Almost Eternity



Almost EternityClark HansonCopyright ? 2014 by Clark HansonSecond EditionForwardThe first thought I had about writing this story, was when my wife, Karen, and I discussed super heroes. In the movies, they keep remaking the comic book people from the 1950 and ‘60’s. What would a new one be like? We ran through all the common super powers and I decided to think up a new one for a new hero. This is what I came up.Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u 1.Tycoon PAGEREF _Toc395653767 \h 12.Plus One Makes Six PAGEREF _Toc395653770 \h 153.Turnabout PAGEREF _Toc395653771 \h 244.Excalibur PAGEREF _Toc395653773 \h 365.Into the Wild Blue Yonder PAGEREF _Toc395653775 \h 436.Heavenly Host PAGEREF _Toc395653776 \h 517.My Streets Turn Deadly PAGEREF _Toc395653777 \h 588.Now You Don’t PAGEREF _Toc395653778 \h 699.Home Away From Home PAGEREF _Toc395653779 \h 7810.Stash PAGEREF _Toc395653782 \h 9111.Uncharted Territory PAGEREF _Toc395653783 \h 10512.Cowards PAGEREF _Toc395653784 \h 11313.Ruth PAGEREF _Toc395653785 \h 12514.Business as Usual PAGEREF _Toc395653788 \h 13915.Privateer PAGEREF _Toc395653789 \h 14616.Atlantis PAGEREF _Toc395653792 \h 15817.Del Mar PAGEREF _Toc395653793 \h 16818.God in a Box? PAGEREF _Toc395653796 \h 17419.Anxiety PAGEREF _Toc395653799 \h 18320.My Great Great Great Great Great Great Great Granddaughter PAGEREF _Toc395653800 \h 19221.And the Truth PAGEREF _Toc395653801 \h 19822.Shall Set You Free PAGEREF _Toc395653802 \h 20323.Holy Matrimony PAGEREF _Toc395653803 \h 21324.My Very Own Diplomat PAGEREF _Toc395653804 \h 22325.Door #3 (And I Thought There Was Only Two) PAGEREF _Toc395653807 \h 229TycoonDecember 18th, 1913 23 East 62nd St., New York CityIt’s 8:30 A.M. and unseasonably warm for December in New York City. The sun from the last few days has melted the snow, so I decide to walk into Central Park before catching a carriage to work. The walk to the park is just a couple of blocks from my home and I walk at a steady pace watching and listening to everything. I carry an ornate dragon’s head silver cane that conceals a razor sharp sword. My clothes are the latest fashion and have been tailored to hide a pair of wrist throwing knives, a small case attached to my belt that holds 6 oriental throwing stars, a large boot knife and two new custom small Colt revolvers that I wear in dual shoulder holsters. Chance favors the prepared.The park is confused with the sudden change of weather after the snowfall. People are confused as well, carrying coats and umbrellas expecting a chill, but getting 70-degree sunshine.I say hello to the early street vendors and stop into a corner grocery store for some cigars and a couple of apples. The shopkeeper, Mr. Anderson, welcomes me with the usual, “Good morning, Mr. Abernathy.”I ask after his family and then steer the conversation to his business to ask if he is doing well. He replies with, “Worst year in the ten I’ve been here. But people need the things I sell, so unless people stop eating, I will be OK.”The city is beginning to decorate for Christmas these past few years, but I don’t see any cheer in the people I encounter. There is a serious financial problem with the gold reserves and the European markets. It looks like the Federal Reserve System is going to be created by Congress anytime now. I watch these things carefully. My railroad and shipping companies carry a lot of goods heading to Europe. Whatever happens, I will weather it just fine as always.I love New York city. It is truly emerging as a melting pot with districts for each culture becoming well defined. I particularly like the fact that each has their own restaurants. I miss French cooking, but I can finally get a decent meal just a few blocks uptown. I lived in France until 6 years ago when I moved here. I had to follow the economic gravity, so that meant America and that meant Chicago or New York. Chicago has the industry, but New York has the Stock Market and besides, Chicago is just too cold.The park is filled with nannies walking their charges and people just passing through in a hurry to get somewhere. I stick to the edge of the park and emerge at my favorite pretzel stand’s usual spot. But, Mr. Ricci, the stand’s owner, is not around this morning. His pretzels are always hot and good. I enjoy visiting with him and we converse in Italian most of the time.I am about to hail a carriage when he pushes his cart out of the park and into his spot. I turn back and politely wait until he opens his stand. He sees me waiting and says, “So sorry Mr. Abernathy. My children are all sick with colds and I was in the toilet room all night with them.”“That’s horrible. Stop by Mr. Anderson’s store after you close up tonight and I will have him prepare something to help with the sick children.” I get a bag of Pretzels and give him a five-dollar gold coin. He appreciates the over payment with a big smile and a tip of his cap and we say our goodbyes for the day. I catch a carriage for the ten-minute ride to Wall St.Horse drawn black carriages are backed up with people cramming into the financial high rises. I arrive at mine and am greeted by the doorman, Cecil. He is a very intelligent black fellow that is about to be offered a position in my offices. I watch for and cultivate talent in good people. You might say, I invest in people. Then I take their skills to the bank by employing them.I enter my offices through the main doors and half a dozen people greet me as Mr. Abernathy. When I reach my personal office, my secretary, Jane, takes my coat, hat, scarf and gloves from me. She then herds me into my office. She is obviously anxious to get the day started.My name is on the brass doorplate, “J.P. Abernathy, President.” My office is a good size at twenty by thirty feet. But it feels smaller with all the furnishings. There are two big comfortable sofas facing each other as you enter with a large low coffee table in between. Several small beautiful vases sit quietly in the center of the table. Each couch is set off by the matching end tables. Both trios of end tables and couch are different, but similar in size and style. The Persian rug beneath is large, thick and compliments the furniture perfectly. The room itself at this end has walnut paneling, but the rest of the room has built in bookcases filled with expensive books and display cases with a few of my special things in them. There are several antique cabinets and tables. They are all beautiful, handcrafted from Europe with lots of inlay and fine woodcarvings. All of this surrounds my desk. It too is ornate and classic.Jane manages my meeting schedule and announces that I have two meetings today, one with my senior vice president, Jefferson Watkins, in 10 minutes, and one, with someone named Cecil that she does not know. I tell her who he is and what I have planned and she gives me her big special grin. That look tells me that she clearly approves. I inform her that I will be behind closed doors after the meetings and do not wish to be disturbed. She is used to this and has never asked what keeps me busy.The first meeting is quick and my railroads are running smoothly. We are negotiating rights to expand our routes when every other transportation company is selling theirs. I think very long term and have the cash reserves to do whatever I wish. Besides, I am manipulating certain influential men in congress and know the future better than most. It’s a balancing act that I have perfected. I have a list of items for Jefferson to purchase to keep the trains moving. It is time to use some reserves of fuel as the prices are rising quickly with the winter weather. With that business concluded, I ask Jefferson to stay on for the next meeting.I go to the door and open it to find Cecil waiting. I ask Jane to join us as well. She escorts Cecil in. He quietly comes in looking a little fearful. I want him to know this is a very good meeting and that he has nothing to fear so I say this, “Cecil, welcome and thanks for coming. I want to offer you a job.” With that, he switches from worried to excited. Excellent. I continue, “You and I have spoken many times and I have always been impressed with your keen insights. How did you come to be so well educated without attending any school past high school?”He answers with pride, “My mother made me read. She made me read everything she could get her hands on.”I nod and say, “Yes, mothers can be driven when they truly want the best for their children. God bless her.” And we all chuckle. I carry on, “If you could have any job in this office, which one would it be, besides mine of course.” Another chuckle. “I really am good with understanding maps.”Jefferson jumps in, “Why?”Cecil replies, “We used to play a game called Pirate’s Treasure and my Daddy would make a treasure map for us. He would hide the treasure and we would have to find it. It could take days sometimes. Then I turned it into a game to find things that were wrong with real maps. It’s fun.” I’ve heard enough and realize I am making the right decision.“Jane, please prepare the paper work for employment for Mr. McMasters here and make him a clerk in our library with a special assignment. I want him to spend 6 months reviewing our maps and preparing a report on his findings. After that, we’ll decide where his new career should take him. Cecil, a clerk makes $80 a week. Is that acceptable?”“Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!” His pay will effectively triple with his new job.“Cecil, it is I who will be thanking you. I hope that you find that all our files are in order, but if not, we need to know. I am particularly interested in flood plain maps and what risks we are carrying regarding flooding rivers in Ohio.”I turn to Jefferson and say, “And let me make one thing very clear. Cecil is not to be given special treatment either favorably or unfavorably. He is not to be disrespected in any way by anyone. Provide him what he needs to do his job with the same courtesy we give to all our employees.”I turn to Cecil, “I want your employment here to be above reproach. I’m not giving you any special favors because I think you are an honorable man and want to earn your way through your career, not have it handed to you.”I let that sink in and say to Jane, “Please make sure that Cecil has enough time before he starts his new job to give proper notice to his current employer. We don’t want to burn any bridges. And, then please check on him every day and make sure that all is well. I would like to have a lunch meeting in my office with him in one month and every month thereafter.” She nods and I stand to end the meeting. I shake Cecil’s hand and he leaves very, very happy.When Jane and Jefferson leave as well and I am finally alone behind locked doors, I approach a bookcase. I reach into a small space between books, and move a lever that allows the huge case to swing open. It exposes a hidden room with several closets, a makeup table and other utilitarian furnishings. I undress and lay my clothes carefully on chairs and tables. I remove a wig and fake beard. I look around 60 in my Mr. Abernathy costume and I quickly dress in old street clothes. I really look around 20 and am now ready to move around the city blending in with the normal hard working people that are everywhere.I leave the building by a hidden staircase that deposits me in an ally. I have a lunch meeting in two hours and head straight back to my house, but I make the time to stop by Anderson’s store and order up a couple of bags of groceries for Mr. Ricci. I’ve done this many times for many people who live around me and Mr. Anderson is pleased with the big sale.In this guise, I am a familiar face at my Abernathy house. I am his ward, Wally. I do the maintenance on the property. My full name is Wallace Taylor Pittman and I will inherit some of the Abernathy holdings when I retire that identity.When I enter Anderson’s Grocery Store, two burly men carrying anything they can grab push by me quickly just as I see Mr. Anderson getting a broom to clean up a mess. The mess isn’t just a spill. A whole isle has been torn up and goods are scattered all over the floor. It’s obvious the two men did this. I’ve been hearing rumblings about a gang of tuffs trying to extort protection money from the local merchants.“Are you ok? Did they hurt you?” I am getting angrier as I ask these questions.“I am fine. Nothing to worry about. Just a minor misunderstanding.” He says this half-heartedly, more trying to convince himself than me.I turn and leave the store looking for the two men. They are just entering the park and I follow them quickly. I reach the street just as they are starting their shake down routine on Mr. Ricci, my pretzel vendor friend. I dash across the street and prepare to confront the hooligans. They look to be in their mid-thirties and built like barrel chested long shore men. They are probably armed with knives and nothing else.I put on a London cockney accent and say, “Hold up there mates. I run this part of the city for Abernathy and he won’t take kindly to you two moving in on his territory.”The shorter of the two speaks while the other begins to move to his right to try to get a better position to handle me, “Well, we ain’t heard of no Abernathy and these kind folks just want our protection from folks like him anyway.”The other man says, “And what would a skinny twerp like you have to say about it, if we were a mind to listen?”“I would say that you are making a very bad mistake.”Both men make a move towards me with one pulling his arm back to take a swing. I throw a sidekick into the knee of the man on my left as I block the punch from the one in front of me. When his swing goes by, I grab his hand and twist until I hear cartilage tearing. I hold on as he drops to his knees with his right arm being twisted. I pull out a revolver with my free hand and shove it in his face.I casually say, “Now there’s a good lad.” The one with the broken knee has managed to pull his own gun from his waste. I turn my gun toward him and shoot out his kneecap to finish destroying it. He drops his gun in favor of clutching at his knee, or what’s left of it.By now, Mr. Ricci has moved in ready to help if needed, so I say to him, “Would you mind gathering up his pistol, please?” He does by picking it up where it was dropped and I continue, “Take everything in his pockets.”I’m still holding the other one and now he manages to pull a gun with his free hand. I release his right arm and put a bullet through his left hand. His gun goes flying and he drops to the ground in pain. Mr. Ricci is watching in awe at the action, so I say to him, “Be careful in those pockets. I’m sure there’s a blade or two somewhere on him.” I say this as I start to do the same to the man I am standing over.I find a boot knife and a switch blade along with some identification papers and a wad of cash. Mr. Ricci comes up with the same.He brings them all to me and whispers, “That’s some pretty fancy gun play, Wally. Nice to have a friend like you around.”I smile at him and get back to business. “Now, here’s the way it’s going to be. You two are going back to your minder and tell him what happened here. Then you will tell him, that Mr. Abernathy respectfully requests that he leaves the folks on this side of the park over to Lexington alone. No harm, no foul. A nice respectable arrangement. Can you remember that message?”The one with the busted up knee says, “Yes, sir. A good arrangement to be sure. Yes. No trouble again. None whatsoever. Right O’Toole?”O’Toole, the one holding his left hand under his right arm pit says, “Yes, yes. We won’t be bothering these nice people again. No bothering at all, yes, Sir.”I wind up the conversation with, “O’Toole, help your friend along and off with the both of you.”O’Toole gets to his feet and slowly walks around my gun and helps the other tuff up and they limp away.I turn to Mr. Ricci and hand him the cash. “Take what is yours and return the rest to our friends who were fleeced today, please.” And then I add, “And I would appreciate it if you kept this to yourself as best you can. I don’t need the “publicity”.”He smiles and says, “Wally, did you see that big stranger take on those hoodlums?” His smile gets slyer and he continues, “I wonder who he was?”I pat him on the shoulder and walk away as if nothing has happened. Besides, I have a schedule to keep.There are four entrances to my house. The main double front doors, a kitchen entrance from the side yard, a set of double doors onto a large back porch and a camouflaged doorway in an ally through a brick wall. This time of day, made up as Wally, I use the front entrance with a key. I slip in and change my clothes into another old man disguise. This one looks to be about fifty and portly. He is quite a dandy from the south and owns a large coal mining concern. He is having a lunch meeting with his executives and bankers. I slip out the secret ally entrance and join the other people on the street smoothly.The lunch meeting is at my favorite luncheon restaurant. It is around the block from Abernathy Transport, Inc. and two blocks from my southern gentleman’s offices as well. It is an important meeting in preparation for the upcoming financial storm. My guests greet me as Benjamin Bradley. We enjoy an excellent lunch while we chat about the country, finances and the markets. They are all waiting for me to give orders and I drag the lunch out just to watch them fidget. Their livelihoods depend on me and they are worried.I give them specific directions on what needs to be done to minimize the impact on my coal business. I have many friends that are wise to the current situation including several senators and congressional representatives. I often know things that most people do not. That is because I own most of the complete supply chain. I own an arms manufacturing company that contracts exclusively with the military, a freight shipping company that ships the armaments, a railroad that contracts with the shipping company, and several large coal mines that provide fuel for my railroad. I own each of these businesses as different people. You could say it gives me a leg up. It is also against several anti-monopoly laws.After lunch, I move on to my Coal Mining Company Office. Having met with my finance team, I now must meet with my senior operations staff and brief them on what to do during the next few weeks. I lie to them and tell them I am leaving on a trip to Europe in a few days and will not be back for three months. Everything will be just fine. I have other matters to attend to with some inventor friends.When I wrap up my Bradley Coal Concerns business, I slip back into my Abernathy offices, change my “costume” and leave for the day. I hurry to my home. I am attending the opera tonight…Today 23 East 62nd St., New York CityMy old house is still in fine shape, but it has not been used in twenty years. I ride my bike by it every once in a while just to keep watch. There are some very valuable items inside and the security systems are state of the art. Satisfied again, I fly along to my home in the Empire State Building.I am using my Javier Mendez name today as I usually do in this beautiful building except when I drop the act around my inner circle of trusted friends and colleagues.And, it is a very big day today. I am expanding my circle by adding a computer hacker (Technologist) to my team and we are dropping the mother of all secrets on him. He thinks he has a Top Secret clearance and he does. However, it is about to go way beyond all that. By the way, he is not just any hacker. He is known on the net as “Lancer” and he is the best of the best at what he does. Moreover, we know because we found him when he tried to access my most secure files that contain my most important secrets. My own team of computer wizards saw Lancer start his hack. The “battle” took a full hour and we threw everything we had at him, three firewalls, a new encryption algorithm we developed for the National Security Agency (NSA) and one self-evolving firewall, but he still got further in than any of our test attacks ever had.In the end, he succeeded in accessing our cover data. All faked. But, that allowed us to track him with some tricks of our own. We didn’t bust him, but hired him instead. That was eight months ago.The team already in my circle includes my Chief Executive Officer (CEO), a Security Specialist, a Project Manager, an Executive Secretary, and a Financial Analyst.John Dawkins is my personal CEO and has been for thirty-eight years. He looks great for his age, fifty-eight. He is the most intelligent person I have ever met, except for me. I found John in one of my shipping companies right after he graduated from Harvard Law and invested in his education. He also has a PhD from Oxford in International Trade and a Jurist Doctorate from Harvard specializing in Corporate Law. He was at the top of his classes always. He is small compared to me at only 5’ 8” with a full head of blonde wavy hair. He has always worn suits and I cannot remember him without a tie on. He only buys his clothes from one Italian tailor. He can afford it. In fact, he can afford anything thanks to me. However, his best quality is the ability to sum up a situation quickly and clearly for me. He leaves out things that are not factors and puts numbers and percentages on everything. I love it.My Security Specialist is Gunther Adams. He’s only been with me for eight years. He is forty-two years old and very, very fit. He is short and “stocky.” He is always dressed for action in military looking regular clothes. When he dresses up, it means a pull over collared shirt and a sport coat. He always has a couple of guns on him and an assortment of other toys. He is the only other person who has an internal comm unit like mine in his skull. He insisted on it when he got hired.He and I do not work out together. I like to fight and he knows he can’t win. He says a quote from the old movie “War Games” whenever I talk about a match, “The only winning move is not to play.” So, he works out at an exclusive gym that many of the New York Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) folks use. He is good at keeping secrets.I called in favors from the Pentagon looking for Gunther. They sent me to the CIA and he was at the top of a very short list. He is skilled in every weapon invented and he now helps invent them.His most valuable asset to me is his connections. He can call anyone and get help. He cultivates this network and with my resources, he has been very successful. He also enjoys chasing secrets. A couple of years ago, we were just chatting and the subject of Area 51 came up. We decided that we should see for ourselves what is going on there. We knew a lot between us, but we wanted the dirt. He arranged our clearances and we took a field trip. No aliens, but many cool new toys.At last count, I had nine Research and Development (R&D) facilities all doing Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) projects. It keeps me on the front edge of technology. Besides, I like toys and always have. Area 51 turned out to be anti-climactic for Gunther without the aliens. In my mind, Gunther is a lot like James Bond.My Project Manager is Megan Reed. She has been with me for twenty years and is forty-seven. She dresses quite ordinary in casual business attire always. She is pretty, but can look great with a little makeup sometimes. Her hair has always been short and she will not color it, so gray is starting to appear. She can keep more balls in the air than I can. And that’s a lot. She’s married to a radio basketball announcer. He does college games and makes radio commercials too. She has two kids that keep her hands full when I don’t; James who is fourteen and Justin is just twelve. They live down the hall from me and I help James with his homework. We spend a lot of time talking about girls now. He’s got a crush on a stuck up rich girl that won’t give him the time of day. I also take the boys to the local basketball courts and let them win most of the time. Without them knowing it, I feed them the newest video games and they actually do some beta testing for me.Besides Megan’s PM skills, she is the one I count on to help me do the right thing. She is a Christian and her moral advice is always needed. I often decide things with a little too much callousness. You would too if you had seen what I have seen. Life becomes less of a miracle when you’ve lived through the deaths of 100 billion people.My Executive Secretary is Harry McMasters. He has been with me for twenty-eight years and is my best friend. He is the best best friend I have ever had, and I have had a lot. Harry fools people a lot with the butler routine. In reality, he is much, much more. He speaks four languages besides English. They’re Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and French and I work with him on them all the time. I particularly enjoy his Chinese Mandarin, but when he is speaking English, he has a quiet southern drawl. He is also my sparring partner and personal trainer. I watched his career as he was growing up. He is the son of Cecil McMasters, the retired head of my Cartography Department for a railroad company I own. Cecil passed away several years ago and asked me to look out for his son when he got sick. Harry was a Marine Corp Master Sergeant when we met and we instantly became close friends. He is black with no hair and a goatee. We talk about his father a lot. Next to his father, Harry is the most honorable person I have ever met. Oh, by the way, he really looks quite “bad.” He too packs an arsenal on him.My Financial Analyst (I think of her as a Banker) is Mary Jo Smyth and she manages billions of dollars, or Euros or Yen, or whatever, every day. I am easily the richest person in the world, so she has her work cut out for her. She has been with me for seventeen years now. We’ve been lovers twice and are not currently. The age difference makes it a challenge. She has bright red shoulder length hair and is still stunning when she dresses up, which is less and less frequent these days. I think she should date more, but she has a couple of guys she takes on vacations. She is now sixty and she’s still hot.Lancer, Daniel Sullivan, “Sully.” is twenty-two now and the exact opposite of what you would expect a geek to look like. He would look quite natural on the cover of GQ magazine. He is 6’ 2” and slim.We are telling him the truth about me. I am not Javier, the kid who helps out around the Operations Center. I am someone and something entirely different. Including Javier, I use seven fake identities and make up temporary ones as needed. I have learned that anonymity keeps me protected, protected from the world. It is a lesson I have learned over the years and centuries, because I am immortal. I am Malek, the fifth son of Seth, the third son of Adam and have been alive for over 60 centuries.Plus One Makes SixI remember everything. Let me be clear on that, I remember everything. I remember what I had for breakfast on the first Tuesday of November in the year 1818. I remember the weather from where ever I was every day of my life. I know of people that have that ability and it pretty much drives them crazy. I like it. I cross-reference everything in my head and use it. Just as normal people do, only they make important decisions with maybe ten factors. I see every choice with probably forty thousand facts from a long lifetime of experiences. The problem is that many of my experiences were bad and I didn’t care. Now I find myself trying to “grade” these experiential facts by right and wrong. Taking that into consideration can really, really complicate a choice.It’s tough having a conscious. Morality is very subjective. It’s like trying to paint “love.” I’m sure that someday, or millennia, I will reach some kind of limit on memory input/output and storage. Bill Gates once told me that he had a great memory, just bad I/O (Input/Output).I stopped aging around age twenty. I can clearly remember my childhood living in Africa. My endless youth was not noticed for centuries because living to be eight hundred was normal. There were no viruses or diseases in the beginning of human life. Death usually came from an act of violence or natural mishap. When I was born, there was about four hundred people in the world. When I was five hundred, the population had exploded to over fifty thousand.I learned that I could not be injured when I was caught up in a bloody tribal dispute and should have been killed by a knife attack. Both the attacker and I were astonished to see that it bounced off my chest. The blade was deflected as if I was made of stone. I have an energy shield that is internally generated that protects me. We won the battle, but the incident was noticed by everyone who survived the skirmish. It became clear to my grandfather, it was time for me to move on. Besides, even with the normal longevity, people began taking notice my endless youth. Grandfather Adam’s words were law and he felt it would be best for me to make a new life somewhere else and to hide the secret of my eternal youth from the world. I became a nomad.It seems I can instinctively control my shield so nothing can penetrate it or I can “soften” it so I can eat and touch. I never get sick, but I can grow hair. My beard is a little thin, but I have a fine moustache presently. I do not need to eat, but I do and love it. In 1894, I was aboard a ship that went down in a storm in the south pacific. I spent sixteen days treading water in the open sea while sharks swam around me taking nibbles, but coming away disappointed thanks to my shield. Overall, not something I wish to repeat. I did not learn how my shield is generated until 1901 when Nikola Tesla showed X-rays to me. We were very good friends. He was nuts. The details were not discovered until the MRI was put into use by the inventor, Raymond Vahan Damadian in 1977. I have two extra organs, both about the size of a walnut, one that generates my shield near my heart and one that flushes everything bad from my system almost immediately right next to my liver. We’ve done every test conceivable, but still have not figured out my longevity. The latest theory I have is that it is simply encoded in my DNA.The day started uneventful for Lancer/Sully, our new “recruit”. Sully’s boss is Gunther, so we have Gunther invite Sully to a ten o’clock meeting in the Oversight Room. This room overlooks the Operations Center and has been off limits to Sully until now. If we did it right, he doesn’t even know it exists. I have the ninety-third floor of the Empire State Building for my base of operations. Along with all the equipment and offices, there is enough space for ten apartments, really nice apartments. It is home to all five of us and our close families and will now include Sully if he chooses to accept my offer.We have vetted Sully in every manner possible. He thinks we do military contracts, which is mostly true. The entire inner circle believes he is ready for this bombshell. However, nothing can really prepare you for the news that a colleague is really older than dirt, your real boss, the richest man in the world and covertly controls an empire greater in many ways than the Roman’s ever did.Secretly, deep down inside, I love this. I feel it is like freeing a person from the small mindedness that comes from lack of resources. I hope I am handing him a ticket to fulfill all his dreams. I have never had anyone turn down the offer I am about to make and I don’t think Sully will either, once he gets over the shock.We are all standing around the room when Sully shows up and we take our seats and get ready for the meeting. Sully is looking around the room because there is a large monitor that has my identities mapped out over time complete with pictures of me in my disguises. The room is mostly technical except I have added a few of my paintings. They are clearly impressionistic and more than a century old. There are some state of the art surveillance systems in the room that monitor the vitals of everyone. They let us know all kinds of things about any guests we might have.Gunther takes the lead. “Sully, this meeting is for you. We have a very big secret to tell you that will change your life forever. This is way beyond your Top Secret clearance and whatever decisions you make here are really inconsequential compared to your keeping this secret. Your job and much of your future life depend on that.” Gunther pauses for effect and I see Sully become very serious. That is very good. His vitals are being displayed on a monitor in the table in front of me alone. I see that he is excited and very alert. His heart rate has spiked and his adrenaline levels are up as well. Again, all good signs.Gunther continues after a nod from me. “The secret is about Javier.” Sully looks at me and I stare back straight-faced studying him.“He is not who he appears to be. He is very, very, very old. As far as we can determine, he has lived for over six thousand years. He is immortal.” Sully’s mouth is open as he looks at me. He cannot decide whether to laugh or not. He does not, but his vitals slide a bit back towards the norm.I take over from here. I drop the Javier act and talk to him with the normal authority I have. “I can tell that you need a little bit more information to understand and believe what you are being told. On the large monitor on the far wall are my different identities. There are seven right now plus the “real” me. You only know me as Javier Mendez. The name I was given at birth is Malek.”As Sully listens intently, I explain my aliases and how I “grow” them from a fake birth twenty years in the past and use them for twenty years. At any time, I am preparing to “retire” a few and “activate” a few. I see that Sully is beginning to think this might be real.The next planned discussion is kicked off by this statement I make. “Everyone, please tell Sully how long you have known me.”John starts off, “Thirty two years and Malek has not changed since I first met him. I worked with him for two years before he dropped the bomb on me. I must say, you are taking it better than I did.”Gunther takes his turn next, “Eight years for me. It only took two months for him to reveal his true age to me, but two more months before I truly believed it. It was only when he made me shoot him at point blank range that I was convinced.”I jump back in with an explanation, “I have a natural kind of force field that protects me from injury. Are you doing ok?”Sully finally speaks, “Yes. This is either true or the best practical joke that has ever been pulled on anyone. You guys are serious, right?”Megan helps out, “Yes, we are deadly serious. Malek’s secret is true and must be protected at all costs. If the world found out that one man controls as much wealth and power as he does, there would be economic and political repercussions that would be disastrous for pretty much the entire world.”She pauses and then continues. “I have been in on Malek’s secret for twenty years. He is my closest friend and everything you are hearing right now is true.”Harry takes his turn and simply says, “I have been Malek’s Executive Secretary for twenty eight years.”Mary Jo wraps it up with this monologue, “I have been in this inner circle,” she makes a gesture like a big group hug, “for seventeen wonderful years. The work we do here keeps the world in balance, we protect the lives of billions of people every day by keeping their countries stabilized or destabilized as is needed. We guide Malek’s financial and therefore political empire with planned and informed decisions. But the whole house of cards is built on his anonymity. That is paramount.”She gets up and walks to the ID monitor and points to a picture. “Do you recognize the name, Earl Edward Davenport?”Sully nods and Mary Jo continues, “He is richest man in the world on paper and is a recluse. He has not been seen in person for thirty years. He is Malek. Do you know the name Aban Hamsa Rabal, the second richest man in the world? He too is a recluse, but shows up at a distance on his yacht every so often. He too is Malek. These men individually control vast industries in shipping, oil, airlines and weapons manufacturing. Imagine if the world knew that they were the same man, not to mention these other men on this monitor. Do you understand the implications of what we are telling you?”Sully slowly gets up and walks to the monitor. I accompany him and let him look at the pictures and then at me and back and forth and back and forth working his way through all seven.And then he makes the leap in his head and says, “Well, ok then.”I turn to the group and state the obvious, “Well, I think he knows we’re serious. But does he believe?”Gunther has been watching the monitor in the table that I was in front of earlier and says, “His vitals say he does.”At that, Sully walks over to the monitor and studies it for a moment and says, “How are you reading this?”Gunther explains, “You have to first realize that we are privy to the newest technology available because our companies develop it. Every day brings a new piece of magic into our possession and we put them to use first right here in this complex. I will explain the technical aspects when we are done here with this more important discussion, but trust me, these readouts are you and are very, very accurate.”Sully slowly turns to me and asks’ “How does your shield work?”I answer, “It repels everything that tries to penetrate it with no reaction in momentum. In other words, everything bounces off me without even knocking me down. Bullets bounce off, swords break or slide off, and even explosions have no effect.”I take a step back and tell him, “Hit me.”He backs up and holds up his hands in refusal. At that action, Gunther takes over by getting up from the table and pulling a knife from a pocket and in the space of less than a second throws it. It lands I the center in my chest dead on the point, bounces off and ricochets into the large window that overlooks the Operations Center. Sully has instinctively raised his arms to protect himself but watches it all in horror, then disbelief, and then finally in dumbfounded belief.After Sully catches his breath, I say to my friends, “Why don’t you give Sully and me a few minutes alone. I bet you have some paper work to gather for the next discussion anyway.”They are all smiles as they exit. Sully and I take a seat at the bar in the corner of the room, but I quickly get up and go behind the bar and magically pull out a Mountain Dew, Sully’s favorite drink, and set it in front of him. I break the silence with, “Pretty heavy stuff, eh?”He nods and finally says, “I understand.”I reply, “Good, now comes the fun part. We have a job offer for you. There are many perks that come with it. What I really need is your loyalty.”He takes a moment and then puts a sentence together, “Yes, loyalty. Now I really understand. I’ve been watching what happens with the work I do and I have agreed with every action that followed. You set up a fixed set of walls to keep me in bounds, but I always “smelled” something bigger. No proof, just a feeling. So, I haven’t said anything. I like being part of what we are doing, even if you didn’t let me in on the full picture until now.” He pauses and stares me in the eye and says, “Loyalty. I’m not going along with anything blindly. If you want my loyalty, you have to bribe me with information. I want access to everything. Only then, can I support you correctly and completely.”“Agreed. But, I must warn you that the amounts of data is staggering. And a lot isn’t cross referenced or even indexed.”“I can fix that. You open all the doors and you have made a friend for life. Well, my life anyway.”I pat him on the back and walk from behind the bar over to the doors and open them. Harry is waiting outside and he gathers everyone back in.When we are all settled again, John lays it out, “This is the most important commitment you will ever make, so just to be clear, you can quit your job now and get a nice severance package. The secret, you keep forever and no hard feelings. Or you can stay and help us keep this ship sailing smoothly. If you decide to stay, you will enjoy many benefits from now on beginning with a substantial raise in salary to about a million dollars a year. That really won’t matter because you can have an apartment down the hall to live in, furnished as you desire, generous vacation time with complete access to over twenty private residences around the world in the best places. You get chauffer services and use of company jets to travel. One week a month is paid time off. You can bank it as you see fit. We are very flexible on that. All your expenses are paid all the time, so your million-dollar salary really has no use. You won’t want for anything and your first assignment is to update our systems everywhere. We are using four-year-old technology in spots and we need to upgrade it. And we need remote communication for all of us. However, there is a big catch. Our work here comes first. We deal with crisis’ that are obviously unscheduled. Stay loyal to our work and Malek and you can be a part of something beyond important.”I am watching Sully and the monitor and he is now very excited and happy, but he is looking very cool, so I have some fun and just start talking very slowly, “You see, I own so many companies that interact we are able to keep them balanced to support each other…” Pause. “And that makes us able to react faster in the market place…” Pause. “But, that all depends on how the individual commodities markets are reacting to our previous moves…”Everyone but Sully is smiling because they know I am having fun at his expense and start smiling bigger and bigger.Then Megan starts to giggle and Harry says, “Enough Malek. Let the man give us a formal answer.”Sully stands and shakes my hand as he says, “I’m in.”TurnaboutAfter Sully has accepted the offer of his lifetime, I ask Harry to get a private dining room at any restaurant for dinner when I return from travel in about two weeks. It has to be postponed to accommodate my schedule. But, I let John know that he is welcome to take the rest of the guys to dinner to celebrate tonight if they want. And, have some fun, take a plane anywhere for something special. Miami has some amazing food. Sully and the rest of the group now have a lot of discussions and paperwork to take care of. So I leave them to it.I walk next door to my apartment and get some rest. I am going to be quite busy for the next few days. My place is furnished with antiques that I made during the 18th century in France where I owned a very successful furniture business as Jean-Fran?ois Leleu. They are in the style of Louis XVI, very ornate with gold leaf and marble tops. Paintings and sculptures adorn the walls and display cases that I have painted and made over the centuries. I have painted in many styles and under many different names. I have always sought out great artists and enjoyed their company. Leonardo Da Vinci is my favorite, but I was Claude Monet’s patron for a few years around 1869 as Louis-Joachim Guadibert. I enjoy copying both their styles as sort of an honor to them. I kept my things to myself and most of my favorites are here. Most are nature scenes depicting it at its best, flowers, trees, rain (I love the rain); people enjoying people, and the like. However, my favorite is a picture of Leonardo at an easel that he let me paint in Milan in 1490. He is intense, yet peaceful in his process. Although, I always thought he painted very slowly. Oh, well. And that trick he did with the mirror writing is easy with some practice.Through the centuries, I have acquired much wealth. Keeping my “stuff” protected made me perfect the art of constructing vaults. Some are like Chinese puzzle boxes to open. In the National Treasure and Indiana Jones movies, there are many fantasy treasure vaults. Some are actually realistic, but most leave a lot to the imagination and theatrics. It is quite a feat to build big stone doors that pivot or slide with the push of a hand. I actually got to where I made them quite complicated. I have caches all over the world and remember every one of them. There are tombs dating back four thousand years that I have yet to retrieve, but I am about to gather everything and consolidate them. Many items will end up in museums, but most is pure gold, silver, jewels, and other very liquid assets that I have already moved to a remote secure facility. I am opening them now as part of a plan that I made back in 1941.I stretch out in my favorite recliner and am quickly asleep. I wake up after less than an hour, with another frightful dream. I have been having a recurring dream for the last few months and it scares me to my core. I am standing before a gleaming man and he is speaking to me in a low commanding voice. I cannot understand him very well, but the message is ominous. I get one word out of twenty and they are in various ancient languages, mostly Latin. They are different in varying order and combinations of the words, “mission,” “love,” “champion,” “man,” “war,” and “end.” The vision ends abruptly when he draws a sword and impales me. I feel something I imagine to be pain. I can only imagine it since I have never felt it. And it ends in darkness and I feel very, very alone.The dream is becoming more frequent and I have a plan to work through it. We have a wonderful psychiatrist on staff, Dr. Ruth Nola Hanson. She helps my friends out and advises us as best she can without being in on the secret of my immortality. I think it is time to make her part of the secret.Harry calls and says that our ride is waiting. He is coming with me for the first part of my “errands.” We are off to Germany for some housekeeping chores. Our luggage and equipment is long packed and already on the waiting jet, so we take the elevator to the lobby and head outside to our limo. When we step onto the sidewalk, there is a man on the corner ranting about the end of the world and warning us of the doom. He is known around the area as Crazy Jerry. He is probably fifty feet away from me, sees me and starts to point right at me. He shouts, “He’s following him! He’s following him!” Then he points to the street and shouts, “It’s him, it’s him.” Several people look where he is pointing and see no one. Jerry cries out, “Forgive us. Please forgive us.” And starts to sob. I slip into the limo with Harry and we drive off right past Jerry who is now on the ground broken down and worn out. A couple of people are trying to help him, including a cop.Harry comments, “I’ve seen Crazy Jerry have one of his shouting matches with himself, but never interacting with anyone before. He’s gone over the edge. I suspect we won’t be seeing much of him anymore.”The ride to the heliport is short and we ride without talking. I am thinking about poor Crazy Jerry. I make a call to Megan and ask her to look after him. She gets the details and ends the call ready to get on with the task at hand.We change vehicles and I pull out a special device that looks like a big cell phone with a gps map of the city on its display. There are four blinking lights that indicate surveillance drones in the air. They are mine. They are small bat-like propeller driven units with small cameras. Right now, all four are looking at the area around me for threats. They are confined to a specific patrol zone and as we fly out of the zone, they return to whatever monitoring Gunther would have them do. They are backed up by an armed larger jet version. They are called Stingrays because of the similarity in shape. Stingrays are thick in the middle and then have bat wings and a pointy tail where a small vector thrust jet engine releases its jet exhaust fire. They are about 18 inches wide and round. They also have two missile tubes on each side of the central spine the engine uses. The wings do not move because vectoring the thrust makes them unnecessary. Thrust vectoring uses flaps on the end of the engine that aim the exhaust fire. That turns the Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) side to side and up or down. Stingrays are literally shot out of a cannon to be launched and have a fly time of 40 minutes. They can be ready to use anywhere in the city in literally seconds.Our chopper settles down right outside my private hangar. At last count, I had ten aircraft, two for my personal use. One is a six seat Cessna Turbo Stationair with a range of 703 nautical miles. And the other is a four/six seat Diamond Aircraft D-Jet with a range of 1130 nautical miles, three comfortable big helicopters, an ultra-light, and the rest are various sizes of jets, built by one of my companies. We are taking the largest and fastest jet today since it is such a long flight and we need to work onboard. If all goes well, we should be back in three days. Then Harry will stay in New York while I take the D-Jet to my next destination.We make the transfer from chopper to jet and are rolling in a matter of just a few minutes. Once airborne, Harry and I setup in the big meeting room. It’s outfitted with several large displays and we have our laptops plugged into the system, connected to my network and ready to work quickly. Harry already knows the basics of our mission. We are opening three caches of treasures that I managed to “acquire” during World War Two. Two of my hiding places contain items from museums and private residences in Poland and France. The third is made up of gifts from the Furor himself to me personally. He hoped the gifts would curry favor with me and keep his weapons and ammunition coming. There are just five items in all, four paintings and one jeweled sword and scabbard. Two of the paintings are Leonardo’s and the other two are Botticelli’s work. I need to reorganize the three caches to cover the fact that I was selling weapons to Germany and the Allies at the same time.The logistics of getting in and out of the three sites several times is complicated. “Harry, now that you have the locations and what needs to go where, where should we begin?”Harry is sketching on a map of Berlin and says, “It is pretty straight forward. We start with the small one that is next to your office in your old factory. It is deserted and should be easy to come and go since you still own the structure. Then to the northern site. It is going to be the most difficult since it is in populated part of the city. Being in a cemetery has its own challenges, but our cover should make it doable. The last should be ok if we come and go at night. The real problem is accessing the vaults for the first time. We must expect challenges and be prepared. I think we are as ready as we can be.” The last site is in a sealed off room of a public air raid bunker.