The Forgiven The Fallen The Forsaken (37 page)

They hadn't
dressed for an evening on the town so both of them wore what had become their
uniform: black cargo pants, boots, and had their pistols in tactical leg
holsters.  Julie was a bit embarrassed but not only did the Mayor insist that
they keep them in place, but he asked that they pose for pictures with him and
his wife.

Before they
knew it, they were doing interviews for the local radio and television news
about their new nonprofit companies.  They were careful to point out that there
would be for profit companies as well, but most would be non-profit.

 There wasn't
any point in fighting it, so they had camera crews following them around the
city.  By the time they made it to a gala dinner thrown together by the mayor's
office, the Board of Supervisors had approved a long term lease of a city owned
wharf with warehouses to the Kunoichi Import and Export Company. When Julie
pointed out that there wasn't such a company, the mayor said, "Until
now," and had an assistant bring over the paperwork for them to
incorporate in California with headquarters in San Francisco. 

Helen took the
forms and said to Julie, "I think we've been claimed by a new
hometown."

The two of them
walked up to the podium.  Helen said, "Thank you Mayor Bailey.  We would
be delighted have our corporate headquarters in this amazing city."   The
applause was deafening. 

The rest of the
evening was spent meeting people and talking about business opportunities.  When
the Mayor made it back over to them, Helen said, "I hope you have some
suggestions as to personnel."

He smiled and
said, "As a matter of fact…"

OCTOBER 10
^th

Julie and Helen
woke up early in their hotel room.  As they had done in other cities, they
purchased a hotel near their business properties and kept the current
management and staff of the hotel.  The hotel was only a few blocks from the
wharfs, and they paid dearly for that. They would keep the hotel running and
would use it for their employees as needed. 

The day before,
they rented space in one of the downtown skyscrapers for their corporate
headquarters of all things Kunoichi and hired staff to run it.  It seemed
insane, but the size of the growing businesses required it.  Their businesses
couldn't begin to touch demand, but there wasn't really anything to be done
about it. 

When Helen
checked the corporate accounts, she was shocked to see that the loans that had
come through were not only many times what they had requested but were at no
interest with payments delayed for the first five years. 

Helen called
Aunt Susan immediately.  Susan said, "We saw you on TV.  You two are
amazing!  I twisted some arms and got more money for you.  There's enough in
your import company accounts to buy some ships, so get to it.  And if you don't
succeed, I'm going to take the two of you and break your knees.  Got it?"

"Got
it."

"Now get
yourself some decent security before some kook puts a bullet in you.  Love you
two."

"Love you
too, Aunt Susan."

Helen sat down
as she hung up the phone.

Julie asked,
"So what's the word?"

"We're
working for the mob."

Julie smiled. 
"Let me guess, Aunt Susan manipulated things and put in insane amounts of
money into our companies and now she's explaining what will happen to us if we
don't succeed?"

Helen said,
"She's a monster!"

Julie laughed. 
"But she's our monster.  Let's get moving."

"Oh, and
she said to get some bodyguards."

"She's
right about that, much as I hate to lose the privacy."

"We need
to secure our home too.  I don't even want to think about what we have sitting
there, unprotected."

After a moment,
Helen said, "You know we have to move here."

"I like
it, but I don't know how I feel about that."

"Relax,
Julie, it'll be just one of our homes."

"All of
this just seems so insane."

"If it
makes you feel any better, we're going to earn every penny then give most of it
away."

"Glad to
hear it."

"Alright,
let's get down to San Jose to kick start Silicon Valley."

KINGMAN, AZ

OCTOBER 11
^th

Luke, Jamie,
Ron, and Skeeter each brought a truckload of supplies in to the Solar Panel
factory.  Deepak was thrilled to see them, almost dragging them in to see the
first panels produced on the new assembly line. 

The factory was
full of workers cheering at the accomplishment.  Luke said, "You've worked
a miracle getting things up and running so soon.  Incredible."  The
workers heard this and cheered twice as loud.  Luke was surprised by it for a
moment.  I don't think I'll ever get used to this, he thought. 

He and Jamie
walked around the factory meeting everyone, then stayed around for the rest of
the shift and learned some of the systems.  They enjoyed the work, though Luke
was sure he would get good and sick of it after a while. 

That evening
they went to dinner with Deepak and talked about old times.

Deepak said to
Luke, "Your sister and Helen are doing something very special.  These
companies will take a year off the reboot time for American industries."

Luke nodded and
said, "I hope so.  Is there anything else you need here?"

"Not yet,
but I'll have Matt send some things next week."

After dinner,
they dropped the semi trailers and traded them out for empties and drove up to
Winslow to pick up produce.

Luke and Jamie
had the farm hands load the trailers and paid the farmers in cash.  As always,
they took the time to meet all of the workers as well as the farm owners.  
Luke didn't think he would ever get used to the celebrity treatment.

By midnight
they were in Phoenix, having their trailers unloaded at a Kunoichi distribution
center.  All four of them were thrilled to crash at the hotel around the
corner.  In the morning they would pick up more loads and would head to the
next delivery point.

They were
tired, but it was good to be back in the game.

PACIFIC OCEAN

OCTOBER 12
^th

Kemp lost the
mast two days before and was adrift.  At least the ocean is calm and the fish
are biting every so often. 

He knew he'd
die out here with the next storm if something didn't change but there wasn't a
lot to be done about it.  He cast his line out again and hoped for the best. 
This was definitely not ideal.  He put the rod in the rod holder he'd jury
rigged and went aft for some water.

He stopped
short, seeing a white speck on the horizon.  He grabbed up the binoculars, and
looked through them.  It was a yacht.  "Thank God," he said, as he
started the small engine and steered towards it. 

