Author's notes:

This is the continuation of A Long Time from Home and if you haven't read that, I advise you to do so. The series is self-edited, so any mistakes are mine, though I now have a proofreader, that can catch missing words ect. Thanks to Jessejames932006 for doing that.

Some of the chapters will take place in the ancient past and while I have done a lot of research for that, there might be small errors here and there. If you think you found such an error in the story, please double check to be sure that you're correct and then PM me about it, so I can fix it. :)

Due to its length, I placed ALTFH under the 'Novels and Novellas' section, but as you can see, ALTFH II is placed in the 'Sci-fi and Fantasy' section, which fits it better due to the elements of magic that's in it. At least in my opinion :)

Have fun and while you're at it, please rate the chapter and leave a comment :)

I have stated that I would upload chapters of 'Into the Chaos' (my Star Wars: The Old Republic story) every other time and that is still the case.

About the notation:

Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"

Some warnings:

This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

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7 -- Documentation

September 2000, Vasa Estate, Oldenburg Island

One major pain of living in the modern age was the rules about passports, citizenship, and documentation of all kinds. Curtis' story about Ivan Kolba coming from Croatia turned out to be a good one. It really was as untraceable as Julian had said and it gave me a good explanation of why I didn't have any family, except for the late Parker, or Giles Oldershaw as he was known as in this part of the world. However, according to Angela Scott, the head of the legal office, having a Croatian citizenship was a bad idea, as I would have to pay all kinds of taxes there, even if I didn't live in the country.

So, Angela Scott and Giles Cornell had used their connections along with some money and when we returned from Costa Rica, I had a completely legal citizenship on Oldenburg Island under the name Ivan Emilian, legally dropping the Kolba name. For legal purposes, they had also arranged citizenship on the small island nation St. Kitts and Nevis, making it look like I had renounced my Croatian Citizenship.

None of the Islands had personal tax of any kind, but the island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis was a member of the British Commonwealth and having a passport from that country gave visa-free access to about half the world. When that part of my papers was in order, I had started to think about what other documentation I wanted or needed and how to get them.

On top of my list was a degree in Ancient History and perhaps even some languages. All of them were skills I already had, but needed documentation for, before I could refer to them in this modern age, and I quickly discovered that getting them for real would take years.

It was Esther who came up with a brilliant solution: According to the background story for Ivan Kolba, I came from the city of Vukovar in Croatia that had been heavily damaged in the Croatian War of Independence. That enabled me to claim that all my papers had been destroyed and since I wasn't trying to fake anything, but to get documentation on my skills and knowledge, there was a chance some of the universities would let me take an exam without the need for actual classes.

Especially since Starlight Merchant Group owned the University on Oldenburg Island and I had the means to pay them for their troubles.

The first hurdle had been yet another documentation challenge, as I needed to prove that I had the skills to be accepted into the university, before I could set the rest of the plan in motion.

Fortunately, the International School on Oldenburg Island was used to giving tests to people from other countries to see if they fulfilled the requirements, and since being admitted into a university was dependent upon a total score of tests, I simply took some exams that I knew I could handle, which meant maths, ancient history and languages.

So, I took exams in Pre-calculus Mathematics and Classical Studies, and then simply filled in languages until I had enough points to be accepted into the university. With the exception of Mathematics, I didn't get top grades in any of it, since the grammatical part was somewhat lacking, but at least I passed, getting documentation on seven languages: Classical Greek, Spanish, English, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Arabic, and Dutch.

That by itself created another problem, as it was nearly unheard of, that people knew that many languages. I had been somewhat at loss of how to explain it, but Riya came to my rescue with a medical explanation.

According to her, there was something called savant syndrome, which was people with an exceptional memory, combined with brilliance in arithmetic, art, musical abilities and-or spatial skills. It was rare and most people with savant syndrome suffered from autism or brain damage, but some didn't, enabling me to use it as an explanation. Especially since most savants could learn languages at exceptional speed as languages are based on memory and patterns.

Leaning back in the seat, I looked at the screen of the laptop in front of me and re-read a section in the Dissertation for my Ancient History degree I was writing. It wasn't quite right, but it was as good as it was going to get at the moment, and I needed a break to clear my head.

