closest of the three to becoming old enough to try out for the Varsity Blues. Theo would have two more years to prepare than Dreamer had. Lucas had one more year. For Dreamer, that meant that she had to work harder than her brothers, and she did. After she had reached a dead end with her surveillance of Sparkle, she spent every possible minute in the gym – at first on her own. Later an assistant coach would come by, offer suggestions for an hour, and disappear. When the university teams were into their competitive schedule and all coaches were busy, a former member of the team would come into the gym and practice with her. She was a guard, so Dreamer got to work on her dribbling and driving. The guard would knock the ball out of Dreamer's left hand repeatedly until, one day, Dreamer had had enough. She put her shoulder into the guard during a drive to the basket, knocked her to the floor, and scored an easy lay-up. "What took you so long to do that?" the guard asked. "Did you think we were having a tea party out here?"
At the end of the practice, Lylah – the guard – invited Dreamer to fill an empty bedroom in the boarding house she was living in. "You're going to wear your body out if you don't learn how to practice properly. If you're in my building, I'll have more time to show you what to do. We can work on your guard skills too. You'll have to pay your share of the rent. Think about it."
"You know that I'm a forward, right?" Dreamer said.
"You're not. You're a guard. Or you will be by the time I'm finished with you."
# # # # # # # #
Dreamer talked with Lucas and Theo about how she had driven right through Lylah. She repeated what Lylah had said. "Did you think we were having a tea party out here?" She had sounded sort of like Mac. Brusque. She also told them about Lylah's offer to live in the same boarding house.
Both of the boys had seen Lylah practicing with Dreamer. Lucas' reaction to the offer was surprising.
"If you don't take her up on the offer, I will."
"Lucas!" Dreamer exclaimed.
"Seriously. Blonde, blue eyes, as tall as me, almost as quick. And a body that..."
"Lucas!" Dreamer interrupted before he could finish. "I thought you were off women."
"I'm reconsidering my position," Lucas said.
Dreamer accepted the offer the next day and moved out of the ship that evening.
# # # # # # # #
Theo helped with the surveillance duties until they reached a dead end. As you've read, he also spent a lot of time in the gym. But during some of the mornings and early afternoons, he was flying over that island in the thousand swamps.
Theo had used the portable heat sensor to locate the thing that had stolen their food. It turned out to be a young black girl who wore pieces of black fur as camouflage clothing. Her feet and hands were covered with pads that had claws that she could extend and retract. She lived in the village of huts on stilts with three elderly women. All three had white skin, silvery hair, emaciated bodies, and shiny metal bands around their necks. These bands had the same appearance as the dog collars that the boys had liberated from a North Korean freighter when they had been pirating. Presumably the collars acted as electronic prison guards. Lucas passed that information on to the Wilizy directors who once again concluded that North Korea had an extensive list of customers for their products.
Theo never saw the elderly women roam too far away from the safety of the huts. That may have been because of the dog collars, or perhaps because of the alligators. Yes their houses were on stilts, but they still had to move around on the boggy land below and they still had to collect water for drinking and washing.
That proved dangerous. On one of Theo's visits, he observed the girl and two of the old women near the water's edge with their heads bowed. The oldest woman in the group appeared to be the leader. She was the one who lead them in their chants.
Theo determined that the young girl was keeping the elderly women alive. She was able to roam around the island freely as she did not have a dog collar. She'd set traps for small prey, but her best success was when she walked through the water to Canada. She showed no fear whatsoever of being attacked by an alligator when she did this. Each time she came into human communities, she'd rub mud all over her body to hide her scent. Then she flitted from one house to another stealing food in her dark skin and her black fur. When she crouched on the ground, she had the appearance of a large black panther. When dogs would catch on to her presence and bark, she'd snarl back to them in a realistic panther scream and change neighbourhoods.
