"Keep an eye on the long range sensor, Lucas. That big ship is running training exercises, just like you did with your brothers. Those small lights are pretending to attack the big light so that the men on that big light will have some practice. They could turn the ship around and head the other way any time. Issue a Well Done to yourself and your crew, Captain." Hank was making this last part up but it seemed like a military kind of thing to do.
"Aye, aye, Commander-in-Chief."
# # # # # # # #
Hank woke Mac and gave her the gist of Lucas' report. "What do you think?"
"Alaska," she said.
"Agreed. We just learned about their weaponry. Will can use this."
"First things first."
"Mac. You realize the ship of lights could be there for something besides training, right?"
"To escort the freighter, Sir."
"Probability?"
"Unable to say. Might depend on what happens in the auction."
"Why?"
"Because that ship probably dropped off the Alaska delegate several days ago in B.C. and went for a training exercise, which usually is an excuse that officers make up when they don't want their men becoming lazy or bored. They may pick their delegate up again and go home. They may convey the North Korean delegate back to his country, perhaps with a prisoner."
"Can they interfere with your operation, Mac?"
"Doubtful. What happens today will dictate whether we win or lose this war."
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Chapter 34
Franklin Franklin's manifesto continued.
I must say that my early morning visit with Izzy went very well. She was contrite and embarrassed that I had caught her equipped to have the orgy she apparently needed to satisfy her lust. Zzyk's accusation was correct; Izzy is a slut. She as much as admitted that to me in her desire to confess her sins.
I have to say that I was surprised by the depravity of the girl. I had sat opposite her in several meetings and nothing like that had ever showed. She started by confessing to me that she had displayed her body once for all to see at a public function. Men, even children, were present. One old man said that seeing her naked body had blinded him. Everybody clapped after she had disrobed; she was laughing and enjoying herself the whole time. I believed every word that she said. Most of the people were savages, so that explains their behaviour. But Izzy is pure white. Zzyk must have been right when he talked about her grandmother being a prostitute.
I had no sense that Izzy had become a prostitute yet, but she did admit that she enjoyed what she referred to as hockey games with Will. She winked at me when she said "hockey games" so we both knew what she was talking about. Also, I already knew that Yolanda could be a negative influence on her. Yolanda had been engaged in the sex trade from an early age. I believe it would be only a matter of time before Izzy became a fully fallen woman given the influences on her life. Fortunately I had come to her with salvation in my heart at exactly the right time.
When I offered to extend my husbandly hands of favor to her, she accepted without a word of complaint or even a swat of her hands. I believe that she was grateful. She murmured to me that I was so much gentler than Will. She was going to appreciate being with a real man. A mature man, not a violent boy.
When I asked if Will had mistreated her, she told me how she had spilled some porridge once, and he had become so enraged that he threw her to the ground and throttled her so badly that she fell unconscious. He even struck her when she was unconscious – she found the marks when she awoke. She never knew from that point on what would set him off. They could be at a social event, and he would suddenly throw her into the air so high and hard that she'd be spinning when she came down. Everything she said had the ring of truth. No wonder this girl would be seeking affection; she was starved for it. I reassured her that I would never use violence against her but I would discipline her if she disobeyed me. She just looked down and nodded.
I also warned her that she had fallen into a sinful state by breaking bread with the savages. She explained that she knew that but had to eat somehow, and they had forced her to do the laundry for the entire tribe just so that they'd give her a few morsels. I felt a little sad for her seeing how she had to put up with so much grief living among the savages.
When she asked if she could give me a little hug of appreciation for bringing her back from the precipice, I was leery at first. I would have to release her from her cell to do that. So, I warned her that I'd use the brain-band controller if she attacked me. She said that she wasn't going to do that; she only wanted to hug me like a good wife would do. I unlocked the door and held the controller high above her head where she couldn't reach it. She snuggled into my chest, and I felt her trembling in gratification. She stepped back into her cell, and closed the cell door and pushed in the locking mechanism. She watched me, in fondness I believe, as I left the area. "See you soon, Franklin," she said softly and waved good-bye.