“Then we repeat the whole circle and then just back and forth between the cemetery and the bunker.” Harry is nodding and I ask, “How many trips will it take?”“We should be able to do it in two, maybe three rounds. It depends on the weight and size of everything.”“Sounds good. Do we need to schedule any time for you to visit with your friend?” I ask. Harry is using a buddy from his years in the service, Master Sergeant Colin Summers.“That would be nice. Let’s see, we land at 4 P.M. local time. We need to brief him anyway. Let me make the arrangements. He likes bar food. It’s just an excuse to drink the beer.”“Great. I’ll leave that to you. I’m going to call Angela and clean up before we land.” Angela is my girlfriend and has been for a couple of years. I have been struggling with our relationship because she only knows me as Javier. I want it to be more, but I just don’t know what to do. I’ve told two wives about my immortality with very bad results. One left immediately and the other hung in there for ten years before our age differences started to show and she bailed. I can’t blame them. I leave Harry to his call and move to my stateroom to make mine.When we have twenty minutes left before we land, I go back to the conference room and join Harry who is syncing up with Gunther for the next part of our operation. We land and taxi to the private terminal where we are met by a four man team of Gunther’s men. Harry takes care of the customs people while the men move equipment to the two SUVs they brought. When the German officials have left and we are relatively alone beside our jet. Harry and I open two of the cases we have with us in the rear hatch of each vehicle. One contains a ruggedized laptop and ports to connect to the drones in the other case. Harry is online with Gunther and we follow his instructions to get a “flock” of my little video surveillance drones airborne. One by one we connect each one to the laptop, let it upload its instructions, disconnect it, start it up and throw it into the air. They immediately head for each of the three sites to give us a feed on what is happening on the ground before we arrive. It takes about an hour, but when we are done, there are 15 of the little UAVs up and running. They are disposable and have an airtime of about 4 hours. When the battery is almost dead, they head for the nearest body of water and impact the surface doing about fifty miles an hour. Many of the parts are water-soluble, so there is really almost nothing left within a few minutes after the splashdown.Harry has coordinated a food fest at a small bar about 20 minutes away with his friend, Colin. We’ve all read Colin’s file and are sure we can trust him, especially with the documents the four men have brought along. We close up the cases after showing all four of them how to operate the system. They will have to carry on when Harry and I are busy so that we have all the coverage we need. We hit the road with a driver for Harry and me in one SUV and the other three men in the other. We make small talk with Mr. Mason Todd, our driver, for the first half of the trip. I boned up on these four men on the flight over and ask our driver a question. “Mason, can I ask you a personal question?”“Sure, but I may not answer it.”“I read your file and saw that you have been on six ops working for Gunther. He has a policy of letting you opt out of a mission if you have reservations on what you are being asked to accomplish. No hard feelings, no black mark in your file, no repercussions at all. To date, only four have ever made that choice, and all left Gunther’s employment with honor and friendship. So, here’s my question. What goes through your mind when you make that decision?”“I will be happy to answer that question. About half of the people don’t even think about it. They just roll with their team leader. Then you got a range of people from the followers to the ones who ask every question conceivable about the work ahead and make their decision with a lot of thought and often prayer. Me? I’m the pain in the ass asking all the questions.”Harry looks at me and says, “Wow. A thinking soldier. What are the odds?”I reply, “I hope 100% with all Gunther’s employees. Thanks Mason. I appreciate your candor.”We arrive at the pub and two of the men check the streets and then enter the bar to scope it out. When they are satisfied that everything is ok, they radio Mason and he tells us we can go in now. He and the other driver remain with the vehicles and equipment.The place is a picture perfect version of a German bar. Its old, it’s got charm and warm beer. The menu has the famous house specialty, kraut dogs and chips. There are no tourists, only locals and us. As Harry and I enter, I see the two “body guards” at a table near the door. Colin sees Harry as we come in and waves us over to a booth in the back. They hug like you would expect two old soldiers to hug, strong and manly. We take a seat and Harry introduces me to Colin. Colin is around fifty years old and looks like he works hard at staying very, very fit. He is wearing jeans and a sweater. The sweater is having a hard time around his upper arms with the bulk. The waitress is at our table in a flash and I order for everyone in German. Colin’s file says that he speaks no German and he is thankful to be able to continue his conversation with Harry anyway. The food and drink come and Colin is dying to know what the “mission” is.Harry does the talking, “For the next three days, we are going to be moving art artifacts between three hidden sites to prepare them to be “found” and released to the public. This is old Nazi treasure and we have the blessing of the State Department. That comes directly from the Secretary of State.” Right on cue, I extract a folder from a metal briefcase and lay it in front of Harry. He slides it to Colin who looks at the first page with Duncan’s signature on it and then at a map.Colin says, “How do you know all this?”Harry replies, “We are doing a favor for the Secretary and that’s all I can tell you. You need to trust me that what we are doing is the right thing to do. You can never mention that you helped us to anyone, ever. Are you ok with all this?”“Hell yes. Let’s see those other maps and tell me the plan.”Harry carries the conversation for the rest of the evening. It is nice to see such kinship in two men. That happens when bullets are flying and you are counting on the other guy to watch your back. They consume a lot of beer considering we are working in 6 hours. I drink twice as much as them just to watch Colin. I cannot get drunk, so I find this amusing. I’ve drunk many men under the table on a bet before, but not in a long time. I even liked the taste of the brew.I fidget with my watch to let Harry know we need to get moving. We are headed back to the plane to grab some sleep since it is nicer than most hotels and we don’t need to waste time checking in and out. I signal the men that we are leaving and they move out. We follow and join everyone in the two vehicles. I ride with the three men and let Harry and Colin ride together with Mason. We pull into the airport and when we park next to our jet. Colin is struck silent by its size and then by its furnishings. The four-man support team splits the watch and two join us in the plane until it is time to switch in three hours. The other two hang around the SUVs and monitor the UAVs. They have had to put another five bats into the sky so far to replace ones that died. They are getting ready to do another few again shortly.It’s time to start the op and I pull everyone into the conference room. The men put out motion detectors around the caravan and reluctantly come inside for a briefing.When we are all seated and Gunther is online, I pull up a file and turn on a holographic projection that takes up the whole table with the three sites on it. Everyone is suitably impressed. I run everyone through the layout of the sites and then have Gunther turn on the feeds from the drones. He explains that he can update our wire frame model with “skin” from the video feeds and does so. The projection shimmers for a second and then the hard surfaces appear. Very cool.We run through the plan and many changes are made from Colin’s input on the local territory. They are mostly about traffic and routes. The men have several suggestions too, all about their support roles. When finished, we move out to the ground transport. Mason opens a rear hatch, pulls out several decent size cases and opens them. They are filled with guns and other deadly tools. I take my Colt Python and my shoulder holster. The other guys help themselves and I don’t see my personal case I requested. I ask Mason about it and he retrieves it from the front. I open it and take out the toys I am used to having. I take a six-pack holster of throwing stars, a boot knife, two wrist throwing knives and a thigh mounted buck knife. Mason is watching me load up and can’t resist making a comment. “I can’t think of anything else to add to your armory, Sir, unless you want a blow gun…” He is being sarcastic of course.I smile and say, “Chance favors the prepared.”Harry and Colin handle the explosives and we all put on comm units and test them out with Gunther taking the lead. Every comm unit has a video camera and Gunther is seeing everything we are seeing. Time to move out.The trip to the shutdown factory is fifteen minutes and we park in our planned location. It’s right next to the main factory doors and everything is as expected. So far, so good. It is still dark, so I switch on a light and find the right keys to the front door on a key ring in my pocket. The door opens easily and we enter the darkness where everyone turns on their own lights. We set up a command post of sorts and one man will stay here on lookout station. I figured this would be the easiest egress of the three sites. We climb four flights of stairs and are standing in the executive management hallway. We walk to the end into a reception area and stand before two large doors that lead into my office. One of the support team remains on watch outside the office as five of us enter the room. I have not been in this office since 1944 when I closed it down. I look around the empty, dusty space and imagine it back then.December 7th, 1941 BerlinI was at my desk with the war news radio playing and a special bulletin came on. Pearl Harbor was attacked. I knew the President of the United States had already gotten the news by the time I heard it and wondered what his next move would be. I guessed correctly with the declaration of war being announced shortly thereafter. It was not the loss of life or disgust over the cowardly act that got to me. I have witnessed far worse. It was the fact that instant communication on a global scale had reached maturity and it scared me. And nothing had ever really scared me before, ever. I watched the radio being invented and it didn’t take me long to know the impact it was going to have. I studied its growth and use. And of course, the military moved quickly to apply this miracle to war. At the time, I was using four primary identities, all wealthy moguls of industries. One German, one Swiss, one Englishman, and one Frenchman. I provided war materials to any buyer without thinking about the consequences of my double-dealing. Then radio shrunk the world. Then the airplane made it smaller still.The next day, President Roosevelt gave his “Infamy” speech. He changed the course of history with that speech. It became clear to me as I was listening that men of wealth and power now have the tool to make big things happen from far away and quickly. And I was one of those men. And I started to use it right then and there.There are two more things that were factors as well. It became clear to me that Hitler was evil. There have been lots of evil men of power in history, but none with the means to cause as much pain as he had. Pain on a truly global level. The other factor was the atom bomb. I was well aware of the work being done on both sides of the war. I saw that mankind was on the verge of being able to destroy itself with that weapon.By the end of FDR’s speech, my course of action was clear. I realized that all my wealth meant nothing without using it to pay back the world for all that it has given me. There was no point in amassing more of anything. I had enough to outlast even immortality. My network of companies was close to being self-sustaining. So, I did something I had not done in a thousand years, I took a side. I began to help the Allies defeat Germany and Japan. I started letting the quality go downhill on the arms I sold to Germany. I started to price gouge them too. I funneled that money into helping the Allies with some very important R&D work. I even helped make sure the right minds were working for the right side.I have never looked back after making that decision. I liked Superman when he showed up in the 1930’s because he fought for Truth, Justice and the American Way. Sounded good then, and still sounds good today.When I think about my actions before my turnabout, I am ashamed.There are no fond memories in this place.ExcaliburToday BerlinI use chalk to mark where I want a wall to be blown out. It has to look like it naturally crumbled to reveal the room and Harry and Colin go to work. Then we are told over the comm unit that two local cop cars are investigating our entry into the old plant and on the way. They are three minutes out. I put the mission on hold and head out to handle the surprise visit. I exit the door just as two tiny squad cars pull to a stop next to our huge SUVS.In German, I address the officers when they approach, “Hello, didn’t expect any notice to be taken with our visit here, but I’m glad to know the area is locally protected.”I pull out fake Interpol credentials and give them to the closest officer. “All I can tell you is that it is an ongoing investigation. We expected to be in and out before anyone saw us.”I tell them how many men are with us and particularly about the one stationed inside the doors.The officer with my creds has phoned it in and is satisfied that we are legitimate. They ask us to please notify them the next time and ask if we need any perimeter security. I tell them that would be welcome and that I need to get back inside to work. We should be about another twenty minutes.Once back inside in my old office I tell Harry to blow the wall. He does and it makes a muffled blast because of the shape charges he applied. The wall of bricks crumbles and when the dust clears, a long, thin crawl space is revealed. I shine a light inside and see the packages just as I left them. I step through the hole, retrieve the sword and leave the paintings. I pass it out to Harry who holds it like he is holding a newborn baby. When I am out of the crawlspace and back in the office, I take the sword and unwrap it to take a quick peek. I pull it out of the scabbard and it is as beautiful as ever.Over the comm lines so all can hear, I tell them about the sword, “Everyone, I give you Excalibur, King Arthur’s sword that he pulled from the stone.” There really is nothing more to say. It is magnificent. Harry says to Gunther to close the comm units to everyone except for him, Gunther, and me. Once done, he asks me to step into the reception area alone. We invite the man on station there to have a look at the weapon.When we have privacy, Harry says, “Ok, tell us how you know this is Excalibur? King Arthur is a legend.”“He was real and I was there in his court.” I pause and then tell them the rest. “I was Merlin, his mentor and friend. When Hitler gave me the sword, he thought it was from France. I recognized it immediately and was amazed at the serendipity of it returning to me after six centuries. There is an inscription under the hilt wrap that proves it is genuine. How about we give it to Colin?”Harry smiles and says, “I can’t think of a more deserving fellow. Gunther can you forge up some documents that prove he acquired it legitimately?”“Sure, sounds good to me.”We return to my office and I wave at the guys to come. On the way out, I asks Gunther, “Are the local cops watching us? Will they see us carrying our stuff?”In a few seconds, he says, “They are out of your line of sight.” Just then we reach the main doors and our man is watching out the windows with a scope and says that all is clear.Mason says, “Let’s get out of here.” They break down the gear. Four more drones were launched while we were inside. We load up and take off. We wave at the lone policeman sitting in his tiny patrol car and head for the next site 20 minutes away. It is the cemetery and should be easy. It is old and there are no caretakers. There is a heavily wooded area just to the north of the 30 acres and our disguise vehicle is waiting. It has a camo net over it and has only been there 20 hours. It is a large utility truck with a backhoe on a trailer.We change clothes and drive the truck only a quarter mile to the fence surrounding the graveyard. As we arrive, I tell the team that I have made a decision and it requires a change of plans. “I want to empty the last two sites and put it all in the factory.” No one argues.Mason drives the backhoe off the trailer while we open the fence by removing a section. I direct him where to dig and about 6 feet down he hits a metal plate. It covers a fifteen foot square cement chamber. We pull the cover back with chains hooked to the digger and move it out of the way. The crates are still sealed and intact as I expected. We start a fire bucket line and pass the 22 crates off to each other. They are loaded in a matter of minutes and Mason goes to work replacing the lid and filling in the hole. When he is done, we reset the fence and turn to leave.Colin is the first to notice that one of the men is gone, McGuire. And so is the sword. The other three men search the immediate area and one finds his equipment and some of his clothes. He apparently is trying to shed anything that we can track him with. I let Gunther know all this and he tells me to get my drone tracking handheld unit. I do and it shows all the local drones. They are all heading to us, but there is a new one on the screen. It is McGuire and he is moving fast on foot. Gunther explains that all his employees are tagged with an implant.Mason says, “What? I don’t remember that happening to me.”Gunther replies, “Sorry to not tell you guys, but it was a failsafe to help if things like this happen. He doesn’t know about it obviously. Go get him. Bring him in alive if possible, but bring him in.” Mason takes charge.“Camo gear now! We’re going hunting.” Two minutes later the three men are ready to go and take off. I decide to take another course of action.“Gunther, have all the drones try to hit McGuire. Yes, buzz him and hit him if you can. I’m taking one of the SUVs to intercept him. I know where he’s headed. There’s a gas station mini mart setup with a couple of auto shops three miles directly ahead of him. I’m thinking that he plans to take a car there and disappear. Stay tuned. I’m moving out.” Colin and Harry have heard everything I’ve said and are looking at maps as I run off.I kick into my fastest run and am at the cars in less than two minutes. I take the lead one and head out as fast as it will go. In another minute, I hear Gunther on the comm narrating the drone attacks on McGuire. He dumped his radio gear so there is no way to talk him out of what he is doing. I expect he will kill to keep the sword. He has left the forest and is crossing a farm field of corn right now and there are now twelve drones ready to dive at him. They are buzzing him relentlessly and slowing him down. The three-man team is hot on the trail and gaining steadily. Gunther is keeping them aware of his moves and probable destination. I pull into the gas station, park and move to the back of the buildings and take up a vantage point to surprise him.Gunther gives me the audible as McGuire approaches the buildings slowly. He’s pulled the drones away because of the people around. McGuire’s dot has stopped moving and I am waiting him out. The other guys are one minute out and McGuire has started moving. It looks like he is inside the main garage bay now moving slowly. In a few moments, he is almost in the same position as me, but behind a metal wall. He has stopped moving.Then, he surprises me from the top of the roof. I missed the elevation difference between him and me on the display. Crap. He sprays me with full auto from his MP-5. Five of the bullets connect and clink off me with no harm done. I dive through an open door and find the roof access stairs right in front of me. I run up and burst out the door onto the roof. McGuire has spotted the three men in the field and is ready to shoot them so I am forced to make a move. I whip out my wrist knives, throw them, and they both hit his neck as planned. He drops to his knees and then falls forward. The sword is slung over his back and safe.Mason and his team come onto the roof as I am checking his vitals. From the amount of blood, I know that he is long gone. I tell Mason to get the SUV and park it below us as I throw the keys to him. While we are waiting, one of the men says, “Why would he do that? For the money? We are all well taken care of by Gunther.”The other guy has something else on his mind and says, “You threw those knives almost fifty feet and hit his neck. How the hell did you do that? And there is an empty clip here and I count four, no five holes in the shirt on your back. You don’t have a vest on. What are you, Superman?”“We’ll talk later,” I say as the car appears below us. I pick up one of McGuire’s legs, drag him the few feet to the edge of the roof and shove him off. The men are not pleased, but understand. Mason moves the body into the back of the SUV and shuts the door just as we appear and jump in the seats. Mason joins us and takes off. I notice several people looking out of the store’s window at us as we head away.We are back with Harry and Colin in five minutes and I have Mason offload the backhoe again as we take the fence off as before. Mason digs up the cement box a second time and we dump McGuire’s body in it. We go through the same process as before and in fifteen minutes we are moving out. The men have retrieved the other SUV and we drive away. In light of the circumstances, I decide that the last stash can stay where it is. Putting the crates we have from site two into my old office is good enough.Sixty-three minutes later the crates are in the office crawl space ready to be discovered and we are heading to the airport. Everyone is silent on the ride. We pass through the gates and park next to our plane. The whole drive, I’ve been thinking of some bull to tell Mason and his men about the bullets bouncing off me. I am coming up with a blank. So, I pull the trump card out of my hand and play it when I am saying thanks and goodbye to the three men “Look, you guys deserve more than this, but my abilities are classified. We’re working to getting them into the field for you to use, but that is years away. I’m a prototype.” They know when to stop asking questions and do so.The men are dropping Colin off back where he left his car and Harry is saying farewell to his friend. I approach them, carrying Excalibur, and slip it to Harry and walk away after saying my goodbyes. I stay close enough to overhear Colin’s side of the conversation a bit, “What am I going to do with it? I don’t know how to sell it. What would I do with the money?” Harry talks quietly for a minute and Colin says, “Really? Anything I want? You’ll help me? I know exactly what I want to do with the money. Exactly.” Harry hugs his friend as he passes the sword to him.As we are about to board the plane, I tell Mason to stay with Colin until the sword is put into a safe in a bank vault. We board the plane as the vehicles drive off. We are in the air in ten minutes. I leave Harry and head for a long shower and rest. Somewhere in there, Harry shows up with one of my favorite meals, a ham and cheese omelet and a glass of champagne. We leave each other alone for the rest of the trip back to New York.A few days later, I learn that McGuire has a kid sister who needs an expensive kidney transplant and he was desperate to save her. Gunther and I are sad with the choices he made, but Gunther has followed up and is taking care of the girl just as if he had asked for help. On a brighter note, Colin is planning to set up a foundation that helps wounded vets get the services the government provides and then adds more to make their lives even better. He should do well, as the sword has secretly been appraised by Sotheby’s. They expect it to bring over fifty million dollars at auction. Very cool. Harry sure is a good judge of character, (except maybe with me…).Into the Wild Blue YonderWhen we touch down in New York, Gunther is there to meet us and take care of customs. We talk about the trip and the outcomes with all seriousness after he is through. Harry then catches his ride to the Empire State Building and I talk to my chief mechanic about the maintenance on the D-Jet that I am going to fly. Once satisfied, I board the plane and go through the preflight check, update the logs and make sure a flight plan is filed. I fire the engines and begin the long taxi to the real flight line.I am headed to Oklahoma to catch my new space plane for a ride to the International Space Station for a five-day stay.I enjoy piloting myself and have flown almost every airplane. The most fun I have ever had flying was taking up the Wright Brothers first plane three days after their first flights. It was all so fresh, new and most of all, “freeing.” I went up in a hot air balloon with one of the Montgolfier brothers in France in 1785 and I was hooked. Actually, guiding the plane and being in control is much better than a balloon. I also love to fly gliders. I don’t have one right now, because I am planning a new variety that has small jet engines that can get you flying without a tow plane. Then, they would be cut loose to parachute back to earth. I started working with an engineer last month to see what might be done. Stay tuned.After I am comfortable with the plane again and am just cruising along, the boredom sets in. I put the plane on autopilot. With my hands free, I open up my laptop and go online with my friends.I had a custom rig added to the cockpit just to hold my computer where the copilot would sit. My laptop is really cool. I designed it with Sully’s help, but he didn’t know that he was working with me at the time. It is about a half inch thick, thirteen by nine inches and has eight parts, a keyboard base, a mouse table on the right and six one eighth inch flat screens that I can hang anyway I want. I usually put it in a standard three on the bottom and three on the top (three wide and two tall). I can merge it into one big screen or as many small ones as desired because the screens are virtually seamless. I am having Sully modify it to include a 3D holographic projector as well. Now Sully is building more for the six of us.I touch base in five-minute briefings with all online and each gives individual reports. All is just fine for the most part. I make a few decisions in preparation for projects in the works and my people take the action. There is one interesting thing, however. Harry asked John to check up on Crazy Jerry and he sent Ruth to visit with him. John fills me in, “Crazy Jerry isn’t really crazy, he’s un-medicated because of his homelessness. Given the right meds to stabilize him, he could do ok in the real world again. Ruth asked about what he saw when he picked you out of the crowd. He says he saw a large man dressed like a gladiator with a big sword stalking you. He was trying to warn you.”“Why did he ask the man to forgive us?”“Oh, yes. When the man looked at him, he felt like he was being judged for his life and the first thing that came out of his mouth was to ask for forgiveness. Malek, does this mean anything to you?”“I’m afraid it does. The description of the man sounds like the same man from my nightmare. But how can that be possible?”John concludes the discussion with this, “That is all I have from Ruth’s notes. We’re going to help Mr. Jerold Tyler, a veteran of the Gulf War, get the help he needs.”After I am finished with my friends and work, I call Angela and visit for an hour. I lie to her about what I am doing and feel really bad about it. Things are going to have to change. How, I just don’t know. She is the most special lady I have known in a very long time and it hurts to think of not being with her. By the way, I knew her when she was a little girl and watched her grow up. Her grandfather used to sell me pretzels and I became friends with the family. That ended in 1952 when I “died” as Wallace Pittman. But I still kept tabs on the whole family. Angela thinks we met at a Starbucks by chance, but the truth is that I planned the whole meeting. I really had no idea just how special she was until we met face to face. Wow, did she knock my socks off. I wonder where that phrase came from. I’ve actually seen a man blown out of his boots by cannon fire before, but never his socks too.I arrive at the remote airstrip in Oklahoma and am immediately in my role for the next week as Dr. Jean-Baptiste Delaborde, a French astrophysicist. I have studied up the last few weeks and will conduct experiments along with the regular astronauts. Currently there are five aboard, three Americans, one Brit and one Russia; four guys and one gal, an American. This will be the first docking of the new space plane that I funded. Captain Zo Furlong will take us up. He is a seasoned pilot and has been on the project for years. There are three planes and we are taking the “Challenger” up. It was named by me in honor of the lost Space Shuttle crew.I am met by a van and taken across the runway to our lone hanger. The project is way ahead of the publicized schedule and has been ferrying paying customers into space for three years. They go into space and orbit the earth at least five times for around forty thousand dollars. They get lots of pictures and a fantastic five hours ride. Most throw up at some point.There are three of us going to the ISS on this trip. We are making some cash from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) by carrying supplies to support the station and crew so only three can go with the strict weight rules.At the hanger, I am escorted into a waiting area and my companions are waiting. John Wilcox, the resident astronaut is there along with Tsubasa Saitou, a Japanese astronomer who just won the Noble Prize. He is a fascinating fellow and we hit it off because he speaks French. I read his bio and that was why I picked a French fake personality. We chit chat about our work while we wait and ask John, our new experienced Astronaut buddy, all kinds of questions about what the flight will be like and he shares advice on different things, like where to hang stuff while you sleep. Eventually we beg him to let us both take a spacewalk. He says he will see if the busy schedule permits it.After a twenty minute wait, Captain Zo Furlong himself comes into the room and visits with us. Zo can laugh and carry on with the best of us, but he always has a serious side that supports his super pilot mind. He is larger than most jet jockeys at 5’11”. His hair is finally turning grey, but he looks great. Zo has first flight credits on no less than four aircraft, including this space plane and the Aurora, the SR-71 replacement that does Mach 6.Zo begins our tour by taking us up to the top mezzanine where we get a look out over the huge hanger where six aircraft are parked. Three are space planes and three are T-38 Talons used as chase planes. They are dwarfed by the space planes. The space planes are the same size and look a lot like the Concord. There are several differences of course, the large rocket cylinders under the wings for one thing. The expended rockets are jettisoned after they give the plane its big kick into space out of our atmosphere. They fall a long way back to earth in the ocean where they are retrieved for reuse.I once asked Zo how high “up” was as a joke and he came back with the same answer all jet pilots do, ninety two thousand feet. Then he explained that after that altitude, it kind of doesn’t matter which way up is anymore.The planes have a very cramped cockpit and even tighter passenger compartment. Our passenger compartment is presently configured for the three of us. John will be staying aboard and one of the guys up there now will be rotating off back to earth. Then the fun begins as Zo takes us to one of the two planes we will not be taking. It has its cowlings off and we can see the hardware under the skin in places. There are rolling stairs for the mechanics to use and Zo lets me climb up into a bay and study it for a few minutes. I see lots of areas where we can upgrade and I note them in my head for later. I do this for several of the hatches while the others just kind of mill around. Then into the cockpit, we go. It is so cool, my very own space ship. Wow.Then I ask if I can take a look at the cockpit of one of the T-38s and he says, “Sure, why not.” I climb up the side and hop into the driver’s seat. It is instantly familiar and feels like fun to fly. I’ll have to take one up soon.The tour ends abruptly when the countdown starts at three hours until takeoff. Zo says we must hurry now and takes us to a team of technicians and doctors that split the three of us up and take us to be prepped. I’ve never had eight people work on me at once. There are two handling asking me questions about past medical problems and any medications that I take. One’s a nurse and the other is the translator.Abruptly, Tsubasa walks into my room dressed just like me in a gown. He walks up to me and bows and says, “I would be honored to be your interpreter. They just told me you were being supplied with a very skilled individual, but I would like to help out.”I ask the interpreter in French if it is ok with him and he smiles and admits his translation skills are rusty. I bow back at Tsubasa and graciously accept the offer of his translation skills. It’s hard to bow because I have monitoring electrode patches hooked all over me. They are connected to a main harness that connects to a thin backpack unit.A monitor with a list of steps that we must go through to prepare is hanging on a wall. I memorize it as it goes by once and feel that I am ready to go. After all, this is my first time in space and it is no cliché to say that I have waited for this all my life.We have a quick briefing together to cover the legal warnings that I required. Blah, blah, blah…Then we are packed into the plane, strapped in, connected to a comm link, connected to an oxygen system, and then hooked into an electrical power system. We aren’t going anywhere without the plane taking us there.Zo and his Copilot have been aboard for an hour already doing the preflight check. There will be a quick turnaround for the plane. At the station, the cargo and passengers will be unloaded. The plane will then return to earth for another profitable cargo-carrying load on the flight to get us. It’s the first time the plane has turned around in between flights and it is a very big test of the system. If there are any hitches, a second plane will simply make the trip instead.The plane begins to move slowly as it is pushed by a tug and backed out through the hanger doors and then far onto the runway. The whole process takes about ten minutes. The engines are started and they are loud and the vibration is strong but quiet. Our helmets are protecting us from their noise, but my ears are still on the verge of hurting. The bird begins to taxi and Zo comes on and does a bad stewardess imitation telling us to keep our cell phones turned off and then he just busts up and gives us a two-minute briefing on what to expect next. I have a French translation going on in my ear from Tsubasa.We move to the flight line and immediately hit the jets. We are pushed back in our seats as we hit five hundred mph in about twelve seconds. The front wheels rotate off the ground and then the rear and we are airborne. The sensation is close to the simulator that we were in a month ago when we trained for this trip, but stronger.The G force finally backs off and we can breathe easier now. The display array in front of me is not unlike the cockpit, except that none of my flight controls function. There are eight small monitors in all and they are all programmable for any one of sixteen choices. I have mine set to show views mostly aiming towards the front of the plane and down at the ground. We are already over Florida when over the Comm; Zo announces that it is 60 seconds until a 118-second rocket burn. It took us less than four minutes to get to this altitude. Zo comes on again at five seconds with a countdown. And when he hits where zero should be, we are jammed back in our seats again. The force locks us in place and there is a burn countdown on one display. Again, the G’s back off and I gasp for a couple of breaths. While gasping, I look out the window and am stunned by the sight of being on the edge of the atmosphere. Half the view is the beautiful curved earth and the rest is stars. Without the atmosphere to obscure the view, you can see ALL the stars. It is amazing. Then I realize that some of the stars are not stars at all, but far away galaxies. It is a humbling site if you take the time to consider the size of it all and then remember that you are a speck of dust in the big picture.At this moment, I get a little queasy because we are now weightless. I did not even notice the booster rockets being dropped. The feeling quickly passes and I enjoy the magic of zero gravity. For the first time in a very, very, very long time, I feel like a kid again.The jets have shut down and we are hurtling through space at almost 18 thousand mph. I switch my monitor configuration to look “up” at the earth. The view is amazing as we pass from day to night. The city lights change at that point and I can sense the millions of people down below and what they are doing this time of the evening. The weather systems are just as beautiful with all their power and size. I see the normal seasonal hurricane forming to the west of Africa. The depression is not supposed to be a storm and is dying out already. There is a mass of clouds stuck off the North West coast of America. It looks like another rainy day for Seattle. The Cascade Mountain Range stops the clouds from moving East and creates a rain shadow. The sight is truly breathtaking.All during this time, Tsubasa and I quietly converse back and forth between French and Japanese. He really is a very pleasant fellow. I think we will be good friends.Heavenly HostOur space plane takes four orbits to cross paths with our destination. The International Space Station is a beautiful thing as you approach. The detail of the machinery and the solar arrays are a marvel to behold. The station is a true testament to what men can do together. I have plans to build another bigger better one that I hope to start in four years. Mine will be the classic spinning spoke layout so that some gravity can be artificially created from the centrifugal force. We approach the station quickly and are docked within minutes. Zo asks us to remain seated and helmeted while he runs a check on the airlocks. I watch the hatch being opened on monitor and Zo being greeted by the entire crew. The moment is magical.One of them comes in and begins working on helping me out of my seat. He introduces himself as Wilford Pickering, but I can call him Doc. He picked me because he speaks French. Doc is a Biochemist from the UK and his French is excellent. He seems like a very nice guy. It takes him ten minutes before I am ready to enter the station. First stop is the changing room and I get to use the suck urinal. That’s weird. I quickly change my clothes into the normal blue jumpsuit most wear here on the station.I was told to go to the Freedom Module for a short briefing after I get dressed. I make my way along a hallway and come to a relatively large window and cannot help but stop and stare at all the stars. All the others are ahead of me and I enjoy the solitude with the view. I find myself mesmerized by the wonder of the vastness of the universe. As I am taking it all in, I start to hear quiet music and watch as the stars are joined by what appears to be fireflies. They multiply and the quiet music gets louder and clearer as I realize that it is not coming from the comm system on the station. I don’t recognize the overture, but it is great. The lightshow outside grows and then bursts into a cloud in time to the music and I see the cloud explode and then freeze in the middle of the burst. The music stops with the frozen explosion and a male voice whispers, “God is blessing.” The language is the first language I learned. I have not heard it in over five thousand years.The half explosion is still frozen, but it just fades back to the full star panorama. I am frightened by all this and grab hold of a handgrip to steady myself. After just a few seconds, a guy sticks his head around the corner and yells, “You all right?” in English. I am still shaky, but I remember not to answer in English. I just nod my head yes and he keeps going to find the one unaccounted for man. I move hand over hand by the rails and reach the group. They stop talking when I come in.They were talking about the show and Wilford asks me to describe what I saw. I do and include the voice, but tell him that I did not understand it. They ask me to say the words and Judy Harrelson, the lone lady aboard has a mike to Houston Command Control and asks me to repeat the words. I do, poorly, and the group is trying to interpret them. All the others take turns repeating the words and all get it pretty close. I know they won’t have any luck with an interpretation. Judy runs the phrase through a computer and gets something in Swedish about a horse. Good luck.When she finishes trying to find something on the web, she moves to another terminal and is reviewing recordings of the event and she literally gasps and says, “The video and audio picked up nothing. There is no record of that event on our system. How can that be?”The Challenger has left dock and is reentering the earth’s atmosphere now. Everyone is subdued for a while and two of the men decide to recreate the event from memory using a graphics program. They get it pretty good after asking all of us for input.We try to put the show behind us and get on with the work. Tsubasa and I pretty much stick together as we go about our different assignments and experiments. I am mostly taking measurements of the star movements looking for Black Holes. They only show up when the light from a star is bent around the incredible gravity well generated by the “negative monster.” I am tracking 20 probable events. If I find one, that will be great.After three days of experiments and enjoying the view, people are relaxed around me and starting to speak English in front of me believing that I cannot understand them. They are beginning to think the event was meant for one of us personally. Unfortunately, I know that it was. The name that is being given it is “The Heavenly Host.”During the remaining days aboard the ISS, I try to have a good time and do for the most part. I have not been able to tell my friends any more than they overheard from the ground to station radio chatter.One very bright spot is visiting with Tsubasa. After a day of working on scientific nouns, we are having deep mathematical discussions on many important topics. He really is a very sharp guy. And funny. Whenever he talks about something in space, like a planet, he ends the sentence by calling it a heavenly body, rolling his eyes and making a wolf whistle. It cracks me up. I’m thinking of adding “hubba hubba” to the joke somewhere.The day finally comes when I get to do a spacewalk with John. Tsubasa already went on one and has talked about it at length. That has only made me more anxious. We are going to do several tasks on the walk, including retrieving some experiments on micro meteors and sun shield materials testing. We are also going to do maintenance on the biggest robot arm. The walk should take about three hours.Suiting up is fairly quick and the airlock process is only two minutes. I step into the openness of floating in space attached only by a single lifeline. It is glorious. I have a tiny thruster pack that works like a video game console. It uses compressed air. One of my companies developed it and I have wanted to try it for years. John gives me the solemn speech on the majesty of spacewalking in English and it is translated by Tsubasa. The rest of the walk is a slow and deliberate step-by-step process. There is some fun at the end when I am set free and together John and I survey the entire ISS tip-to-tip, side-to-side, and top to bottom. That’s a funny way to put it since there is no up or down in space. But I have to tell you, sleeping in weightlessness is amazing. There is no turning on a mattress to get comfortable since you are basically in a bag touching nothing.The walk ends as quickly as it begins and we all gather for a last meal together. My ride has taken off from earth and is on the way. I decide to do something I usually do not do, I chat a lot.I take the lead on the visit with a discussion of what Tsubasa and I have worked on. These guys are no dummies and the conversation is stimulating and insightful. I have eleven modern (after 1600) PhD’s and have taught at some of the finest schools, so I am not easily impressed. I end the discussion with a short story about Galileo’s work in Pisa in 1589 as if I was there and keep everyone enthralled, even with the translation. By the way, I was there.My ride home has docked and after we say our goodbyes to our new friends, we suit up, get strapped in and connected. We watch our preflight inspection and our plane is set free from the ISS. I watch it drift away as we start our trip home. This ride is wild. When we hit the atmosphere the plane skips along for a few hundred miles and then acts like it is stalling out and then we are propelling ourselves again just like a big jet liner and the landing is smooth and easy.We taxi back to the hanger where post flight checks begin and we deplane. We are checked out by the medical team and quickly dismissed. I catch the same van that took me from my jet and in fifteen minutes I am beginning my preflight check. When complete, I talk to John and give him short version and tell them I will call back after I am airborne and cruising.Once comfortable again and have the autopilot set, I call a video conference and not surprisingly, everyone is already gathered and has been waiting for me. They want details. I joke with them and stay in my French personality and start talking. Harry and Gunther start asking questions in French back at me.Finally, Sully says, “Ok, stop already before I turn on a translation app.” We all laugh and I switch to English and fill them in, minute by minute. I even show them the presentation developed by the crew. It looks very realistic. I wrote down the score to the music and send it now to Sully. He asks for a few minutes before we watch the video and he will have the music to go with it. He’s taking the file I sent and converting it to a midi (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) format. He overlays it to the video file and we review it several times. I also have the exact sounds the voice made and a translation in text on the video. Sully was a little surprised by my memory and ability to recreate it precisely. They rest of my friends expected it. I sign off and let them go to work.An hour later, Mary Jo calls and wants to do a catch up meeting. She has a few issues that need my attention. We always start by watching one cycle of the stock exchange tickers go by. We go back and forth on different things and today I direct her to watch four companies for different reasons. But the most important assignments are for the executive trackers I have employed. It is a secret company of mine that watch about sixty of the most influential men and women in the world at any given time. I categorize the important executives myself and have their travel patterns logged. It is amazing what these people do for leisure, but when they start syncing up for meetings that are off the books, I get interested.I have predicted many important mergers and acquisitions. I have made several fortunes betting on the outcome of a rigged game. But what I watch for these days is any potential destruction of assets just for the liquid cash on the books, like pension funds. I especially don’t like it when jobs are lost without warning. So, I intervene. I buy and sell enough to change the game or just provide a cash infusion as a white knight venture capitalist. I lose money most of the time, but it is worth it. And besides, I have reached a point where everything feels like “excess.” Mary Jo follows my leads and then some. Right now, I am focused on seriously lowering the poverty level in some important places. Haiti is my newest project.Some of the discussions cover the issues she had, but there is one item left. It seems the R&D budget is yielding surprising earnings, nearly 5 times her estimates for our usual ROI (Return On Investment).I comment, “Well, that’s a first, but I was expecting it from some breakthroughs in computer chips alone. I have an idea. Let’s get Sully and John on the line.”I ring them up and they come online sitting in their offices. I fill them in about the windfall and then ask Mary Jo, “How much are we talking about anyway?”She casually says, “680 million, as of last Friday.”I mouth the word, “Wow.” I throw out my idea. “I want you to start a company manufacturing a laptop just like mine. Throw in every state of the art bleeding edge thing with tons of encryption software. Install every good app out there as a standard feature. Make it retail for a bundle so it’s an over-priced luxury item. Make them so that you can turn a profit and I want the owner to be able to exchange it whenever they want for the latest model at a onetime cost per exchange or a subscription for continuous upgrades. Make this machine the gold standard. Maybe put some real gold on the cover. Make every sheik and billionaire want one. Have it interface with their homes and office environment and security controls. Hell, make them put in a security system in their places that match our laptop. And I want you to put in backdoors for only you to access. I may remove that later, but for the first run of one hundred, I want them in. I want to give them to some special people as well as equip us. That’s enough for now.”Sully looks like a kid on Christmas Eve. John and Mary Jo have heard this kind of thing all the time and take it in stride. Sully is already designing in his head.I wait for John to finish taking notes and ask the question that Mary Jo and John both know is coming next, “When will I see a business plan and design specs?”John gives the answer before Sully can say anything, “I’ll have that answer in two days. And since this is bleeding edge, our target will always be moving. There will always be “more.” Yes, give us two days.”Then Sully adds under his voice, “Lucky there’s nothing else we have going on…”He’s lucky I love sarcasm. I am the master of it. That’s why I dislike email. There is no tonal inflection to show what the writer is really saying unless they add some punctuation to indicate their true meaning. I’ve heard many attorneys tell their clients that are going on the stand to avoid sarcasm because it doesn’t show up in the transcript. And I’ve seen plenty of comedy skits that do exactly what the attorneys warn against. Some are hilarious. My favorite is in the movie, “My Cousin Vinnie” when the initial interviews with the two boys in trouble are read in court on the stand by the sheriff. What a masterpiece! I am being sarcastic… but it is a good movie with fine acting.I arrive home around 4 P.M. and am treated to dinner with everyone. This time, to officially celebrate Sully joining the team.My Streets Turn DeadlyI move quickly as Javier on the street and have many friends everywhere I go; shopkeepers, street musicians, street vendors, and the like. I give myself plenty of time because I need to go by my apartment I keep as Javier and make sure it’s ready. Angela may decide to join me for the night. Angela gets off work at 6 P.M. so I’ve got almost two hours to make my rounds and do my chores. The route only covers about three miles and I am going to time it so she doesn’t have to wait. Besides, I want the most time I can get with her. It’s been a hard week emotionally and I need to be with her to regain my footing. I feel a bit out of control and that is a strange feeling for me considering all the resources my money can buy.As I leave the Empire State Building, I notify Gunther that I am on the move. I know the procedure. A couple of our drones are moving to watch my path right now and his men are now on full standby to help me if necessary. All I am carrying is a boot knife, a very special pocketknife and my leather currier bag that I have had for eighty years. My bag has the usual stuff, a wallet, a cell phone and a couple of other handheld devices that are made to look normal. I’m not going to be passing through any security anywhere, so all is well with my “stuff.”I get to the corner and am greeted by the first vendor selling knock off purses. “Hey Javier, how you doin’?” Thomas, pronounced “Toe-mas,” and Maggie, his girlfriend are working the crowd of passerby’s.