Closing down the program I was writing in, I discovered I had an email from Giles Cornell, the Chief Security Officer of Starlight Merchant Group. After becoming the Chairman of Starlight Merchant Group, I had asked him to assign someone to keep an eye on the three Interpol Agents I had encountered in Malaga, as well as to collect as much information on them as possible. Not only did I need to know more about these Mentat Police officers, but as my paper-trail of exams and documentation grew, I wanted to see if they reacted in some way.

So far nothing had happened, and this was the first time I had received an email from him. Not that it was unusual. Despite using the top-notch encryption equipment produced by Starlight Defense, Giles Cornell mistrusted electronic communication and rarely used it, preferring to meet face to face.

Curious, I opened the email and skimmed the content, before I laughed. Apparently, Hector Zavala and Myra Honeycutt had fallen in love during their stay in Malaga and were getting married. That wasn't the reason for my amusement, though. The funny part was they had booked a honeymoon on one of Asian Dreams hotels in the island nation of the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. The world really was a strange place, filled with weird coincidences.

Still chuckling, I sent a mail to Jeremy Collins, the CEO of Asian Dreams, asking him to give the newlywed couple extra good treatment and a discount, without being obvious about it.

Feeling good, I closed the computer. It was time for a break.

Still smiling to myself about the coincidence, I went to the kitchen to get some orange juice and then walked into the media room, where Delina was laying on one of the sofa's, watching a movie.

"What?" I said with mock surprise and looked around. "All alone?"

"Yeah." The beautiful Gambian answered with a smile and took a soda from the table. "Riya is attending a medical course at the university, Esther and Ayanna went to shop for something for the wedding, and Petra went along as their driver." She drank from the glass. "I'm enjoying the peace."

"Nice." I sat down on the other sofa. "What're you watching?"

"Some of Petra's sci-fi movies, since they were the only ones we have." She smiled. "I've just finished the Matrix and it was quite good. At least the action is." She stretched lazily, causing a sudden spike of lust in me as I watched the cat-like motion press her well-formed breasts against the thin material of her shirt. Then she looked at me. "How's your work progressing?"

"Almost done, but I need a break, before re-reading it again."

That was received with a small laugh. "You don't need a break, Ivan, you need a vacation. You've been working, studying, and training every day since we arrived here."

"That might be true and I'm getting there, but first I need to finish this dissertation. Then I can take a few days off and relax a bit." I drank some of the juice and nodded in the direction of the TV. "What have you planned to see next?"

"Oh... Petra recommended a Star Wars movie called The Phantom Menace." Delina said as she rose from the sofa and walked over to change the movie, while I admired her ass. The enticing sight of a beautiful woman standing bent over, with her shapely legs lightly spread was immensely sexy and my body responded immediately by giving me an erection.

She must have felt me looking, because as she bent over, she shook her ass a little and looked back at me with a smile. "We could wait with the movie."

Making a decision, I quickly rose from the sofa and was behind her in two long steps. Normally I really like foreplay, but this was one of the times I was willing to forgo it and as she started to stand up, I took hold of her ponytail. "Stay there."

She did as I said and was silent, as I lifted her skirt over her hips and pulled her panties down.

My fingers found her shaved pussy almost all by themselves. She must have been thinking about sex because her lower lips were slick with her juices. She shivered and moaned, as I slowly inserted a couple of fingers in her, making them wet as well.

For a moment, I just kept them there, enjoying the feeling of her wet tightness around my fingers, before I started moving my fingers ever so slowly in small circular movements. Delina shivered and moaned but kept her position.

Satisfied, I removed the hand and pulled down my shorts, allowing my now painfully hard cock to spring free. I spread her juices over my dick and guided it into her.

She felt wonderfully warm, tight, and wet as I slowly worked my way into her, as she moaned. "Oh damn, that feels good."

Pulling on her ponytail made her raise her upper body and with the other hand, I reached around her body to find her breasts, rotating my palm on her stiff nipple.

Delina took hold of the cabinet in front of her to maintain her balance, moaning with pleasure as I slowly slid my dick in and out of her slick pussy, while playing with her tits.

I moved my hand down her trim stomach to the finely trimmed pussy hair and began softly stroking her clitoris. The first touch almost made her jump, but the fast motion only served to impale her more on my dick. Tossing her head back, she groaned again.

I started to fuck her slowly, with long deep thrusts, while my fingers played with her clitoris.

The shivering in her body increased gradually, along with the moaning, and her grip on the cabinet tightened.

Pulling back a little bit, I fucked her with just the head for a dozen or so quicker strokes and then, with a firm grip on her ponytail, slammed my cock all the way to the bottom.