I was almost out of the jail when I had the thought. She had always been curious about my career. I had learned a lot about my #1 wife in this meeting. Why shouldn't she learn more about me? I found some of the files that recorded events during the biker wars. She'd enjoy these. I brought them to her. She was leaning on the cell door, one hand reaching out to touch me.
"Are you taking me away with you now, husband?" she said.
"Not yet, #1 wife. For your reading pleasure," I said and handed her the files.
# # # # # # # #
From Izzy's journals: Saturday, March 10, about 8:30 a.m.
I had made it through my mother's torture so I knew that I could stomach what Franklin was going to do. Besides, at the end of Operation Dead Man Walking, I had realized that I shouldn't be so upset if people saw a bit of skin every now and then. That's why I had flashed everyone at the debriefing. It's only a body. Franklin was only fondling the milk delivery systems that were currently inactive, as Will would say. I had been prepared to let him do more, if it meant that Will would live. But then the plan came to me and it wasn't necessary.
So I knew that I could take the groping and I stayed calm about it because I also knew that it would put FF at ease. Which it did. When I slipped into an embrace with him, he didn't notice that the second finger on my right hand was deep inside the cage door's locking mechanism, and the third finger was rolling off the condom. I tamped it into the socket, all the while pretending to tremble a bit so that he wouldn't think anything other than, This poor woman is in love with me so much that she trembles when she touches me. I had a condom on my left hand too in case I got turned around the wrong way when I came out of the cell.
I hadn't heard the noises of FF leaving. so I knew that he was still around. I heard him coming, leaned on the cage door to stop it from swinging open, and pretended to be all dewy-eyed at the sight of my husband. FF gave me some files for my reading pleasure. I could have enjoyed them several days ago, but not now. I dumped them on the floor of my cell and waited for the noises of his exit to die away.
First, the brain-band. As long as I was wearing it, I could be disabled with the push of a button. I tied the five remaining condoms into a rubbery rope, slipped one end of the rope under the brain-band and wrapped it inside and around the rivet attaching it to my skull. I had enough condom-rope left to tie it to a bar of my cell if I placed my head right next to it. I had, in effect, just tied my head to a very solid piece of iron. The condom-rope was elastic. Gritting my teeth, I yanked my head as hard as I could away from the cell bar. The rivet popped on the first try.
I undid the fastenings and dripped some water onto the paper clump that I had prepared ahead of time. Clump became mush, and I put it against my skull to keep the bleeding down. Had to add more paper – scalp wounds bleed a lot. I wasn't sure if this would be necessary or not. But if FF re-appeared before I was ready, I didn't want him to see me with blood streaming down my neck. The other two rivets popped easily enough and I was f
ree of his controller. I knew I could disable FF in a one-on-one battle. Getting out of here was another matter; but he could no longer threaten me from a distance and certainly not from close up. If he came close to me, the first thing I'd crush on FF's body would be his hands. I said I could take what he did to me. I didn't say I liked it.
I put fresh goop paper on my wounds and tied my condom rope around my head to keep the wounds covered. Five or ten minutes should be enough. Interesting kind of sweat-band. Could be all the rage. Perfect for the slut who liked to keep herself physically fit.
I collected some things from my cell, stuffed the condom rope into my back pocket, let the brain-band lie on top of my hair, and started looking for Will. I came back to my cell when I realized how big this place was. I figured it was some old prison. I grabbed the files that FF had left me and started exploring the prison hallways, calling Will's name, and dropping a piece of paper at every major intersection so that I could find my way back to the exit if I needed to. Hansel and Gretel inside the Witch's prison. Guess which role FF is going to play.