“I’m doing just fine now. I’ve been out of town for a few days and I am glad to be back home. I really missed my hug.” Thomas moves to hug me as a joke and I sidestep him and grab Maggie. She gives me a great big hug and has to reach high to get to my neck. She’s only 5’3” and quite round at about 200 pounds. She’s got a heart of gold for her friends and a different kind of heart of gold for her customers. She is quite good at sales. “You doing ok, Maggie? Is this lugnut treating you good?”“I’m fine, but “lugnut” hurt his back the other day and won’t go to the clinic to have a professional look at it.” This sentence is meant for Thomas and it gets louder as she makes it ring home.“How about I get Charles to take over tomorrow morning for him after you get open so he can go get checked out?” Charles works another vendor booth two blocks over selling purses too, but he likes the late shift and doesn’t open until around 2 pm.Thomas says, “Good luck with that. That man is lazier than dirt.” Charles owes me a big favor for some basketball tickets I got him last month.“I’ll take care of that. You just be ready to go when he shows up. And no stopping at Rita’s either. Make it as short as possible, ok?”“Yes, Dad.” Maggie gives me another hug and I am off to seal the deal with Charles. Rita’s is a dive bar that caters to hard drinkers. There is no “Rita.” It is owned by the day shift bartender, Willie. When I asked about the bar’s name a long time ago, he told me that Rita was the owner four times ago and signs are expensive. Maggie is constantly trying to keep Thomas sober and usually does a good job of it. We all try to help her. I wave goodbye and keep moving. Charles’ stand is open and he is hard at work. He runs it alone and is always busy with the tourists.“Hello Javier, how’s it hanging?” Always the same hello. It’s actually comforting to hear his greeting.“Fine. How’s business?” I always ask the same thing back. Then we both say, “Can’t complain. Nobody listening anyway.” And then we do whatever man hand bump or shake or chest hit or whatever is popular with Charles and the street at the time. They can be quite complicated some times.I tell him about Thomas and Maggie and ask for his help. He responds, “No way. I need my sack time. If the sun isn’t past straight up, I ain’t getting up.”“Come on, or have you forgotten those Knicks tickets I laid on you. You owe me. And besides, I got two more I’ll put in your pocket right now just to sweeten the deal.” Now he’s listening and watching as I pull them out and look at them. “Boston, Friday night, Section 8, Row 21 at the line.” I’ve got him now, but I need to have some fun. “Jason would kill for these. I’ll just see if he’s playing his fiddle in the park in his spot…”“Ok, ok. When do I gotta be there?”He reaches for the tickets and I snatch them back and say, “10 o’clock. A.M.”He moans and says, “I might as well stay up all night. Ok. Since you’re my pal.” I give him the tickets and he has to turn to a customer.I pat him on the shoulder and say, “There’s plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead.” He laughs and I take off into the growing crowd.I am running short on time now, so I take the subway two stops to get to my apartment. I come up one block west of my place and I open the front door with my key. I try to step quietly inside, but still manage to arouse Mr. Stapanic, “Javier, where the hell you been, boy?”“On a trip for work. How’s Fred?”Fred, the dachshund, jumps down from his owners lap and runs to me yapping all the way. I pick him up and give him a good petting. Then I set him back to the floor and say, “Fred’s good. I gotta run. You take care.” I hustle the two flights of stairs and stand in front of my door. I open my bag and take out one of my toys. I hold it to the door and its display tells me to look closely while it does a retina scan. This deactivates the security system I use when I’m gone for more than a few days. When I am in town, I just use a key. The unit blinks green and I hear a couple of clicks in the door. Then I use my key and I enter the front hallway. All seems fine. I walk around and head for the fridge to see if the maintenance team has stocked it as usual. Yes, there are some new groceries in it, the pantry and cupboards as well. I check out the bedroom and am satisfied that everything is in order. I leave by the back through a small garden area that puts me on a different street. I have to run now to make my schedule. I’ve got fifteen minutes to be at Angela’s work. But I’ve got one more chore.I stop by a market with fruit and vegetables on display in the front and say, “Hi, Tina.”“Hi Javier. How are you?”“Just fine. Can you give me the usual care packages?” I help her out bagging up fruit and snacks and then separate them into five bags. Then the five bags go into one big one, I pay, say goodbye and get moving again. Next stop is into a mission that helps the homeless. I secretly fund the whole operation, but I enjoy the hands on personal help I give. Everyone is busy with talking quietly. I slip into the kitchen and set the bag on a counter. I leave as quickly as I came. Once outside, I jog to make my schedule. The street lights favor me, for once, and I am one minute early!Angela works in a florist shop and attends college in the mornings at NYU. She pays her own way, so school is part time. I really love her, really. She is Italian by ancestry and is beautiful. She wears glasses that I think are very sexy. She is tall at 5’ 9” and pairs very well with my six-foot frame. I do not know what race you would call me. I think I look Mexican, but I can pass for a middle eastern easily. I could be a space alien and not know it.I enter her shop at exactly six. I called her to let her know I am taking her along to a fancy company dinner, expenses paid. Free dinner is never turned down by her because of her tight budget. I secretly help her out here and there, but she prides herself on making her own way. That is one thing that I love about her, along with about a million more.She lights up when I enter the store as do I. “Hi Sweetie.” I mouth as I pretend to be a customer and let her finish with a lady buying several big bouquets of colorful arrangements. When the customer is taken care of, I hold the door for her as she leaves. She barely fits out the door with her flowers. Angela calls to the back to Roberta Rollins, the storeowner, “Hey Roberta, I’m closing up. I’ll lock the door behind me. See you tomorrow at noon.” Roberta is cutting flowers and calls out, “Hi Javier. You two have fun. Good night.” Angela grabs her coat, hat, purse, and a small loose bunch of daisies. We are finally ready to go and then she has to spend five minutes finding her keys and locking up. I am quite used to these routines of hers.The restaurant is only three blocks uptown and we take off walking at a slow pace because we have a whole hour to make the walk. We stop at a Starbucks and sit together sipping our coffees and catch up. I love the sound of her voice.I have had many girlfriends and wives. And hundreds and hundreds of children. I have watched while they grow old and die and then watched their children do the same, and then their children. There are no words to describe the emotional pain I have felt. It is very complex and after thousands of years, I have to bury it inside or it will consume me. Then on a larger, but less personal scale, I have seen and felt 100 billion people die. I have not had children in two hundred years by choice. Angela is making me feel different about the decision.The biggest challenge with talking with Angela is to not speak about her father and his father. They were special friends a long time ago. They spoke of Angela often and even through the parental love point of view, I could tell she was special. Her Grandfather died and then her father passed from cancer far short of a long life. Her mother remarried a wonderful man who cared for Angela as if she were his own.Ten years later, out of curiosity, I had her tracked down and had a file prepared on her. It was most intriguing. Her family was poor, but she was working her way through college and doing well. Her grades were very good, but she was hopping around lost between majors. She had a consistent weekly routine and it was often easy to “happen” to be at this Starbucks the same time as her. It took me four visits to start a conversation with her. I ended that short visit by setting a time to have coffee with her. Most humorous. Then it took two more times before we had a real date. Looking back, I probably should have felt bad rigging our “chance” encounter. But all’s fair in love and war, as they say.Our conversation tonight is light and there is a lot of hand holding. She has learned to not ask me about the times I am gone and waits until I bring it up. I lie a lot to her. I lie a lot to everyone but my current six special friends. With all due fairness, I do “withhold” things from my friends. I answer any question they ask, but no one has ever asked me things like, “Tell me all the secrets of interesting things you have done?” or “List all the famous people of history that you have been?” It just doesn’t come up. I was wondering what would happen when Excalibur was revealed. I don’t bring that stuff up in conversations unless asked, but like I said, nobody ever asks. I’m glad because I am often ashamed of some of the things I did as that person.Being Merlin the Magician was something I just fell into. My endless youth was very convenient in propagating the myth about me aging in reverse, being born old and getting younger every year. The magician part of the personality was easy. I used a lot of sleight of hand and then props to perform my magic. Guiding young Arthur as a king wasn’t hard either since I am a master at political intrigue and the strategies of warfare. I tried very hard to keep him on the straight path, but his hormones got the best of him and he screwed up his personal life and then let that screw up his kingdom.When we finally leave our Starbucks, we stop in a quiet shadow and make out for a few minutes. She is very sexy and drives me wild.We arrive at the restaurant underdressed to be sure and are escorted by a snobby headwaiter to a private dining room and the group has already arrived. There are my six special friends, Angela, two out of three spouses and no children, except for John’s son, John Jr. He fancies himself a Wall Street tycoon, but we have bailed him out of trouble several times without him knowing it. He wastes a lot of money, but I would do anything for John.Angela is introduced to Sully for the first time and he is genuinely surprised that I have a girlfriend. In the next few days, he and I will have some serious question and answer sessions. I am sure he is more than curious about a few things. He manages not to stare at me or take any special notice at all, but I notice a few glances. Conversation is light and fun and the food and drink is perfect. Harry set us up with a special seven-course dinner and a wine tasting of new Brazilian fine wines. He always does this because it stretches the evening out in a most delightful way. The headwaiter taking care of us announces the food and wine as we are served by a staff of five. He is having fun on the last few items by pretending they are the final treat. And then he brings one more brandy or candy or whatever. At this point, everyone in the group is feeling just fine from the wine except for me. I don’t need it with all my “family” here.All my friends watch each other’s back when it comes to their families and our cover stories that hide our real work. We have a special time in every briefing to let anyone talk about what’s happening with their families. It helps when we interact with each other’s spouses or children. I started that practice when I saw the need for it after having dinner with Megan’s family. Her two boys are inquisitive and smart. They watch and are not afraid to ask questions. If I missed anything in the conversation and got something wrong, their antennae’s would twitch and they would call me on it. The “it’s classified” answer really doesn’t work with kids.I have learned to find the loud-mouthed know-it-all people (that don’t) entertaining and not annoying. John Jr. is one of those people. Most everyone hates him like that brother in law everyone has. You know, the one that knows everything about everything and doesn’t hesitate to share his “wisdom”. I wonder why most of those guys used to sell aluminum house siding for Sears?Finally the party breaks up and Gunther orders up the limos and we go our separate ways. Angela and I decide walk. She has let me know that she wants to stay with me tonight. And besides, the night is not cold, just cool, and it’s only ten o’clock so we take off arm in arm.I am paying more attention to her than my surroundings, but still notice a van driving a bit odd. Odder than anyone normally searching for a parking place. I activate my internal comm unit just as a precaution. One of Gunther’s men comes on and asks me if I can talk. When I don’t respond to him, he says, “Can you indicate your danger level, one to ten?”Just then, the van speeds up and screeches to a halt on the street and the side doors fly open and two large men in black fatigues and black ski masks jump out and head straight for us. As they approach, I push Angela as far away as I can without hurting her. Another two slide out of the shadows and push Angela farther away. Good. As they take my arms and head me toward the van, I say, “Ten.” One of them shoots a dart at me and connects with my chest. The needle hangs in my clothes and makes it look like a successful hit. I slump just to make it harder to carry me and look like I am out as I am loaded in the van. I continue to fake unconsciousness and listen for a bit. I recognize the European accents and clearly understand their guttural German. As you can imagine, I speak almost every language, but staying up on idioms is not possible. These clowns have no idea the trouble they are in right now. Gunther comes on and tells me that a team is on the way and less than two minutes out.I am trained in every marshal art and even helped develop a few a very long time ago. I work out enough not to lose my edge, but not enough to look like a body builder. I am slender, strong and fast and can be deadly when pushed. I also am quite skilled in sleight of hand magic and escape tricks. I spent a year in the company of a Heinrich Basch in 1850. He toured with his Phantasmagoria Show and was a talented German magician. I decide that a gun battle between my kidnappers and my rescuers on the streets of New York is a bad idea and take action.The fools have handcuffed me in the front instead of behind my back. In a series of quick moves that surprise the three guys watching over me, I pop the cuffs off and attack as they flounder around. I kill one with a quick strike to his nose that drives it into his brain. I hit another with a throat punch that breaks his windpipe and he begins to choke to death. The third manages to draw a gun that I rip out of his hands and shoot him in the heart with. I have the gun in my right hand and turn it on the passenger and tell the driver in German to stop.My left hand is busy retrieving my “pocket knife.” He smashes the brakes and I jerk forward. It will be his last mistake. As I am falling forward, I smack the passenger with the butt of my gun and he is out cold. The driver reaches for his shoulder holstered gun, but is too slow. I slam into the dash as I roll the knife in my hand to find a button. I press it and release a spring blade. It’s a little toy, I had made for me fifty years ago when Swiss Army knives were very popular. I plunge the blade into his heart with a back hand move.All is suddenly very quiet. Death is usually silent.I survey the damage in the darkness and check that the passenger is still alive. He probably has a couple of broken ribs from the seatbelt shoulder strap, but otherwise he is fine. I left him alive because he was the head buffoon of these “Five Stooges.”I open the side door to the van and emerge to five men dressed like a swat team with the letters FBI on their vests. I am recognized and immediately surrounded by them in a box formation. The commander steps forward and whispers to me that we should go. I tell him the guy in the front passenger seat is alive and to take him along. The van driver is shoved out of the way by one of my team as he gets in to drive while the boss is drug into a black “FBI” SUV. The whole affair is over in less than a minute and the vehicles take off leaving no trace of anything for any witnesses to remember. I ask about Angela and they tell me she is safe in the car behind me.We pull into a garage and are quickly spirited into offices that look exactly what you expect an FBI Headquarters to look like. I am reunited with Angela to find her crying with fear and joy to see me. I hold her for a long time and ask if she is ok. She is fine and we are lead into an interrogation room. Through my comm link, Gunther tells me what is going to happen as it happens. It is all scripted for Angela’s sake and I go through the motions of acting like I am as scared as she is. I tell them I have no idea why I was targeted, that it must have something to do with work. Angela thinks I have a high security clearance and that I work in some sort of a think tank. I finally plead with them enough to let Angela go home and they agree. She leaves me reluctantly with reassurances from me that I will be over to her place as soon as I can get away. A man and woman agent drive her home. The man remains outside her apartment. The woman officer escorts Angela inside and stays with her as she decompresses from the night’s excitement.When she is gone, we all quickly drop the FBI act and I am escorted to the Empire State Building where everyone is assembled and waiting. I walk in and take command, “What do we know?” I ask Gunther.He rattles off the facts, “No ids of course and fingerprints show them to be hired gangsters from the old east Germany. The living one is being interrogated and claims to not know who hired him. It’s probably true. Every piece of physical evidence is being looked at. It appears they arrived in New York separately within the last week. We are hitting their hotel as we speak. It is a rundown cheap one out in Queens. I am not hopeful to find anything significant. Something may break or not.” We all take this briefing in quickly and Sully is typing on his computer during the whole thing. Sully jumps in, “There are no police reports, so we are protected on that front.” We all are impressed by his quick professionalism.I wrap up with these orders, “Ok, let’s go to Defcon three and get to work.” We use the old U.S. Defcon (Defense Condition) code levels for security everywhere, one to five. One is no known threats and five is war. With that, I leave and head for my apartment down the hall. I call Angela and lie to her that I am still talking to the FBI and it looks like I will be all night. She understands and is grateful for the agent staying with her. I linger on the phone and finally let her go. It takes me an hour to calm down and think about what has happened. Then I wander back to the Operations Center and look at what is going on in my world. It is flying along just fine without any help from me at the moment.Now You Don’tI have fingers in most of the shops that work for DARPA on some of the most innovative and outrageous projects ever dreamed up. And we make use of anything we want. I am investing heavily in my materials research. One of my shops has significantly improved several metals making them lighter, stronger and cheaper. However, I am betting on a new carbon based material that is akin to diamond. On the fun and practical side, my current favorite is a chameleon suit. It is just like you see in the latest sci-fi flicks. It takes pictures of the surroundings and displays it on the opposite side of the suit so that the person is virtually invisible. There were some rippling effects when the first prototype was finished, but that is way behind it now and it is really amazing. At my suggestion, sound suppression was added by taking any sound made by the wearer and creates an exact opposite wave that negates any noise at all, except voice by flipping a switch.I have tested it on the streets of New York in daylight and in semi-darkness and it works perfectly. I have walked into banks and watched the security footage after and there is simply no trace of me. To render someone or something invisible, you have to worry about light (sight), sound (hearing), temperature (heat signature), and density (weight/volume). The next release of the suit in a couple of months will have complete heat signature suppression. There is still the question of density. There are scanners that look at just the air density around it and can literally map the area using density as the measurement choice. If the scanners get a little better, it will make the suit nothing more than a party favor. But for now, it is just what I need. Very, very cool.I’m throwing Sully into the fire. But first, I think he deserves a little time visiting. So, I find Sully and ask him to hang with me for a while in my place. We start a casual conversation and I let him ask the questions and I provide answers.He is the first person ever to ask about my photographic memory. “Do you really remember everything?”“Yes. Everything. Anything that comes in my senses. It seems natural to me.”He looks at the calendar on his phone and after a second ask this, “March 23rd, this year, you and I had lunch across the street. You paid. Very thoughtful. How much was the bill, with tip?”“$24. You had a California Club Sandwich, a bag of Lay’s Sour Cream and Onion chips, and a 32 oz. Mountain Dew. And then you finished my chips when I didn’t want anymore.”“You wrote out the score to the music that accompanied your starry light show. Can you play it for me on the piano?”“Sure.” I lead him into my music room. He’s never been in it before and is surprised. It really is an entire studio with another room off of it. He looks around for a few seconds and I sit down at a Yamaha Grand, model C5. “Have a seat. It’s three minutes long.” He does and listens while I play it. When finished, I comment, “It’s different with a full orchestra score of course, but you got the piano version.”“That’s beautiful,” is all he says for a moment. Then he says, “Where’s your horns? You play sax, right?”“Back here. Come on.” I lead him to a set of double doors in the back of the big room and open them to reveal a huge walk in closet with racks and racks of instrument cases. “I’ve got all my instruments here. This shelf is Saxes. This one is clarinets, and flutes. The strings are on that wall and the brass is against the back wall. Do you play anything?”“No, but I really enjoy old southern rock like Leonard Skinner and The Allman Brothers.” He looks at some of the cases and sees the little tags tied to their handles. Then he asks, “Is this a Stradivarius violin?”“Yes. I have two and one viola. This room is kept at just the right humidity and temperature. Want to see those fiddles?”He laughs at my fiddles joke and says, “Yes, very much.” I pull the three out and bring them into the studio with his help. We set the cases on a table and I open them up one by one as he watches. I tell him to put on some disposable cloth white gloves that are on a shelf and he does. Then I pull out the first one and set it in his hands. He holds it like it’s made of glass and looks at it from every angle. While he is looking, I call Mary Jo and ask her to join us in my music room. Sully goes through the same process with the other two instruments and then he asks the question everyone asks, “How much are these worth?”I give him the answer I give everyone, “”Worth” is equal to the measure of some commodity against another, usually cash that someone is willing to exchange for it. Throw in emotional attachment and it gets all confusing. The last Strat violin sold at auction got seven million dollars. All of mine are in better shape.”Mary Jo walks in and says, “I thought you might be pulling those out. I can only stay fifteen minutes. You want to play that duet you wrote for us?”“Perfect.” I quickly set up two stands and chairs and she takes one of the violins, a bow, and starts to play some scales and tune each string. I take the viola, bow and sit down with her. I tell Sully to take a seat. I count it off and we start. It starts very Mozart like and then switches to a ragtime/swing melody version of the theme and ends with a wild race to the end. Mary Jo is getting really good. She has been practicing. When we finish, Sully stands up, claps and whistles. We stand and bow to him and then to each other. And then we make a big deal of hugging and clapping to each other, ladies first of course.“You should have a concert for us. Can I throw a dinner and have you be the entertainment?”Mary Jo says, “I’m willing if I get to play this old thing.” We laugh and I tell Sully to set the date, but be careful with the choice of food since everyone is picky. And then I whisper to him to just have Harry do it as a favor. Mary Jo says she has to run off and leaves. Sully and I put away the instruments and stroll back into the other parts of the home.I continue to give him a tour of my apartment that takes about another hour. He says “Unbelievable” a lot. And then I break out the “invisibility cloaks.” I have one for all my friends, including Sully. I tell him what I have planned as he wriggles into the tight fitting pieces. I show him how to connect the various parts and control the different modes of the suit. We move out from my place to the Operations Center and scare the crap out of John. I talk to Gunther who is off sight at his offices down the block and let him know we are coming and how we are “dressed.”We exit the building walking right past several of my armed team unnoticed. The only thing that gives us away is when we open doors. We have set our suits to allow us to see each other so we don’t continually bump into each other. The walk is free of incident, however Gunther insisted on a stealth-armed patrol that is being guided by him to stay about ten yards ahead and behind us. They are two pairs of a man and woman acting like husband and wife. They are very good. We get to the offices and head up the elevator to the right floor. Gunther is waiting in a secure hallway and helps us out of the suits. He reminds us that we are simply observers and not to bother the team who are frantically chasing leads and cataloging evidence. It looks like the situation room at the White House, but without the uniforms. Everyone that works here is ex-law enforcement or military. It is led by a retired British General, Herod Winslow. He was the commanding general of MPs for the British Army and was knighted by the Queen when he retired five years ago. He eyes us and takes a quick look at our badges as we enter his domain. He is not impressed and is clearly annoyed by our presence.Gunther takes us aside for a second and tells Sully that this will be his new home for the next few days. I ask him to study the technology and give us a report on updating it as soon as possible. Gunther calls Winslow over and asks him to brief us. He repeats everything that Gunther told us two hours ago with one new piece of data. Pollen was found on two of the kidnappers that is only found on the west coast of Portugal and in only one place, Praia de Mira. A team is on the way there now and should arrive in another twenty minutes. Gunther informs Winslow that Sully is now part of his team and to use him as he sees fit. They have a quiet two-minute discussion and Winslow calls out, “Mister Pratt, please escort this “hacker” and enroll him in our services for the foreseeable future. Keep him on a short leash until you trust him and then give him responsibilities that match his skills as you see fit.” Pratt guides Sully to a terminal and shows him the monitors around the room, but as he is lead away, Winslow calls out, “Son, We expect results here. No dead weight. Welcome.” Winslow then turns to me and asks, “So, you’re the abductee?”“Yes, Sir.” He expects me to be a nobody, so I sound like what he wants, for now.“Why would anybody want to kidnap you?”“It’s got to have something to do with work.” Gunther replies.“I want to hear it from him, Sir.”“There is no reason for anyone to do that to me personally. I’m not into a loan shark. I don’t do drugs. I don’t have money. It has to be work.” I lie to him, but he’s trained to detect lies.He looks very hard at me and says, “Well that’s a crock. Gunther, you need to let me know what I am up against here, because this fellow is not being forth coming.” I love British English.Gunther saves me again, “General, there is a “need to know” side to this whole situation and for that I apologize. Please take Javier at his last spoken word. Everything he said was true. But trust me, he can be a very helpful friend.”“Well, that’s good enough for me. I know when to stop asking questions and carry on.” He puts his hand on my shoulder and says, “How may I help you help us, my new friend?”“I would like to interrogate the prisoner, please.” He takes off and leads me to the rooms down a hall opens a door to the prisoner monitoring room next to the room with the German shackled and manacled to a table. A tech gives me an earpiece and does a comm check. All is good with that and I ask for file folder and pencil. I tuck all this into my bag and go out one door and into another.I take a seat across the table from the guy and seeing he is securely locked down, I ask the two guards to leave us alone. I close the blinds in front of the two-way mirror and unplug the two security cameras in the corners. There are at least ten more that are hidden, but he doesn’t know that and is beginning to get excited. One of the techs behind the mirror is feeding the comm channel with changes in this guy’s vitals that are very telling. I spend the next half hour reading the file in front of me without even looking at him. It really only takes me a few minutes, but I stop and watch him silently for effect every few minutes or so. I close it several times and act like I am ready to speak and then abruptly open the file again like I am looking for one specific word hidden somewhere in it.At this point, the guy is acting cool, but freaking out inside. I then pretend to make several calls on my cell phone. The first one is in Italian to what might sound like an Interpol agent. I follow it with another fake one in Russian and use the acronym FSB. FSB is the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. I read more of the file and make another fake call and speak in German. I say my first words to the guy and ask him if he speaks English. He shakes his head no and I continue my one sided conversation in German. It again sounds like an Interpol agent. I finally hang up when the tech behind the mirror says that he is cooked and ready to explode.In German I say, “Why were you in Praia de Mira?” It is a small town about 50 miles north of Lisbon where the pollen is limited to. They have a newly developed strain of wine grape. He is shocked by the statement and that is all I really wanted to see. This guy wouldn’t last five minutes in a real poker game. I stand up and say thank you as I leave the room.General Winslow and Gunther meet me outside the room. I pull the earpiece and hand it to Gunther. “Well that confirms the next move. Do we have any UAV’s we can put up to help out?”Gunther answers for both of them, “None close enough to show us anything yet. We do have satellite imagery.”I have another thought, “Our navy puts a pretty big presence around the Straits of Gibraltar most of the time. Give Duncan a call.” The General is dumbfounded that I would use the Secretary of State’s first name.The team of “specialists” is now heading for the town and should be on site in two hours. They will take up position surrounding the town and ready to move when ordered. The General turns to me and shakes my hand and says, “Thank you.”I say, “You’re welcome. Anytime you want to have a game of poker, I’m in.” I turn and walk away.Gunther walks me back through the security entrance, I wriggle into my suit and disappear. I head out the doors of the building and take off at a brisk pace. Per Gunther’s instructions, I take a different route. My security detail is with me again following instructions Gunther gives them by watching my location. They are all dressed as joggers now, so I jog as well.We pass by a number of outdoor restaurants. It’s now lunchtime and they are beginning to fill up. I see two men sitting and chatting, but as I approach, they look up and stare straight at me. One is pointing at me and talking to the one with his back to me. I slow and look around to see if they are really looking at me. I look at my hands and they are not to be seen so I know the suit is working. I see no one around but me and the one with his back to me, has moved his chair around and cranes his neck to see where his friend is pointing. Sure enough, they are not looking past me, but right at me. They are still chatting and I am close enough to hear them. It takes a second for me to realize they are speaking a foreign language and another second to recognize it. It is the First Language, the same as the Heavenly Host. I am shocked. I begin to understand what they are saying and am further shocked. They are talking about me and saying how important something is. One says that he feels sympathy for me and the other one says something that translates into the word “keeper.” They stop staring at me and prepare to get up and leave, clearly finished with any interest in me.As I leave their presence, I am shaking and talk to Gunther, who is on comm. “Gunther, did you get that conversation?” He replies that he has recorded every word. I arrive back at my building and head for the Oversight Room as fast as possible. Everyone is there minus Gunther and Sully and I explain what has happened. Gunther is on a monitor and plays the recording. The conversation is being typed up on a monitor and when it is done, I type the translation on one beside it. As I finish, everyone kind of moves to protect me and Mary Jo is crying quietly. Gunther says that he will run it by his linguists, but Megan interrupts and says that she will take the lead on this one as a project and no one argues.I end this meeting with this directive, “We are moving to the Silo, now. Let’s move out. Gunther and Sully remain here. Gunther, get us out of here.”Home Away From HomeOne by one and unevenly timed we leave the building and are ferried to the airport where five jets are ready to transport us to a vacated missile silo in South Dakota. The trip starts out by armored black SUVs in trios. There are several empty convoys to confuse anyone paying attention. Gunther isn’t taking any chances. I am in the middle convoy selected by random at the last minute. He also has four Stingray UAVs patrolling.When we get to the airport, each jet is surrounded by a squad of armed soldiers. The jets take off moments after each of us arrives, one by one. Each are escorted the entire flight by two Raptors provided by the U.S. Air Force as a favor from the U.S. Secretary of State. He is kept in the loop on many of my operations as I see fit. I use my persona as Wittworth, the CEO of a major defense contractor and a really, really wealthy man, to interface with him. Of course, he has never met me and I use voice-altering software when we talk.The flight is about two hours and I use the time to talk to Angela and let her know that I will not be around for about a week off being protected by the FBI while they figure out why I was targeted. The “FBI” has set up a secure video conferencing unit in her apartment, so we are as face-to-face as we are going to get for a while. She cries a lot, but is consoled by my announcement that I will be taking her somewhere very special for a long weekend in a couple of weeks. She loves surprises as much as I hate them. She will never know that a team of armed guards are protecting her twenty-four-seven and will be for a long while now.When I am finished visiting with her, I get Sully on the same equipment and see how he is holding up. He managed to get in about three hours of sleep on orders from the General. He is on his game and in his element now and is hard at work and hurries off the line.I’m off with Sully and Gunther calls. He wants to know if I want to watch the raid in Portugal. I answer in the affirmative and he begins. “The village exists because of the fertile slopes that lead from the sea to the hills above. The village is common except for a villa owned by a gentleman named Bikendi Gaizka Ezkibel. He is the action front for the Basque Separatists. My best guess is that he is pissed at us for foiling a plot by him last year. And I think you were the target of choice because of your Javier Mendez ID. Javier is easily identified as one of John’s associates because of your comings and goings from our base at the Empire State Building.”Gunther switches gears for a moment and talks to me personally, “Malek, knowing all this about Ezkibel, I think the men on the street who spoke language one is unrelated to the kidnapping attempt. By the way, we’ve got the restaurant video of the men the whole time they were there, a report from a questioning with their waiter, and we can read the lips of one of them. It all supports my thoughts on them being unrelated. Oh, here we go.”The screen changes to a large display on the bottom and four smaller ones above. It is being narrated by General Winslow. “The Mayor and Chief of Police think this an Interpol operation and have cooperated with us from the start. Ok, that’s the go ahead from the Team Leaders. There are four teams of different numbers appropriate to the security on their entry point. There are five roving guards they might have to deal with as well. Sir, we need a confirmation at this point. Do we use deadly force?”I answer, “Yes, and zero footprint.”“Understood. Team leaders, acknowledge please.” They do and no narration is required after that. The bottom large display changes to a drone’s view of the villa. The top four are the helmet cams of the four group leaders. There is chatter and confirmations among the soldiers and then they all move out at the same time. They are hiding in vegetation that surrounds the structures and after ten seconds of very fast and coordinated movement, they turn corners and all lock on to their first targets and shoot them immediately. They rush up and prepare to breach the doors. Each man has his job and executes it swiftly. Two men move bodies, another works on the doors and the rest, watch their flank.There is radio chatter of a whisper telling one team that an unfriendly is coming around a corner and when he does, one of the guys simply shoots him with a three round burst trigger squeeze. Two doors have their locks picked and two have shape charges affixed around the lock. I hear the teams each call out ready when they are set. When the last one signals, the on the ground commander gives the word and two doors have the locks blown out and all the teams enter the doors in standard two man configuration. There is no resistance at this point and it is ominous. There is just slow stealthy steps now for a full minute. Two teams, three men each, merge together and come to an indoor door and are studying the security lock. Two men back out and head for the outside porticoes where they killed the guards. They each grab a body and drag it back to the door. One of the leaders holds one of the dead man’s hand to the security palm reader and nothing happens. He tries the other hand and still nothing happens. They literally toss the body aside and grab the other dead one and try his right hand. The door clicks open as the second one is tossed on top of his dead comrade.The team gets positioned for entry and a couple of flash bang grenades are tossed into the room. Three men are directly inside the room and holding their ears in pain, but they manage to lift up their MP 5’s to defend against the attackers, but move too slowly and are shot on the spot. The team then moves to a big set of doors and tries the doorknob and it opens easily. A couple of more flash bangs are tossed in and then the teams move in. Two guards struggle to raise their weapons and are killed for their move. Besides the two worthless guards, there are two unarmed men, one cowering on a sofa with his hands over his ears and Ezkibel is standing in the center of the room trying to talk on a phone. He is obviously in pain and is holding one hand to one ear and the other hand is holding the phone. He drops the phone and raises his hands in surrender. Our guys surround the two prisoners; knock them to the floor and they are flex cuffed. Gunther asks me a question I know is coming, “Your orders, sir?” I hold down a button and say, “Bag ‘em both and bring them to me.”My plane lands and I walk out onto the deserted plain.November 19th, 1804 Fort Mandan, South DakotaIt’s cold. And I’m under at least five blankets and furs. I finally force myself out of my bunk and put more wood on the fire. I use the pee pot next to me and get back in bed. I can’t think of a reason to get up yet, so more chilly rest is a reasonable choice. The days have turned into weeks and the weeks into a month. There are at least three more months until we can move out and continue with our travels. Boredom is the main activity these days and trying to find food. We have enough provisions to winter here, but fresh meat is a real treat. I can stand the cold easier than the others. That makes me the hero in some eyes and a fool in the others. But no one is passing on the protein I supply. They have come to rely on my hunting skills. I’m not telling anyone that I would rather hunt in the bitter cold than sit around drinking and smelling the month of dirt build up on each man. It’s just too cold to wash easily here and now.My companions and expedition leaders, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark made the right decision in wintering here. I finally crawl out of bed, put on layer after layer of clothes and venture outside. It is a short walk across the square to the large common hall where flapjacks and coffee are waiting. I greet the other men the same as every day for the past month and they look at me through hung over eyes and just grunt. I announce that I am hunting today and wonder if anyone would like to join me. I get more grunts as an answer.These men know me as Maurice DuPont, a special addition to the party at the last minute as a favor to President Jefferson. At first, they shunned the new French guy. That ended when they discovered my skills at delivering fresh meat and probably just as important, telling stories.I met Thomas Jefferson in Paris in 1785. We instantly became friends and corresponded for years after a couple of seasons of socializing. He told me of his plans to send a party to document the wilderness between the two oceans in a letter. When I asked to join it, he quickly agreed and appreciated my involvement.Captain Lewis comes over and stands next to me by the fire and asks for a favor, “The men are kind of low and I was wondering if you would cook us up some of those fruit crepes you like so much. Just to cheer them up…”I know that he is the one who really enjoys my crepes. I nod and say this to the room, “If I was to make crepes for my breakfast, would anyone like to join me?” They all jump up and want to help. The “crepes” I make are a simple batter of eggs and spices cooked in a thin sheet and folded into a roll with fruit inside. It is just something new to these men and they love them.I throw out orders like a general getting ready for battle, “I need two men to clear the stoves and stack the dirty dishware by the sink ready to be washed. I need one man to get some dried apples from the back storeroom. I need two men to replenish the woodpile next to the stove and big fireplace as well. I need another dozen eggs from the hens and fresh milk from the cows. Then I want Captain Lewis and Mr. Clark to stock the flour, sugar and oil pots. I will be back ready to cook in ten minutes.” I have been moving to the main door this whole time and when I say my last words, I dash out the door. Asking the expedition leaders to stock the kitchen is an insult if they didn’t know I was kidding. I use the ten minutes to attend to personal business and return to my hungry companions.They have all finished their assignments and are standing around like wolves waiting for a moose to die of old age. I march in and survey the kitchen. “Captain Lewis, Mr. Clark, perhaps you would assist me?” I know the men will get a kick out of being cooked for by the men in charge. Together we get things ready and I make a show of it. I narrate the activity and cook up four plates of four each crepe. I have them set on the serving table and have Mr. Clark light the oil on them that will brown them just a touch. It’s part of the show. Each of us takes one and everyone wants more. I drop the narration and pump out another batch. It too is quickly consumed. I make almost a whole third batch. Captain Lewis jumps in and lights the oil. As it flames up, one of the men with a long beard moves in too quickly and his beard catches on fire. He screams and everyone else laughs as the fire is patted out.When the food is gone, I get several hearty pats on the back in thanks. I drop back into the commander mode and bark some more orders, “Who will volunteer to clean the kitchen.” Two men raise their hands. “Who will wash, dry and put away the dishes?” Three men raise hands. “And who will be ready to clean and dress my kills that I am going to bring back this afternoon?” Captain Lewis says, “If you bring back anything in this weather, I will personally prepare it for cooking.” He thinks it is a pretty good bet I will come back empty handed. I accept the challenge.One more thing occurs to me since I have their attention. “I wish to enjoy my food tonight without the extra odor of dirty men.” I get hissed at by several of them as they figure out where this is going. I continue, “I will rig a hot shower room for myself when I return. It will take a few of us working together to help everyone return some of God’s earth back to where it belongs.”Mr. Clark makes it official, “We give up and will help. We all knew this was coming and I can’t take any more myself. My arms are sticking to my sides. Let’s take this side of the room and make it ready to clean everything. Clothes, furs, bedding, dishes, and finally us. Tell us how you want it set up; Maurice and we will have it ready.