Meanwhile Theo saw the emaciation of the two old women and began buying food and dropping it into areas of the island that he knew the panther girl would pass through. One time he was hovering at tree top level when he saw her look into the sky, nod at him, and pick up the food. This was disconcerting because Theo was invisible at the time. Also disconcerting was a kill he discovered. A large buck had crossed onto the island and something big had brought him down. Long slash marks on the buck's hindquarters and a large gouge in its throat said that a large creature had killed it, but had left it untouched afterwards. As Theo was following some very faint paw prints, the panther girl came into the kill zone and began butchering the buck. She had a large sharp knife and she knew how to use it.
# # # # # # # #
As to the Safe Haven perverts, the Gardeners couldn't find any other kidnappers. With TiTr, the Gardeners had been able to identify the homes to which the personnel officer had travelled with kidnapped blonde girls. The homes all looked alike. They had guessed some time ago that they were bunkers for the doomsday people who believed the world was going to end. But even with William's spy cameras hovering over each bunker now, they could find no sign of anybody living inside. Granny called a meeting to discuss what they would do next. Slipping spider drones into the bunkers was the designated next step if the bunkers remained deserted.
Speaking of Gardeners, although this is none of your business, I can tell the curious readers who want to know such things that when Momaka and Stu moved into their new house, they slept in separate bedrooms for the first month. But with Bob the Invisible Dragon getting his quota of exercise, Momaka told Stu that perhaps they could try sleeping in the same room. For that to have a chance of working, Stu had placed his bed right up against one wall and Momaka had placed her bed right up against the far wall. But as middle aged men are often required to do, one night Stu had to get up in the darkness and use the bathroom. On his return, he became disoriented in the dark and walked too far into the room. He nudged Momaka's bed with his knee. One second later, a dragon had its snout in Stu's face and was looking for his throat. Stu started yelling and pushing the snout away, but with little success. The noise of Stu's yells and Bob's roars brought Momaka awake. She managed to gain control of Bob and turned on the light. Stu's face was white. He had collapsed on the floor and was checking his throat for blood.
"Stu, you can't ever touch the bed when I'm in it," Momaka reminded him.
"I was disoriented," he eventually gasped.
"I'll find some nightlights tomorrow," Momaka said. "I'm sorry," she added. "Bob puts himself on guard duty when I sleep in a bed. I can't turn him off."
To answer the questions from everybody in the compound the next morning about what had happened in the middle of the night, Momaka merely said that Bob had had a nightmare.
The next day, Winnie went to Momaka and pried around trying to find out what had happened, but Momaka wasn't having any of it. "Mind your own business," she said firmly. "Can't blame me for trying," Winnie replied. Later, from the pleasant conversation that followed, Momaka learned that Winnie wanted to wear a proper ladies suit when she visited the Wilizy businesses in her capacity as Chief Snoop. Momaka revealed that she had spent some time around a sewing machine and would help Winnie learn to sew. The Winnie business suit production team went into operation. Winnie ended up with a black business jacket and a set of black pants as well as a black skirt. They'd buy a couple of ivory white blouses. For a business tie, Momaka made an emerald green ribbon that Winnie could place underneath the blouse's collar and she'd cross the two ends just above the second button on the blouse and Velcro them together. Both Momaka and Winnie agreed that solid black along with the ivory white and emerald green were three colours that went very well together. Patella and Scapula would have similar emerald green ties around their throats, but their colour combinations would be just black and emerald green.
"What will you do about shoes and socks?" Momaka asked as Winnie modeled the finished product.
"I'm going with black ankle socks and I've been working on Mom to agree to black shoes with a little bit of a heel." At 9 years old, Winnie was finally starting to show signs of growth and she was going to get as much out of that as she could.
