There Must Be A Mistake Ch. 34

Fox News will blast her saying, "How can a mother of four or more children run the state of Maryland effectively. Everyone else will applaud her for being pregnant, and give her a wait and see attitude on running the government of Maryland. We both know she is going to do a fantastic job, and in 6 or 10 years she's going to be ripe to run for the presidency."

"Dad, you are amazing. I never thought of that, and Hannerty will be made to look like a fool."

"That's what fathers are for Robert, to make their sons look great."

"Will the testosterone group be more in tune with the day's events, because they are supposed to be about me? I'm getting married, which should be enough to shock all of you, but Monday, Anna becomes the richest member of the family."

Anna did her Rocky impression and told Robert to be careful, because she could now crush him under the weight of her money.

"I never cared about money, although it is nice to have. I have four beautiful women at my disposal, and believe it or not they all love me. At the beginning, it was just for the sex. Now we all have wonderful personal relationships. I know I'm 20 years younger than they are, but I will never leave them, because they mean so much to me."

Patty said, "When Sandy's eight years of the presidency is over, you better move to Utah. They don't approve of multiple marriages, but they tend to look the other way at them. What are you going to do about the children Robert?"

"I'm going to help raise them as my own mom. I had two great parents, well one great parent, and one flaky one, but I turned out all right, and so did my sisters. I think I can help my ladies raise wonderful children, and get them ready for what the world challenges them to do."

"Stephano, am I wrong, or did that sound like our son is growing up?"

"Our son must have figured out a way to send us his clone. Robert would never have said words like 'raise them as my own,' or 'my ladies' in a cogent paragraph. He would have run away from responsibility for children, and told the women exactly where to go, because they were so old."

"Okay, you two win. I can tell you why I've changed so radically and so quickly. I've been sitting at the right hand of Judge Hastings. When the Chief Justice talks to you, on a one to one basis, and it's not about the law, you learn things about life, and living on the edge very quickly. He is an amazing man, and he can talk to you about anything from the beginning of written language, to what we are about to see today, with ease and precision. There are things he told me I can never repeat, not even on my deathbed. He took four ordinary students, and made them into doctors, and lawyers. Now one of them is the governor of Maryland. I could tell you the tricks he pulled to make Clark Atwater president, but it would take all day, and today is Laura day, so we will discuss that at a later time. I've never said this before Laura, I have always envied your brilliance, and I love you."

Robert and Laura were always standoffish as children, and remained that way as they grew into adults. Today that vanished as they closed the gap between them, hugged each other, and tears flowed down their faces.

Laura punched him in the stomach, so hard, Robert doubled over. "You bastard, we could have been friends all these years, instead of adversaries."

Robert laughed. "Yes, but look at all the fun we would have missed."

"You know both Anna and I could take you apart if we wanted to?"

"I couldn't take you, but I could take the shrimp apart anytime I wanted to. All I have to do is take off the shell."

Anna screamed, and jumped at her brother's head. Robert pivoted to his left, caught her under his arm, and smacked her rump so hard she screamed.

"If you don't stop acting like a child, I'll drop your drawers and smack you on your bare ass Anna."

Not to be outdone, Anna joined her hands together to make a fist and brought them down viciously to the back of Robert's left knee. He grunted as his knee collapsed, and he fell to the ground, releasing his sister in the process.

Anna bounced up and jumped on Roberts' back as he was tending to his knee. She wrapped her legs around his midsection, and her arms around his throat.

He said, "Sis if you don't release me, I'm going to stand up and fall backwards. I outweigh you by 90 pounds, and guess who is going to get severely injured when we hit the ground."

"Enough you two, we have a gym in the main building, and if you wish to continue this nonsense, you can do it tomorrow. There is a good hospital nearby that will be able to take care of your broken bones. Kiss and make up, before I knock your heads together."

"Dad, you've never acted this forceful before."

"Nine years of working with agents that could kill you with one finger, getting shot at from across the street, and your mother threatening to kill me if I kept information from her will do that to you. Now do what I said and stop this shit."