“If I might make another request?” I know I am pushing the limits with this one. “I would like to talk to you about some ideas I have had with building better boats and wagons for the rest of our trip.” I have everyone’s professional interest at this comment and I keep going, “So, I need sober men until after late supper. Agreed?”Captain Lewis signs the deal with this statement, “We could use some drying out. Agreed.”The next hour is spent preparing the room with stacks of dirty clothes, bedding and anything else that needs a good hot cleaning. All buckets, pales and tubs are dragged in and positioned for the process. Each station is set up and each man has a job. Water is constantly heating and dumped as laundry is hand washed and rung out to dry. I used a pair of rolling pins to build a quick ringer that works well enough to start the drying process. I describe the showering setup I have in mind using the drying clothes as dividers between “rooms” for a little privacy. I see that all will be correctly done and prepare to hunt as the work continues.I am armed with my usual wrist throwing blades, a pack of six point throwing stars, and my boot daggers. I selected two fine rifles from the company arsenal with a good supply of powder and shot. In my private weapons bag, I have three large knives and a small crossbow, quiver and bolts. I keep most of these items a secret. The crossbow and throwing stars are weapons the men here have probably not seen before. There’s no reason to make a fuss over having to explain them.I roust the sled dogs, hitch them up, load up and tell the men helping me to open the gates. I check the dogs one last time as the gates swing open and take off into the white on white scenery.I follow a road that runs along a range of small hills. After a few miles the dogs are warmed up and moving faster and faster. Abruptly, I pull them to a halt, press the brake unit and grab a rifle. I load it and walk across out into a meadow that is surrounded by trees. I stop, I listen, I stop, I listen. Always scanning with the rifle to my shoulder ready to shoot. I catch the movement I was expecting and shoot a rabbit at fifty yards. I collect the first prize of the day and move back to the dogs. Off we go until I spot another likely spot for hare and stop. After the same process, I spot another big one and shoot it while it runs across my field of vision from right to left. I love a moving target. It’s all about anticipation.I ride by a lake that holds trout in the summer and I decide it would be ok to ice fish it. I’ll be back. I and finally get to the scrub pine forest where the deer are. I ease back on the dogs speed and slow to a good place to leave them. I stop and prepare them for a significant break. This may take a while. I take off on foot. I have hunted literally everything. It is a useful skill, but one I am enjoying less and less over the long years. I approach a small river that is mostly frozen where I have found white tail deer before. Sure enough, there is a family drinking and resting under a grove of taller trees. I circle the group looking for the bucks that are usually not far away. I find tracks leaving the area of a large stag. They are no more than an hour old. I track it easily in the snow pack and come upon him twenty minutes later. I ran the first mile, slowed into a stealth walk and see him before he sees me. I set up next to a tree, take aim and down him easily. No wind, no falling snow. An easy track and takedown. When I approach him, I see that he is still breathing and I slit his throat.I hang him to drain off his blood and head off to retrieve the dogs and sled. It’s a really long walk back to where I left them and I can get them to within an eighth mile of this location. I’ll risk leaving my kill. I run the whole way and am moving with the team as fast as I can roust them again. I park as planned and run back to the hanging carcass. I am very lucky this time, because a pack of wolves is circling the body. I bring up a rifle to my shoulder and shoot the alpha male. The rest scatter.I quickly get the deer down before the wolf pack regains courage and returns. I drag the deer by the rope and load him up. I return for the wolf and do the same. As I leave the bloody site, I glance back to see three of the wolves watching me. I am tempted to take another, but the sled will be heavy as is.Once loaded and the dogs running free, I push them to move as fast as they can. These poor dogs don’t get enough work because the others are not really familiar with working with them.I’ve only been gone an hour and a half, so I see there is time to discover if my luck will hold if I fish the lake. The spot I want to cut a hole in the ice is only thirty feet from the parked sled. I can watch it and fish without worry.It takes me thirty minutes to cut the hole, rig my lines and begin the waiting. Just as I am finished and settling in, I “feel” someone watching me. I grab my rifle and ease around to see three young Indian braves gazing down from a ridge. They are making no troubling moves and I settle down with one eye on my lines and one on them.All is still and quiet when two of my lines twitch at the same time. I react quickly and haul in two beautiful rainbow trout. They are huge and give me a hard time for a brief moment. No sooner do I have them flopping around on the ice when two more lines get hit. I haul them in as fast as I can and my last line gets hit too.Soon, I have five large fish to deal with on the ice. I leave them alone to freeze, flop and die as I set up all five lines again. I drop them in and prepare to deal with the first batch when I get hits on several of the lines all at the same time. This time, I wait a few seconds until all five are loaded and pull them all in at the same time.I hear quiet laughter from the three young men watching and I give out a hearty laugh as I realize what I must look like to them. I wave at them and gesture for them to approach.They wait at the edge of the lake on the path and I begin to talk to them. They stop laughing and one starts talking away. That gives me enough clues to their language and I try out a few logical phrases to see if I hit on any words that they understand. I see that I am getting some phrases right and the talkative one figures it out and starts a vocabulary lesson for me on the spot.While this is going on, I have bagged the ten fish and rigged up the lines to get more. I motion for them to come nearer and help me work the lines. All the lines are hit by the hungry fish and we are hauling them in faster than we can bait and drop the lines back in. We are all laughing at the ease of catching the trout.I have enough of the language figured out to tell one of them to start a fire and we will enjoy a hot fish lunch together. We have over thirty fish bagged and move off the ice lake and sit around the fire getting a little warmth from it. Several of the fish are cleaned and cooked while we chat. I explain who I am and what I am doing there. They correct my language errors as I go and then they start telling me about themselves.They are mid-teens and working to pass tests to enter manhood status in their tribe. All the tests are endurance and skill related, all physical. We start talking about weapons and they are limited to knives and long bows. No firearms have made it into their tribe yet. I decide that I like these boys and I pull out my throwing stars to show to each of them. I demonstrate how to throw them and hit a tree with all six in a tight grouping. I retrieve them and let each of them have a try. They miss everything with the first throws, but none of my six stars are lost.I can tell they have had enough of the cold and need to return to the warmth of their village. I split the fish in half and give them a sack to take with them. They are most pleased. Then I surprise them and make a big deal about giving each of them two stars a piece. I tell them I am most honored to have eaten with them and will remember them as brave warriors forever. They leave with their prizes and puffed up chests.I pack up, roust the dogs and am quickly moving again.It is late afternoon and the gates swing open as I approach. Someone has been watching for me. I move into the center open space and no one is around. It’s kind of eerie. I slowly walk to the main hall doors and enter. All the men are lined up waiting to surprise me. They have washed, shaved, and dressed in their best for my return.“I am sorry; I must have the wrong fort.” They laugh and circle around me. They start taking my bags and outer layer of furs off and helping me into the bath area. I guess it’s my turn. I am very pleased to see a couple of clean tubs of hot water waiting for me and some of my clothes folded and stacked on a chair.A couple of the men went to check my sled and have come back in with the report, “That son of a bitch got a twelve point, a big old wolf, two white rabbits and a bag full of frozen fish.” The men cheer a bit as Captain Lewis says, “Ok, let’s get out of these women folk clothes and get to work. You three take care of the sled, you get ready to clean the kills, you three put this room in order. Be ready to set this up again next week. I need to have a few words with Maurice. Off to it, you lazy dogs.”I take the time to shave myself and come out of the curtained off washroom to see the men moving out to do the work assigned.Both Lewis and Clark approach and shake my hand with thanks for my work. “Maurice, we are very interested in the comment you made about new designs for our boats and wagons. Mr. Danforth, three glasses of ale please. Our savior deserves a reward for bringing home our dinner. And breakfast, lunch and dinner and dinner and dinner…”We take places at a smaller worktable that has been set up for our discussion close to the fire. The lines and linens that were hanging earlier are being taken down as we sit down. I make a comment, “It would be good to leave the windows and wall covered with heavier cloth and furs to keep the heat in. And a layer of them on the floor above would help out as well.” Lewis directs a man to get that organized and I begin the lesson.“I looked at some designs in a couple of history books as I was getting ready to join you and took note of a couple of interesting things. Let me draw them out for you.” A stack of paper is on the table with a box of writing coal. I draw an Egyptian Nile River barge boat, a common French boat used on the big rivers in big cities, a Chinese Junk, an Alaskan kayak and a catamaran from the South Pacific. When finished, I start my lecture, “Each of these vessels has one feature that could be combined to make our three rafts better. The flat bottom ones will be good for shallow areas. They must be large enough to be stable to hold our three wagons and the animals. We could build them so they could come together as one large platform or break them into three parts as three separate boats for the narrower river points. The Chinese Junk has a great front end to push anything we hit away.”I go on to describe the way they can be connected with pins and locks on the fronts and backs. That will reconfigure them to run end to end. Of course, the whole design needs movable rails to match how each is set up at the time. They like my ideas and bring the master carpenter into the discussion. We’ve got three months to build our new transportation, so there is plenty of time for the iron fittings to be made by the blacksmith. The banter is very interesting and we quickly lose track of time. We are surprised when our cook announces that venison steaks are ready and to come and get them. They are over cooked a bit, but still very good.Several of the men are anxious for the next part of a story I have been telling every night for three weeks. It is about Cleopatra and the intrigue that surrounded her. The rum flows and I am pressed into telling the next chapter. I make them wait and will not begin until they are finished cleaning up the dinner, finish straightening up the room from our baths and settling in for a long story. They think I make these up on the spot, but I am simply recounting something that I lived years ago. The evening closes down and I make the short walk back to my bunk…Today Near Fort Mandan, South DakotaStashThe walk to the bunker is long and windy. At least there is no snow on the ground.I own about ten square miles around this empty missile silo. I have a huge airstrip next to it. The underground conclave is massive. It was already large when I got it almost fifteen years ago. I had it redone and now it houses an Operations Center that is virtually the same as the one in New York. There are many apartments because there is a team of live-in security force people stationed here. Of course, there are our private ones as well. That was the easy part, because the space is huge. And it is many stories deep. I had to do some excavating because I needed a warehouse size room and space for vaults. The vaults are super secure bank-like rooms with three also being clean rooms. The whole complex now suits my needs very well. The only drawback is parking for large aircraft. I have to send them nearly fifty miles to another landing field with large hangars. It is adjacent to an aircraft assembly plant. It works out fairly well. If I could just camouflage hangars or put them under ground, it would work even better. Oh, well. For another time.I enter the complex through a surface ramp and quickly get organized. Megan has never been here and I want to talk to her about her latest project, the First Language Men, as it is now being referred to. After a quick briefing including Gunther, I am satisfied they are making progress. I’m not sure I like where it might take me, but it is wearing away at me emotionally. I set those thoughts aside and am ready to move on. In fact, I have been looking forward to this for a long time. I ask her to come with me to check on some things.As we take an elevator down twelve floors, I give a new assignment. “I have another project for you. I want the treasures I have collected to be released to the world.” She replies quickly, “No problem.” She says that a lot and has never failed to succeed. But I think I might have her this time. After being checked by no less than eight armed soldiers, we enter a tunnel that has vault doors along the walls. The hallway is about fifty yards long and there are nine doors. They resemble bank vaults, but with a retina scanner and a code keypad. I tell her about the clean rooms and what that means. Without suiting up, we can’t go totally in, but just look from behind glass walls.I walk up to the first one and open it. The massive door swings back and we enter into a forty by forty foot square room that has shelving around it and some display cases. They contain urns, vases, small statues, ornate boxes, pens and a lot of other knick-knack items. I walk her along and describe the items to her. There are rows of urns made of porcelain with many precious stones in them. They are burial urns and I tell her that they used to contain the remains of some very special people, my wives and children. I have long sense emptied them knowing full well that they are gone and the remains mean nothing. The vases are many different sizes and shapes. All are ornate and most are jeweled. The small boxes are intricate with many with precious materials inlaid in them. Some are music boxes as well. There is a collection of quills and pens. Most gold and silver, but I have many plain ones as well. They are cheap, but have historical significance. Some quills were used to sign important documents, like the U.S. Constitution. But the things that mean the most to me are in a case by themselves. There is a hand writing duplicating machine called a polygraph and other neat small machines. I was gifted these treasures from Thomas Jefferson when he was in Paris. Megan is reading the inventory list that is by the door and she says, “I assume you want to keep some of these things. Can you put a check mark beside the ones you want?” I comply quickly and she reviews the list again and says, “These quills have letters from the users to verify their authenticity. These are amazing. You have six that signed the Declaration of Independence and four that signed the U.S. Constitution. We need to release these as soon as possible. Is the Smithsonian Institution ok with you?”“No. Give the Declaration of Independence ones to the U.S. Park Services that manages Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The U.S. Constitution ones can go to the Smithsonian. Let’s get this vault cleaned out first. These are easy decisions to make.”The next vault contains nothing but pallets of gold, silver, and platinum. We enter; Megan picks up a gold brick and says, “Wow, I never realized how heavy these ingots really are. What do the different stamps mean?”“The stamps are part on the mold used to pour the liquid metal into and they verify the purity and weight. They all should probably be smelted again to hide their origins.”“And what would those origins be?” She has a motherly upset look on her face, but I have good answers.“Some date back to ancient Egypt and Persia. It’s not worth getting them tied up in history at this point. Just get rid of them somehow.” She is making notes on an iPad all the time we are talking.There is a clean room next and it contains books and documents. Lots of books, lots of documents. First editions and the like. There are three Guttenberg Bibles included. Original copies of the Magna Carta as well as the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are in the documents. Most of the others are letters. A lot are from or to me. “This will take months to go through.”“I know. Contact Joel Weston at the New York Public Library and have him review the list quietly and follow his suggestions. Be prepared to move the majority now. Use whatever specialized transport company that Joel recommends. The letters can go too. Everything.”The next vault contains nothing but clocks. Beautiful ornate mantel or desk clocks. Most are French and gaudy. “A good friend had a business making them and I would buy the ones I liked. Get some to my properties. Call Jonah Sawyer at the Met in New York and follow his suggestions. I already have the ones I like in my New York apartment. They were mostly moved from my home there when I emptied it out. Ah, here is my favorite.” I get a large pocket watch out of a cabinet and look at it. I wind it and it starts immediately. “It has 29 complications. Complications are functions. The most complicated and expensive one has 24. I had this done in 1950 in secret. When revealed, it should be worth around 20 million dollars. What do you think we should do with it?”“Let’s let Jonah tell us.” She pauses and then remembers something. “You have a home in New York?”“Yes, 23 East 62nd St. I haven’t been in it in years. You and I should go visit it when we return home. It’s got some surprises.” She knows not to bother asking once I have said that.Another vault contains nothing but jewelry. As we enter, I give her some background, “There is a lot and most pieces would be valued no less than forty thousand dollars today. Some are worth much, much more. I suggest you make this room a priority because John told me that it won’t be long until we can synthesize these diamonds and gems. Better, dump these fast. Talk to Harrison Collingsworth at the British Museum.”The next vault is full of drawers of raw uncut diamonds and gems. Again, better dump these. I grab my phone and make a call while she reads the inventory list. “Bertram, this is Jonas. Am I catching you at a bad time? No. Excellent. Can you free up your schedule for tomorrow. Yes, the whole day. Good. I’ll have a car pick you up outside your office at 8 am. I want you to come and see some gems and stones. You better bring your own equipment and a couple of your most trusted staff. There are a lot of them. I’ll see you around noon. Be ready to sign NDAs. Excellent. Mention this to no one please.” NDAs are Non-Disclosure Agreements. He signs them all the time.We continue the tour with the next clean room vault. I am saving what I think is the best one for last. However, this one contains paintings and has more than three hundred unknown masterpieces from the European renaissance. Megan is reading the inventory list and says, “These are beautiful. Look at these artists. Wow.”“These are going to be a real challenge to you. Any one of them would make world news and there are over three hundred. How about if they are discovered when a rich oil sheik dies. Let’s talk to John and have Aban Hamsa Rabal die. It’s time.” He is me and it would be “normal” for him to have all these paintings in secret.The armory is next and it is loaded with only the most ornate swords, knives, guns and rifles. However, there are a few very plain ones and before Megan can ask, I answer her question telling her the one she is looking at is a set of dueling pistols that I used to wound a minor prince in Austria in 1810. “Let’s donate all these to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. They have a wonderful arms collection. This will triple the size of theirs. Make a big deal of it and set John up as the patron. Black tie affair and all that.”Megan is surprisingly calm at seeing the treasures. But, upon entering the next one, she is genuinely shocked. It is the last clean room and contains scrolls. “There are over twelve thousand scrolls. They contain my personal writings and most importantly, copies of the scrolls from the Library of Alexandria. At the time, it was the repository for all western documented literature and textbooks. I have read all of them and they will have a huge impact on the world. There are some amazing concepts in them for advanced warfare weapons that weren’t developed until the 1900’s.” I think I finally overwhelmed Megan. “Set up a team of specialists to go through these. It should take at least ten years. Keep it all secret. Give them a facility in Boston and let them go to work. Contact Julia Whitcomb at Harvard and give her the lead position if she wants it. She’s in between books now and would probably love the opportunity. Get her out here the day after tomorrow. There are pictures of each scroll on file. Have Sully show you where it is. Take any one of the pictures and text it to her while you are talking and she will come to you immediately. Fly her out here and show her around. She’ll take the job, I know her. She won’t be able to resist. Have John get everything classified as a military project.”I suggest she give the others a tour and that Sully should be able to help her compile the complete list with the necessary cross-referencing.I have steered her back to the elevator after she is through looking and listening and take it down four more floors. She is not paying attention and talking about the vaults when the doors open and I walk her into a huge warehouse sized room. She finally begins to take in the room and the four hundred or so crates. She finally asks, “And what are in these boxes?” I reply, “Furniture and large statues and other sculptures.” I give her the details and she says the furniture will be the easiest.Then I give her the remainder of the new project. “Besides all this, I have thirty four caches left around the world; most are about a quarter in size of each of the vaults. I want you to empty them and bring the stuff here, or let them be discovered by whomever you want to “guide” to them. Three in South America and Mexico could be discovered by teams of student archeologists from around the world. Referring to the bullion, we could have a gold strike in a poor country and reduce the poverty level in a matter of just a few years. You get the idea.” She takes no notes and says that she clearly understands. We walk the aisles in between the crates and I give her a general idea of what is in them.And then, I wrap up the treasure discussion by saying, “That’s it.” We get a big laugh at this and return to the elevator. She pushes the stop button suddenly and turns to me with a very serious question. “How do you feel about the way you acquired these things? Do you feel like a thief or a tomb raider?”I reply, “For many thousands of years, I did and I didn’t care. But then, after I knew I had more than I could ever spend, I started doing it to save the history. I kind of changed into an archaeologist and a protector of history. Anyway, hopefully, what we are doing now will make up for some of my bad behavior. And wait until you see what is in one of the stashes.” She doesn’t even ask and pushes the button and we start moving again. I think she liked my answer.We turn to the matter of the men. She has put together the pieces of the puzzle and know who the men aren’t. They are not in any facial recognition database and their fingerprints aren’t either. They paid with cash so there is nothing there. The security cameras track them for a few blocks, but then they enter a building and are never picked up again. The office building was emptied and no trace was found. They either vanished or simply avoided any more cameras. The linguists want to talk to you more and get a better database so that if we hear it again, we can be ahead rather than behind. They think they are working on an alien language for a new TV show or movie. I schedule some time for her and walk her back to the elevator that takes us to the main floor. I give her a hug and we head for our homes away from home.John, Mary Jo and Sully have a business plan prepared for the new laptop design. We meet in person and on video conference and they lay it out for me. The whole concept is built on a modular design to swap upgrades in and out as required. The production cost does not drop until we hit 500 units and then we just break even on the initial sale. There is a huge profit on the upgrade subscription and that is what I was hoping. The model is similar to the automobile manufacturing industry. They make little on the initial sale of a new car and get the real money from the sale of parts in the future (down the road, ha ha).They will have a design in one week and we have another week to make changes. I ask for a holographic model and Sully says he was intending to build one anyway.I think it’s time I told them my intention with the back door. “The back door is for us to monitor the activity of the owners if we want to. It has to be totally hidden and undetectable by the owner. And some of the owners will have it checked by the very best techs they have. Perhaps some kind of secure nightly sync with a hidden burst transmission might be a possibility. Sully, call in your best hacker friends on this once Gunther gives you the ok. I intend to give some of these to the top military and they will have the NSA take a look at the machine. It’s got to pass that test. Can you do it?”“I anticipated this. The hidden snooping function is in the business plan in the security chapter. I think I can, but I’ll have to write a whole new sync package. Fortunately, you own about twenty companies that make various apps for phones and computers. I should be able to do it with some help from them, but it is on the top of the risk matrix in the first appendix.”No one is paying attention, but while we are talking, I read the whole 300 page business plan. “Mary Jo, run some models with the retail price higher and add more real gold to the shell to justify it and see what you get. We have plenty of it laying around. Try platinum as well, but I don’t think it will look as nice as the gold. Everybody loves gold.” She takes notes and takes the action item.I wrap it up with, “Thank you. This should be fun. Please schedule the next meetings. You may proceed.” I am very pleased with Sully’s performance. He really is a catch. I end up in my apartment by myself at 5:12 P.M. and start to get my second home organized. There is a knock at my door and it is James and Justin, Megan’s sons. My apartment is not for their eyes, so I step into the hall and ask what is going on.James says, “We’re kind of bored and wanted to know if you wanted to hang out.”I reply with this smart-alec remark, “So when you get bored, you think of me. Great.” We all laugh and then I say, “Give me ten minutes and meet me outside of room 124.” They take off running and I get back to my organizing for a few minutes.I work until I must meet the boys and take the elevator to the right floor. The doors open and I see the boys hanging around the door with a 124 sign on it. Justin is bouncing a basketball. I walk up and snatch the ball away from him and turn and open the door with these words, “This isn’t a gym. What do you think? All I can do is play a little hoops with you guys.” I flip on the lights and a very large workshop appears.“Wow, what is this place?” James says.“This is the company workshop. And we can hang here all we want. There is a complete wood and metal shop. We can build anything.”“Anything?” they both echo.“Well, we can sketch out a few ideas after I show you around. You need to get the feel for what each machine can do. And you can wander up and down the stock isles and see what there is to work with. As for myself, I think I want to build a few rocking chairs.”We spend the next hour just talking about the machines and their capabilities. The first idea the boys had was to build a submarine. Kids. Aren’t they great.The next day my friend Bertram and his two helpers arrive. Megan and Mary Jo are with us and after introductions; we take the ride down to the uncut gem vault. Outside the door, Megan shows him an inventory list. He reads through it and laughs, “This is ridiculous. No one could have all these stones without me knowing it. Jonas, what is going on?” I open the vault and he walks inside like this is funny. He stops laughing when I open a couple of drawers.I finally speak after he starts looking, “This is real, my friend, and I need your help.”“This is unbelievable. There are a couple of billion dollars sitting here.” If he only knew what’s in the other vaults.Mary Jo takes over. “Please review the items and make a recommendation to us as soon as possible. A general assessment is all we need. And probably some creative ideas.”“I can have that for you in two hours.” He talks to his assistants and says, “Set up right here and let’s get to work.” Mary Jo and Megan leave and I remain to help.“I am sorry for this, Bertram. But, I have been sworn to secrecy for years. I’ll make today’s work worth your while as always.”“No, Don’t be sorry. This is the event of a lifetime. Ok, let’s start with the diamonds. You know our friends at DeBeers are going to be very upset with all this.”I reply with this, “Screw them. They have been controlling the market for too long. Maybe we should start our own house.”“That would be a lot of fun. We might start with about a tenth of this room just to get their attention. It won’t be pretty. They can be ruthless.” We work on weighing the stones quickly while one woman grades them. All she is doing is verifying the grading certificates on each drawer.“If we work it out, how would you like to relocate to San Francisco?”“I love the city and a change would do me good.” We talk about the possibilities and I become convinced that the idea is a very good one.“I have to be honest with you; it won’t be long until we can synthesize these. Your job could be only a few years long.”“I can make a comfortable retirement in those few years. I’ll take that chance.” We are done and I summon Megan and Mary Jo back to the vault.I run the idea of the new exchange by them and they like it. Mary Jo laughs at the chance to break DeBeers strangle hold. I ask Megan to have John set it up as Bertram wishes. Then I ask him this, “How much do you want to take with you today?”“I would like a sampling from each grade. Say about 20 oz.” I do the computations and realize it is about four million dollars’ worth.”“Keep one quarter of that for your trouble for today.”“Most generous. That will be used to move myself and my staff to Frisco.”“We’ll take care of that. Enjoy the stones while you can. Better hurry. Technology waits for no man anymore.”Megan says she will contact Gunther to help with the transport when they get back to New York. They pack up and are gone as quickly as they came. Mary Jo gives them the regular secrecy speech as they board the plane all smiles.The next day, Julia Whitcomb shows up and I greet her with Megan. I get a big hug. She is 5’1” tall and very round. She is a brilliant historian and quite familiar with handling old scrolls and documents. She knows me as Javier and I am a student working on a doctorate for years. Megan says, “I am the manager of this entire library. Unfortunately, that is all I can disclose at this time. I found Javier and he recommended you.”We have walked to the vault while this conversation is going on and I open it with all the dramatics I can muster. She enters the outer room and almost faints. “Oh, my God. Javier, are these all authentic?”“Every one. Here’s a list.” She reads it and says, “Oh my God” a lot.“I want to go inside.” I ask Megan if she wants to come in. She declines and takes a seat at a table. We enter the airlock and suit up. Once dressed, we enter the room. There is a viewing and handling table in the center and she looks around and selects one from a container labeled “Alexandria Library.”She lays it out with my help and we open it. “I can’t read this. What is it?”“Old Hebrew. I can read it.”“Well you are full of surprises.”I proceed, “This is a historical account of about one hundred years of the old Persian empire written by a man calling himself “Daniel.” It is very well organized and list things by referencing the first year of the reign of Cyrus.”“Oh, my God.” We reseal it and get another from across the room. We unroll it and it is one that I composed about the teaching of Socrates.“This is about Socrates written by a man named Plavius. It is in Greek.” We go on and on for about an hour and it is time for dinner. We leave the room and head for Megan’s apartment. Harry has had dinner prepared and it is wonderful. Julia doesn’t even notice as she is talking about the scrolls. I interrupt her and ask the big question. “Julia, what would it take for you to head up a long term secret project cataloging and translating them?”“Can I start now?”Megan says, “It really will have to be classified and remain top secret until we see what is there. And the working facility we are thinking of will be in Boston where you live now. What is your estimate for a timeframe?”“Wow. How many people can I have and what kind of computer support will I get?”“We’re thinking seven more besides you. As for computer support, you can have the best we have to offer, but two of your team will have to handle the day to day mothering of the database.”“Eight to ten years. Can I publish when we are done?”“You get first rights, but it does depend on what you find as to what can be shown publically. We think there are some important things there.”“What kind of a salary are we talking about?”Megan has been anticipating this question and slides a full size sheet of paper with a single figure on it, “$250,000 (Annually)”“Wow. Can I start now?”“I take it you accept our offer?”“Yes, yes. Can I start now?”“Do you mean right this minute?”“Yes. Now.”I get up from dinner and say, “Let’s go.” We walk to the vault and enter it again after suiting up. While we are dressing she says, “Javier, where did all these scrolls come from, really?”“Julia, I love you, but I can’t tell you now. Maybe someday, but not now. You’ll just have to trust us on this.”“Ok. But someday…”We work for the next eight hours and then she finally wants to stop. It’s almost six A.M., local time.Megan greets us as we leave the room and vault and says, “It’s time for you to go home and set up your facility. All you will need is in this folder. You have four possible locations and two contractors to build it out. There is a check for $100,000 as a signing bonus for you personally. That should cover your existing credit card debt and pay off your home. We think you need a new car too. Your’98 Toyota is on its last legs. Go to one of these three dealerships in Boston, show them this letter, and get what you want. Be a bit patient with the contractors. Enjoy your money for a couple of weeks while they finish and we will move everything when you are ready. Here is the name of a real estate agent who will help you.”She is overwhelmed and starts to cry, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”I respond, “You are welcome. You have some very important work ahead. Take your time and do it right. I can help now and then, but I have other work to do.” I hug her and she spontaneously hugs Megan too. It is good that Megan is a hugger and she did not try that on John. One of the guards escorts her to her waiting plane and she is gone. I venture topside to enjoy the sunrise and decompress after spending so much time with that much enthusiasm.Uncharted TerritoryI have fond memories of this land.I wandered the Americas before it was called “America” for nearly four hundred years four thousand years ago. I was in what is now Japan and heard a myth about a tribe who had ventured north and returned years later with tales of a new land. At the time, I had a friend, Hibiki Karate, who knew my immortality secret. I was training in an early form of fighting with him and he finally had enough of hitting me and hurting himself. I explained everything to him and he kept my secret with honor and respect the rest of his life.We spent ten years working together perfecting our techniques and moves. We named the new fighting style after him, Karate. He started an academy and became a famous master. The price he paid for doing this was extreme. The local priests warned him off of starting his school, but he held fast to his plans. They attacked the quiet compound and were driven off only after two of his sons were killed.When I told him I was going to follow the tribe north, he wanted to come. He wanted a new home for his remaining sons, daughters and their families. We prepared for two years. When the time was right, we brought 32 people with us and he found a new life on the rolling plains of what is now southern Canada.By the time I returned from my travels to the bottom of South America, Hibiki’s people had grown in numbers exponentially. There were villages on both oceans everywhere I went. His farm on the plains was gone and most of the population lived on the coasts or in the foothills of great mountain ranges where the game was plentiful. It was magnificent to see what one good man started. In visiting with many of the inhabitants, I saw the same spark of nobility and honor he had living on in them.Leaving Hibiki’s new home was difficult. They became family, but I had to see what was south. I had no idea at the time just how vast the land was and then I ran into another whole continent.I took a wagon and three horses to start out and replaced them with wild ones as needed. Somewhere in the southern part of what is now Mexico I found gold in a creek bed. Lots of gold. I lived there by myself for five years gathering it. I smelted it into large ingot coins. I filled leather bags and stacked them in a cave I enlarged from a natural one. Each bag weighed about forty pounds. I stopped when I had 84 bags. It felt good to be moving again.However, only four days ride, I found silver on the side of a hill. I stayed there long enough to dig a mine and get over 60 of the same size bags with the same size coin ingots. I stashed it and kept going. I was only there two years.Then I hit real jungle and the land thinned to where I could walk from one ocean to another in a day. I expected it to end, but instead it fanned out into another whole land mass, South America. I chose to take the route to my left and traveled the east coast until I hit the Amazon River.At times, I waited a whole summer or winter until the way I wanted to go was passable. I was in no hurry. I built boats when necessary and did so at the huge delta where the Amazon hits the ocean. I fashioned a huge canoe out of a very tall tree, stocked it and headed up river into the dense jungle. It sounds easy when I say it in one short sentence, but cutting down a tree, hollowing the inside with an axe and fire took an entire season.About four hundred miles up the river; I made a home for myself and stayed forty years exploring the territory. I was always looking for gold or anything that might be valuable when I found diamonds. They were just laying around a small meadow that was a lake in the rainy season. I gathered thirty pounds over the years.I was thinking about how the blind must operate in the world and how difficult that would be. So, I decided to see what it was like. I made a soft blindfold and put it on and kept it on day and night. Soon, my hearing and smell became more acute and took up part of the loss of my vision. It was very revealing to live like that. I learned a lot about a lot.I remained “blind” for nine years.When I took off my blindfold, it was time to move on. I packed up and floated back down the river to the ocean. I stashed most of the diamonds there and continued on southward. Diamonds are a relatively light commodity compared to gold or silver and I carried just one small bag full.I always made maps when I could in those days and was beginning to get a pretty good idea about the layout of the continents. I used the stars, the length of the days and the weather to help make my drawings accurate. Yes, I used the weather. I knew the storms in the Atlantic and Pacific from the other sides and used them to fit locations relative to each other. I sailed the Mediterranean for hundreds of years and recognize the feel of storms, winds and tides with ease. By the way, I knew the world was round since I was a thousand years old. The “world is flat” idea came from the same bunch of idiots that built the Tower of Babel. The egos of men can take them down wrong paths and if they have any followers, it can end up with bad ideas living on for centuries until somebody bold enough comes along and sets thing straight.I reached the cape at the bottom of the continent and just kept on going. I kind of got lost at this point because coincidentally, there was a reverse in the magnetic poles of the earth just when I turned the corner. That is the only polar magnetic shift I have lived through and it screwed me up for a week. At the time, the sun and stars were behind a cloud layer for months. I “feel” things like that naturally, but I carried all the parts necessary for a compass with me. It only takes a needle, magnet and some ingenuity.After I re-oriented myself, I made pretty good time going up the coastline. The land is not very hospitable in that region and is lifeless desert for hundreds and hundreds of miles.I pretty much stuck to the beach until I saw the expanse of the red desert and went to check it out. This desert is unique. If you rake the rocks a certain way, you can make an area that is a very different color. I tested a few small areas and came up with an idea. I made a straight line that stretched for a few miles. I then went into the foothills and looked down on my line. It was very sharp and easy to see. So, I made some more that intersected the first one. Then when I saw how nice it looked and thought about the possibilities, I decided to make a drawing, a really big drawing. One that would look like nothing but lines when you stood on the plain, but if you could look down from the sky, you would see the figure. I made a bird first. The geometry was easy after I mapped it out. I put temporary markers on the ground and filled in to make the bird complete. It was fun. It took one day to draw the bird. And I made a lot more pictures of different things.I thought they would be blown away with the windy season approaching. I had no idea they would survive thousands of years. I stayed about six months and called my play time finished. Time to move on.Ahead of me was nothing but mountainous coast line that looked pretty inhospitable, so, I took the time to backtrack two hundred miles to find trees big enough to use to build a small one-mast sailboat. It turned out to be a good investment of the construction time. I could make a hundred miles in one day and bypass the land while at sea. Coming up with sails was another story. I ended up weaving a mat out of reeds and tall grass that I had to go inland to find.The coast finally hit jungle again and I abandoned my sailboat in favor of exploring a bit. I drew on my maps as I went and when I hit the thin zone between the continents, I felt as if I had a pretty good picture of the whole landmass. It had been over one hundred fifty years since I had passed by this place, but still looked pretty much the same. This is where I encountered my first people.I saw them well before they saw me and I watched their village for a week before deciding to stop by and say hello. I waited until evening and just walked into the center while a crowd gathered. They were defensive at first with spears pointed at me. I took a seat on a log around the large common fire pit and started to talk to them. One of the smarter ones figured it out and we ran words back and forth until I learned enough. I told them where I had been and where I was going. Their dialect was not easy, but not hard either. I caught more Polynesian than Japanese. I stayed with them two years and learned a lot from them. They taught me fishing using pots and how to make hunting items from almost nothing. Nice people.Further up the coast I found my silver. The place I selected had not changed in the one-hundred-forty years I was gone. Part of the reason I decided to go exploring was the fun of being gone for a very long time. I wondered what state civilization would be in when I returned. Will the people have wiped themselves out or would there be great advances in day-to-day life. Most likely though, would be that everyone would be fine and just trudging along in spite of hate and greed.I took ten pounds of silver with me and when I was leaving, a group of five natives walked by me while on the beach road. We visited for a little bit and they were quite pleasant. Their home village was two days walk from here straight on the coast. They told me their names and what to say when I passed through to get a warm welcome and more importantly, a nice goodbye. Their language was different from the other village people I had talked to, but I easily could put it together from the variety of languages in my head. Two days later, I came upon the village of the five men and said the things I was supposed to. And I did receive a gracious welcome. Most of the men were away doing the seasonal hunting and that left about one hundred four women, lots of children and just a few older men. The women swarmed me and I was treated like a king. There was actually a pushing match by two of the younger girls to see who got to sleep with me. The uglier, tougher one won, but I didn’t care. It had been almost four hundred years without sex or any human contact for that matter. I was happy to oblige. I stayed a week until I was warned by an older woman about a problem I didn’t know I had. The girl that latched on to me was married to a hunter that was returning any day now. I was gone in a flash with that news.The coastal trail had turned into a small road and in two weeks, I found my gold safe and sound. I camped there and used the time to build a wagon and wrangle a couple of donkeys from the surrounding hills. I loaded the wagon with as much as I could carry and kept going. In the area that is now Southern California, I found a genuine city. There were farms and a thriving fishing trade. I was welcome and no one took notice of me. I guessed that there were strangers passing through often and I was correct.I camped safely away from the town and stashed my goods nearby. I took the wagon, horses and a few silver and gold coins to town to trade up. All I got for my handmade wagon and my two almost wild donkeys was one very sturdy wagon. It was big, strong and needed horses. I simply bought the horses from a stockyard. I purchased five and a small feed wagon to trail my large heavy one.With that complete, I purchased stores of provisions to get me to the next big town. I loaded up and waited until first light of the next day to move out.I made good time up the coast road and near nightfall, I camped. Just as I was almost set up three men on horses, riding barebacked, came on me with long bows and spears. They shot me with two arrows that had no effect, of course. One proceeded to attack and push me off the wagon seat from his horse. I broke his neck for his trouble and then hit the others with throwing stars to end their lives. It was all a blur and then there were three dead men for me to deal with. I gathered their horses and weapons and took them with me after I buried the bodies under piles of shale that was plentiful. It was dark when I was finished and I rode on through the night to get as far away from the bodies as possible.In the morning, I let two of the horses go and got rid of all of the bows. The arrows were good, but I could make better bows in my sleep than these morons had. I rested, fed and watered the horses as needed and kept moving because I wanted to make the trip over the ice back to Asia during the winter that I felt coming on fast.The rest of the road north was easy, but I kept my guard up from there on out. I continued to make additions and corrections to my maps as I went and got a pretty good picture of the coast lines and the distances between where I had been and where I was at the time. Stars are great to navigate by during clear nights. Somewhere around the Puget Sound. I realized I had to move quicker to make the correct time to run the ice. So, I lightened my load by leaving a big stash near a volcano that is today called Mt. Rainier. But, I still had fifty pounds of gold, silver and diamonds with me in a pack that I could easily carry and protect. I turned the horses free and left the wagons for the next people on the road. I took off at a good pace after that. The only thing that slowed me down was the continuous rain.Twelve days later, the weather turned snowy and very cold. Fortunately, I made it to a small city, before it got any worse and stayed four days until it cleared a bit. There was a group of twenty hardy men that were heading north to find the crossing and also waiting for the weather to clear. I hooked up with them as their guide after showing them a map I had made and describing the land around the archipelago. I warned them, it would be a hard trip, but they were determined. The news of a man with a map spread and when we left two days later, the group had grown to more than fifty.Four months later, we reached the east coast of Russia and I left the group and headed across the Siberian plains on my own. I lost ten people in the crossing, all to fights among themselves that turned deadly before I could intervene. Murder meant less than it does now and it was common to kill another man to take over his family and holdings. My epic trip around the Americas was beautiful and lonely. I really didn’t hit any significant civilization until Europe two years later. I left Japan with Hibiki four hundred and four years earlier.I found the people much more brutal than when I left. I eventually went to see my pyramids in Egypt and I was pleased to see them still standing and well maintained. I settled in Persia, in what is now Iran, and was able to buy my way into a Governor job after I purchased a vast area of land with my diamonds, gold and silver. I married several times and raised dozens of children while I lived a relatively peaceful life for the next hundred and six years. I had to pretend to be four different people to get any peace about my lack of aging, but it was worth it. It was nice to stop moving and enjoy the company of people I loved again after my years of exploring.CowardsI have regained myself after the whirlwind visit from Julia and am enjoying a bite to eat and visit with Harry. I really count on my discussions with Him. He is most surprising some times. His point of view sometimes adds clarity to mine and his thoughts often cause me to modify some of my plans. He does it with tact and class. Never letting on how stupid something I have in mind is, always laying his thoughts out without patronizing me. I love it when he improves on a process or action that I have designed. We are quietly talking and every alarm around goes off at the same time. Somebody really wants my attention.The one in my head is the most annoying so I activate it and speak, “Yes.” I pause and listen and then with some urgency, I say, “Harry, get Mary Jo and have her join me here.” I go back to my comm and shut it off as I move to the video conference wall in the next room. I have it on and John and Gunther are split screen.John speaks, “There was a terrorist attack on an oil refinery in Saudi Arabia. It took out a third of the supply system. Forty workers killed in the explosions, at least one hundred others injured.” He pauses to let that point be made. “One third production slowdown makes OPEC unstable and when our military moves, which they will, that will even further destabilize the markets. The Secretary is on the line and asking for your help, Mr. Wittworth.” I take a few seconds to move myself into my Wittworth personality.I cut my video feed and turn on the software that changes my voice as the Secretary comes on line. “Good afternoon Mr. Secretary. Or, maybe it isn’t. What can I do for you?”He replies, “Two things; first, I want you to get the son of a bitch responsible for this.” He pauses to accent his request. He is deadly serious. “And two, I need you to prop up the oil market by releasing twenty billion barrels from your private reserve.”Even I am shocked with the number. “That’s a pretty big number, Sir. John, Mary Jo, do you understand why the Secretary is choosing that number?” They both nod yes and I ask the Secretary to go offline on hold while I talk to my team. Once he is off, I ask John to join us live in my place. He is there in thirty seconds and I ask them to explain. They give me the numbers from various reports and what the market reaction will be to the hit. Then they show probable reaction to the different reserve numbers we might pick. It is a balancing act betting on the future market reaction. And that is based on perception, nothing more, nothing less. They recommend that both the country’s reserves and ours be tapped for five billion each immediately and add a statement that there will be another announcement that may include additional reserves two hours after the market opens in New York. This is a much more conservative approach and one that can be changed as need be.