Don't know how long it took, but it was a while. I got worried that Will might be sedated in some fashion, but discounted that quickly. I could hear FF's footsteps clearly whenever he came through the prison. They never stopped on their way to me. Thus, it was very unlikely that Will was closer to the exit than I was. FF never went further into the prison than my cell. Will had to be in the deep part of the prison, but eventually un-sedated and with lots of food and water. FF needed him healthy.
I heard Will's return call and ran the rest of the way. Found him leaning on the cell door, hands out. It's tricky to do, but if you hold your heads exactly right, it's possible to get a decent kiss going in spite of the bars. We hung together there for a while.
"Can you get me out?" he asked.
"No. Do you have a plan?"
"Part of one. Give me your brain-plug."
I did, but with some misgivings. "It didn't work when I activated mine," I said.
"Same with me. But, two plugs together might work."
Before I handed mine over, I told him that we were in a majorly big prison. "Rescuers coming through that front entrance are likely to be killed if they don't do it properly." Then I told Will about the prison's defenses; I didn't explain why FF had been so generous with the information.
"I'm almost certain that connecting the two plugs together will punch a signal through these rocks," Will said. "We'll need to send a warning along with that signal."
I remained quiet; knew that he was thinking out loud; not talking to me.
He looked at the brain-band sitting on my head and raised an eye-brow.
"He never used it on me. I managed to pop the rivets." I handed it over, but he glanced at it and gave it back.
Will saw my silver locket. "That might work. I need something to conduct electricity but that could melt the locket. Are you OK with that?"
I gulped, but I knew it was necessary and began to unfasten my grandmother's heirloom. While I was fiddling for the little catch on the clasp, I realized I had something else – the foil covers from the six empty packs instead. Will fashioned them into a wire; didn't ask where the foil had come from which I appreciated. I had sort of kept Yolanda's gift a secret from him.
"Izzy, what I'm going to do is connect the two brain-plugs together, but interrupt their combined signal with the foil wire. By interrupting it in shorter and longer intervals, I can send a coded message. Something like, Bombs at front, for example. But to make those electrical pulses, I'm going to have to touch the foil with my bare hands. I can only take so much of that at a time. You'll have to help and it's going to be painful. You OK with that?"
I did a re-gulp. Electrical shocks can be painful and Will's warning to the Wilizy contained 12 letters. It would be nice to know that electrocuting ourselves wasn't going to be in vain. "Will TG be able to de-code the message?"
Will thought about that, and said "No. I don't believe so. He wouldn't have heard the code enough. It took me a couple of hours to learn it and I was listening to it intently."
"What's the point if nobody can understand it?"
"This is Lucas and Theo's secret code. They'll understand it."
I nodded. Good. A little pain is worth it. Even a lot of pain. We'd just take very short shifts. And then I had the perfect idea. I may not be in Will's league when it comes to science, but I've learned the basics. I took my condom rope out of my pocket and turned around while I unfastened one. This was going to be embarrassing. I turned back to Will and held out my hand, the condom dangling from the fingernails of two clenched fingers.
His eyes got wide. He knew what it was.
"Izzy," he said. "I don't believe that we should be thinking about having sex right now."
Oh, how I've missed this man!
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Chapter 35
Saturday morning, March 10.
"Camp is coming alive," Wolf said from the Wilizy.
"About time," Mac replied from the B.C. copter Wolf had leased. "I'm guessing that it must be pushing 8:30. I hate not having easy access to my pinky-computer."
"It's 8:24. No room to hide even a pinky-computer in that getup."
"A getup that you are not going to tell anyone about, remember?"
"Winnie is posting the pictures on the WZBN bulletin board as we speak."
"Winnie has promised to never tell anyone. She keeps her promises. Any sign that Bubba is up?"
"Other than the clearing where you're going to land, I have no visibility. A pregnant woman is walking by, though. Strike that. A pregnant girl. Can't be more than 13."