As they kissed, Patty pushed the button on her camera, and didn't take her finger off the button until well after they separated. She was after the look in their eyes, more than the kiss itself. She thought she got what she wanted.

162. Lost and Found

The search was the most meticulous ever done. Any military or police force in the world would have been impressed by the way the crew of the Good Luck 1 took up the challenge to find a bomb that might or might not be in the ship.

Jack, Dycke, and I were on the third floor searching the flight deck, inch by inch. Jack asked me if anyone had checked the inside of the computer.

I believe I knocked him over, when I said, "Ask Callie if anyone tampered with her."

He replied, "Who is Callie?"

"She is our computer. Introduce yourself to her, and she will tell you almost anything you need to know, within your designation on the ship."

"You are shitting me Even?"

"Sit in the center chair, and see for yourself. Tell her a lie first."

"Okay Doctor, you asked for it."

"Callie, this is Doctor Luck, I want you to shut down the nuclear engine."

"Voice verification indicates you are not Doctor Luck. Identify yourself, or I will call security."

"Callie that was a test. My name is Jack Daniels, and I would like to know if anyone tampered with you in the last four days."

"Hello Colonel Daniels, no one has tampered with any of us during that timeframe."

"Let me extend that timeframe. Has anyone placed an explosive device inside you since you were installed?"

"No Colonel Daniels, since our systems were brought online, no attempt has been made to open our access panels. The only areas I cannot verify, are the cables going to my power source."

"Callie, how many access panels are there to the cables?"

"37."

"Would you please print them out for me?"

"Printing."

In an instant, the printing was done.

I said, "Since you built the ship Dycke, you get the extra access panel. It only seems fair."

"You are going to be a pain in the ass until 5 o'clock this afternoon, aren't you Even?"

"You wouldn't have me any other way Dycke."

Jack asked, "Are you two married, because it sure sounds that way?"

"Jack, after six years of working hand in glove, we finish each other's sentences now."

"I don't want either of you standing behind me. You two have me worried."

"You definitely don't want Even standing behind you. You'll think you are mating with an elephant."

"I'm not going to ask you how you obtained that personal information. You stay away from me too."

"Jack you take access panels 1 through 12. I will take 13 to 24, and that leaves you with the rest of them Dycke."

"I knew you would say it that way Even. With your limited education you can't count higher than 24, except maybe in children."

"Go to work, before I take it out, and smack you with it."

Jack said, "That's it, I'm out of here."

**************

'As a matter of pure chance', Gordon was a member of the team that inspected the room containing the supplies for the turkeys. While the three other members searched the room, he searched the bathroom. He checked to make sure that none of the bags containing the food, and sand had been tampered with. He moved each bag silently to make sure the bomb was not hidden by their bulk. When his search was over, he joined the other members of his team to complete the search of the room. The bomb was not found.

On the first floor, Monty wished she had a whip. Scientific engineers were great at what they did, but when it came to searching for something as obvious as a bomb, they had no clue. They would search under desks without moving the chairs out so they had an unobstructed view. They would not empty waste paper baskets to see if the bomb was underneath the waste. They were impossible, and for the first time in a long time, Gordon was not the first person on her list to kill.

Stephen, a nuclear technician, seemed to be the only exception to the rule. He climbed onto the safe area above the nuclear engine confinement area to verifying nothing was there. He was like a snake, crawling into the smallest areas looking for the bomb. She knew he didn't need watching so she kept her eyes focused on the others. As he entered the security office he was again on his stomach looking for the slightest area where a bomb could be placed.

Monty saw him crawl in, shook her head, and walked off.

As soon as Stephen saw her walk away, he lifted the access panel, under the desk, to get to the turkey eggs. One by one he turned them over, and when he was finished with the 24th egg, gently placed the container in the area with the two fake mother turkeys, the sand, straw, water, and food. He flipped on the switch for the heat lamp and set the thermostat at 84°. He turned on the motion detector, because the little birds were supposed to start to emerge from their calcium homes soon. Once that happened, their fake mothers would begin to move also. With the bright lights, their mommies, close at hand, and everything they needed to thrive at their little beaks, they would have all the comforts of home.