“Mary Jo, please make it so.” She leaves and I turn to John and ask him to let the Secretary know. And just like that, I have committed to sell between 30 and 40 billion dollars-worth of oil if purchased. I am not accustomed to having terrorists dictate my business decisions. It pisses me off.John cuts himself off and I then address Gunther, “Is it possible to find the people responsible for the attack?”He responds, “If I get every resource available and every piece of intel that we have and will have, about twenty percent in forty eight hours. Fifty percent in one week and then it stays there for six weeks. Then it climbs as time goes by until we kill them eventually.”“Go ahead and set up the connections. Have Duncan give you the authority to take the lead on this in writing, please.”I wait while he is typing an email and then go on, “I have an idea that might dramatically improve the odds.” I tell Gunther what I am going to do and sign off.I have a couple of hours to kill before I go to work so I head for the gym and Harry is free too so we spar a bit. I usually kick his ass and he loves it. We have some interesting sparring rules. At the start of every match, Harry gets to choose the style. We limit the oriental ones to about ten disciplines and include boxing and an American version of Kick Boxing. Today it was straightforward boxing. That is what he thinks he is best at. We go three rounds and coach each other as we go. We stop the clock when either one of us has a comment and start it when we are ready. He likes to swing just as he is saying “Go” to the voice activated timer. That usually gets him a good blow in before I can move enough and I let him have his fun. How do you fight an opponent that cannot be hurt or really even pushed around? Gunther won’t workout with me anymore. I never hurt Harry, but I do push him. He’s not as fast and powerful as he used to be, but I don’t let on.At the end of the match he tells me that my footwork is slowing down and orders me to do ten minutes with the jump rope. There is a specific “dance” he wants and I comply while he counts. Ten minutes is a long time when you are going full speed with a rope. At almost two spins a second, they add up. I slow it down with some cross overs and finish it off with a burst of blur. The rope is actually hot at the middle where it is going the fastest when I put it away. I finish the workout and need some time to catch my breath. I tell Harry what has happened and what I am going to do and he approves. He often councils patience, but this time it is clear, he is pissed as well. I clean up and dress appropriately in preparation for what I have planned.Things are set up as I have directed and our visitors are ready. I enter the large room where Ezkibel and my other guest are shackled to metal chairs that are bolted to the floor. There is plastic on the floor completing the whole effect I wanted to achieve. It is quite successful. I tell them about the attack in Arabia and make my offer; help me find their brothers that did this or die on the spot.Ezkibel is reluctant and I let him know there is no time for indecision. He pauses a bit too long and I pull out a Colt Python from a shoulder holster and shoot his lieutenant in the head. Some blood, bits and pieces splatter on his face and suddenly he has a change of heart. Go figure.I grill him about the attack on me and he tells me that he thought I was an insider that would give him leverage with John. He had no idea that I was in charge. Gunther is listening and we are satisfied that we are safe from any other actions he had organized. The First Language Men and my attempted abduction are unrelated.I have him moved to an office and tell Gunther what he is going to do. Ezkibel makes a few calls and comes back with a name and location. Gunther takes it and is gone. I have him moved to a cell and drugged. He can rot there for a few days and then I think I will turn him over to Interpol and let them figure out what national court to try him in. Or not. I don’t have time to think about it anymore. These people consider themselves guerrilla fighters and it’s true that there is a fine line between terrorists and revolutionaries. I have found that true terrorists want innocent causalities, whereas revolutionaries want disruption of something, like commerce, to make their statement. This whole “holy war” thing has always made me sick. I’m pretty sure God doesn’t like it when “religion” dictates actions and not right and wrong. I guess it’s that same problem as the difference between justice and vengeance.I ask Gunther to have the mess I left cleaned up. I leave to get washed up and change clothes. I have an appointment with the linguists.I set up the video conference and start the interview. They try to find out what this project is really about and I cut them off and tell them to stick to the task at hand, the background they want to know about is a secret and they give up and get to work. Remember, they think they are developing a new alien language for a movie or TV show. They grill me for verbs and nouns for three hours and I can see that they have had enough for now and I end the session. I am anxious to hear what they have got together and I ask for a status report. One of the ladies that has been typing on a terminal the entire session speaks for the first time since introductions, “Sure, we have a plenty of words to carry on typical greeting interrogatory statements. And after today, we can even carry on conversations on subjects more than the weather. You’ve given us almost the entire dictionary for specific items like farming, commerce, geography, physics, math, emotions, and twelve other categories. If you are making these words up as we go, you are some kind of a savant” She hesitates and then decides to spit it out, “Or, you are remembering this language and that makes you a very special individual. Because this language is not from this world as of today. That makes you a traveler of some sort. Time or star? Which is it?”Holy mackerel? I blew it. I should have pretended to be reading the list of words. I stare at her through the monitors for a moment and say, “You guessed it the first time. Not a savant per se, but I am stuck with a very troublesome memory problem. I have a gift for languages. As of right now, I speak twelve languages, four of which have multiple dialects. I am making these words up by blending them from two or three languages and blurting them out to you. When we are done, I will count a thirteenth one, even though it is fantasy. It’s the same in my head now. Well, I gotta go. Send me an audio file of a demo conversation, please. Thank you all very much.” I grab my phone and call Megan. When she answers, I start my story, “I screwed up and tipped my hand and one of the linguists called me on it. Listen to this. I play the video of our two faces on different screens and Megan is shocked. When it is over, I say, “Its ok. Would you please bring Miranda Chekov to me as soon as is convenient. I would like to meet her in person. Yes… Gotta go… Thanks… Good bye.” I hate goodbyes on phones. I don’t really even like hellos. I would like to switch to saying “Ahoy” like Alexander Bell wanted. Thomas Edison won out with the word “Hello”.Hopefully, something good that the linguists are doing will come of this. If not from them, from me re-familiarizing myself with the forgotten tongue.Gunther has sent me a text, “The cell that hit the oil refinery were all suicide bombers in black ultra-light aircraft at night. They were very well supplied with some of the latest toys. But their leader is holed up in Pakistan about three miles from where Ben Laden hid. I will have independent verification in less than two hours. I had a couple of drones loaded on a plane and transported at 04:30 P.M. New York time. They can be ready to strike at 08:30 pm. That’s 06:30 A.M. (tomorrow), their time. Be thinking about it.” The message is two hours old so I should think about my options. There. Done. Blow them to hell.And my phone rings. It’s Gunther and I forego the “Ahoy” I was going to use. This is serious now. Gunther has an update, “Malek, it’s been verified. And some good news, it looks like there are no women and children in the house. Here are your options; we can,”I cut him off in mid-sentence, “Gunther, kill them all. Minimize collateral damage, but kill them all. Does that help?”“Yes, but there is another option. There is a meeting where some more bad guys are coming to the house in three hours. Convoys are already bringing the other party attenders and should be all-together for lunch. They are celebrating their great victory.”“Gunther, don’t ever let me cut you off again. I apologize. You are full of good news today. Do you think we should wait?”“Oh yea, you bet. We’ve got them all accounted for and tracked twelve different ways.”“Are you keeping Duncan in the loop?”“Nope. Not until we finish here.”“Talk to you in three hours, my friend, goodbye.”I am looking forward to some quiet alone time in my apartment, when I am greeted by Mary Jo, Harry, and John. They are sitting on my couch waiting for me. Harry gets up and comes to me and speaks for the group, “We want to see the vaults. Megan told us about them and we are dying to see them.”“Meet me at the elevator in thirty minutes. I need a shower and fresh clothes. Some food would be good too. Thirty minutes.” They all leave except for Harry.He asks, “What do you want to eat? I’ll fix it while you clean up.”“I would really like some of the fruit crepes you make. Maybe apple?”“You got it.”I enter the bathroom, strip and look at myself in the mirror. I feel myself going into one of my downward mood swings. It’s like depression, but more like being tired all the time. Not physically tired, but tired of living. The last time I felt like this was during the great depression. Even with everything I did to help, there were so many people with so little. Not just basic things like food and shelter, but hope. The hope had left this country. I feel like that right now. I am so very old. Very old.I take a shower and try to shake it off, but fail. I force it under the surface and move on to dressing. I smell the cooking and it helps me to get in gear. Harry has a plate waiting and joins me to eat. We eat in silence. He knows I need some time. We finish and he clears the plates and says, “Let’s meet our friends and see all this treasure.” They are waiting by the elevator and we drop to the warehouse floor. Might as well start there. We walk out into the large space and I start the same speech I gave Megan about contents of the crates. I let them wander the aisles and look at the tags on each box.John is the first to call everyone together at an aisle in front of twenty of so very large sturdy wooden sealed enclosures. As we walk up, he says, “This whole row of crates contain marble statues from the Parthenon, 300 B.C.”I hesitate because the explanation is complicated, “The statues that were on the Athens Acropolis wear out after two hundred years of people touching them and simple vandalism. Half of these are worn out ones and half are new ones ready to replace them. There were spares made by the artisans at any given time. The last half are the spares. I bought them all at a discount at one of the many restorations it went through.” The explanation is clear enough and John moves on.A few minutes later, Mary Jo calls us together at the other end of the layout. “These crates are statues done by Michelangelo. How did you get these?”“I bought them. I really liked his work. I either bought or made all this stuff. Except for all the items on this row. These were gifts from Kings and Queens and other nobility. Most are Persian, but some are Chinese and Indian. And there is one throne chair from a Pharaoh.”They are done and anxious to see the vaults themselves. We take the elevator back to the vault floor and I tell them the contents as I open each door. I have had the guards take a break, so we are free to speak. I get all of them open and enjoy their faces when they leave each room.Mary Jo makes me tell the Jefferson story and John wants to know about the bullion. Harry is silent and spends most of his time in the weapons room. When they are done, I close each vault and Mary Jo says, “You’ve told us about all this, but I had no idea of the quantity. Malek, when will you stop surprising us?”“I think the answer is never. Because it would take one normal lifetime for me to discuss my life. I don’t mean to hide anything from you guys, but we just don’t have time to talk about it all at length. Things just never come up…”All our phones ring at once and it is a message from Gunther telling us to head to the Control Room. We are done here anyway and move out. When we walk in the video links are all up and running and Gunther begins his narration, “The party has started. All three convoys have dropped off their bosses at the house and they are eating right now. Look at these feeds and you will see the entire compound from a drones eye view. Malek, missiles are locked and now is the time.”“You have the order. Execute.” We all watch in silence as two of the feeds shake and flutter as two missiles are fired from each drone. There are four of them heading to end the lives of these cowards. The explosion is massive as all four impact at the same time. Sixteen hours since the refinery was hit and some sort of justice is served.Everyone is quiet, realizing that many lives just ended. It is that way most of the time when someone takes their first life. It stays with you forever. Unfortunately, it gets easier.Megan catches me and says, “Miranda Chekov is here. She is topside waiting in the plane.”I decide that the plane would be the best place to visit with her and I head that way. I enter the aircraft and find her waiting in her seat. She is very, very nervous. Now that I get a good look at her, she dresses and looks exactly like her personality. She has several tattoos and a hair style that is hidden by a knit hat. I think it is short and I see a bit of green coming through the hat.“Hi Miranda, thank you so much for coming to talk to me in person. I wanted to meet you and thank you for your work.”“Bull. You wanted to make sure your lie worked.”“You really don’t beat around the bush, do you?”“Well, I figure I’m fired anyway. So why not make it short and sweet. I want to know the real truth, so what the hell. I’ve got nothing to lose.”“That makes the situation even more complicated than it already is. How many languages do you speak?”“Four, including English.”“Do you have family?”“Yes. I live at home with my parents in Vermont. I just finished my degree and the school contacted me to work on your project as a consultant. I haven’t decided what to do next. I was thinking about being a translator, but that doesn’t pay that much.”“Would you consider relocating to Boston?”“What’s in Boston?”“Let’s go for a walk.” We get up and exit the plane and get in my golf cart that I use. I take the big loop around the plane and tell her that I am going to talk to some folks on a comm. “Megan, can you meet us at the main entrance, please?” I pause and say a few code words. “Gunther, I have a guest that I am going to escort to the scroll vault. Please make the arrangements.”She is surprised when I drive down a ramp that you cannot see from eye level until you are right on top of it. I park at the end and Megan is there and waiting. She greets Miranda and I tell Megan my thoughts, in code, “I think that Miranda would be a good addition to our Boston project.”“Brilliant!”“What project? What’s in Boston?”“Patience. Patience. The answer is behind door number four, five floors below us.”We get in the elevator and Megan says, “Thank you for coming. How was your flight?“Fine. What project?” This girl has an attitude. I can’t tell if she is going to be more trouble than she is worth or not.The elevator doors open and we exit into the long vault hallway. I figure it’s time to tell her now that we have her hooked, “We need some old documents translated into modern English. Your skills would make you a welcome addition to the small group who will be working on it. Interested?”“Yes, but that is a one man job. Two at most.”We are at the vault doors and I work the codes to open it and say, “These documents are very, very old. They are scrolls and there are a lot of them.” I open the door and she walks inside.“No kidding there are a lot of them! How many?”“Around twelve thousand.”“This will take years…”“Yes, the team leader thinks between eight and ten. Interested in a long term position?”“Maybe. I want to know who the hell you are before I agree to anything.”Megan takes over, “Miranda, this man is Javier Mendez. He is an essential member of a team working on some very special projects. You discovered his gift and that is all we can tell you. If you insist on knowing more, our business is concluded. You can go your way now and no hard feelings. You did sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement when we contracted with you for the new language project. We will do nothing if you decide to not honor that contract. You can tell anyone that will listen what you think you know. No one will care about some guy making up a new language out of his head for a movie. Or, you can shut up about it and consider the new position we are offering you.”“Playing hardball are we?” She is not going to let up and I end the discussion.“Miranda, thank you for your time. I thought we might be friends, but I see now that is not going to happen. Megan, please see that she gets home and is paid for her time. Gunther, have you heard all this? Good. Please handle this situation as you see fit.”With that, I close the vault and leave a stunned young girl to her life. Sometimes things just don’t work out.RuthGunther lets us return to New York four days later and I let Angela know that I am back in town. I rush to see her at her apartment and we spend the rest of the morning together and then she has to go to work. After lunch I call Ruth Hanson and ask her to drop what she is doing and come to see me. She complies immediately and is there in thirty minutes. I already have concurrence about bringing her onboard from all my friends and I decide to handle this one by myself.Ruth has been our shoulder and friend for many years. She is nothing like the famous Dr. Ruth. She is tall, dark and very attractive. She reminds me of a wife I had in Milan in the 1490’s, with Mediterranean skin with long, long black hair. Ruth has the same unruly hair as my Milan bride. She and I have had an occasional office visit, but she concentrates on the other guys. I predict she will take the deal immediately. She has a good marriage with a husband who is a Pediatrician and a wonderful fifteen-year-old daughter.When she arrives, Harry brings her to the Oversight Room. He holds the door for her and she enters the room and sees that I am the only one there and Harry has closed the door and left. She says, “Hi Javier. Will others be joining us?”“No. It’ll just be you and I for a while I think. I have something very important that I want to share with you. It will be unbelievable at first. So let me tell you a story. It is the story of my life. It is quite different from the one you know to be Javier’s.”She interrupts, “Javier, are you being serious? Are you telling me that Javier is a fictional person and that you are someone else?”“Yes. That is exactly what I am telling you. I use the fake identities to hide a secret. You see, I was born a long time ago and cannot die. I am immortal.““I guess you know how ridiculous that sounds. Please go on.”“I am six thousand years old.” I walk over to a terminal and pull up a big timeline chart of my life and on another one, I pull up my fake identities.She gets up and joins me looking at the displays. “If you are not really Javier, then who are you?”“I am Malek, fifth son of Seth, the third son of Adam, the first man. John, Sully, Mary Jo, Megan, Gunther, and Harry are all in on the secret and they work to protect me. They also run my companies. I have amassed great wealth and they manage it for me.”“I want to talk to Harry.” I call him and ask him to join us.“These charts are very convincing, but I need more or I’m going to have all of you locked up somewhere I can treat you all together.”Harry comes in and is ready for her. He just starts talking, “What Malek is telling you is all true. I’ve been his friend for twenty eight years and he hasn’t aged a day since then.”Now she’s starting to get pissed so I ask her this, “Can you get away for a few days?”“Sure. Let me make a few calls. And where are we going, Methuselah?” “Just clear your schedule and we’ll leave. Harry, could you have transport arranged to Cairo please and then to Rome, Paris, and Ireland. Have everything we need for a few days put on the plane.”She calms down with the prospect of getting to the bottom of this discussion. Harry leaves and we continue our visit. She is studying the identity chart and makes this comment, “Am I supposed to believe that you are all of these men?”“Just keep all this in mind and I’ll just show you the proof you need. I figured you would be a hard sell. Would you like to know why I am telling you my secret?” She just nods her head and we are interrupted by Harry at the door telling us to move out. He escorts us to the street and gets us into a limo.When we are alone again, I answer my question, “I want you to join my inner circle of friends and help me the same as they do. In exchange for this commitment, I will give you an apartment in our Empire State Building offices, a million dollar salary, access to anything I own and anything else you want. In short, you can have anything you want for the rest of your life.”“Well, that’s a generous offer and totally in line with your delusion.”We arrive at the heliport and are guided to one of mine. The ride is short to the airport where we board a really nice jet for our longer ride. When we are settled and in the air, I pull up the same charts on two big screens in a conference room. I restart the conversation. “I have gone by many names, but the one I want to focus in on is “Job.” And yes, it’s the same one in the Bible. I did many things in that life, but the one that is rarely known today is when I worked for the Egyptian Pharaoh, Cheops and his family. I was the chief architect of the Great Pyramid.”She actually starts laughing at that statement. When she stops, she calmly makes this statement, “Ok, let’s assume that all you are telling me is factual. Let’s talk about how you juggle the different identities without going more crazy. They are usually a symptom of multiple personality disorders.”That discussion goes on for two hours. Then she picks out a person on one chart, Maurice DuPont, and asks me to talk about his family. “I can do better than that. As Maurice, I was a friend to Thomas Jefferson when he was in Paris. We became drinking buddies and lifelong friends. He was a brilliant political philosopher. He was terrible with money and died in horrible debt. I didn’t know about it until he was dead, but it all made sense. He kept buying books and things from England. He paid and paid, but never caught up with his ability to buy. He never had money in Paris and I treated him to everything, even an apartment.”I then spend the next hour describing one wild weekend of women and booze. Ruth is enthralled and then asks me to repeat everything in chronological order backwards. This is an old technic used to determine if someone is telling the truth or not. I ask her if she would like it in French and she laughs and says that English will do. That takes just a half an hour. The captain announces that we are making our approach to Cairo and that it is ten A.M. and 93 degrees F. I make a couple of calls and speak Arabic to the people on the line. Ruth is watching intently now. I think I am cracking her wall of disbelief. I walk her to the cabins and open a couple of closets. There are entire wardrobes for each of us and she picks out a very nice outfit. I tell her that we will be underground and that she may want something more rugged.The plane lands and we are met by the Curator of the Pyramid Museum himself. He is thrilled to show us around personally. We drive for twenty minutes and arrive at the Giza Plateau. We get out of the big SUV and walk towards the Great Pyramid.2650 BC Giza Plateau“Yes, this site is perfect, my lord. It will be a glorious monument to your rule and you will live forever in history and the afterlife.” The Pharaoh King and I are walking the building site alone for a change. There are several large tents nearby that I use as an office and living quarters of sorts.He looks at the blocks I have set up to represent the corners and asks, “How much will be underground?”“There will be one passage way that will lead down and it will dead end into a workman’s chamber. Off of that, there will be a hidden door into a large room with four smaller rooms hidden off of it. I intend to use only a select handful of men to complete that construction to maintain secrecy. I will dig that tunnel only when it can be hidden from the main group of slaves. The models I have constructed do not show it and there is no written record of it either.”“You have done well my Bedouin friend. What would you suggest I place in this very secret treasure room?”“Why, you my lord. History has shown that someday, far in the future, there will be plunderers. We must give them false trails and decoys that will protect you for eternity and beyond. They must believe they have discovered all there is to find.”“I am satisfied. You may begin the work. I will provide all you need. It will be glorious, as you say.”I walk him into my working tent and tell him, “The most important thing about the position of the pyramid is the alignment it has with the stars. It is very complicated.” I proceed to explain the astrophysics involved, but this man is just not bright. I give up and end my dialog with this, “The gods will be pleased when you join them and the stars will guide you to your new life. It will indeed be glorious.”Today Giza PlateauOur host is chatty and is very curious about my reason for wanting to see the inside chambers alone with my guest and he. A call from the U.S. Secretary of State is the only warning he had less than an hour ago. I have not given Ruth a chance to ask questions. When we are in the Grand Gallery, I ask for a word in private with my guest. When he is gone, I walk her around the room and interpret the hieroglyphics for her. She is silent for the most part. I think she is finally getting the idea that what I have been talking about may be true and that I am not nuts. I get to one story and point to a man with a scroll in hand and say, “This is me.”I lead Ruth out of the gallery and thank our host for the private minute. I ask to see the lower chamber and he leads the way and says, “There is nothing down there except for a dead end corridor.”The corridor is cramped and tight with the three of us. At the end, we are lined up with our backs to one side. They are patient while I study the opposite wall.I reach into my carry bag and pull out a brush and ask, “May I?” He nods and I gently brush the area around one stone. When I am satisfied, I ask him to push on one side. He is very curious and pushes gently until it gives way and turns. I reach into the opening and push a lever back. The wall behind us moves a bit and pivots on center with the left side going in and the right side coming out.“Reach inside and pump the lever handle.” He does and the door opens more and then more. When it is open enough to walk through, I step into a short hall and then it opens into a large burial chamber. He and Ruth follow and I take in the room that I have not seen in 46 hundred years. I was the last person in the room and sealed it and now I am one of the first people to enter it again. I’ve been waiting for the right time to reveal this.In the center of the room is a stone sarcophagus that contains an inner golden one. The pharaoh is wrapped in traditional mummy fashion. There are many artifacts in shelves in the walls and weapons leaning against the walls in corners. All gold and bejeweled. His story is written in hieroglyphics on the walls. Everything is perfectly preserved. I take a camera from my bag and take some personal pictures of the room and my friend’s burial arrangement. He was a good man. I touch his casket and remember him at his best. Ruth and the curator are quiet and reverent while I look around. Enough. This is a place of death, not life. Time to go.I talk to the curator and say, “I want no mention of us as part of the discovery. My photos shall always remain private. Please wait a day until we are long gone before your announcement to the world. The three of us will never speak of this again and I was never here. Agreed?” He has tears in his eyes and hugs me and shakes my hand and simply says, “Agreed.”Ruth and I walk out leaving him alone with the tomb. I have the driver return us to the airport. Ruth is quiet and looks at me carefully a few times while we are heading through the traffic to our ride. We pass through gates, then security and are quickly in flight again. She finally breaks the silence and says, “How can this be? Are there others like you?”“Not that I know of. Let me show you my medical charts.” I call them up on a iPad and hand them to her.I then get all the team on video conference and let her tell them what has happened. They are all very glad she is now in on the secret. When they are finished with the story of the day, I tell them all my plans for the rest of the trip. “We are going to visit a friend in Rome. Fly during the night. Stopover in Paris for the day. Fly during the night to Dublin where we are going to retrieve the Holy Grail.” I let that settle in and wave off any further conversation about it.I ask John to visit privately with Ruth and make her the offer officially. I take a break and head for my stateroom and to talk to Angela for a while. I am deceitful with her again as required, but I feel horrible about it. This feeling is growing stronger every day. I can’t lie to her like this much longer. Something’s got to give.It will be 4 P.M. in Rome when we land and I have something special planned. I’ve been meaning to look up an old friend. He is an historian at the Vatican and a Priest. He helped with a Doctorate Thesis I wrote twenty years ago for my last PhD. I have 11. All it will take is some gray highlights to my hair and I will look forty easily. He will be eighty years old now. I called him when we left and promised to stop by if he would give me and a friend a private tour. He knows me as Daniel Wilkins.We land and there is a Harley Davidson Sportster waiting for us at the airport. I made sure this was ok with Ruth and riding clothes and helmets were packed for us on the plane. The ride from the airport to the Vatican is about thirty minutes this time of day, but I know how to make the best of having a powerful two wheel vehicle. We have two hours until our visit with Father Porter, Jonathan Douglas Porter, from New York. She is having a great time and doesn’t care if we just ride around and take in the sights. She’s never been to Rome and I switch to my historian-tour guide mode and narrate the sights over our helmet telephone headsets.I make one stop to go shopping. I pull up to a tailor’s establishment, “Brioni.” I have Ruth come in and in Italian, I ask to speak to Roberto. He comes out from the back when called and I greet him and tell him I am John’s friend. He instantly warms up to me and offers us a glass of wine in the back. We oblige and when we are seated, I tell him my business, “I would like to arrange for John to get a dozen suits of something special, perhaps something that has yet to be previewed. Or made from some material that is fresh and about to be the next fashion. Do you have any ideas?”“That is an interesting request. John is a valued customer and good, good friend. It would be our pleasure to come up with something special just for him!”“I also want Tuxedos for John and for four other men. You pick the styles. I would think it would take three to cover the style spectrum. Would you agree?”“Yes, yes. Three each will be wonderful.”With the order complete, I haggle the price with him. It’s all for show as I really don’t care. When the price is settled, I pull out an American Express Centurion credit card, also known informally as the Black card, and hand it to him. Ruth witnesses the transaction and takes note of the card. Roberto acts like he handles them on every purchase. We leave with promises to return and stay in touch.Just short of the door, I turn to him and say, “Perhaps you would be kind enough to deliver the suits to New York in person to adjust the fit. I will send a plane for you when you are ready if you will do that for me. Please?” I am humbly begging at this point to earn his favor as well.“Yes, of course, I would be honored to visit your city. Four weeks, no sooner. If I have trouble with the fabric purchases, it could be six.”“No problem. You are very kind. My regards to your family.” And we walk around the corner to our ride. Time to meet the Father at the Vatican. It is three minutes away.Ruth and I pull up to a security gate and are passed through quickly with directions to where the Father is waiting. We park the bike and Father Porter steps out of a building door and says, “Daniel, my old friend. No, no, you are not so old. The years have been good to you. Better to you than me at least.”“Father, you are looking younger than when we were doing research together. I think that living so close to God that he is cursing you with eternal youth.” He’s eighty and his eyes have a glint that says he still has a razor sharp mind. “This is my very good friend, Dr. Ruth Hanson.”“Ah, a beautiful woman with my friend. The ring on your finger tells me you are married to someone besides my young protégé. He could never catch a woman of your caliber. And what would you be a doctor of, my dear?”“I am a doctor of psychiatric medicine, sir.” Ruth takes his arm as he offers it and they chat as we enter the door into the hall. We walk a short distance out of the building and into another and find ourselves standing in the Sistine Chapel.Ruth is awestruck and Father Porter sees this and says, “Ah, you have never been here before. Let me tell you about this place.” He proceeds to give a lecture on the history of the chapel and then about the ceiling and its creation. I linger behind having heard it all before. I remember discussions amongst the artists of the time and how the work was progressing as it was developed by Michelangelo. The general belief at the time was that if the Pope’s name was evoked to help convince them to take the work, they would certainly be paid poorly. No one wanted the work, but none could refuse it either, if offered.But whatever history or inside stories about the works that bless this chapel’s ceiling, they are masterpieces and the complete work is a miracle of human achievement. It is truly a magnificent creation.We tour the main cathedral and he begins his lecture again. I didn’t know it, but Ruth is a catholic. She considers this place to be holy ground and stops and says the ritualistic prayers and gestures as we walk around. I did not know the emotional impact this visit would hold for her. I am pleased she is enjoying it so much.When finished with the main tourist areas, he leads us to the private church library where scholars can do research with the right permissions. I have worked here many times through the centuries. The collection is staggering. I’ve even walked the hallways of the underground secure treasury. It holds the gifts to the church and the plunder as well. Many of the works I was responsible for while I was in Egypt are here having been taken as the spoils of conquest. At least they are safe and well preserved.The Father has saved the best for last and he leads us on a long walk back to the main cathedral and up many stairs until we exit through an exterior door and onto the roof of the building. The sun has set and the city is lit up, especially the larger ruins and buildings. The coliseum is particularly beautiful from this vantage point. I have never been up here and I enjoy reminiscing in my mind over what these buildings mean to me. I remember when these buildings were new. It makes me a little sad when I compare them from then to what they are today. But it makes me happy at the same time they are preserved in any state at all today.Father Porter walks us around the entire dome and gives Ruth plenty of time to take pictures. I gave Ruth a really good camera earlier in the day to use instead of her cell phone. She is snapping away as we walk the circle. While she is busy, he grills me about my family and work. All questions are answered when I explain that she is going through the interview process on this quick trip for a new position with a company I work with. I am just the one assigned to get her to the many meetings she is having. It is getting late and we end our visit with a time of quiet prayer in the main church. A short walk and we are back at our bike and saying goodbye to our host.I start the goodbye by saying, “Thank you my friend. I am most pleased to see you looking so well. Your insight is a blessing to us all. And thank you for treating this special lady to a special time. I hope that you and Ruth stay in touch.”Ruth responds by hugging and then kissing the old man on his cheeks. “I would love to stay in touch. Here is my business card. Please write or call. And thank you for the tour. You can’t know what this has meant to me.”“Oh, yes I can. I can see it in the tears you are holding back, my child.” They hug again and then I hug him and we put on our helmets and ride off into the Rome night. We stop for dinner at an outdoor restaurant by the many piazzas and spend the time reviewing her pictures. Many are exceptional. She is getting tired and we ride back to the plane and say our good nights. I give the pilots their schedule. I wish to be in Paris at sunrise. I go to my cabin and sleep the night away. And actually, I slept pretty good. I didn’t even notice when we flew, but we awake to find ourselves at the Paris airport as planned.With all the time zone changes, Ruth and I both wake up around 6 A.M. local time. I make us some breakfast and we talk and talk. We try to make some kind of an itinerary, but it is crazy because she has never been to Paris before either. I offer the same motorcycle guided tour and she declines in favor of a lazy day at the Louvre. Wonderful. I love the museum. We get there as it opens and walk the galleries until lunch. We take a break and walk to a cozy little outdoor restaurant called Le Soufflé.Over lunch, I tell her the real reason she is in. I describe my dreams to her, the Heavenly Host, and the First Language Men as well. I tell her that her first order of business is to work with Megan and help me personally. She starts to take notes and I stop her telling her that she can start in a few days. We return to the museum and walk it until she is tired and we return to the plane to take a break and get ready for dinner in Paris.At 7 P.M., we take a limo and I have them drop us off at the Eiffel Tower. We have a pleasant conversation about Ruth’s family and she goes on at length about her daughter, Melody. The evening is beautiful and we enjoy a stroll over the Seine. She asks me about my life in general and then zeroes in on when I lived in Paris in the 17 and 18 hundreds. I tell her stories about my life and the times and she is enthralled. We stop on a bridge and visit for a long time.I guide the conversation and the path as we chat. We arrive at the Astrance, my favorite restaurant in Paris. I warned Ruth and had her dress up for dinner. Harry also included some of my private jewelry for the occasion. She was duly impressed and looks stunning. Harry picked out one of my favorite tailored suits and we enjoy a wonderful dinner of classic French cooking with a wonderful wine. The whole time we are visiting, she takes pictures of the surroundings and sends them to her family. All that she has told them is that she is going away for a few days to consider a job offer. It really is a long interview about the new position.During dinner, I ask about the offer and if she is going to take it. She says, “Hell yes. But, I asked to do research on the side. Is that ok?” I tell her of course and sweeten the deal with offering to let her set up her own research foundation and that she can use any resource we have at our disposal.” Now there are seven.A cover story has already been prepared. She will be heading a research lab doing classified government work with high-ranking military men and women.With dinner long finished, she finally is willing to leave the restaurant. I suggest a short tour of Paris before heading back to the airport and she loves it. I invite her to ask questions and she does as we take in the sites. I have stories for everything, because this was my home for several centuries. Once back on board the jet, we head for our rooms for the night.Again, we fly through the night and wake early to Dublin rain. There is an Aston Martin Vanquish waiting for us and we head northwest to a little village called Kells. There is a church there called Saint Columba’s. Behind it is the usual old cemetery with several family mausoleums. I stop for flowers at a local shop and we find the church easily. It is a small town.The rain is heavy as we pop umbrellas and walk to the graveyard. We approach one of the small burial buildings. No one is watching us and we walk around to the back. I move a couple of decorative carvings and a panel opens near the ground. I take out a small wooden box, open it and put the contents into my shoulder bag. I replace everything and we leave as quietly as we came. I slip a thousand euro note into the outside offering box as we pass and we are gone. I stop in one of the local antique shops and buy a bunch of cheap church challises and a wooden box to hold them. Gunther has made special arrangements for the wooden box to get through customs when we land.The trip across the Atlantic is long and we both hang out in the conference room and I conduct business. I read report after report and make calls and read some more. I discuss some things with her and answer all the questions she has. She is mostly reading my files and filling in the details as she goes.Toward the end of our trip, she wants to know where I would like her to begin. I answer, “Work should wait a few days. You should invest some time with the logistics of relocating, decorating and generally getting organized.” She sees the wisdom in that advice and off she goes down my rabbit hole.Business as UsualWe arrive back in the Empire State Building and everyone is there to welcome Ruth into our club. They also want to know the Grail story. The cup itself is made of simple pottery clay. It was glazed and fired well. It was a nice bright black at one time. It has been chipped and used extensively before it became a “sacred relic.” It is shaped like a regular oversized wine glass with a thick stem and heavy round base. It is quite ordinary and plain. I used to carry a similar one in a wood box. It was a custom of the times to have a shoulder bag or two with your essential day to day items if you were traveling even a short distance.I make them wait until dinner and when the time is right, I tell them all I know.I put the challis onto the dinner table and let everyone examine it while we eat. Ruth is doing most of the talking, telling them about everything. She is giving them all a hard time about keeping the big secret. I would expect nothing less. She is a very outgoing person. When the dishes are cleared, I begin the story, “This cup was entrusted to me by a group of men who were sometimes called the Knights Templar. They were a fairly secret group. They all believed this cup to be the cup that was Jesus’s personal possession. Supposedly, it was used at the last supper and then to catch some of the drops of His blood that fell from the wounds inflicted during his crucifixion. These men believed this to be true and they believed it enough to be willing to die for its safety.”John uses the pause to ask a question, “When?”