"I am so going to enjoy this. I wish I could eliminate every pedophile in the world with one swoop of my magic wand. Are the B.C. forces ready?"
"Their copters are on the ground twenty minutes away. Equipped to land on the water. You're going to keep Bubba in the clearing where I can see him, right? I'll have a laser poised to drill through his skull the whole time."
"No you won't, Soldier. I've gone through this with you," Mac spoke with some sharpness because she knew that Wolf considered it his duty to protect her. "Your job is to alert me if some external event could interfere with my operation. Martians landing, the arrival of Bubba's God on a sleigh pulled by eight tiny weasels. That kind of thing. You are here to watch my blind spots. I will take care of what happens on the ground."
"OK, OK"
"Not the correct response, Soldier."
"Yes, Sir ... Ma-am."
"Sir will do. Besides Wolf, I have another wolf here to help me if I need her. Did you make sure that Winnie trained Patella to knock her victim down and only pretend to go for the throat?"
"I've been on the receiving end. Even when I knew it was coming, having a wolf come out of nowhere and finding her fangs pinching the skin on my neck the next second was unnerving, to say the least."
"Shock treatment. If Bubba is as dumb as I think, I don't expect to need Patella. But she and Winnie will be in the copter if I do. Bubba is probably the classic bully. A coward at heart. Is he up yet?"
"I don't know, but he'll be up by the time you've made your second sweep over the camp. Lots of people are now in view and looking up."
Mac: To all teams: I'm going in. Anticipate results in fifteen minutes. Scout team #1, you are expected to be first on the scene.
TG: Acknowledged.
Wolf was right that the noise of Mac's chopper would bring Bubba running. Straight out of bed. The ankle length night gown flapped behind him as he trundled as fast as he could trundle into the clearing, shot gun at the ready as the copter landed. Even the tent like capacity of the night gown couldn't hide his paunch. Bubba's ankles were bloated to the size of camp fire logs. The flesh on his forearms flapped in waves as he made his way through the clearing. His face was a mask of broken blood vessels. Bubba probably intimidated the tiny women in his camp into doing what he wanted them to do by blocking out the
sun.
"Who are you? What do you want?" the face with fat cascading down its cheeks said.
"You must be Bubba," the body without a gram of visible fat replied. "I've been looking forward to meeting you."
The visitor certainly seemed sincere and her smile was quite disarming. Not that there were any chances of arms of any kind, disarming or not, being hidden. "I've come from a party and I must look a mess. I feel like a mess. Any chances of finding a shower around here?"
"Lake right behind you."
Pointing at her clothes, the visitor said. "My only clothes. I wouldn't want them to get any dirtier than they are now. Any chance of you holding them for me while I take a dip?" she smiled sweetly.
"Might be arranged. Who are you? Why are you here?" Bubba brought the shot gun up to shooting level again after his first bout of staring.
She started unbuttoning her top. "Your brother sent me."
"Got lots of brothers. Which one?"
"Franklin."
"Lots of Franklins in the family. Which one?"
"Franklin Franklin," she said. "A somewhat distinctive name, wouldn't you say?"
"I ain't seen FF for years. If I saw him now, I'd shoot him. What does he want?"
"FF said to tell you that he's sorry you want to shoot him, so he wants to make it up to you. He's sending you a surprise gift to show you that he's sincere." Mac had no idea what had caused the blow up, but was content to be able to use it to offer the gift.
"Gift? Where is it?"
Mac did a little curtsy. "TaDa," she said. Two out of five buttons were undone. Mac put her hand on the third.
"You?"
Mac curtsied again.
"Come out of the sunlight," Bubba said. "We can talk about it in the church."
That would be the place where the wives and children did their praying and where Bubba did his own kind of preying. Mac moved towards him and grabbed his hand before it could explore her clothing. She put her arm inside his, the better to control where his hand could roam, and began to stroll towards the church. "I have a couple more things that Franklin asked me to say."