When Monty returned, she found him dissecting the file cabinets.

Stephen asked, "Monty do you think we should move this away from the wall to see if there's anything behind it?"

"No Stephen, there would be marks on the floor showing it had been moved previously. I think it's safe to say nobody touched it. Did you find anything else in here?"

"Yes I did." He reached into his pocket and pulled out three dust bunnies, and showed them to her.

"Stephen, if you were not doing such a good job, I'd smack you upside the head. Go back to work."

"Yes ma'am."

He did, searching as meticulously as he did previously. Nearly 2 hours later every floor was completely searched, and the 37 access panels had been checked also. No bomb was found.

I said to Dycke and Jack, "They are going to bring it in using the urns of President Clark and Mrs. Julia Atwater. It's the only other way they can destroy the ship. They know we are placing the urns on the flight deck. If the blast is strong enough, it will destroy the computers, the flight deck, and the primary flight crew. We will lose all flight control options, and crash. How do we stop that Jack? We can't leave the urns behind, it was in there Will."

"If their ashes aren't in the urns, we can leave them behind. All we need is an x-ray machine to see what's inside them."

"Jack, I love you."

"Stay away from me Even."

"Let's go outside, I have to speak to William."

"Why?"

"I'm getting you an x-ray machine. The one in the ship is not ready to be used yet. We will get a portable machine from the hospital."

"I don't think anyone at the hospital will argue with the owner."

"If they want to be working tomorrow, they won't."

*********************

William, Jemma, and Patrick were in with the dignitaries having a wonderful time. Many of them couldn't believe he got Jemma pregnant, and asked who the real father was.

Jemma laughed at them. "Hell, I want to know who the mother is."

Everyone had a good laugh, and they talked about what a wonderful day they were having, and it was the perfect Christmas present for everyone to be here to watch the Good Luck 1 travel into deep space.

I walked up behind William, but could not sneak up on him, because everyone gave me a way.

"Here comes Doctor Luck," they said before I got there, so William turned to greet me. We hugged each other, and I wished him a Merry Christmas.

I said to him quietly, "I need a Christmas present now. I need a portable x-ray machine, and a way to process the film instantly. We believe someone is going to try to put a bomb on board using the urns of the president and his wife."

"Will this ever stop Even?"

"No William, it won't. We are threatening too many big businesses of their livelihood. If they can't feed off the government, who are they going to feed off of? What they don't realize is what we have realized. Space is not a losing proposition. Space is a winner. Space is the future. How long did it take you to recoup your investment in this project? They don't realize they could do it too. They are afraid of you and people that think 50 to 100 years ahead. Their business models think 10 maybe 15 years ahead. They are dinosaurs waiting to die."

"Are you sure you have to leave today? You sure know how to make an old man feel good about himself."

"There is nothing wrong with your ego William. Have you met your daughter-in-law yet?"

"Yes, I saw my son laying between her thighs, but that was all?"

"She is wonderful. She is Jemma in the flesh. Bright, beautiful, and will give William the strength he needs to go forward with his dreams. He is going to complete your dreams. You have a great son, and when Patrick comes of age, he will make you very proud also."

"Where are they now?"

"I left them with my daughter, Teddy, Newton, and Gray. Teddy told Gwen she has a small tumor behind her right eye and she has to go to Anderson to have it removed. Gwen told everyone she just had a physical and everything was fine. Delicious told her if Teddy says it's there, it's there, and get it taken care of now.

Junior called Anderson, spoke to the assistant administrator, and told him who and when he wanted Gwen to have the x-rays done.

The guy told him to go to hell, because it wasn't happening.

Junior doesn't have your tact down quite yet, but he's getting there. He told the guy it was a real shame that the hospital was going to lose a $5 million donation. Gwen has an appointment at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning."

William senior said, "That's my boy."

"Oh I forgot to tell you, he didn't answer the guy, he just hung up. He's got that part down perfectly."

"The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree."

"Would you please get me my x-ray machine now?"