“1350. I was in London during the Black Plague and was well known for my philanthropy during that horrible few years. I was approached by the last of the order who were desperate for help. They were dying off quickly. I took it and swore to protect it. I hid it where we found it and I moved on. Is it the cup? I don’t know. But let’s start with having it molecularly dated. Then we can move on to a man I know at the Met. Gunther, can you please handle the molecular dating? Take it to Willy Jones at our main materials R&D lab.”A few days have passed and I perform a ritual of sorts. I take in the “news”. I read very, very fast. I take a seat at my desk and read the newspapers that are organized just the way I like for swift intake. I read a couple of magazines as well and am up to date on that side. A piece is repeated in several papers about the discovery of a bunch of masterpiece paintings and museum artifacts that was found in an underground bunker underneath a retired mill in Switzerland. I have been looking for the story since Megan told that she was going to have it uncovered. A team was sent in to catalog everything before it was “discovered.” They took out some things and added others per my direction. I’ve been planning this since World War Two. It feels good. This art is too important to loose or be kept a secret any longer. But, wait until they see what else is coming.On the other side of the world, a gifted archeologist and his team of students is about to find Mayan treasure in the hills outside of Mexico City. That should be fun. John reported to me privately, that there was phone chatter between a lieutenant in the Ochoa Mexican Drug Cartel to Salvador Romero, the head of the Cartel, himself, about the discovery. Why they would be interested, I don’t know, but it pisses me off. It doesn’t take much to piss me off about them since they started killing cops. So, I am thinking about taking some action.I have Sully, who is back safe and sound with us, get me everything on the structure of the Mexican drug business and have a briefing ready for me and Gunther a.s.a.p.. Later that day, everyone that is around is briefed and I lay out a plan. I am going to take down the most ruthless cartel leader. It will put a short-term dent in production and distribution of about one third of the business. I am very pleased that Ruth is present having dropped her decorating and relocation activities to join us. She is clearly surprised by the power I wield and the vastness of my reach. I have decided to do the killing myself. No one is happy about the decision, but they all know it is the best option. It needs to look like a rival cartel’s work.I follow up with Gunther, Harry and Sully to define the mission. With the logistics laid out. I move out. First stop, the airport. I am going to take my D-jet to Mexico where a supply officer and vehicle will be waiting.While I am flying south, Gunther informs me of the target’s location. All is proceeding as planned and no changes are required, yet. I land at a private airport about 50 miles from his villa. The person I am to meet is there with everything we requested and a little more. I have my personal gear and when he is gone, I change clothes. I am dressed like a Mexican worker and the car is one that is quite common around here as a utility vehicle.I take off and make the trip on a good road in an hour and a half. No checkpoints. No stops. At two miles out, I park the car as planned and change clothes into a chameleon suit. I carry a camo bag with my equipment.It is midnight and the compound is dark as I approach. I ditch the bag and move the essentials into my internal pockets. I walk up to the front gate and right up to a guard at the front gate. I walk behind him and choke him unconscious. I drag him into the small room, put flex cuffs on him and press the open gate button. I set the first of many timed charges. I already set them all for twenty minutes. I am on the clock, so I run up the driveway to the main house doors and stop to place another charge.A patrol rounds a corner from a garage and walks directly to me at the front door. I step to one side and he opens the door. I shadow him in and when he reaches the foot of the main staircase, I kill him with silenced Sig Sauer P229. I drag him into a side room and head upstairs where the target sleeps. When I reach the top of the stairs, I hear a television in a sitting room across from his bedroom. I walk in the room and he is just sitting there by himself watching TV. I kill him with a shot to his head.I set another charge and turn to leave when a beautiful woman tiptoes into the room to surprise my target. She has a couple of beers in her hands and drops them when she sees he is dead. She starts screaming and I hear the sound of men running up the stairs. There are three and one is on a radio locking down the compound. I step to one side as they approach and am missed by the first two. The last man draws a gun and gets ready to step into the room. He looks well trained and happens to press against the wall I am standing next to and bumps me. He looks right into my face and gets a strike to the nose from my hand. His face had a puzzled look on it as he died.I need to place a couple of more charges and I now have 5 minutes 30 seconds left. I run into the kitchen and set two, Then turn and set two more next to the bearing walls in the entry way. They should bring down most of the second floor when they go off. Alarms are sounding now and two men enter the front door with guns drawn. I shoot both and walk out the front door and down to the same gate I came in twelve minutes ago. One minute to go.The explosions that finish off his villa go off just as I am striping off my suit and stashing it in my bag. The car starts and I am gone. I pass a couple of fire trucks and police cars with their sirens blaring going to the dead man’s house. I activate my comm unit and tell Gunther all is well. He tells me that the entire group watched from the infrared images being beamed down from a satellite in real time.We sign off and I am back in the air in two hours, over the U.S. in another one and home in New York in five more.The Mexican news media is playing the story just as we hoped, one drug lord against another.I spend the next hour alone swimming laps in a pool downstairs. The repetition of the laps, helps me to think. In my head, I am trying to understand the things that are going on and not having much success. Oh, well.When I am done with my workout. I get out of the pool to find Ruth sitting on a chair, waiting for me. I towel off and sit next to her. She begins, “I watched you kill those men. How do you resolve the moral issue of being both the judge and executioner. What gives you the right to decide who lives and dies?”She is very angry with me. I try not to get mad back at her since she is brand new to my secret. “Ruth, I have been doing this for years. I funded half of the Manhattan Project in 1944. How many did I kill then? I value life above all else. Those lives last night might save thousands. They crossed the line when they started killing cops. Good police officers with families and loved ones. I’ve been judge, jury and executioner for thousands of years. I am a vigilante. I happen to believe that separating those jobs out, makes it a little too clean for my tastes. The world might be better off, if we made the judge that sentences a man to death in Texas have to push the button to end his life.” Unfortunately, I have raised my voice as I went on and am now almost shouting at Ruth. I realize this and am embarrassed.She stands and comes over to me and puts her hands on my face tenderly and says, “I was just pretending to be angry. I needed to see how you really were. You carry a heavy burden, Malek. Are you ok?”“No, not really. But at least I have you and the others to help.” I find myself crying quietly as I say those words. She hugs me as you would a small child for a minute until I stop.Later that day Mary Jo and Megan want to talk about my loot. They start with the gold. There simply is too much of it to dump on the market without serious repercussions. I again suggest a fake gold strike in a poverty-ridden country that could lower the population’s poverty level. They like it and jot down some notes and say that they will begin the search. I’m thinking Peru. And how about a billion or five to pay down our national debt? And how about a silver strike in the heartland of the U.S.? Again, they start thinking for the location. The jewelry is a whole other story. I tell them to show me the entire catalog after the stashes are finished and we’ll go from there. Release the antiques to auction and give the money to the Gates foundation. After all, most were handcrafted by me and I tell them I would also like all of it moved to one of my places in San Diego. It actually is an estate north of the city by the Del Mar Racetrack that Bing Crosby built. It is a large sprawling home of seven thousand sq. ft., that overlooks the sea and would be perfect to catalog it all. I would like to see it all together before it goes away. And then I would like a couple of my residences redone with it. I have a castle in France that is just perfect. I direct Megan to go and visit the house and see if she likes it. And if she does to have it emptied and refilled.The art is the biggest challenge, almost all being originals by me. Most are in the style of Monet and Pissarro. The real problem is that they are signed, Thomas Chandon, my name at the time. I suggest an unknown protégé of Monet’s and they like it. I wonder if it is time that the Smithsonian Institution should perhaps get a new wing in one of their buildings, or a new floor.I haven’t let them know about what I want to do with my music. I also play every musical instrument, but I like sax the best and I am very good. When Adolph Sax invented it in 1846, I paid close attention and then got several of the new horns and loved them. It was not until the blues and jazz that I really started to be a serious player. If you have over a hundred years to practice an instrument that you love, you’d probably be very good at it too. But again, I need to avoid the limelight, so I only play by sitting in at a local jazz club infrequently. I compose, but have never had any of it played publically except for short pieces that will not cause a stir. But, I’m thinking, “movie scores”.PrivateerBesides my working residences, the home in Del Mar and the Castle in France, I have villas in Buenos Aires, Cannes, Puerto Vallarta, and Istanbul. All are opulent and used by me and my friends all the time. Everyone seems to settle on one or two after they check them all out. I have rustic lodges in Banff, Moscow, and China. They are huge log cabins and the one in Moscow has a great fifteen hundred sq. ft. three-story tree house beside it. I have smaller places in about ten different locations, but a good number are in Africa. I have a particular one that I love on a game preserve that overlooks the Okavango plain. It is magnificent and it is home to a great flood that turns four thousand square miles of arid plains into a wetland. The lush grass attracts elephants, deer, zebra, and buffalo. Hippos show up when the water gets deep enough.But, my very favorite place is where I am taking Angela for a long weekend. I have a limo pick us up at Angela’s place for our weekend jaunt. Angela and I arrive at the airport in the private plane terminal area. It is Friday night and she is off work and school Monday giving us a three-day weekend. She believes I am on a currier mission for my company carrying important scientific equipment to a lab. I have only told her that she is in for a very big surprise. We are going to Atlantis, my under water complex in the Caribbean.I had it built several decades ago. It is a rather simple structure only meant to be pressurized in sixty feet of seawater and simply sits on the shallow ocean floor in a pristine coral reef. There are two structures, a lab and a twelve hundred sq. ft. residence. They both are rectangular in shape and the lab contains an airlock and all access is by scuba gear. Angela has not been swimming with this gear ever, so it could be a challenge.We get on the jet and she is amazed by its luxury. The flight is about two and a half hours and no customs are involved since we are going to Nassau. The ride is loud with anticipation and she talks the whole trip asking questions that I will not answer. It is fun to tease her and she is a very good sport about it.We land and I walk over to the edge of the runway and look down at the harbor.June 20th 1702 NassauThere is no wind today and my ship is quietly anchored in harbor. The crew is enjoying a few days of leave before we make another run out to sea to possibly intercept two French merchant ships headed for New Orleans. Nassau is a perfect place to rest up and relax. The authorities are easily bribed with cuts from my bounty and even the French Navy avoids the port. I am Captain Peter Easton currently in command of Hawk’s Thunder, a double mast sturdy and fast little vessel with a crew of forty very bad men. I am a privateer (or pirate) commissioned by the British Crown. My politics and allegiances change with the wind and whether I like the ruling monarchs at the time. Today, I work for the King of England.I turn away from the view and walk back into the town through the shacks that line the sandy streets. Whores are everywhere looking for customers and their managers try everything to engage you in conversation. I am recognized and left alone for the most part. I am having lunch with the Governor to discuss my next venture.He is an aristocrat that has no idea how to really govern except to try to come away with pockets lined and head back to merry old England richer. The real colony manager is a woman who owns half of the property and has gotten rich by throwing her lot in with the real moneymakers, the pirates. She keeps things nice and neat for her cut and everyone is happy. Don’t cross her or you’ll find out for yourself why she is called the “Blood Queen.”The Governor puts out a fine table and has the best rum. His wife of some thirty years remains in England while he works this post. There is a portrait of her in the main hall. She is so ugly that she actually must work really hard at it. I can see why he accepted this job. He keeps two mistresses in the house and they are both as lovely as his wife is ugly. Keeping this pig happy is their only job and with his looks and manners, their work is cut out for them. One can only fake affection for so long with someone as self-centered as this pig.We have a very pleasant meal of fresh caught lobsters and eel. There is plenty of island fruit and other fare. He wants to hear pirate tales of plundered treasure and blood, so I oblige. I embellish a lot to keep him entertained. Inevitably, the talk of business must occur while I entertain him with a knife-throwing exhibition. What a clown. I am very good with knives. With four thousand years of practice, I better have it down. We establish his cut at 5% of the take. He is demanding more than the last venture partnership and if it goes higher, he will have to be “reasoned” with, at knife point.With business concluded, I take my leave and wander back through the town stopping by each establishment to let my men know that we sail with the tide in three hours. I really am looking for my first mate, Mister Grogan. I find him in a hammock behind a brothel with his steady girl sleeping off a drunk. I roust him as usual by pouring a nearby pitcher of water on him. He sputters to life and flails out of the hammock swinging. I am laughing so hard that he starts to as well and I help him up.I walk him to the beach and send him on his way with the first skiff from my ship. The others are approaching as they see the crew gathering. The officer of the watch comes ashore with one of the trips and tells me the count of mates. We are short four and I send four to get them, but one of the men tells me they are being detained by the garrison commander. I slip him the price of four pardons and he leaves to fetch his mates.I take the next shuttle boat and climb on board my ship. The crew is already hard at work stowing supplies and rigging for departure. I check with the three officers in charge of various details and all is going well for our two week run. I inventory the supplies and realize we are short a barrel of gunpowder and three casks of rum. I send the chief mate to investigate and walk back to my cabin. I encourage the crew with descriptions of the booty that waits before us. Greed is a wonderful motivator.In my cabin, I find it configured for work and not rest. My center table is installed and charts are already laid out. Stevor, my black servant, has done his job well again. He enters and I say, “Thank you Stevor. This is setup just as it should be. Excellent.”“Thank you, sir. I’m finally getting the hang of it.” We both laugh, since he’s been doing this for me for two years.“My targets should be here right about now and I intend to cut them off and take them right here. If my information is good, they are both full of money to buy American goods. And they have special passengers that the French crown might pay well for their safe return. Your thoughts?”“You have laid in waiting here before.” He points to the cove of an island. “Can we get there well before them?”“If the winds favor the run around the big islands.” His input is always welcome when we are alone. It wouldn’t sit well with the crew if they knew my personal servant was helping me plan strategies. There is a knock on the door and Mister Grogan enters as I give permission.“Ready to sail in thirty minutes, Sir, right with the turning of the tide.”“Has the missing barrel of gun powder been located along with the three casks of rum?”“Yes, to the gun powder. It has already been moved to replace an empty one on the weapons bay. I only heard about two of the rums. Humm… Who did you speak to about it?”“The chief mate.”“He’s hording again. He and I will have a private talk. I’ll see to it now. The last of the men are on board and we are stowing the skiffs. I’ll call for you when we are ready. Do you want to talk to the men before we shove off? Pep talk and all that?”“Yes. Officially, they are partners and deserve to know what we are risking lives to get hold of.”He leaves and I return to reviewing the maps. In just a few minutes, there is another knock and he says, “Crews assembled and ready, Sir.” I follow him up to the main deck and address the men. I look at them and they are not pretty.“You are the most wretched lot I have ever laid eyes on. Mister Grogan, when time permits, clean the crap and vomit off of this whoring crowd and make them presentable as best you can.” I get groans from the men and laughter too. “We sail to take two French frigates headed for New Orleans. I aim to prevent them from getting there. They carry gold for the purchase of American goods and another prize, if my sources are correct. Wealthy passengers, the French crown will pay a tidy ransom for. If I cut the deal correctly, the Lady of the Island and that worthless Governor will get the hostages and we take the hard gold for our own. We let the ships sail on, if they don’t put up a fight. All we want is the treasure they carry. Not sure how they are traveling, together or separate, so we’ll have to stay sharp. Make ready to weigh anchor and make our fortunes!” The crew cheers and gets to work.The anchor is pulled in and the ship begins to drift out of the harbor. With orders being shouted and obeyed, the sails are unfurled and we catch a breeze immediately and are moving at a good swift clip.I walk the ship giving encouraging pats on the backs to some of the men. To others, I give orders, “Reposition those guns to make ready and have the powder distributed. Keep that box of fuses tied up against that wall. Look lively. Gunnery practice in ten minutes.” I continue my walk and see my announcement rippling through the ship as men move to their firing stations.Ten minutes later, I am back on the cannon deck with the cannon officer ready to time the firing.I whisper to him, “Pit the starboard crew against the port and give an extra ration of rum to the victor. But only if they beat the best time on record. If both sides beat it, surprise the looser with a ration as well. Let them know we honor fast hard work.”“Aye, aye, Captain.”“And watch the swells as you fire. Last outing, too many were wasted in low shots. Get the timing right.” I leave and continue my inspection. Once on deck, I check the sails and make adjustments. It’s a 40 hour run to our cove unless we come upon the frigates first. The cannons fire again and again and again. The chief reports no records broken today because we took the time to practice accuracy. They have the swells timed better and can make adjustments much swifter. I tell him that deserves an extra ration for both crews even without the speed record.Night falls and we continue on by the almost full moon and clear sky. We should round the bend and be in the shipping lanes in six hours if the wind holds.I have the first watch at dawn and leave orders to wake me with any contacts. My quarters are reconfigured for personal rest and I hit my bunk and am out as my head hits the pillow. I am woken at 2 A.M. by Stevor who tells me the officer of the deck has multiple contacts to report. I am up and on deck quickly and asking where the sightings were. The deck officer points and describes them. Three, one after another headed east out to sea. Very good, the shipping lanes, one hour early. I take the glass and verify his report. Then I turn round and scan behind us.“Wake the first officer and have him report to me now.” He acknowledges my order and runs to the door to follow it. Mister Grogan comes to my side quickly and I tell him what is going on, “We have a tail. My money says it’s Bergen and the Scorpion hoping to take our prize away from us.”“Aye Captain, the way she runs, I would have to agree. She’s equal to our speed and staying just in sight.” Then things get very complicated.The deck officer has a glass to his eye and says, “Multiple contacts, Sir. Two heading west. I would say, two miles apart and moving at 7 or 8 knots. Could be our prize.”“Best speed and change course to north by northwest. All hands on deck, quietly.” I turn to Grogan and say, “Can we catch them before first light?”“With maybe an hour to spare.”“Douse the lights and run up the grey sails. Let’s try to sneak up on them.”“Changing the sails will cost us a quarter hour.”“Then do it in five minutes, dammit.”The word is past amongst the men and the new sails are broken out of the hold and placed ready for the switch. When all is ready the order is given and they move like lightning. We loose speed as they come down and quickly gain it back as they are raised. Best speed is regained in six minutes and our tail has not gained but a short distance. Now, it’s a race around the big island to disappear from our blasted shadow. We are now doing thirteen knots and using the wind to our best advantage. All is quiet except for the normal creeks and groans of the ship below us.Mister Grogan approaches me and says, “This is going to be close. If we take the second ship first, we give up our chances on the leader. Or we could split the crew and leave half on the second ship and then fly to take the leader as well.”“All true except for one thing. The rear ship is a gunship protecting the leader. We take the leader from behind, get on and off in a flash with our prizes and run like hell. We’ll leave the gunship to surprise the Scorpion, if he’s stupid enough to take them on.”“Aye, Captain. Your spies must be very good indeed.”“Knowledge is power, Mister Grogan.”We are both looking through our spyglasses now and he says, “I count eight cannon on the rear guard and four on the leader. Damn, if you aren’t right again.”“Make your route to intercept theirs dead in between them.”“Ten minutes.”We make the turn to follow the smaller lead ship and continue to fly along. The scorpion hasn’t made the turn around the island yet. There are no changes on either ship and we can only conclude that we are still undetected. As soon as I think those thoughts, our target lurches to port to turn and get help from the gunship. We counter to block his path and she tries the same maneuver to the starboard. Again, we react quickly and block that way. This captain is not great, but not bad either, considering his ship’s capabilities. Then to my surprise, she pulls up sails and comes to a near stop. I think her captain is stalling now that he cannot escape and hope his protector can arrive before we board. I am expecting something like this and pull to the side as they wave a white flag of surrender.We cautiously pull up beside her and see the crew and passengers watching us like it’s a parade. How odd. I hail them in French to prepare to be boarded. Then I see their smaller flag for the first time. This vessel is flying the colors of the French Crown. There is royalty aboard. They think that makes them immune from attack. No one would dare! Except me. What makes this fun is that I know Louis XIV and his family.Then, in the front at the rail, I see Charles, the Duke of Berry and his wife, Marie. He is the grandson of the King and a spoiled brat. His wife is even worse, if that is possible. Both are idiots.I call out, “Hello, Charles. Hello Marie.”They recognize me and he yells back, “Thibodeaux? Is that you, Henri? What in God’s name are you doing here?”I continue to board his ship and when I hit the deck, he approaches to greet me with a hug. I stop him with held up hands and say, “You can drop the dagger in your left hand, if you please.” He does with a stupid smile. “I taught you that trick, remember?“Mister Grogan, relieve these fine people of the jewelry and escort Charles and Marie aboard our ship. Make sure their personal belongings come with us. They are our guests after all.”I take two men and go below. I begin the search in rich looking cabins and find a strongbox in the second room. I shoot it open and there is jewelry in nice velvet bags. All jewelry. The captain’s cabin has the regular strongbox of wages and we leave that alone. I move into the main dining hall discover a whole area of recently nailed floorboards. I take my larger knife and pull one up to discover leather pouches with gold doubloons in them. I figure 100 coins per bag and I am pulling out over 40 bags.“Get two more men and bring me some empty fuse boxes. Eight should do it. Step lively!”We have the gold boxed up and ready to move when Mister Grogan yells to me, “Gunship and the Scorpion in sight, Sir.”We get on deck after struggling with the gold and I see the two ships are much closer than I figured. Time to run. The gold is moved and when we are all aboard, we turn the other ship free.I yell to my crew, “Let’s get out of here!” They are ready and we are under sail quickly.I have the gold moved to my cabin and I ask Stevor to guard it. I have more important things to do right now.“Make for our cove on the small island with all speed, Mister Grogan.”“Aye, Sir. Looks like your dream of having them engage each other is not happening. They are both chasing us side by side.”“An enemy of my enemy can be an ally.”The race goes on for a few minutes and we are gaining distance on both when cannon fire erupts from the gunship. They have an easy shot at the Scorpion and are taking the opportunity. The Scorpion is veering off, but not soon enough. She takes some direct hits above the water line and several above the deck that are directed at the masts. A forward mast goes down and she is limping away. Good for us, since she was much faster than the gunship.I judge the distances and see that we are not going to get away before we can hide in the cove. We have to fight. “Mister Grogan, make ready to fight! Turn to port and take us on a broadside pass at our nemesis. Let’s make that targeting practice pay off.”The men are ready and we approach the other ship. They are ready as well and when we pass, both of us let loose with all guns. We are matched evenly, except I have two heavier cannons with more range. It pays off. Their volley falls short and our two large cannons hit the gun deck square on. And the battle is over just like that. They have no stomach for any further fight and veer to the starboard to try to run away. I let them go and continue on to the cove.“Mister Grogan, tell the crew, well done. Then would you please join me in my cabin.” I make for it and congratulate every man I pass as I go. I knock on the door and let Stevor know that it is I. That is a smart move. He has stacked the crates and is behind them with two pistols at the ready. He takes his orders seriously. Good man. Mister Grogan knocks and enters with permission in a few minutes. I have the gold stacked on the table and divided, as I wanted.I start the conversation, “Per agreement, the jewelry and half the gold goes to the ship, me. The other half of the gold is shared between you and the crew. I intend to hide mine in the cove and save it for worse times. Please take half to the men and do with it as you see fit.”“Aye. Agreed, Captain. This will be my last run, Sir. With this share, I am retiring to New England.”“Good for you. We have tested our luck enough. Time to move on for me as well.”We reach the calm of the little bay and set anchors. I take Stevor and my gold in a skiff to the beach. I have reloaded my gold and jewelry into one large crate. Stevor helps me with the box and we strap it to a large flat bottom pallet so I can drag it. I add a pick and shovel and start dragging. I follow a dry creek bed about half a mile and recognize what I am looking for. The creek bed has formed a short ravine in the stone and there is a small cave under an outcropping. Actually, it is more like a carved in hole at ground level. I used to come to this place away from the other men to conduct my personal business. I open the hole another foot and shove the chest into the opening. I place one large boulder in front of the hole and secure it with smaller ones around the base. This will remain exactly as I have it for a very long time. Nothing will move the big rock.I use the tools I brought to make a mark. There is a flat “wall” on a large rock that was split in half a long time ago directly across from my treasure. The rock is hard, but I manage to make a pictograph of a pyramid with a hammer and chisel. When finished, I drag the pallet back to the beach and put it on the boat. We row back to the ship and make sail for Nassau one last time for me.Once in Nassau, I wrap up business quickly. My men are off and gone looking for another opportunity. Their pockets will be full for a long time. I sell my ship to Captain Bergen for a reasonable price. It seems the Scorpion is more damaged than it first appeared and he needs another vessel. Done. I turn Charles and Marie over to the Governor and he arranges for their return, which includes a large reward.I catch the next ship that is going through with Stevor by my side and arrive in Boston one week later. I purchased a three hundred acre farm in Vermont and set up Stevor to run it and keep it for me. He received a decent percentage of my ill-gotten gain when I left for Europe. I corresponded with Stevor for years through the local bank president. He could neither read nor write. My farm stayed in his care for four generations. When they had enough, I sold it.Today NassauAtlantisThe beach has changed to the will of progress in three hundred years, but the “feel” is the same. It is still tranquil when it wants to be, but that could change anytime. I return to the jeeps that have greeted us and I thank Angela for the moment alone. She has no idea, the memories this place has for me. The party includes two helpful drivers who get our stuff. Five minutes later we are onboard a thirty-foot boat for the fifteen minute ride to the complex. It is almost dark when we get to the coordinates. Angela is as excited as I have ever seen her and really enjoying the mystery. She gets a crash course in working with the suit and equipment on the short ride out. I think that it is really cool that she won't be able to see the underwater spectacle until sunrise. We are all suited up when we arrive and are ready to drop into the water. Two helpers also don suits and work the lines that take the luggage down. They also stay with us and make sure we are safe. We make it into the airlock quickly and are met by the live-in staff of two technicians and two scientists. These folks rotate off and on the facility with two more sets of staff. They conduct all kinds of research and take on visiting guests from universities around the world often. The work done here is most important. I have them focus on medicines, and protection of the reefs. Their two priorities were at the top of my list as the project was kicked off thirty years ago. It is John’s pet project and he travels here often.They help us off with our suits and give Angela a long tour of the lab facility while I take the tube to the apartment forty feet away. I unpack and get dinner ready. It was caught that afternoon by the staff and prepared by one of them who fancies himself a gourmet chef. I even paid for culinary school in France for him a couple of years back. It was one of the best investments I ever made.When dinner is almost ready, I fetch Angela and save her from the tour, which is proceeding slowly because Thomas, the lead scientist, is always ready to pontificate. When we are finally alone, she hugs me and says this is the most exciting thing she has ever done and cannot wait until morning. We have a nice dinner and enjoy each other’s company again before drifting off to sleep. I get up and head for the comm room to speak to whomever is staffing the Operations Center back at the Empire State Building.Harry is the only one up, but he rouses Gunther and I get a briefing from both of them. One item needs my attention and I make some very big decisions and move some very big chess pieces around the board.There is a war going on in a small African country between warlords that I have had just about enough of. One of them is making a move on the established government too. What makes me the maddest is that they are doing their usual crap of conscripting young boys into the "freedom" fighter ranks and murdering villagers. John and Gunther are in concurrence on what action to take, but I opt to talk to the U.S. Secretary of State before making the move they recommend. I wake him up on his plane between China and Australia and through secure live chat; I lay it out and get his off the record approval. I cut it short and tell him to watch his briefings for the next thirty-six hours.I give the go-ahead and they set the wheels in motion. A team of fifty very well trained and well-armed mercs that are totally loyal to the Field Colonel in command are in place. The chain of loyalty continues with the Colonel being loyal to Gunther and of course Gunther being loyal to me. The soldiers are all retired or were bought from elite military outfits from around the globe. They have been told that they working for a private person and are given all the facts about every action before hand and have a free choice to join in or hold off with every action. So far, only a handful have refused to participate in any fight. No hard feelings and all done with respect. They have standing orders from me that tell them how to engage. Limit collateral damage, shoot to kill only when ordered or they are perceiving a potential deadly threat, leave civilians to the cleanup crews, and protect their identities and the nature of their secret existence. They have air support and all the latest and greatest hardware and have yet to be defeated or even lost a single man or woman. Yes, there are seven badass women among the fifty. Many have done time with the CIA or other spy outfits and assist with those skills. They are supported by air surveillance via drones, satellites, and a traveling convoy of semi-trucks and trailers. The total number of support teams varies depending on the op, but it is usually more than a hundred. I love to watch these operations in real time, but this is minor and I am busy. I learned the next day that they cleaned out the bad guy, returned the children soldiers as best as they could, took the rest with them for placement around the world as orphans and left without news cameras in sight. No footprints, no bodies for evidence, no sign of who did it, no nothing. I always follow up with specific aid to the villages and a stern warning to the current corrupt government that they are next if they don't clean up their act. I leave the next actions up to the UN and the Secretary. They usually drop the ball and we clean up anyway. Oh, well.Angela stirs at first light and I make her a light breakfast, as she gets ready for the day. We sit in the main room by a large window and watch the sunrise. She chats constantly about the beauty of it all and how great it is. We watch for an hour and I tell her about the many fish that swim by. I am careful not to reveal my full expertise. Then we decide what we want to do with the day. We decide on a morning of scuba diving along the reef to gather lunch. I order up an escort for us and we head for the airlock. Our resident chef takes us out. He wants to go check some lobster traps he put out yesterday and we will use the new Hollis H-320 Scooters, an underwater DPV (Diver Propulsion Vehicle) to get there and back.We stay pretty close to the station until Angela feels comfortable. Then we take off with our 320s and travel a ridgeline for about a quarter mile until we come upon a bunch of buoys for the traps. They are checked and all have lobsters in them. They are not as sweet and big as Maine Lobsters, but when prepared correctly, are heavenly. They are gathered up and the traps reset. We each take a bag of them, hook them on to our transportation and head back. When we arrive, I check our air and see that there is plenty left for Angela and I to take a swim right around the facility. She inspects everything and especially enjoys playing with the coral flowers that pull in their tentacles when touched. She collects some beautiful discarded shells for souvenirs. Finally, our tanks are running low and she is getting cold, so we head inside.She is so excited; she can’t stop talking about everything she saw. I leave her to washing her shells and laying them out. I visit with the crew about their work for a few minutes with John on the line. Mostly I am anxious to see how our “chef” is going to prepare the lobsters. He describes wonderful bisque with a puffed pastry topping. Yummy. It will be ready in half an hour. I return to Angela and suggest that we go out again, but use this swim to take pictures. I have four underwater cameras to choose from, that I have brought and we spend lunch looking at all of them. We read up on them and pick one each. She gets a still and I am going to carry a large one with double video cameras that they use to shoot IMAX films. However, this one also has a live remote feed that connects back home that my guys will be watching. Sully will be using this opportunity to test out his newest toy, a live holographic generator that uses the camera feed to create the reproduced scenes.We wear different suits for this trip since I want to talk while we are swimming. They have complete helmets rather than just facemasks and breathers. Angela takes off and is snapping away while I get my gear ready. The big twin cameras are perfectly balanced with automatic buoyancy bags on the four bottom corners. I start shooting and I hear the guys in the Operations Center all say different words that mean the same thing, wow, amazing, incredible, etc. I fine-tune the camera per the instructions given to me and they tell me that it’s about as perfect as it can get. They are standing inside the projection watching it as if they were there with us. They can’t wait to compare the digital images with the holographic projection, for the colors. All in all, a wonderful time was had by all.We spend the night looking over Angela’s shell collection and her pictures. Many are “postcard” quality. She is a natural with a camera. It helps to have a four thousand dollar one. After dinner, we are invited to join the rest of the lab team for drinks. They are all very interesting people and love to talk about their work and study the pictures we took with great interest. Of course, they get copies of everything. They also look through Angela’s shell collection and advise her to return two of them for “re-habitation” by another critter. She thinks that is great. The conversation begins to lag and we say our good nights. I tell them what I want to do tomorrow and ask if anyone would like to join us. I am going to go tether parasailing behind our boat along the beach at two hundred feet in the air. Angela is in, but the others are busy with finishing up work before they trade off with another crew next week.We go to bed and I get up after Angela is asleep and go online. Our activity in Africa is making the news, but the mystery of who is responsible is their biggest question. The UN, NATO, the U.S. and Russia all deny any knowledge of the action. The most accepted theory is that one of the larger local countries are responsible. They too, all deny it of course. And well they should.Markets are stable and another hoard of Nazi treasure has been found in Germany in an antechamber off a bunker outside of Berlin. The treasure is indeed one that had been taken by the Nazi’s, but I intercepted it and hid it until now. It contains a lot of religious artifacts from around France. It should make some headlines that should cause the Africa story to fade away. The U.N. is making a lot of noise about an investigation, but they won’t really do anything without the U.S.’s backing and the Secretary of State is playing down the whole thing and discouraging any inquiries.Ruth and Megan want some private time, so I oblige. They want to tell me what headway they have made with my problem. Ruth takes the lead and recaps my dream, the Heavenly Host incident and then the First Language Men. She gets it right and I had a couple of details that might help. They are at a loss for conclusions yet, but want to talk about the possible meanings to the Heavenly Host’s message, God is Blessing. I breakdown the translation for them and realize that I may be misinterpreting the tense of the verb. The words may mean that God is blessing something or things presently, or that it might mean that God is about to bless something, or that he has blessed something in the past.With this new information, Ruth speaks, “So, let’s move on. How do you feel about all this?”I tell her, “It scares the crap out of me. I have never seen anything that I could not explain, ever. I know every magic trick out there. But I did see the sun stop in the sky one evening and stay there for hours. It finally started moving again. I kind of forgot about that. So far, that was it until this stuff started occurring. I feel like something big is about to happen and I am not ready for it.”Ruth then sends me a text that I glance at while we are talking asking me to stay on privately after we are done. We wrap up some treasure details that I have just thought of while we were talking and end the feed. I wait a few seconds and Ruth comes back on line.She wants to schedule regular, often, visits with me. Twice daily at the least and more like four times a day. And she wants to put monitors on me when I sleep to capture changes if and when I have the dream. I tell her that all this can start on Tuesday when I return. She is reluctant and I sense urgency in her, so I give in and tell her that we can talk the same time tomorrow night. We chitchat about her family moving in to my suite of suites in the Empire State Building. But I am surprised by her telling me that the decorating is on hold while she ponders my offer to let her have the pick of my antiques. She is trying to convince her husband that it won’t be like living in a museum. I let her know that that is exactly what it is like and I suggest that she takes a few pieces, but furnish it with really comfortable new stuff. She has three of my paintings in mind and I appreciate it and would love for her to enjoy them. She also gives me a report on the health of my friends, both physically and mentally. She thinks Mary Jo is about to crack and that I should be watchful of her. All the others are in their elements and having a great life. She thinks Sully needs to be shown how to relax and I shoot an email for him to take a few days off and go to my lodge in Africa. I tell him not to bring any toys except his laptop that he can only use when we call him. I suggest he bring along a friend as well. He immediately replies that he is too busy. I phone him on the spot and tell him that he better be recruiting a backup guy already so that he can have a life. He admits to being slow about that and I shoot a message off to Gunther to get Sully his own lab with a team of handpicked people so that Sully can become a dreamer instead of a doer. He says that it is already in the works and will order Sully to leave immediately. Ruth is satisfied and we end the call.The next day is a blast and Angela loves parasailing. We get great movies and stills of us flying behind the boat and return to Atlantis in time for lunch. Lunch is light because Angela has agreed to go out for a working swim with the techies to harvest some plants in the underwater garden they are experimenting with. I stay behind to let her enjoy herself without having to worry about me. I go online and look at the news and reports on my special projects around the world. I text back and forth with the Secretary on some of my projects and he is very pleased. He even says that he wishes that he could play outside the rules like I do. And I think, be careful what you wish for…When I am finished, I feel kind of lazy and take a break in a recliner and watch the fish swim by. I doze off and immediately have the dream, but this time it is different. The man draws his sword as always, but does not impale me with it. Instead, he holds it in salute and it is over. I wake up confused and startled. I shoot Ruth and Megan the new ending to my dream in a text. Megan responds and says that she feels like the change is good. Ruth copies her back and agrees and says, “The change is most positive.”I decide to go for a swim on my own to clear my head and enjoy the quiet solitude. It is so beautiful it gives me an idea. I head back inside the lab and find the team and run it by them. I lie to them and tell them that I am just relaying ideas from back home. I ask them, “What if you had more of these labs? Where would you put them and what would you do with them?” This launches them into dreaming about a string of them along the reefs. I tell them to decide on places for ten more and we will talk after dinner. They immediately grab world maps and go to work. These structures are not really very expensive since they are fairly shallow water units. But I am excited to get them excited. I can’t wait to hear what they propose.Angela has returned and tells me all about her afternoon. I tell her about the idea for more labs and she is pleasantly enthused. I let her make dinner from her harvest and the fresh fish that seems to appear in our refrigerator. It is marvelous and we finish just as the four residents show up for after dinner drinks and our meeting. They suggest that we go back to their place since the maps are on the walls there. They are like little kids. It’s great.They lay out their plan. They want two more near here spaced two miles apart. That will let them expand their work here with meds and reef health. They want the rest laid out on the Great Barrier Reef over a stretch of one thousand miles. They can monitor the reef like never before. The only problem is the depth in one stretch. The units would have to be in about two hundred feet of water making the construction more costly, but still very doable. I notice that the two deep water units are only about two hundred yards from sixty foot depths and suggest that we put two of the shallow units there and build two deep water ones as well and connect them with a tunnel to the shallow two. They love the idea. I set up a video conference with John and Megan for the next morning to kick off this new project and Angela and I retire to our unit. Again, after she is asleep, I check in with Ruth as promised. It is a short visit and very pleasant.The next morning Angela dives into working with the in-house team and helps prepare for the presentation to John and Megan. By the time the meeting starts, Angela feels totally integrated into the group and even has a couple of points to make. She is just great and I am beaming with pride. The presentation is well received since John and Megan both know whose idea it was. We decide immediately to expand the team here by four more scientists and technicians. But they get really excited when they find out that there are two other exact duplicates of Atlantis in storage in Miami where I had them built. At the time, three complete sets cost about one and three quarters times as much just one, so I had them build three. There is a rule of thumb in the aerospace business that if you want one good working prototype you request five. A couple will be out of spec, one will get lost, one will go home in someone’s lunch box, etc. (I’m joking. Kind of.). We put the wheels in motion to have the two units moved into place. It should take about two weeks. The meeting ends with a celebration, but it is time for Angela and I to leave. We say our goodbyes and repeat the trip backwards including the private time on the jet. She keeps thanking me and telling me what a wonderful time she has had. She even says that she wished she could do good work like that every day and hopes to when school is finished. And I again think, be careful what you wish for…Del MarAfter we settle back into our routines for a few days, Sully returns from the veldt and has to show us pictures. He took plenty of stills, but he also used the holographic camera mounted to the top of a Range Rover. What a blast. You can walk around the three-dimension landscape, hear the animals and really feel like you were there. But, the best part is there are no smells and no flies. He is finally happy and the “whole new life thing” is sinking in.Megan tells me the Del Mar estate will be ready on Saturday if we would like to go. So, when Saturday comes around, off they go in our security vans and separate jets with armed protectors all the way. I take my personal new airplane, a brand new jet. When I saw the T-38 in Oklahoma, I had to have my own fighter jet. So, I had a copy of the ATF-23 built. It was built by Northrop to go head to head with the AFT-22 in a fly-off competition for a huge contract. Northrop lost and the two F-23s were mothballed and retired. I liked the design and had one custom built for me at a private company in the Mojave Desert. They had crews working on it day and night for the last 12 weeks and it is all mine now. I’ve taken it up three times for short runs and it is great. It’s ready for a cross-country jaunt.There have been a lot of advances since it was produced and I blew off the stealth and weapons requirements. Its painted a cool red, white and blue. Its lighter and has a much more efficient pair of engine plants.Who knows, somebody may like it if I can reproduce it cheap enough and buy a whole bunch. I need a long runway to take off and land, so I use my airport here and a private airstrip 20 miles away in the hills outside of Del Mar proper. The trip is fast and this bird handles like a dream. I go supersonic when I get out over the Midwest plains and beat my friends there by an hour. Even with using after burners, I still have fuel left when I land.I have a 2013 Ducati Diavel Strata in a storage facility at the airport and I fire it up with a little tender loving care. I close up the locker and head for the estate. The ride is beautiful. There is an old joke about the easiest job on the planet being a weatherman in San Diego. Why? Because the weather is always “perfect”. Some of the large farm estates are gone now to gated communities of very nice homes. I like mine.The house has never looked so good with it staged with my work (in my opinion). I remember every piece, the day I worked on it, what the weather was like, who were my workers. Everything. The company still exists today and builds exclusive custom orders and charges appropriately. The people who work there are artists to be sure. At least that’s one thing I am proud of. I feel pretty ashamed most of the time over some horrible things I did in the past. But giving away my furniture and sharing the rest of my treasure with the world sure feels good. I walk to the patio in the back by the pool and take a good look around as I enjoy a glass of juice.Summer 1948 Del Mar, CaliforniaI dress for the evening in a white dinner jacket and select a car from my garage that industrialist, old “Wally” Pittman, would like. It is a Mercedes 300 SL Alloy. I love the gull wing doors. The ride is short, but I have appearances to keep up. I have no date tonight. I might meet someone at the dinner party. It should be fun. Bing Crosby always throws a good party.He just finished the Road to Rio movie and is relaxing here for a while. I am right on time and am welcomed at the front door by Bing’s wife, Dixie. She is beautiful and obviously ready to be the perfect host.