# # # # # # # #
Wizard's business enterprises were going well. Nothing to complain about on that front. But in his personal life, he was acting strangely. He approached Granny one day and asked her if she could teach him how to play basketball. Granny agreed, but later she'd tell Yolanda that she didn't know why he would want to do such a thing. Wizard was cut out to be an athlete like Lucas was cut out to be a violinist. After two weeks, Granny had to tell Wizard that he probably wasn't going to have much success in the sport. Why didn't he try something else for exercise? Wizard had sensed that a gentle Sorry speech would be coming. For all of Granny's coaching expertise, he had not yet managed to put the ball through the hoop. His two hands were good for flat spreadsheets, not for round basketballs. He left Granny and visited Momaka. "Can you teach me how to do judo?" he asked.
Down at the satellite compound, Mac announced that they were trying for baby #2. Not to be outdone, Melissa said they were going for #3. Yollie said that she had the perfect baby, so they were wasting their time. Mathias informed the moms that he had found a supply of very realistic baby dolls in the Philippines. Were they interested in trying them out? Hank looked at them and told his CEO to order a thousand or two for the WC&D.
All in all, as you've read, life in the Wilizy family was going well and on course to remain that way. So long as Blinker didn't murder three of them in an ambush. Dreamer was the least likely to be sniped, as she spent her entire day within the university complex, effectively inaccessible to Blinker. Theo also would be difficult to snipe. He'd either be practicing in a closed gym, flying over a remote island in the St. Lawrence Rivulet, or living in an invisible ship.
Lucas was a different matter. He wasn't willing to accept that they had reached a dead end in their research. He still had no evidence to link Dr. Sandman to anything illegal. But he hadn't given up, and from time to time, he'd drop by Basher's apartment and they'd make ice cream floats and play computer games. Lucas introduced Basher to hot chocolate with marshmallow froth and Basher liked it so much, he put it on the list of things he wanted in his cupboard. Lucas also introduced Basher to Star Trek, which turned out to be a big hit, especially since Basher had lots of free time. Nod had taken Basher off his enforcement duties. Sending a ferocious enforcer out into the neighbourhood to collect money was a good idea when the collector could be ferocious. Sending him out to intimidate shopkeepers when he had cracked ribs on his right side and couldn't even raise the bat over his head – well, that just wasn't good for customer retention. It was too bad that Basher couldn't cripple worth a darn with his left hand.
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Chapter 28
Mid-November. Theo was preparing to light a fire to cook a small lunch. He was camping on his own at the campsite that he and Lucas had set up a month
ago on the island. The campsite where Panther Girl had stolen their cache of food. Each time he came to the island, he set up here hoping to draw the girl into the open where he could see her, perhaps talk with her. Theo could sense her watching him, so he scanned the trees and glimpsed a dark shape plastered to the backside of a tree. Only her black face was fully visible.
"I have enough food for two if you're interested," he looked at her and spoke conversationally.
No reply.
Theo erected a portable campfire spit over the fire, hung a pot from it so that it was over the flames, and poured some water over a handful of dehydrated soup flakes. A little stirring, a little waiting, and it was ready. With his thick sweatshirt in his left hand, he poured some soup from the pot into the cup in his right hand, sat back against a tree, and began sipping.
"What animal did that come from?" The voice came from the opposite side of the woods from where Panther Girl had been before. He hadn't heard a thing when she had moved. Now she was behind him. He was a perfect target for that knife.
"No animal. It's a soup. With vegetables."
"I've had soup before," she said. Still at a distance.
"I'm drinking it," Theo said. "It won't hurt you." He rose, grabbed another cup, poured some soup into it, and placed it at a comfortable distance from where he was sitting. Comfortable – as in outside of knife throwing range.
Theo returned to his tree and waited. Sipping. Listening. A black shape climbed down the tree closest to the soup. That wasn't where she had been before and once again, she had moved positions without making a noise. More disconcerting was the way she came down the tree. A human would climb down a tree feet first, using his hands to grasp the trunk to keep from slipping. Panther Girl was coming down the tree head first, like a cat would. She circled the cup on all fours, sniffed it, and sat down cross-legged, facing him. Like a human.