William punched the number into his cell phone, and told whoever answered it what he wanted in no uncertain terms and hung up. He called the police department, and told whoever he spoke to that the hospital had to deliver a piece of equipment to the NEST urgently. He didn't care what it cost, but they needed an escort now.

William shocked me when he said, "Thank you."

Junior walked into the area pulling Gwen with him.

I said goodbye, because this was going to be a family affair.

Senior turned to greet his future daughter-in-law, but Jemma pushed him out of the way.

Junior was getting ready to introduce Gwen to his mother when Jemma pushed him into a seat, kissed Gwen and hugged her so tight she nearly crushed her bones.

She took both of Gwen's hands and said, "Ravishing, just ravishing. We have so much to talk about. I never thought my son would get married, he was always afraid of strong women, I can't imagine why. His father runs all over me and I never complain. I'm sure you already know you're going to be living in South Carolina, but your wedding is going to be in New York. Your wedding dress is going to be made by Carolina Herrera, and will be to talk of the next century. We are sorry about your parents, it must've been very hard for you to lose both of them at one time. Are you a religious? Teddy didn't tell us if you were or not. Regardless, we can accommodate you in any manner you wish. We know your aunt is leaving today, but do you have a large extended family that you would like to it attend your wedding? We will arrange everything, and it will cost them nothing. They will be treated to the finest of everything: limousines, hotels, meals, plays, everything, they will be treated the whole New York experience."

"Mom would you shut up and let Gwen speak?"

"William if you talk to me like that one more time you will attend your wedding with casts on your legs. Now, where was I..."

As she began speaking a handkerchief was stuffed into her mouth, and both of her hands were grabbed. A scarf was put over her mouth and tied behind her head. Another scarf was used to bind her wrists behind her back. Once she was secured she was forced to sit in a chair. She was absolutely livid, and looked for the culprit, who she knew was her husband. She stared at him with her eyes on fire, which normally made agents run from her. William senior stood his ground and glared back at her.

"Jemma you have two choices, you can sit there and act like a lady, or I can have our agents take you home and tie you in bed until I return later this evening. You have no other options. You disgraced yourself just now. You are not queen of this ball, you are a pawn. You never tell a bride what she is going to do, you ask her what she would like, and then you accommodate her. Using Carolina is fine, but if you tell Gwen what fabrics to use, you will be barred from her salon. This is going to be Gwen's wedding, not yours. She will make the rules, not you. You will not set the date of the wedding, or the place of their honeymoon. All you can do is ask. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

Jemma did not acknowledge him or his rules.

"You have five seconds to say yes or be sent home 5-4-3-2-"

Jemma acquiesced and nodded her head.

"I know that gag is probably very uncomfortable. If you promise not to say one word, I will have it removed. I mean one word Jemma. If you break your promise, you go home. Yes or no?"

She nodded her head again.

Isaac was standing behind her, and whispered into her ear, "Mrs. Zabo, I'm right behind you. If you break your promise, I will gag you again and drive you home."

Jemma was getting tired of nodding her head, but she did.

Isaac removed the scarf around her head, and the handkerchief from her mouth. Her hands were still bound behind her, but it was the use of her mouth she missed the most. Her husband would pay dearly when they got home this evening. She sat in the chair like a prim and proper wife, and she hated it.

Young William took a position by Gwen's side. "Dad, I'd like you to meet Gwendolyn Thornhill, very soon to be my wife if she'll have me. Gwen, I'd like you to meet my father, William Anthony Zabo, the patriarch of our family."

"Hello Gwen, I've been waiting to meet you ever since Teddy told us you were coming into our lives."

"Hello Mister Zabo, it's a pleasure to meet you. All William talks about is your wife and you. Honestly, I was expecting an outburst like that from your wife. William warned me that she was a powder keg waiting to be lit by a match, and I was the match. He was correct. I am quite like her when I get going on a particular subject. If I think I am correct, and I have a point I want heard, no one is going to keep me quiet."

Young William groaned, "Oh God no, I'm marrying mom."

Senior laughed at him. "How many times have you said since you returned home that you wanted to marry a woman just like your mother? It appears your wish has been granted."