“Why does Bing deserve the most beautiful girl in the land?” She is easily flattered, especially by a 65-year-old guy.“Wally, you are so full of it. Come on, the other guests are out on the patio by the pool. But, you must save some time for us to catch up. It’s been ages since you stopped by.” She has led me to the patio and Bing comes up and shakes my hand warmly.“I will my dear. Sign me up for the first dance after dinner.” She smiles and we kiss on the cheek.Bing pipes in with that wonderful voice and says, “Wally! How are you old man?”“Fit as a fiddle. You look like hell. Are the guys over at Paramount still bleeding you for “Road” pictures?”“Why yes they are as a matter of fact, I just signed a contract for another. I told them to make it somewhere in the South Pacific. At least I’ll get a nice trip out of it. Do you like Bali?”“Never been there. But maybe I’ll buy it.”We both get a laugh out of that and Dorothy Lamour sneaks up behind me and covers my eyes and says, “Guess who?”I play along and say, “Bob Hope? No? How about Trigger?” I get a punch in my back for that one and I turn and get a big hug. She is a very sweet lady. “Dorothy, you look beautiful! Why do you look so good and this fellow looks like he’s been mugged in Central Park?”“Wally, leave poor Bing alone.” She winks over her shoulder at Bing and takes my arm and walks me away by ourselves, “Bing is going through a rough time. Dixie is ill.”“Oh my stars. And I was giving him a hard time. What a fool I am. I must apologize.”“Oh, no. Don’t. He would be embarrassed by it. Let’s just have a good time tonight and be merry and gay!” She throws her head back in jest. “Wally, if you tickle the ivories, I will sing a song for you.” She knows I am pretty good on the piano and I would love to play for her.“Name that tune, my love.”“Can you handle, “Personality?””I snap my fingers and we walk back to Bing and she asks if she can sing a song with me in the large living room.He says, “That would be just wonderful. Everyone, everyone! Wally is going help Dorothy belt out a tune in the house, if you care to listen.”On the way in Dorothy asks me, “A little bird told me that you can really make a saxophone sing. Is that true?”“It’s my instrument of choice these days.”“Well, Dixie and I have a surprise. We have one here! Let’s let Phil play the piano and you play the sax. Ok?”“How can I refuse Old Blue Eyes two leading ladies, on screen and off.”We put it all together, pick a key, tune up and off we go. I can’t remember having such a good time. I beg off after the three tunes and Dorothy sings a couple of more. Besides, there has been a beautiful woman staring at me since I started the playing.I take a seat across from her and strike up a conversation. After some small talk, she says, “I’ve been told that you are the richest man in the world. Is that true?” She is putting on a slight southern drawl and it is very sexy.“Why yes. I believe it is. This week anyway.” She laughs at my stupid joke and one thing leads to another. She and I leave the party together shortly after dinner is over. Everyone understands.Today Del Mar, CaliforniaMy friends are all present and waiting for me in the kitchen. They want me to do the tour guide thing. So off we go. It takes us about three hours to walk the house. We took a break for a fabulous lunch of Californian Mexican food. Lots of avocado and bean sprouts.Megan told me about the problem she had in laying out the rooms. I have a lot of cabinets and armoires’ and not many comfortable chairs. I explain that I farmed out the upholstering to a very good friend and I knew that the material would not hold up over time anyway. Besides, they were really uncomfortable. Nobody had “Barco-loungers” then. And rocking chairs were not really in fashion. I never even made any. I really should give it a go now. What this means is that there are many rooms that have nothing but short cabinets and another with tall chest of drawers. Armoires are my favorites. I made several versions that breakdown for traveling. The backs, sides, top and bottom all connect together with dowel pins. They are very unique for the period. Many different versions were made at the end of the 1800’s and early 1900’s. They were used aboard ships and trains a lot. A lot of people wanted to take their closets with them to unload their trunks on the longer trips.I lead the group to each room and talk about the pieces. They ask questions about many and I fold the answers into my ramblings. Once I figure out what they want to hear about, my descriptions change to include something personal about each piece. As we stroll, Megan surprises me by pulling out a post it note and putting it on a piece. It has her name on it and she comments, “This is my favorite.” It is a huge cabinet that I built in two pieces, the top and the bottom. I designed them to be used separately or together. It is birdseye and figured maple with carved leaves and flowers everywhere they could be squeezed in. It has no gold or marble and it is one of my favorites as well. I am glad she will enjoy it. The others follow her lead and pull out their own post it notes that have been prepared. We take a break while they go back through the rooms we have already covered and tag the things that they like. After we regroup, she then tells me that the second pass will be for the castle in France and she is waiting for a complete catalog before she tags the rest. They will go to museums around the world and that a team from the Smithsonian Institution is getting first pick and then helping us place the rest. I tell her that I would like the Met in New York to have the same option as the Smithsonian and I want museums in the U.S. to be preferred in placement. The rest will be auctioned and the proceeds given per my previous directions. There are over three hundred and fifty pieces, plenty to go around.The announcement of the existence of these items has been released and it has made quite a splash in the business. As we walk and enjoy each piece, I continue to tell stories of the times tied to the piece. Prince du Conde of France loved my work and had me make a lot for him. Those things are still in some places in France. I’ve also seen my work in England and Italy. It’s always very satisfying to see it still looking good. The pieces here in Del Mar look like they are new since they have been in storage all this time. Megan has valued the whole lot at around fifteen million dollars. When we finish, Mary Jo surprises me by not wanting anything at all. And so does Sully by selecting twelve really gaudy ones. He really likes inlay gold and black marble.I find myself thinking about the home and family I had at the time and told them their names and what they were like. I had one lazy son, but he had three brothers who took over the business and it became a family operation for over one hundred and fifty years. Megan waits until I am finished and asks a really good question.“Would you like us to find your family for you?”I have thought about that before and decided not to bother. I pause for a second and answer, “Ok, but they can’t know about it. I would enjoy seeing the success stories, but not the losers. So please keep that part from me.”God in a Box?I have decided to make a trip to Israel as Rabi Jonas Solomon Bercow to open a very special treasure cave. It contains the temple treasures from Solomon’s Temple. I took these things when I was a Satrap (governor) for Nebuchadnezzar. The king conquered Israel and plundered the temple. I protected the treasure for a hundred years as different people in the various king’s courts. Then I outright took it when the opportunity came up during a bloody coup. I hid them in safe places until I could build a permanent vault. The vault I prepared is in the same valley that the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. They were placed there long after I hid my treasure by coincidence.When I get to Israel, I have a team waiting; it includes a representative from the Israeli government named Michael Rosen. He will end up with the treasure.For years there has been a group of devote Jewish and Christian people who are intent on rebuilding the temple and they are close to beginning the work. They have long been stalled because the Dome of the Rock Mosque is on the sight of the old temple. With a little background help from me, they have recently learned that the temple was actually on ground well clear of the mosque. No one but me remembers that half of the temple hill was excavated away after Solomon’s Temple was torn down. The property has been slowly bought up by me for years and I have given all of it to these believers.I was not in the Middle East at all when the mount was partially destroyed, but I remember before and after that time; I was in the Far East, what is now Beijing.They have made plans in secret for the project. I feel that the time is right to reveal the treasure and let the work begin. The discovery will be just the kick they need to get going. I’m actually very curious to see how the items have handled twenty five hundred years.We have to wait twelve hours until daylight to start our short trip. I have dinner with Michael Rosen, the representative for the Israeli Government and two of the team leaders. Michael is officially the Operations Officer for Israel’s Minister of Antiquities.We have a very unusual conversation. Everyone is supposed to believe I am a Rabbi historian working for a New York based group of wealthy Jews. I get the feeling that Michael is a very wise young man well beyond his thirtyish years. He is a historian too with double doctorates. He tells stories about the fall of a country as if he was there and even talks about a great flood in India in 1343. I was there and I can tell you that his account was very accurate.Of course, I cannot give any hint to knowing these things perhaps better than he ever could. He’s not boring anyone at the table. He is simply weaving tales about particular people, specific significant events, some intrigue, and some about far away times and faraway places. He makes each of us feel like he is simply chatting with us. I read a file on him on the plane ride and it did not begin to touch on this man’s charismatic personality. The stories eventually ended just as a one-act play usually does, with a climax. His last tale was short and quiet about an Israel soldier’s redemption from a life of cruelty and selfishness to a life of serving God.The evening ended and we agreed on a time and place to meet the next morning. We were all staying at hotels around different corners and we walked, except Michael, who has his own car.Pleasantries were exchanged and we left to go our separate ways. It was around eleven P.M. local time and the bar at my hotel was full. Seated right outside the bar in the hotel was one of the men who were conversing with each other in the oldest and first language in New York. He is with a beautiful woman. He ignored me and remained fixated on his conversation. Perhaps I was wrong and it was just some guy.I stay online all night at my computer. But right now, I want to talk to Ruth. She is available after a few minutes.I tell her about the first language man in the lobby and Michael. For the first time she tells me she has had no success in putting together a logical explanation. And then she says, “Malek, you must be thinking what I am about to say, so I will just say it; if all logical explanations are incorrect, these events might be spiritual in nature. As simple as this sounds, perhaps God is talking to you.” I think about this for a minute and say, “I have thought that from the first dream three months ago, but have been afraid to say it out loud.” I pause for a second to take a sip of coffee and then go on, “If he is, I want to understand it. How are the linguists doing?” She answers, “They are done and I have a new translation app for your phone ready for you.” She tells me what to do to get it loaded and we end the visit.I’ve never been big into religion. I’ve seen what men do in its name and it turned me off to it. I’ve read everything and been around every known form of higher power worship that has ever existed. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. But there is one thing that has always intrigued me. Out of all the religious books and teachings, there is only one that was written over a long stretch of time and can therefore contain prophecy, the Christian Holy Bible. None of the other holy books contain this. The Bible tells a story about doom and gloom events and then in a few hundred years it happens. I know. I watched Daniel and his mates make predictions before kings and then they came true. That’s pretty powerful evidence of something beyond our realm of thought and reality. This has been on my mind a lot lately.The caravan of jeeps arrives right on time at my door and we drive into the mountains. I give the driver GPS coordinates and after thirty-five minutes we are at the entrance to the canyon. He tells us that we walk from here. We grab backpacks and take off. Fifteen minutes later we are standing in a narrow ravine and I ask everyone to stop. I am consulting a map and notes, but in reality I am looking for a rock face of large broken-in-half boulder. It’s the shape of a figure eight on the side like the infinity symbol. I find the location quickly. I have been watching this place and protecting its secret for a very long time.10th day of Tishri, 322 BC Jewish Holy LandIt is hot, dry and quiet in the canyon today. I have scouted it out for a very long time and I built a hidden vault in the eastern sidewall. The construction process has taken seventy years using labor that I brought to the site by sealed wagon every ten or fifteen years. We would uncover the entrance, dig out more of the inside chambers and seal it up again until I returned.The vault is complete and I am carrying the treasure I am storing today. I have thirty soldiers with me guarding the canyon entrance and around the top as well. There is a monastery of sorts on the plateau not far from the canyon, but it is empty right now. There are only eight men who will unload the wagons and they are locked in a blacked out wagon with blind folds on as well.The treasure is sealed in stone boxes I had made to protect it. There is one large box that will take all eight men to move.The wagons are driven by one of the soldiers. I handpicked them as the most loyal men I have and they do not know the territory since they are Persian. I used to kill anyone that learned of the treasure and tied off any loose ends. I stopped that practice and started using the sealed wagons and blindfolded men. Not because I cared, but because it was less wasteful. Slavery makes society think of humans as possessions to be bought, sold, and discarded without any regard for “humanity.” It is the worst idea people ever came up with. I did not have that realization until 1349 when I saw the black plague (death) hit London.I bring the wagons to a stop and have the soldiers unlock the workers. I direct the workers to dig in a specific place in the side of the canyon and they quickly uncover a large stone door. I approach the door and turn several stone-carved inset keys and push the door open inward. I enter and check everything and it is just as when I last was here fifteen years ago. I light oil lamps and return to the door. I have the wagons rearranged and then have the men open the first wagon. There are ten black marble boxes, each containing temple serving ware. I direct each man to pick up one and follow me.There are several antechambers designed to hold the boxes in carved shelves. As the first man enters, I look at his box and read the number hidden in the ornate carvings and direct him to a place in the shelves with the corresponding number. The next box is libraried the same way and so on and so on, until only the big chest is left. The wagon is pulled up to the entrance and I guide all eight men to take up positions and slide in the carrying poles. They lift at the same time on command and move the box into the rear chamber of the vault. The entire vault was designed around the sizes and shapes of the boxes. I guide them to place it in the center of the chamber and then instruct them to go eat and drink before the ride back. I am alone with the chest and I slide off the lid a bit to peek at the item inside. It is as I remember it and in the quiet of the tomb reverence is demanded in its presence. I am still for a few minutes waiting for something. I grow more anxious the longer I wait until I can’t take it anymore and quietly close the lid and leave the chamber. I seal the cave and have the men cover it up again. We load up and leave this place.Today Jewish Holy LandI set out a set of posts each about three feet tall. The men are looking at me weird and I continue with my setup. I explain that they are simply video cameras. Once I have positioned the five posts where I want in a semi-circle around a place in the canyon wall each about ten feet apart, I walk around twisting the tops of the posts. A camera pops up out of each and a laser ribbon appears connecting each post. These are much, much more than video cameras. They are a new idea Sully came up with. They interlock with each other to create a hologram just like the camera I used at Atlantis. However, they can go much larger because they can be strung out in a series to create a massive projection in real time. The feed is going to a special studio down the block from our HQ. There is an army of techs watching as I add each post to the network. When I am done with the initial five posts, I spray-paint a large door in the canyon wall dirt and tell the guys to start digging.This whole time I have a cell phone bud in my ear and am pretending to get orders from Headquarters.The opening takes shape quickly and a stone arch is uncovered. It has a large flat door in it with inscriptions and an odd symbol in the middle. When it is completely free of the debris, I approach the symbol and start to move pieces by sliding them. It’s like a Chinese puzzle box and you can hear clicks as each movement falls into place. At the last click, I push on the door and it slides open on a sturdy axis perfectly balanced.Before we enter, I instruct everyone how to work the poles and that I want a continuous line of them into the vault. Michael is staying behind me and setting poles, but I sense no thrill in him like the others have.We reach an antechamber and I motion to set poles as we enter the fifteen by fifteen sq. ft. room. There are shelves carved into the walls that contain stone boxes that fit perfectly into the shelves. I direct two of the men to bring one down onto the center stone table. Under the table is another box that I pull out and set on the table next to the one from the wall shelves. It contains copper scrolls that have the list of room contents. I read it and hold it up to the cameras on a post. I really am talking to the team in the studio now and showing them the scroll. They interpret it quickly because I schooled them on the old Aramaic writing on the scroll and stone boxes. I actually had them numbered and a description of the contents written on the scroll and the same text carved into the matching box. They tell me that the box taken out of the wall contains plates. We open the box and it contains sixteen solid gold plates all packed as nice as could be. I turn to Michael and suggest that now would be the right time to order up some armed soldiers and some transport. And he might want to get his bosses and his own team out here.While he steps out, I open two more boxes and find gold and silver utensils, many with fabulous jewels. Then Michael returns and we step into the next room. More of the same. Same scroll box, same number of shelves. I wait to enter the fourth and last chamber until the moment is right and I let Michael enter first. In the center table’s place is a large stone box. We slide off the top and peer at the Ark of the Covenant. It has a little dust on it, but it still shines like the sun. Michael immediately gets out his phone and makes a call. We are all stunned at the magnitude of the find and I send the workers to the vehicles for more posts. The posts are working perfectly and recording everything in 3D holographic recordings directly back in New York.Michael enters the room and we are alone. He is silent which is unusual, but look at what is sitting in front of us. I see that there are tears in his eyes and he looks at me and says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”The troops show up fifteen minutes later and secure the area. The lead archeologist is now viewing the Ark with tears in his eyes as well as most others. Two men are kneeling beside the box in prayer. I tell him that my team wants etchings from all the boxes and pictures of the copper scrolls. He is glad to comply. I also suggest that he immediately begin building a temporary structure around the outside of the vault door. He orders up the equipment and I am satisfied with the security. Temporary netted awnings are being set up already in a neat little row from the end of the road to here. My work here is done except for one last chore.I ask everyone, that’s about fifty people, to gather round right outside the vault door. When everyone is accounted for, I make this little speech. “People, this is Holy Ground. Disturb the area as little as possible. This vault is of great historical significance as well. I suggest that you start thinking about a nice church right here protecting the vault. Think about the future of this sight and preserve it with reverence and dignity.”I give some specific instructions regarding the monitoring posts. I ask for a few minutes alone in the Ark chamber and I walk in the room by myself for the first time in seventeen hundred years. I study the Ark itself and wait quietly for God to speak. Nothing. Oh, well. I then give Sully in New York some instructions. I ask him to go secure with just my friends and have the other crew leave. We have code words to indicate what I want done. He also makes this recording have the same security. Friends eyes only.Once we are secure, I give a fifteen-minute narrative on the history of the Ark. I tell them when and where it was moved from one place to another, how the secret was kept and who helped. I included the unvarnished truth about keeping the secrets through the time from it leaving the temple until it was moved here.I say my goodbyes and ask to be returned to my hotel. I hug a lot of people and the gratitude shown is magnanimous. I am overwhelmed with good wishes as I leave. I am driven by my hotel and then to my jet. I take off and conference in with my friends back in New York.They are monitoring all communications back at the vault and recording from the posts continuously. But I am more interested in speaking with Ruth about what Michael has said. After I describe the communication, she reviewed the recordings and got it all. She is growing more and more convinced that there is a supernatural force at work here. I tell her to bring in the whole team. I lay out what is going on and everyone takes it in. John finally says, “I was beginning to think the same thing myself. There is no other explanation. But I must add; that logically makes you some kind of higher being, perhaps what the Bible refers to as an angel.”I blurt out, “I’m no angel and we all know it.”AnxietyI decide this is a good place to end this line of discussion and move back to the other treasure vaults for a situation report. Megan reports, “Six have been opened, five with just country wide notice. But the Ark in Israel will go worldwide and we predict the possibility of religion based violence in many major Middle Eastern cities.”I ask, “Do we have any business or friend that will be put in harm’s way?”John says, “I’ll have someone check right now. Please continue in my absence.”Megan then takes up her report where she left off. “We decided on a gold strike in Norway and a silver strike near Boulder Colorado will empty your vaults by 11 percent. We already cashed out the max, which was 8 percent. Those are good size liquidations. Your gold idea on the new laptops won’t make a dent unless you want to add a lot more.” She stops and grins. “We’re continuing to cash out at a rate that won’t be noticed. And we will continue at that pace with no effect for a year or so. 12 percent is planned to go to the Haitian banks to support the Quality of Living Vouchers there. These cards are one hundred percent secure and are backed by the gold. It will be transferred and secured forever by our people, but “owned” by the soon to be new government there. Malek, you’re going to have to help us get more creative within the next six months.”“I have one idea I can share now. We are stockpiling material for my planned space station. See what you can do with funneling toward that project in small quantities. A whole lot of small quantities. Gold is used in space as a lubricant. It’s also the metal of choice for circuit boards used in space. It handles radiation and other nasty problems better than any other metal. The problem is that anything we actually build now will be obsolete by the time we need it. I’ll keep thinking.”I continue on a new subject, “What about my musical compositions?”Mary Jo jumps in with this one. “There is a young, very gifted gentleman about to enter his third year at Berkeley School of Music. We have bought him and he is going to be quite prolific with his compositions from now on. It seems he has a gift for it and we have convinced him that he is free to write his own stuff along with yours. He thinks it is being written by a computer. He will have his calendar very full directing studio orchestras if your work takes off in Hollywood, as we believe it will. If you stop writing now, we have enough for twenty major films and dozens of documentaries and TV production. That is about thirty five years’ worth.”“I can’t stop. It all just happens.” By the looks on their faces, I know they understand me well enough to appreciate that statement.I continue after a moment, “I have a couple of important things to say. The first is regarding another treasure trove. Megan, you have handled all this wonderfully, but I have one bigger stash. It’s not really something I stashed, but I just know its exact location. In southern Africa, I know where Solomon’s diamond mine is. I’m not sure what to do with it. Any ideas?”Mary Jo wants to know my estimate for quantity and quality. And then she will factor in the time from mining to market. I give her my best guesses and she tells me to let her handle it for a while and they will get back to me. I can’t help but remember John’s warning about being able to synthesize the stone and the bottom falling out of that market.The second item is this, “Dear Friends, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help in releasing all my loot. I have taken a lot from this world and the time is right to give the excess back. And to share my work with it as well. We have built a secret empire that wields enough power to make real and significant positive changes in the world and you have made it self-sustainable. Anything beyond maintaining our control is what I consider to be excess. And it’s time to give the excess back. I love you all.”I cut the feed and stare out the window at the sea far below. Angela is at work now or I would call her. That leaves me free to ponder this new situation. I might really be some sort of alien. Wow. I’ve been treating it as a joke for so long that the idea being real is very scary. I guess I could really be Not of this earth.I find myself breathing very fast and having trouble with it at the same time. This is new. My chest is tight and my heart is racing. I do an emergency call to Gunther through my inside comm unit and he is online immediately. I turn on a video feed with difficulty and he talks, “Sit down. Look at me. Slow down. Easy, easy. Breathe easy. Good. Calm is good…” He’s brought Ruth online and she takes over.“Malek, we’re here, its ok. Keep focused on us. There. Breath with me. Have you felt like this before?” I shake my head and mouth the word “no.” She continues, “Ok. You’re ok. We’re here. You’re ok.” Her voice is soothing and I can speak again.“Wow. What is this?”“You have all the symptoms of a classic anxiety attack. Are you sure, this is the first time for this?”“Yes. Never before.”“Let’s do some relaxation exercises. But first, tell me where your most peaceful place is.”I don’t even have to think about it, “There is a beach, in a cove, that is like what I imagine heaven to be like. The waves are small and the wind is quiet. It is a wonderful place. Alone and still. Wonderful.”“Is this a real place or just one you pretend in your mind?”“Oh, it is very real. It’s in the Caribbean on a tiny island east of Cuba.”“Why were you there?”“This may sound cliché, but I buried pirate treasure there once, a long time ago.”“Is it still there?”“Yes.”“Go get it.”“What, right now?”“Yes, right now. Go get it. Take a couple of friends. Have a good time. Relax. Go. Now.”“Are those doctor’s orders?”“If you wish.”“Ok. Hold on.” I call everyone back to the conference and say, “The doctor wants me to go retrieve a pirates treasure in the Caribbean. Anyone want to come along?”Sully is the first to answer with, “Argh, shiver me timbers, I’m in.” His pirate imitation sucks, but his enthusiasm makes up for it.Harry says, “Oh, I wouldn’t miss this for the world. I’m in too.”John, Gunther and Mary Jo beg off for various reasons.Megan says, “I’m too old for that. You boys go and have fun.”I tell Harry to take a plane to Nassau with Sully and make it quick. I hang up and tell the pilots we have a change of plans.When we land in Nassau, I am greeted by a man from the harbor who is renting me a Sea Plane. He tells me how to access her and points to it down at the docks.His name is “Freddy.”Freddy says, “How far you aiming to fly? It’s tanks are full, but its range is twelve hundred miles.”“I’m going to the East end of Cuba. Four hundred forty miles. Should be just fine. I need some tools, shovels, picks and some other things. Where can I buy them?”He laughs, and says, “Are you digging for buried treasure?”“No, I am geologist. Only hunting rocks.”He tells me where I can get the things I need. I only have to wait an hour for Harry and Sully to land. They disembark their plane and take the car I sent for them down to the harbor where the seaplane awaits. I got everything loaded and we board.I do a preflight check and we take off. The ride is almost three hours.Sully is the first to talk, “Ok, Malek, spill. We want the story behind this pirate’s treasure.”So, I recount the tale for the next hour.At the end of the story, Sully asks, “So, what I really want to know is this. Did real pirates talk like we hear and see in the movies?”“Of all the questions you could ask and that’s the one you want to know about. Sully, you crack me up. But, the answer to your question is “no”. And the Romans and Greeks from two thousand years ago did not speak with British accents either.”We all laugh and I throw this out, “Either of you gentlemen want to learn to fly?”They both say a big “yes” and I teach them for the next two hours. They really are quick learners.Soon, we spot the island ahead. I circle the cove and set up for a landing. I take it down and the landing is smooth. I beach the plane and we jump onto the clean sand. It feels great to be here.“Welcome to my beach. I haven’t been on this spot since 1702.”“Well, pull out the treasure map. Oh, I forgot, it’s all in your head. Lead the way, boss.” Sully is anxious.“Ok, follow me.” We each grab a tool and I take my bag. I lead, they follow and off we go. They have no idea how much more difficult the return trip will be with all the gold. After the almost mile walk, Sully sees the pyramid carving in the wall of the ravine as I described.Harry and he go crazy with excitement. I have to admit, this is a lot of fun. I tell them where to dig and they find the big boulder. We shoulder it to the side and clear the smaller rocks. Sully says, “Bingo!” He and Harry pull out the chest and open it. The leather bags are intact and they open one.“Oh, my God! These are beautiful. Are they pure gold?”“Every one of them. Spanish doubloons were the universal coin in the western world at the time. Open that bag.” I am pointing to a larger one. Harry lifts it and peers inside.“Oh my God. Are these real too?”“The grandson of the King of France believed them to be. They look pretty real to me. Ok, treasure hunters, pick up the box. I’ve got the tools. Hey, don’t give me that look, I dragged the damn box here by myself and I’m an old man…” That gets a laugh and they heft the booty and start walking. And then dragging. And more dragging. They make several stops to catch their breath.I lead again and soon we are approaching the beach. When it is in sight, I signal Harry and Sully to get down, be quiet and hide. There are men on the beach with automatic weapons.“Take the box and go back the way we came and hide. I’ll handle these guys, whoever they are.” They think about arguing and realize it’s the best idea. They quietly return up the creek bed. When they are safe, I come out and round the corner to the beach.“Why hello! I didn’t think I would have company today.”They raise their guns and one steps forward and says, “Where are your two friends? Freddy said there were three of you.”I have moved closer to the men and I say, “What’s with the guns? We have nothing but rock samples. My friends are behind me and should be here shortly. Please don’t hurt us.” I act afraid and then I move. I grab the barrel of the gun the leader is holding and pull him into a punch that puts him down. There are three more men behind him and I manage to shoot two before they shoot me. Two bullets hit me and do nothing. I hit the two in the legs, one shot each and now smack the one that shot me in the head with a kick. He goes down and is out cold, but alive. I survey the damage and look at the holes in my shirt. I really like this shirt.I get some rope out of their boat and tie up the unconscious men leaving the two bleeders to scream and crawl away. I kick them both in the head and they are still. Then I run up the creek bed and call to Harry and Sully that all is clear. They are there quickly and we all walk onto the beach to find the four men as I left them.Harry looks at them, “Too bad their alive. What do you want to do with them?”Sully says, “They were going to kill us and take the treasure, right? These are the modern Pirates of the Caribbean, right?”“Yep. And Yep.”Sully looks at the men and picks up a gun. He shoots it into the sand on a three round burst after checking the weapon. “I’m going to make this call. Get the box on the plane and drag these guys to their boat.” Wow, I haven’t been ordered around in a while. I kind of like it. Sully walks to the boat and checks it out. Harry and I have the first man and we throw him into the boat. Sully ties him to a rail hands to one side and feet to the other. They are stretched out like a hammock. He ties the next one next to the first and when done they look like a bunch of shish kebab on a grill. “How far out will the boat have to be to start drifting out to sea?”“About 300 feet is all.”He starts the boat and we push it off the beach and he backs it out. He turns it expertly and stops when it is pointed out to sea. He rigs a rope to the wheel and punches the throttles to full speed. When it is going strong and moving fast, he dives off the side and it carries on into the shipping lanes. He is a great swimmer and is back on the beach after a quick swim. We all sit on the beach and start to laugh.Harry sums it up with this comment, “Buried pirate treasure from the King of France in 1702 and pirates from today try to take it. What a great day! Anybody want a beer?” He pulls three out of an ice chest and some sandwiches and we have lunch and laugh that my pirate treasure story now has a brand new ending.We sit there for an hour and watch the boat as it goes over the horizon. We board the plane after we push it around and take off. I fly over the speeding boat and radio the U.S. Coast Guard and tell them where they can be found. In flight we talk about the treasure and make a couple of decisions. When we land and get out of the plane, Freddy is waiting and looks a little surprised, “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Freddy. You ok?”“Yes, Sir. Just didn’t expect you back so soon is all.” Harry and Sully unload the plane and give the tools to a guy standing around the docks. I follow Freddy into his little store and sign some papers to return the plane. He puts them away and follows me outside where Harry, Sully and two policemen are waiting. They have been told the story and when Freddy turns to avoid the cops, I punch him. It feels really good. He is cuffed and manhandled into a car and they are gone.On the ride back to the waiting jet (I sent one home), we make a quick stop by the National Museum of the Bahamas main building. I run inside and have the men watch the old cannon fuse box. I walk up to the lady selling tickets and ask to speak to the curator. She is a little put off, but makes that call. He is an older gentleman dressed in a very proper suit.We make our introductions and then I say this, “Sir, I have a box of pirate treasure we dug up from an old map. We would like to donate it to your museum.”His face tells me that he thinks I am kidding. Perfect, all the more fun. He says through a big grin, “Why yes, young man, we would love to have your pirate’s treasure…”Before he can say anymore, I say, “Excellent. I’ll go get it.” And I turn and jog out the front door. Harry and Sully are watching for me and I wave for them to bring the box and come on in.And the three of us walk in and set the box at the feet of the curator. As the box hits the floor, I kick it open with a toe of my sandal. Sully reaches down and grabs a bag and pours the coins into his hand. Harry opens the jewelry bag and shows the loot to the dumbfounded curator.This is great. He doesn’t know what to say. So, I pull out a business card and hand it to him and all three of us leave as fast as we came in. The curator calls to us, but we just keep going. What a hoot.We leave and drive our car back to the airport and our jet. We board and are airborne with the other departing planes.Once settled and cruising along, Harry takes out a bag from his pack, spills it on the table between us and we all laugh at the hundred or so coins and the five pieces of jewelry we kept as a souvenir of our adventure.My Great Great Great Great Great Great Great GranddaughterI return from the trip feeling pretty good, but slide into a funk again soon. I hide in my room for a few days, but still take calls on the phone. Everything is going OK with my special projects and I let my team take care of it all.But, before long, Harry takes action. “You’ve been moping around this place long enough. John has a surprise for you. Up and at ‘em, Boy.” He knows that will get a smile out of me and I reluctantly follow him after getting out of my bathrobe I have been wearing for three days. Everybody is waiting in the Operations Center as if it is a surprise party. The room has a brand-new space set up for smaller holographic projections. Sully tells me where to stand and when I am there he turns on a miracle.Instantly, an oval room with pictures and bios of my French family from the furniture business are displayed. There are a lot of people. Some just have names, but there are paintings of portraits and then it has photographs starting around 1870. I walk around quietly and take it all in. It is a bit overwhelming.Sully begins the scripted narration and says, “There are four hundred seventy eight people identified in your lineage. And sixteen live in New York City right now.”I look at the faces for a while and see my resemblance in some, but it fades as time dilutes the bloodlines. I tear up when I read the names directly under mine and whisper, “I never saw these boys grow to manhood or my daughters get married. I miss them terribly.”After a few minutes, I speak again, “I am responsible for the existence of all these people. Wow. Look, this kid is training to be an astronaut and this old guy is a retired state senator. And look, this family has a short line of men who were sailors and these guys were coal miners. That sucks. I’ve been there and I know it sucks. But who is this?”I glance at my friends and it is clear that this is who they really want me to see. It is a woman who is now fifty-four, Dr. Teresa Anne Donnelly. She is a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institute and is very, very well respected in her field. She is an economist with several books to her credit. Mary Jo knows her work and admires her greatly. Included next to her big picture is a Christmas card picture from two years ago. She has a handsome husband and three adult kids. The kids are all married with one child each in front of them, her grandchildren.After I finish with her bio, I say, “Let’s get her. Mary Jo, do you want to work with her? After all she is related to me.”I make a grand gesture of showing off in jest. I mostly get rolled eyes for the comment.Mary Jo replies, “Oh yes, very much. Let me see what I can do.”Two days later Dr. Teresa Anne Donnelly arrives at our offices for an interview. Mary Jo conducts everything with John as her second, but we all get to have lunch. I can’t stop starring at her as we visit. I don’t say a lot except I steer the conversation to be about ancestors and she admits that she really doesn’t know that much past her grandparents on both sides. I zero in on my lineage and she really knows nothing. Oh, well. I really am quite awestruck because I realize that I caused this wonderful woman to be born at all.She looks nothing like me, being quite fair with auburn hair, but she is tall. And she has a magic that I love. I’ve seen it in many people and I describe it by saying they “laugh easily.” I can tell instantly that there is a mind of great importance in her and I am determined to succeed in getting her on my payroll. I step out of our private dining room and text Mary Jo and John on their phones to make it happen at any cost. I come back in and enjoy her company for the rest of a very long lunch. She lives in D.C. and we sent a jet to get her this morning. I can tell she was impressed and that was the idea.John asks her the questions and Mary Jo carries on the answer with follow up questions. They are speaking the same language and at the same level. Teresa explains her concepts very clearly. She is far ahead of her time in her thinking.I ask my first question, “You keep describing a picture of a utopian economy and it is wonderful. But tell me how we can get there from where we are. How about using a micro-economy as a realistic example. How about Puerto Rico?”“Puerto Rico is a bad place to start since it is all confused as a territory of the US and not a state. Let me use Haiti instead.” She proceeds to lay out a plan that we have already designed and are implementing. While she is talking, I pull up the project timeline. She stops talking and stares at it and says, “You’ve already started making the changes I described, haven’t you?”“Yes, but I think you might have some improvements to add, if I am hearing your ideas correctly.”“Yes, the timing is off. There are examples of a population undergoing similar changes throughout history. It takes more time than you have planned for to adjust the attitudes of a population this size and with an affluency rate this low. If you make this change here by implementing your voucher system, it will have a very good chance of failing. You need to move more slowly right here and quicker with the next big move.”She gets it. And beyond. Perfect.Mary Jo says, “You would be a welcome addition to our economics team. You could take your models and actually put them into practice working with us.”“How can you people do these things? These projects would cost a fortune.”John says, “Quite true. We are in a unique time in history. The financing we need for the Haiti project is pretty much unlimited. Our resources are second only to the largest countries in the world. I think about our conglomerates as the sixteenth largest nation on the planet. The only difference is that we don’t have an official territory. We own significant percentages of all the separate nations. We are a shadow force across the globe and that gives us a very special set of opportunities. We work closely with the Secretary of State and the leading financial institutions around the world. China is our only weakness. With all their cash, they have been able to exclude us out of their economy. It is very troubling.”“Give me some numbers?”John pulls up a chart that shows only one arm of our businesses, but it is the biggest. The number below it is over a trillion dollars.She sees it and says, “Wow. I had no idea these companies had that much value. And a lot of it is liquid. You could make moves that could control the destinies of millions of people. You could make overnight changes in poverty levels of significant sizes of populations.”“Yes. And we do. Would you like to help us?” John baits the hook. Teresa swallows it and Mary Jo sets it.“This is the opportunity you have been dreaming of. Work with us and you can stop dreaming and start doing. Give it some thought.”The interview ends warmly and she says that she is very interested and wants to talk to her family.I decide to ride along on her flight back home. She gets some papers from John and Mary Jo and is ready to get back. I meet her downstairs and take the same limo back to the airport. The flight is short and uneventful except for the conversation.I begin the visit by asking her about her latest book, but I let her know up front that I have read it. It is an examination of the effect of the small businesses on the global economy. It concludes by saying they are in trouble and things we can do to save them from extinction. Every conclusion is well founded in facts, although it is hard to connect the dots sometimes.“May I ask you a question, Javier?”“Of course.”“Who are you? I know what John and Mary Jo do. But what about you?”“I am the utility man behind the scene. I have no field of expertise. I look at things more “functionally” than the others. I advise on strategies down on the ground level where real individual lives are affected.”“Nice evasive answer.”“Ok, try this one. I am in on every discussion had at the highest levels. For example, Mary Jo doesn’t attend security briefings and I do. Our security people don’t attend business meetings. I do. I cross pollinate and fine tune plans as they are developed and implemented. I redline a lot of planning documents. I joke about it and say that I know a little about a lot of things, but not a lot about any one thing. How’s that?”“Better. A little bit. How about sharing your resume with me? That would help.”“I’ve never had one. I wouldn’t know where to start. Most of my work is off the books, as you would say.”“More evasive answers. Here, evade this one. Where did you go to school?”“I have a degree from Cambridge in History.” Which is true.“Cambridge? History? How old are you. You don’t look old enough to have finished school at all.”“I am twenty four.” I lie. I switch the topic and ask her about the book she is writing now. We talk about it at length and it is fascinating, really.I enjoy her company very much. She is brilliant with a very cool laid-back manner. And she can describe something very complicated step by step or fact-by-fact and put it into words that the average person can understand. She tells me a lot about her kids and husband and I can feel the genuine love she has for them. I am so proud of her. We land, say our goodbyes and she is gone, for now.And the TruthThree months have passed and things are going reasonably well. More vaults have been uncovered and my music has taken off. I did some time at a music school in Paris and knew Stravinsky very well. Much of my music sounds like him in his early years. He was a genius. For me, his work took music to the next level. He was a composer ahead of his time. The public had to be dragged into the beauty of his new sound. But, in my opinion, his real talent was conducting. I played some of his work with him conducting and he commanded the instruments with precision and finesse. He demanded perfection and achieved it with charm and respect.Angela and I have gotten into a routine. She is spending more time at my small apartment and wanting even more. She has regained herself after our harrowing night and my people are just shadowing her quietly.One day, Megan sends me a text and says she wants to see my old New York house. We set a time and go visit it. It is hard for me. That was a time of economic challenges for the community and nation. There was a lot of waste and the lines between the “have’s” and the “have not’s” was emphasized by some ruthless men. We stand in the front of the house and I tell her about the times and my activities. I open the front door after shutting down three separate security systems. We enter and lights come on automatically.She is surprised to find the house empty of furniture. “You told me there was some surprises here.”“Patience. Follow me. I want to show you the cool hidden passages first.” I walk her around and push hidden panels and open doors that don’t look like anything but the wall. We walk in musty small hallways that lead to another room in the house. I can tell she is getting bored, so I take her to the basement.