As he got
closer he noticed that there was a yellow quarantine flag flying and the craft
appeared to be adrift.  He pulled alongside, tied his craft to the back of the
ship, and climbed the ladder to board the ship.  Once aboard he moved fast and
quietly, looking for survivors. 

He only found
one body in a small cabin.  It looked like the person had been dead for months.
There was a note describing the experience of people getting ill and dying one
by one.  They would throw the dead overboard, until there was only one woman
left.

Kemp wrapped
the body in a sheet and threw her over board to join her lost companions.  He
closed up the cabin.  It would never be usable for habitation.

The ship was 62
feet and, according to the log, had left Portland in January.  The owner was
one Frank Edwards who owned a software company and apparently an ego the size
of an aircraft carrier.  Kemp looked at the pictures in the ship and determined
he could pass as a thin Edwards if he matched the beard and hairstyle. That was
good.  He would find the passport and ID later, but for now he wanted to check
out the ships systems. 

The engines
wouldn't start, but there was power in the batteries, so the solar rechargers
were working.   That was encouraging, at least.  There was fresh water and a
larger desalination system that was working.  The freezer was full of rotten
meat.  He could deal with that later, but the most important thing was that the
pantry was half full.  He could last for months with that.

He'd seen
enough.  It took just a few minutes to pull his gear and everything useful off
the sailboat and cut it loose.  He took great pleasure in shooting holes in the
bottom of the hull and watching the sailboat gradually disappear beneath the
waves.

The rest of the
day was spent working to get the engines started.  He was able to start one of
the generators and used it to recharge the rest of the ship's batteries. 

The real problem
would be the intakes for the water to cool the engines.  Kemp was relieved to
find scuba equipment and wet suits.  He spent a couple of hours with a crow bar
finding and clearing the water intakes and propellers of barnacles. 

It took most of
the day, but he did get the dual diesel engines running.  He ran them on low
power on autopilot for the next few hours while he worked on a bottle of
whiskey from the bar and ate canned vegetables from the pantry. 

He checked his
position on the GPS.  Thank God that's working, he thought. He was far out in
the Pacific with enough fuel to make it to California or Mexico, but South
America wasn't going to happen without a refueling stop.  He needed a plan. 

He emptied out
the refrigerators while he thought, stocking them with beer, juices, and soft
drinks afterward.  For the freezer, he put on a diving mask and breathed from a
scuba tank rather than risk being completely overwhelmed with the odor.  He
quickly emptied it all out, throwing everything overboard.  It wasn't a task he
ever wanted to do again. 

After he
finished there, he took a quick shower for the first time in what felt like
months.  Afterwards, he threw on one of Frank Edward's robes and went looking
for the man's Passport and ID. 

He found the
safe within five minutes. 
Frank was a schmuck
, he thought.  Cracking
the safe took another ten minutes after which Kemp took out the contents and
dumped them on the bed.  There was the passport and driver's license he
expected and about two hundred thousand dollars.  The rest of the contents were
gold coins and DVD's.

Kemp put a DVD
into the player and was not in the least bit surprised to see that it was Frank's
collection of porno starring Frank, himself. 
What a putz,
he thought
,
though the girls are cute.  Probably professionals.

Kemp checked
all the videos and once he had enough of Frank's mannerisms down tossed them
all overboard.

Examining the
passport photo, he went to work on his appearance.  By the time he finished, he
thought he could pull it off as long as no one looked too closely.  He bagged most
of the cash, coins, and ID and stashed them in the engine room.  From there, he
went to work on the rest of the cabins.  He collected the personal things of
all of the passengers and crew and tossed them overboard, keeping only the
passports and cash.

By the time he
finished, he had a plan.  He would become Frank Edwards, an eccentric software
designer who could no longer deal with people.  Where Frank lived in Portland,
new Frank would live in Southern California for now.  Kemp would gather his
caches and would work to develop a plan to get to Brazil and live a long and
comfortable life with an obscene amount of wealth. 

In the morning
he would set course for Catalina Island and get the hell out of this miserable
ocean.  Tonight he would get drunk and sleep in a real bed.

ARIZONA HOUSE

OCTOBER 15
^th

Julie was happy
to wake up in her own home.  Helen was already up making coffee and the kitchen
smelled wonderful. 

Their four
person security team was staying in a pair of motor homes for the time being,
but they had arranged to build two more buildings on the property to
accommodate the staff.

The two semi
trailers full of loot had been moved to one of their commercial properties
where the gold was now in an underground vault that they took great pains to
keep secret on a property that was essentially guarded by a swat team.  That
was a huge relief for both of them.

Julie saw that Mike
Frazzetta and Helen were at the breakfast table already.  He saw Helen coming
in her pajamas and morning hair and said, "Good morning, sleepy head,"
in his thick Boston accent.

Julie answered,
"Morning, Boston.  Just don't make me think before I have my coffee and
we'll do okay."

"Mike drove
in early.  I've been showing him what we need done and he's still thinking
about it," said Helen.

"It's just
that you would do better with a ranch style house here with a deep basement,
then another hangar over there.  You'll appreciate it come summertime, believe
you me."

Julie
gratefully sipped her coffee and asked, "So what do you think about the
job, Mike?"

"You're
giving me too much.  I thought you guys were completely nuts and you two saved
my family in spite of it.  Don't deny it.  I know it was you two who had those
trailers full of food delivered to my house, just like it was you who stocked
that warehouse to the roof with food for after the city ran out.

"I would
do anything you ask within my power, but sixty percent ownership of a multi-million
dollar company is huge."

Julie said,
"The work needs to get done.  We don't have time to do it.  The money we
have is to rebuild the country, not for us to get rich.  We need you and we're
asking for certain things in terms of how you pay and treat the workers.  They
need to work hard, but they need to be treated well.  They need to earn and
spend and live again."