“This is where the good stuff is.” She is puzzled because it is empty too. I walk over to a brick wall and push a large section and it rotates in on a vertical axel. We step inside my private workshop.It is quite large and has machinery in it that would be considered antiques today. They are all in fine working order. There are woodworking equipment, saws and sanders. In one section, there are metal cutting machines. The place is spotless and there are racks and racks of projects on one long wall. “What are all these things?”“These here are prototype inventions from Tesla and Edison. I got them from the workers they employed before they threw them away. Some work pretty well. From this point to the end of the rack are mine.”“I recognize some of them, like this can opener. And this is a record player.”“Not just a record player, a Stereo, record player.”“How can an old record player be stereo?”“The groove that holds the sound etchings is different on each side of the little “V” wall. The needle was the hard part.” I tell her about the problems and see that her mind has already moved on.“What is this one?”“A laser. Only this one cuts metal. I could never get it accurate enough with the technology of the time. It’s easy with computers now, but with hand cranks, it’s a hard problem.”She moves to the next item. “This thing looks like a long garbage disposal. What does it do?”“It’s a jet engine.” She is shocked by its small size.She stops and looks at me and says, “These things need to be in a museum. A public museum.”“I thought you might say that. Let’s move the Tesla and Edison stuff to the museums set up for them in their home towns. I’ll crate up my stuff and give it to one of our R&D labs and see if there is anything valuable here. Otherwise, it’s just hobby junk. These tooling machines would make a fine display in the lobby of the California airplane plant. I’ll make that happen and then I want to sell the property. There are no fond memories here, just ones of me lying to nice people about myself. It’s getting harder all the time.” I’ve had enough and we leave this empty place.Things around the Ark have calmed down into a shouting match about the temple construction, but no more than that. Many folks feel that it’s discovery is apocalyptic in nature and for all I know they might be right. The dreams have stopped and a calm has come over me. I am not sure if it is real or there is an approaching storm.A few days later, something new happens. I wake up and have a runny nose. I’ve never had one and I search out Harry and talk to him about it. “I feel different. I think I have a headache too.”I describe it to him and he calls Ruth immediately. She shows up and says, “I usually don’t make house calls these days.” She looks me over and says, “Malek, you have a cold.” Just as she says this, I sneeze for the first time, ever.I spend the next few days with tissues in my hand. I am frightened by this change and yet I am enjoying the new feelings at the same time. Weird. Sneezing is particularly odd. It’s really loud from the inside. I know that different people have different sneeze noises and it appears mine is really loud and obnoxious. Mine doesn’t sound like “Ah-Choo at all. It sounds more like “Highchhhh.” Even Harry comments on how different it sounds from everyone else’s.I stop thinking about my cold and what it means when Michael calls.He says he is in town and would like to visit. I tell him where to come and what to say to get him past security. I forego my Rabbi identity with him this time. It just seems stupid around him now. I let Gunther and everyone know what he said and that he is on the way and to stand by. It all seems quite ominous.Michael runs the gauntlet through security with Harry escorting him all the way. Harry is watching my back as always and leads Michael into my apartment and we greet each other like old friends. I tell Harry that everything is fine and would he mind giving us some private time. I am wearing my usual jeans, sneakers and sweater. He is not surprised by the difference in my appearance and mannerisms and appears to not even notice. We take seats in my video conference room and I turn down the constant feeds. I start it off by asking him about the progress in Israel.We discuss this for a few minutes until we are totally at ease and he says, “The reason I am here is to answer the questions you have had all your life. Why am I here? Why do I keep on living while others are blessed with death? Why am I alone even with all my friends?” I’ve never heard it put like that, but I know he is correct.I desperately want the truth and he proceeds, “I know that you are a lost soul and that you have been pondering about what and who you are for some time now. I know the answers you seek because I was there when you accepted your mission. You made a great sacrifice for the human race that you love so much. You asked for your memories of being in God’s presence to be taken so you wouldn’t suffer with that pain during your time here.”He pauses and stands. He seems to change with that movement, standing taller and stronger. As I continue to gaze at him, I feel like the light in the room has dimmed and he is revealing a bit of his true self. And then I recognize him. He is the man from my dreams.He talks with an unabashed authority that is rare in my presence. He continues, “But here is the answer to your question. You are a child of God just like me.” He pauses an eye blink and then reveals this, “We walk among these people who are also God’s children. You were sent to be the protector of these people. To keep their history and save them from themselves when the time was right.”I realize that everything he is saying is true and know it deep down in my soul.“And that time is now.” I find myself nodding in agreement and understanding all he is saying.He is very patient with me and then continues, “You see, I know this because I was there. I am Michael, God’s Sword, and your brother. Your real name that was given to you at creation, is Raguel. You are God’s Friend and His Hand of Justice.”Shall Set You FreeI am not really shocked by this at all. It is sort of anticlimactic for me since I have been sensing something odd for some time.“God is pleased and your mission is nearly accomplished.” Tears are flowing from my eyes now. Michael touches my shoulder and my strength returns. “I will return in a few days and we can talk about the future at that time. But rest assured, you have been exceedingly blessed and God appreciates your sacrifice.”With that said, he gets up and leaves. I am alone with my newfound joy and peace. After a few minutes, I call my friends, ask them to join me and let them see the recording of the revelation. They listen in quiet awe and Mary Jo and Megan begin to cry as it ends. I am hugged by all one by one and we start a quiet conversation.“I wonder what he meant by discussing the future?” Mary Jo asks.I reply, “I’m not sure, but I think it is time for me to put my affairs in order.”I feel the best I ever have. The cloud that has followed me my whole long, long life has lifted and I never even knew it was there.“John, I want you to make plans for my absence. Decide what to do with my recluse personas and the separate entities they control.”“Hold on, Malek.” John is kind of angry. “You just received this news ten minutes ago and you’re already giving up? And why does, “discuss your future” mean you are going to die?””I try to say something to answer his very good comments and am at a loss for words, so he continues, “We have contingency plans in place for your absence, be it short or longer. They are good plans and we should follow them. There are more important things to think about.Mary Jo says, “What could be more important than Malek’s death?”“We need to fill in the gaps on plans that he has inside his head. We all want to do what he wants done and we are missing some vital guidance in many areas.”I see the wisdom in his logic and say, “John’s right. What about this plan of action; each of you set up some one on one time with me and we’ll just visit. I’ll brief you on some ideas and that will have to do. How does that sound?”“Much more reasonable.” John has his hand on my shoulder and is looking me in the eyes. “I for one have a few nagging questions.”With that comment, he smiles really big and finally breaks eye contact.Ruth has a thought, “I talked to everyone and we all agree that you should add at least three more friends and that Angela and Teresa be two of them. Any ideas on a third?“Yes, let’s drag Duncan Freeborn onto our Merry Go Round.”We are in the middle of the most important discussion of my life and I get a call from Roberto, John’s tailor in Rome. Our clothes are ready and he wants to come immediately. I have Harry get him here as fast as possible. Harry comes back in a few minutes and says that Roberto will be here first thing tomorrow.I am having dinner with Angela tomorrow night and I am going to tell her the truth about me. Her life is about to change forever, for the better I hope.The rest of the day and night, I visit with my friends. I start with Harry. “Malek, what would you like me to do if you leave us?”“Harry, I don’t know. What would you like to do?”“I think I would like to start by taking care of your personal stuff. I’ll do the physical items, but more importantly, I want to take care of your writings. I’ve read a lot and they are a treasure worth more than any gold or silver or statues or furniture.”“I can’t think of a better person than you to manage it.”“Pull up the big timeline chart of your life please.” I do and he studies it for a bit on the huge display in my personal comm room. “There are gaps.” He thinks for a moment and then says, “Add your personal writings that cover history to the diagram.”“Hold on. Let’s get Sully in here.” I ask him to join us and he is there in a minute.“Sully, you know my personal library better than anyone since you designed the catalog system. Can you identify my writings that have a historical context?”“Sure.” He pulls them up on the bottom of the screen and they look like book ends. And then the dates that are appropriate appear under then. I walk up to the screen and move them to the right times.“Now add the ones with topics.” He does and there are at least 200 lined up on the bottom like a shelf full of books. I then take those and cross reference attaching them to certain points on the chart. The chart not only shows a timeline, but is split into twelve geographic area as well. There are some famous people and events shown and I hook the books to their best reference placement. A few get several reference connection.Harry and Sully are watching intently as I place all this literature. Harry whispers to Sully, “Get ready to pull up the scroll topical indexes next.” I pretend I didn’t hear it. And when I place the last one, the scrolls appear on the bottom. I look at the numbers shown on the bottom of the stack and see that there is 521. I expected 899.“Sully, what are the criteria that put those 521 on the list?”“There is only one. You wrote it. Not copied, not repeated, not reworded, not a synopsis, etc. You thought it up and wrote it down.”“Show me the entire catalog in the same format as you have these.” He does and there are pages and pages of scrolls. 12,333 to be exact. I then ask this, “And now take out the ones that are in the 521.” He does and then I ask, “And please take out the ones that are the copies from the Library at Alexandria. Those were clearly cataloged before.” He complies again and now there are 579. I start grabbing them one by one and putting them into the folder that I am supposedly the author of. As I do this, I explain, “Each of these has parts that I have written. There should be a total of 899.”In just a few minutes, Sully says, “899. Do you want to tag the chapters you penned now?”“Why not.” We’ve been at this for 36 minutes now and I invest 44 more in identifying the parts of the ones we are working with. When I am satisfied, I reference tag the parts that I wrote with the big chart. Done.When I turn around, Mary Jo, Megan, Ruth, Gunther and John are there with Harry and Sully. They apparently have trickled in when Harry and Sully texted them what was happening.I smile at them all and they all grin back. Then Harry says, “Pull up the fiction now.”“No, no, no.” I say, but 342 more books appear on the screen. “And what am I supposed to do with those?”Harry has this planned in his head now and says, “Put them with the correct time and place first. Then cross reference them into genre. We already have a one paragraph synopsis on all of them.”I obey and am done in 12 more minutes.When finished, I step back and look. We all see the same thing. There are large blank spots that should not be empty.Harry beats me to the punch and says, “I don’t care why there are blanks, but I want them filled in.”“Yes, you are right. I’ll have it for you.” I know why I have never written about the times and places that are blank. They were bad times and bad places. But, it is time to document those parts of my life as well.It’s getting late and we break for the night. They sleep and I write and write and write.I spend the next morning with John. Lots of work, but lots of personal questions as well that he always wanted to ask, but we were both too busy. He focuses most of his questions on Bible stories and I tell him what I know.Today on our calendars, 10 A.M. looks just like all the other meetings we have been going to. When it is time, I make us move from the Oversight Room and get together in my home office where Roberto is set up.I am there first and open the door for John, Harry, Gunther and Sully. I lead them into the room and Ruth, Roberto, Megan and Mary Jo all yell “Surprise.” All four of them are confused and look at each other and are thinking, “Who’s birthday is it?” Then John recognizes Roberto and sees the rack of clothes.John says, “Roberto, what have you done?”Roberto beams with pride and says, “Your friend wanted to surprise you men with some very special, very, very special suits. I have created masterpieces for all of you.” The ladies are looking at the clothes and pulling them out. They each have one for us fellows and brings them to each of us. Ruth has my first tux and holds it up to me and smiles. Roberto goes on. “There are four beautiful tuxedos for each of you and for my special friend, and an even dozen of the most beautiful suits I have ever made. They are spectacular!” And they are. John is going through the rack and smiling from ear to ear. He takes one and disappears into one of my bedrooms. The other men and I, take our tuxedos and go to the living room and change. I keep the women with Roberto. I am the first one done and I return to the room looking sharp. The girls ooh and ahh over how nice I look and I do. No adjustments are required except for the pant hems. Harry comes in and looks great too. Then Roberto says, “Shoes, shoes, all of you, please fetch the shoes you will be wearing with these. Go, go, go.” We all disappear and John enters the room looking most impressive. I come in with the right shoes on and John comes up to me and shakes my hand.He says, “Malek, thank you. Thank you so much.”“Ruth and I just happened to be passing the shop…”We all chuckle and then I seriously say, “You do so much for everyone else, I just wanted to let you know you are appreciated. Besides, I put all this on your credit card.” Laughter all around. The others return and look fantastic. Roberto is ordering us around and his two assistants are marking the hems. One by one by one, we work our way through the clothes and they are hemmed on the spot and we have to fit them once again. The whole process takes two hours. John has broken out some scotch and is sipping away with everyone except Megan and I. I get a diet coke for her and a sprite for me.All the other men thank me and Sully says, “Hey Boss, where are you taking us to ever wear these outfits?”“Well, let’s start with this.” I pull out invitations for all to a Black Tie ball at the U.N. this Friday night, four days from now. It’s to celebrate some anniversary of something big. Whatever. Then I finish it off with, “We are the special guests of the President and he would like to visit with us at a private cocktail party an hour before the formal dinner starts. Duncan set it up for me.”It’s now noon and I have to run. I cancel the rest of the meetings for the day and let everyone enjoy their new clothes. Besides, I have the new most important meeting of my life with Angela right now.I go over to her apartment and break the news to her. She takes it all very well thinking that I am joking. When she sees I am serious, she becomes very afraid. I tell her to come with me to my office and my other apartment. She is reluctant at first, but when I tell her continuously that I love her and that is why she is learning my secret, she is a bit better. I knew this could go two ways. She would believe and love me more for it. Or she would believe and never want to see me again out of fear. She is leaning toward the positive outcome and I am cautiously happy and hopeful.In the lobby of the Empire State Building, I hug her and whisper in her ear what she is about to see. She looks up and smiles at me and I know then it will be ok. I take her to my operations center first, then the oversight room and then I let her watch the video of us telling Sully. She believes and is handling it very well indeed. She says she always knew I was special and hiding something deep in my heart from her. We end up kissing a lot and I now must tell her the bad news about me being the archangel of justice and the protector of mankind. As I speak there seems to be a peace that settles over her and she even takes the upcoming visit from Michael calmly. The only words she speaks are, “Of course.”She gets the “offer” and accepts immediately. However, there is one condition. I must marry her now. On the spot now. I make it clear that when Michael returns, I could end up dead or gone and does she really want that.She replies, “I want to be your wife every minute from now on, be it ten or ten million.”I agree to her wonderful terms and quickly invite everyone in to my apartment and make the announcement. Cheers erupt and then lots of handshakes and hugs. It’s now two o’clock.The ceremony is to be this evening in the Holographic Projection area. Sully is going to let us get married in the reef in the Caribbean. So that means quick action by everyone. They are planning and making calls and frantically busy. Of course, Megan starts a task list on a screen and makes assignments. It is complete with a waterfall schedule chart that starts now.I ask everyone to wait there for a minute and take my bride to my private safe of jewelry. I open it and let her have her pick of wedding rings from about fifty. She can’t decide and asks if the others can help pick. She goes back to the main area and tells them the trouble she is having and asks for help. All the ladies join her and none of the men. It seems they want to throw a bachelor party.Wow. I leave all the ceremonial business to the ladies and I am swept away by the boys to Harry’s place. The booze is broken out and toasts are made. It is the shortest bachelor party in history because I have another very, very important task to do.I find Angela with Mary Jo and the ladies in her apartment preparing outfits. Mary Jo tries to shoo me away. I tell her it is really important and she tells me that I can have two minutes. Angela comes out of a bedroom with a velvet tray of jewelry. Her ring is in the center. She chose one of my favorites. This amazing ring was made by Faberge in 1899 for Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna and has a two point five carat flawless princess cut diamond in the center and a stair step pattern of thirty-two beautiful pink diamonds accenting the main stone. The band finishes it off with three sides being covered in fifty-six smaller princess cut diamonds that match the center large stone. It is worth about a half a million dollars. The other pieces are all exquisite that she has on the tray I quickly help her pick out the earrings, necklace and bracelet. I then tell her I want Teresa to be included and to stand with us to round out my family. She thinks that is a wonderful idea and I head off to shock another person. I am going to have fun with this one.I give Teresa a call and ask her if she is wearing pants or a dress. She answers “pants” and tries to question why I am asking and I brush her off and tell her that I will be down to pick her up in a couple of minutes. Her office is just down the street. I will be on a motorcycle. I then tell her to clear her calendar for the rest of the day.I head down to my private garage and select a bike. I have five. I choose a 2013 jet-black Harley V-Rod Muscle and away I go. It takes me less than a minute to get to her building and she is out front waiting. I hand her a helmet and she puts it on like a pro, hops on the back and off we go. She asks what the hell is going on and I tease her with this. “If you like this ride, you are going to freak out with the one I am about to give you upstairs.” We enter the building garage, park and head upstairs. We fly through security and into my apartment we go alone.I tell her the story quickly and she does not believe me for one minute. Then I take her to the Oversight Room and show her my ID’s and history, talking all the time. She is beginning to believe. Then I take her downstairs and show her the family tree and let her know of our distant relationship. I top off the story with the events of the last few months about Michael and getting married tonight. I ask her to stand with me during the ceremony and she says yes, just to agree with this crazy man talking.I must hurry and I call Harry to help finish the story and get her to believe. He arrives and I ask Harry to help me out. He decides to throw a knife since it worked so well with Sully. He shows the knife to Teresa to let her make sure it is real and steps back away from me. He throws it with perfect accuracy and speed, hits me in the chest and it bounces off. Teresa is doing the usual mouth open in disbelief thing. When she is done gapping, she looks very hard at me and says, “So I am your great great great great granddaughter?”I respond, “There are seven “greats” there.” She starts laughing and then does something totally unexpected. She gives me a great big hug. And I love it and start to cry, again.Holy MatrimonyTeresa is in happy, happy shock and I call John and Gunther in, who are getting pretty drunk. I let him know about Teresa joining my special friends and they give her a five-minute briefing on keeping the secret. She brushes them off with, “Of course, of course. I’m not stupid. I figured this part out. And by the way, regarding the deal, I’m in.” With that, we all shake hands, but I get another hug. And she calls me Grandpa and I start to cry, again. I think I will be doing that a lot for the next few days.Teresa then suddenly realizes that she is going to be in a wedding in a few hours and freaks out. “Oh, my God, where is the bride? I’ve got a lot to do.” I escort her arm in arm to Mary Jo’s apartment and she joins the girls. As she goes inside, I see about ten wedding dresses laid out around the living room and two ladies working with Angela to make a choice. This is great.I rejoin the boys and have fun watching them get drunk. But John is the biggest surprise because he has taken off his tie. I hardly recognize him. Somewhere in the fun I tell them that I want them all to be my best men and they are all smiles. I think they may have been talking about it amongst themselves wondering whom I would ask, if anyone. With that done, I retire to prepare for the ceremony. I ask Harry to help me and he says he would be honored, in a drunken southern drawl.When we are alone looking in my closet, I confide in him, “I am really scared, Harry.” He replies with exactly the thing I needed to hear, “A wise man once told me that to worry about things that you can’t control is a waste of time. He told me the next time I found myself like that; I should roll with the punches. And then come up fighting.” I told him that twenty-five years ago.He helps me with my tuxedo for a bit and then sits down and we talk about Teresa for a minute and then Angela. He wants to know why I love her so much. I go on about her for fifteen minutes and he says that he wants a woman just like that and hopes he will feel that way about someone someday. I asked him why he never dates anyone. He replies, “I’ve never met anyone more interesting than you guys.”I tell him, “You need to get out more.” And then I remember something and say, “I know this woman that owns a florist shop that is just super. Let me have Angela introduce you.”He replies, “No, no, no.” Then he quietly says, “What’s she like?”I simply say that she laughs easily. He knows what that means and says OK. I grab my phone and shoot Angela a text message. Then he comes over to me, turns me just so and looks me in the eye. He has a confused look on his face after a few important things are not said, but shared between us.Finally he says, “I don’t know how to say this, but I am proud of you. Proud like a father and proud like a son both at the same time.” We hug briefly and he leaves me to finish up by myself.I get a knock on my door a few minutes later and it’s the Reverend from Angela’s church who will be marrying us. He comes in and politely says, “I must tell you that I have never been a part in anything like this and it is very exciting. Angela has told me all about you and I was wondering if I was ever going to meet you. I am so happy for both of you.” He pauses and then turns very serious and says, “I have known her since she was a child and if you ever hurt her, you will have me and all the men in my church to answer to. Are we clear young man?”I reply, “Yes, sir.” actually quite humbled.He moves on, “Good, now with that out of the way, this is the order of things in the ceremony.” He lays it out for me and asks me about my vows and I tell him they are prepared. He then moves to the door and says that I have ten minutes.For the first time in over a thousand years, I pray and thank God for Angela and His forgiveness.Another knock on the door and Teresa is there to walk with me to the Operations Center. She pauses outside the door and looks at me and says, “You turned my world upside down today. I’ve always thought I had it all figured out and then this happens. I guess I’ll just roll with the punches.”Hearing that from her make me remember what the Heavenly Host said, “God is Blessing.”I smile at her and kiss her on the forehead and say, “I’m ready now.”We enter the room to loud applause from my friends.Harry is there dressed in a killer tux that he got today.John is John, but a little drunk in a wonderful new tux.Gunther is smiling like crazy and I think he really is a bit drunk too.Sully just cheers and claps and smiles looking sharp in one of his new tux outfits.Mary Jo is crying quietly (as usual these days) and looks quite stunning in a beautiful gown and fine jewelry. It’s then that I notice that she is wearing some of the items from my safe that Angela “borrowed” and I smile and motion to her that I like her earrings and necklace. She smiles back with one of the most loving smiles I have ever, ever seen.Megan looks about as happy as anyone can be as she sports a necklace that is actually fit for a queen. A queen of Persia in 584 B.C. named Mandana wore it in court all the time. It was a present from her husband the King, Astyages. I know because I was there. She looks beautiful in a gown that was designed by Peter Langner and was tailored for her this afternoon. It is very lacy and really brings out Megan’s natural beauty.I move down the line of friends and settle on Ruth. Her hair is not only combed, but put up on her head with beautiful ringlets. Her dress is modest with straight lines, but is bright blue. Then I notice she has on a tiara from my safe. It has blue gems accenting the diamonds arrayed across the top. It matches her dress perfectly. She does a curtsy as I take her beauty all in and we chuckle at each other. The tiara was made for a Russian Czar’s wife around 1600. I never knew her name because I “acquired” it in 1749 in a cash deal and her name was never given to me. I just knew it was a bargain.I take my place as ordered and all my friends line up. The cheers and applause has died down and Sully pulls out a remote and hits a couple of buttons. Things turn dark and one of my musical compositions begins to play. Later I learn that it was the first selected for a movie, a prequel to the Harry Potter series. It begins with a harpsichord solo introduction that fits the mood perfectly. A few seconds pass and the holographic presentation from the bottom of the Caribbean sea begins to play by fading in to the music. It is most magical and is completed when Teresa enters the room being escorted by the Reverend. She is stunning. She too is wearing a Peter Langner original. His wedding dresses are his signature items and this one is magnificent. It has a modest top of lace and silk, while the gown flows in layer waves to the floor and a bit beyond. She has a veil on that is all lace and looks old. She told me earlier that it was her Grandmother’s and she will be wearing it again, if we can redo all this in a big church for her family. I hope we can, but I don’t want to think about it right now. She has on a beautiful string of black pearls and matching earrings. Most tasteful. I love her so much. The music fades out as Angela and the Reverend take their places and he begins with the regular formal wedding speech.When it is time to say our simple scripted vows, I interrupt and surprise all by talking to Angela and saying this, “Of all the choices I have made in my life, the one that brings me the most happiness was and is loving you. You are the kindest and gentlest person I know. I am humbled and honored that you chose me. I think you are wonderful and I will love you as long as God allows me to.” She tears up as I finish and every person in the room is also shedding a tear or two. Of course, all the women let out a simultaneous “Ahhh…”.The Reverend then nods at Harry and he hands me two rings. I am surprised by there being two and I look in my hand to see one for me. It is a simple gold band and Angela whispers that I should read the inscription inside. I hold it up and read, “I give you me. Love, Angela.” I am sniffling now along with the tears and John hands me a handkerchief. I use it to compose myself and our simple vows are exchanged and we are pronounced Man and Wife. We kiss and everyone cheers and claps and the music comes back on to the overture at the end of my score. The ocean fades and lights come on. I kiss Angela again and then get hugs and handshakes from all. Ruth takes charge and tells us to follow her to the reception in her apartment.As we get to her door, she opens it to an amazing sight. And it takes a lot to amaze me. She has finished decorating and the furniture she selected in Del Mar is here. It is complimented by Persian rugs and my paintings are displayed nicely as well. I am touched. There is a string quartet playing some of my music quietly in a corner. But I notice three of my jazz buddies setting up next to a big piano. They wave at me to say hello when I look their way. Very cool. I see my horns set up near an empty mike and laugh as one of them points to them and smiles back.Tables are prepared and a catering staff is busy at work passing out champagne. Angela and I are steered to a portable photography setup in her dining room. Ruth tells everyone to have a chair and that we will all be taking pictures shortly but we are beginning with the Bride and Groom. We suffer through the photo shoot. Gunther appears as we are finished and whispers something to the photographer. The guy gets angry and whispers something back, but loud enough for me to hear the words, “No, no, no. Absolutely not.” I figure it is about security and the poor guy has no idea who he is dealing with. Nobody tells Gunther “No” with that tone of voice.With that chore finished we take a couple of group shots and I get ones taken with each person individually with just Angela and me. We take our places around a large grand dining room set that has been repositioned in the dining room when the photo shoot stuff is gone along with the photographer, but not his cameras. Gunther calls one of his security guys and they vanish with them into one of his black holes.Dinner is immediately served as we see that every one of us has his own personal waiter. We were each given a small menu earlier that day and our choices begin to arrive. When they asked me what I wanted, I told them to let Angela pick for me. I am surprised and pleased when they set a Lobster Bisque in front of me. She tells me that it is the same recipe that was used for us in Atlantis. It is a joy. Dinner continues to be magnificent, but I really am busy with staring at my new beautiful bride.With dinner winding down, John makes a toast to us and simply recites the wonderful old Irish one,May the road rise to meet you,May the wind be always at your backs,May the sun shine warm upon your faces,The rains fall soft upon your fields and,Until we meet again,May God hold you both in the palm of His hand.We empty our glasses and it is my turn to say something. I ask the wait staff to leave us for a minute and prepare to say something when I notice a new guest peek his head in the room and asks, “May I join you?” We all stand to greet Michael. He tells us, “Please be seated. I am here only to join the party, if you will allow me. Our other business is not yet at hand.” I am relieved and I get up and hug him. I officially introduce him to everyone and especially Angela. She is frightened at first, but his easy demeanor that I know so well, relaxes everyone soon. I get him a seat from the other room and crowd him in next to me. I then laugh and say, “I was about to say something before I was so rudely interrupted.” I laugh more and Michael does as well. Then everyone gets the joke and chuckles along.“I was about to say thank you all. I know that you cannot feel what I am feeling, but I mean this with all my heart. You are the best friends I have ever had and because of God, you all, and this amazing lady,” I lean over and kiss Angela, “I am truly happy for the first time.” Everyone is silent and touched, as they understand the depth and seriousness of what I have just said.Harry breaks the quiet by simply saying, “Here, here.” and clapping. Everyone joins in and glasses are clinked again in between the applause.Ruth stands and says, “So here is how the rest of the evening is going to go. Some of “Javier’s” friends and our families are going to join us and we all know what that means. Watch what you say. The walls have ears.”Gunther stands to speak and then sits right back down and mutters, “Enough said.”The staff is called back in and we adjourn to the big room where the jazz starts to play. The first violin from the string quartet has moved over and is sitting in with the jazz ensemble. He has switched from his beautiful wooden acoustic violin to a bright blue electric one. He’s great. The viola player is a young beautiful oriental girl and she is on a shiny brand new Bechstein Nine foot three-inch grand piano and playing with perfection supporting the others. I am in jazz heaven.Angela has never heard me play anything before and asks if those saxophones are mine. I tell her they are and she wants to hear me immediately. During the first song I ask Sully to set up the holographic photography posts and record the night. He grabs his phone and in less than two minutes a couple of his new team show up and set them up.The song ends and I am asked by the lead guitarist to come up and join them. I oblige and grab my Cannonball Gerald Albright Signature Series black nickel finished alto saxophone, hook up a mike and blow a couple of licks to warm up. The band picks one of my favorites, “The Way You Look Tonight” by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. I announce the song and dedicate it to all the lovely ladies their tonight, but of course, especially to Angela.We lay it down and I watch Angela and the others as most hear me for the first time. The pianist sings as we follow and then I solo after the second verse three times through and end to cheers from the room. The song ends to more cheers and I set down my horn and tell them I will be back in a while and hope they understand. Everyone laughs as I leave the group and zero in on one new guest.The crowd has mysteriously grown from ten to around forty. I grab Angela and head toward a lovely dark skinned lady standing in the back of the room. It is Angela’s boss from the flower shop, Roberta. She greets us warmly and fawns over Angela like her mother telling her how beautiful she looks. She spots the ring and takes a good look at it and then at me and says, “Wow, what did you say you did for a living?” I laugh it off and excuse myself for a minute to fetch a friend of mine. She knows what is coming and is embarrassed to be sure. That all goes away as I drag Harry toward her. She obviously likes what she sees and I introduce them. She is taken aback by his deep, soft southern drawl and smiles a huge beautiful smile. We make our excuses about not ignoring other guests and leave nature to take its course. I hear her comment to Harry about his lovely suit as we meander away.Angela and I dance and I play a couple of more tunes with the band through the evening. I even dance with Maggie and try to make Thomas jealous. The party breaks up when it gets late and we begin to hang around the door to thank everyone for coming and say our goodbyes. It finally thins out to just my friends and most of their families and I request only slow dances at that point. I want to dance slow dances with Mary Jo, Megan, and Ruth, but I save the last for Teresa. As I dance with each one of the ladies, I tell them the story of their jewelry and ask if they would like them to keep them. They all thank me and each refuses. I’m not insulted in any way and I offer the loan of them or anything I have anytime. Later, I ask Gunther to make sure that all of them see all of my private collection.Finally I dance with Teresa. As the song ends, I ask her how she is doing and she replies, “Just fine, all things considered.”I get a good laugh out of that. I kiss her on the cheek and say, “I want you to do your job, but dream bigger. My friends will help you make them come true. Enjoy a rich, full life with your family and work. Dream big, my child, dream big.” I leave her with those words and notice that Michael is gone.With my important dances done, I have something else on my mind. Angela. We say our personal goodbyes to everyone and head for our place down the hall. Angela dances around the apartment for a few moments and then she tells me what a wonderful day this has been. And that she loves me over and over again. We kiss and kiss and are soon heading for bed.My Very Own DiplomatWe hole up in our place for the next day and when we come out, we meet with everyone to discuss my special projects. Angela has not heard of them and is very interested in each and every one. My hoard of treasure is on track for dispersal to the world, but it will take several years to complete the effort. Most of the gold, silver, and diamonds will remain with us for quite some time. The Ark is making the most stir in the world as it begins to spawn a religious revival on a global scale. I am saddened to think that an old chest can have that effect on people when the wonder of God’s handiwork that is always right in front of us did not all along.The construction on the new underwater labs is moving quickly. It has grown to include all kinds of earthquake and tsunami detection equipment as well as the oceanographic business. Haiti is doing splendidly with the infusion of cash and permanent free housing. The camps people were still living in have been replaced by FEMA trailers I bought wholesale from our government. Just to keep things under control, we have Gunther’s army patrolling side by side with the local police keeping crime down. Their presence has been a deterrent to the criminals who used to roam free and take what they wanted.It seems the new schools the Gates foundation have built and manned are really doing the most good as people begin to regain their self-respect from honest work provided by the new infrastructure. We have learned that a new nursing school already needs expanding and we quickly are moving trailers there as temporary classrooms while the university campus is added to.An amnesty for the thugs was declared and over ten thousand guns were turned in during the process as they take legal jobs for a chance at a better life. Gunther has made several trips down there to personally make sure all is well. We installed close to five hundred video cameras across the cities to monitor things and they too have been accepted as security and protection rather than a police state.With Michael’s upcoming visit putting a shadow on everything, the sense of urgency takes hold of everyone. So, I make a quick trip.The Secretary of State is Duncan Lewis Freeborn and he has shown himself to be a fine man. I take a jet to meet him at my favorite restaurant in D.C., the Occidental. The restaurant’s show piece is the signed pictures of famous people that adorn every wall. His security detail finds me quickly and asks to search me and of course, I oblige. They also give my laptop the once over. He joins me in the quiet booth and just looks at me waiting.“Hello Duncan, Thank you for meeting with me.”“I agreed to meet face to face for the first time with my friend, Robert Wittworth. And whom would you be my young friend?”I turn my laptop towards him and show him my voice altering software. He immediately recognizes the voice, but is very skeptical. So, I remind him of something that we said in private about five years ago.“But you can not be Wittworth. I’ve talked to him for fifteen years and you are barely out of your teens. What’s going on here, son?”“Duncan, my old friend, I have a story to tell you and its going to take some time for you to understand and believe what I am about to say. Let’s order some food.”We take our time. He is a patient man and listens politely as I explain. Once I have the story laid out, I get John and Mary Jo on line and tell them to take over and I am going to go for a walk outside for a few minutes. He knows them personally and has great respect for them. It is a pleasant evening and I walk by the White House across the street.September 15th, 1945 Washington D.C.President Truman is throwing a black tie affair at the white House and I am attending as Wallace Pittman, President of Western Arms. My car enters the queue of cars entering by the front gate. As Pittman, I am about 60 years old and am accompanied by my Secretary, Maud McAllister. She is 56 and is thrilled to be attending. I know she will act exactly as I hope, an attractive, handsome woman who still can demand the attention she always has. I need the cover to avoid attention. I usually shun these affairs, but the President insisted I attend.We finally reach the front of the line and our doors are opened and we are greeted by some very rough looking fellows. They check my invitation and prepare for the security search. Fortunately, Henry Stimson, the Secretary of War, was outside smoking and saw me. He intervened and we are escorted by him personally into the Ballroom.I see a friend, Robert Oppenheimer, and head straight for him. He is by himself as usual and greets me warmly. He is clearly uncomfortable and is glad to be with a friend. We make small talk and Maud is bored and asks to go to the ladies room.When Oppenheimer and I are alone, he asks, “So, what are you going to do now that the war is over?” He is asking because he knows I make guns for the army and my orders will quickly shrink.I reply, “It will be business as usual for me. The army wants a new sidearm and they want a million for the first order. I will be just fine. How about you?”He lowers his voice and almost whispers to me, “The President is forming the United States Atomic Energy Commission and wants me to head it up. Should I accept it?”I think about it for a minute and answer, “Hell yes. It would give you the platform to set the rules for your new bomb’s use. You could guide the policies that will govern the weapon for decades. You could fix the things that are bothering you most.”He has shared with me several times about the guilt he has for the deaths of so many. He takes another sip of champagne and says, “You are right, of course. It all just scares me. I sometimes forget the practical uses for the theories we come up with. Everyone wants to turn everything into a weapon. The energy could be used to provide electricity cheaply and safely.”I put my arm around him and whisper, “Please try, but be ready for behind the scenes opposition from the oil and gas folks. It won’t be easy, but I will back you up all the way. Although I am afraid it will be for naught.”He looks defeated already and warmly says, “Thank you Wallace.”I dance a couple of dances with Maud and regale her with tales about the people in the room. She loves the dirt on these pillars of society and government. In the middle of a dance, an aide taps me on the shoulder and asks to dance with Maud. He is quite young and handsome and she immediately begins to flirt with him. He whispers to me that the President would like a word in private. Another young man escorts me to the Oval Office where President Truman is waiting.He greets me, “Ah, Wallace, please come in and have a seat.” We sit down across from each other and he begins, “I have something for you.” He reaches into his inside coat pocket and pulls out a small velvet box and hands it to me and recites this speech, “On behalf of a grateful nation, I would like to present you with the highest civilian honor our country has, the Medal of Freedom.”He stands and shakes my hand officially. “I created this award with you in mind. It will go to several others, but you get the first one. Of course, this is all classified Top Secret. Please tuck it away in a drawer and take a peek every few years.”We both laugh and I say, “Sir, I am honored.” We chat for a minute and I warn him that the Soviets will be a problem now that Stalin has gotten his way on almost everything he wanted. And when they get the bomb, it will be a very challenging balancing act to keep the world at peace. I get the distinct feeling that he doesn’t care about that right now and I take my leave. I gather up Maud, who is getting kind of drunk and we leave the estate. I have the driver stop and let me off outside the gate. I want to see who is hanging around the Willard.Today Washington D.C.I rejoin the Secretary. He looks at me very closely for a long moment, laughs a real gut laugh and accepts the offer immediately, but asks to be a rover and not stationed in the Empire State Building. I defer to John who is still online. He confers with Gunther for a second and agrees to the terms.Then he wants to get down to business and we talk for hours about the past and the future. Somewhere in there he truly realizes the possibilities with the resources I am putting at his disposal and becomes quite giddy as he is thinking of things he wants to “set right.”Just for fun, I walk him around the restaurant and show him my picture in several places. I am in several group photos, but the one he gets the biggest kick out of is the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. I am in the line in a derby and duster on the far right. The evening ends and I leave a very, very excited man who is making notes on napkins as fast as he can write. I can’t wait to read the report that I know will follow.Duncan resigns his post as Secretary of State the next morning and joins us in our offices for the next few important days. He is a man of action and intelligence. It only took him twenty-eight hours from when I told him about my immortality, Michael, my team, and anything else he has asked about to acting like one of us as a partner and not a new-bee.Michael finally calls and lets me know to gather my friends together.Door #3 (And I Thought There Was Only Two)When we are gathered, I try to make it a party. We meet in what is now mine and Angela’s place and she plays hostess with food and drink until Michael arrives. Talk is light with the uncertainty about my future. It is clear that everyone cares for me greatly. And I love them all just as much. We have talked through what might be in store for me and I’ve concluded that it is time for me to move on. Where?, I have no idea. God has a plan and I am ready to follow it. I am sad to believe I will be leaving my new wife and old friends, but happy that I am now assured of being in God’s good graces. My work here will continue with these fine people.Security notifies us that Michael has arrived and is on the way up and he has a companion as well. When they come in, I recognize him as one of the First Language Men, the one I saw in Israel. I offer them chairs but they decline as Michael says he thinks this will be a very short visit. The other man has changed from my first encounter at the restaurant with him and is all smiles now. I am standing facing Michael and I notice that all my friends have stood and have made a half circle to my sides and behind me. When we are all prepared, Michael introduces his friend, “This is Gabriel, God’s Voice.” We listen as shaking hands seems inappropriate at this time.Gabriel speaks for the first time, “God has decided to give you a new name. Through His blessing and your work in His name, you are changed and so should your name. You are no longer Raguel; you are Man’s Champion, Brason Torr in our language.”I stand tall and prepare myself for my imminent departure. I am ready to go home.But, that is not what God has planned.“Your life of immortality is over. You will age, die and then join our Lord. Your work here is not finished. The world needs you more than ever. It will not be easy. We will return if you need us and God will always be watching and helping as He always has. Well done, good and faithful servant. Carry on.” Gabriel and Michael touch my shoulders and I am changed.The End ................
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