Delina gave off a soft scream and every muscle in her body went rigid. Her pussy contracted and then pulsed as waves of orgasm ripped through her body.

I moved my hand from her clitoris, took a firm grip on her tit and continued to fuck her through her orgasms, alternating my thrusts, so every move became a new sensation.

Her legs shivered, and I tightened my grip on her to hold her up.

"Oh....Oh...Oh shit... Oh fuck." She panted, eagerly pushing her ass back against me each time I went deep. "So good!"

Changing tactics again, I just slammed my dick into her in long hard thrusts, the force rocking her body each time.

Delina screamed as she came again and this time, it wasn't a soft scream. Her pussy clamped down on me, with spasms massaging the shaft and head. It felt wonderful and instead of stopping, I just relaxed the pace a lot and fucked her slowly, luxuriating in the feeling of sliding in and out of her wet pussy, her hard nipples against the palm of my hand and the sight of her beautiful brown body shivering with pleasure.

Releasing the soft breast and ponytail, I let my hands glide over her silky skin, caressing her as they went, until I reached her hips.

Her cooing sounds of pleasure from the caresses turned into a yelp as I took a good hold of them and thrust as far into her as I could.

Then I smacked her ass. "Move that beautiful ass, darling."

Using the cabinet to anchor her movements, Delina started wriggling her ass as she grinded from side to side and forward and backwards on my cock. The sensation was heavenly and for a moment I wondered, why I hadn't asked that of her before, but the thought evaporated as she continued to massage and milk my cock with her pussy.

Lowering her upper body and head, she started going faster, muttering "Oh... oh... oh..." with each thrust and wiggle.

I could feel my own orgasm coming closer and for once, I did nothing to stop it.

Delina must have felt me tensing, because she went even faster, slamming her firm ass into me.

"You're going to make me come." I moaned.

The only response I got was a deep whimper as she kept on working her magic.

It didn't take long before I came in her with a groan, which in turn triggered her orgasm and I felt her pussy clench and squeeze me as she climaxed with a scream, her legs and arms shaking while she panted for breath as she slowly decreased her pace until she stood, shaking all over.

I caressed her again, enjoying her pussy spasms as she clenched my cock over and over.

When her orgasm had faded completely, I gave her a hug from behind and dragged her along as I let myself fall into the sofa.

For a while, we just lay there, enjoying the feeling, but then she turned her head and gave me a kiss as she softly laughed. "So... Star Wars?"

Laughing, I agreed.

------------------------

The movie proved to be a mixed experience. The visuals were stunning, but the plot wasn't all that good and some of the acting was downright bad.

The worst part for me was the description of The Force. Obviously inspired by Vis or Chi, the Jedi and Sith had many of the powers connected with Vis users and somebody had clearly been through a lot of Asian mythology in their research. However, the description of Vis Vitae users (Jedi) as emotion- and passionless people, with Vis Mortem users (Sith) being their polar opposite was just plain wrong.

In reality, Vis Vitae is generated from positive emotions and life, while Vis Mortem is generated by negative emotions and death. They also talked about 'being seduced to the dark side' and while they were correct in their assessment about Vis Mortem being more easily generated than Vis Vitae, a user of positive Vis couldn't suddenly start to use negative energy. Being opposites forces, you might as well try to fuel a car-engine with water. Or to be more precise, to fuel a petrol engine with diesel. Both were fuels, but the engines using them were, at least to my knowledge, vastly different.

In all fairness to whoever wrote it, it was never stated that the Force was the same as Vis, giving the writer some artistic freedom, but it still bothered me.

A poke in my side, followed by Delina whispering "You're irritated.", brought me out of my thoughts and I discovered that the end credits were rolling on the screen.

"A little." I admitted and stretched. "There're so many things wrong with that explanation about The Force."

Delina laughed softly. "Well, it does seem somewhat different from what you have explained about Vis, but it's a movie, not a documentary." She winked at me. "I think you suffer from weapon envy!"

I did a quick search of my memory for the word, but 'weapon envy' didn't show up. At least not in any meaningful context. "What is that?"

Now she was grinning. "I think you're irritated because they have lightsabers and you don't."

For a moment, I was silent as I did a quick mental search to see if there was anybody around, but besides Delina and I, the place was empty, and nobody could see in from the outside. I shouldn't be showing off, but it was too tempting.

Slipping into Vis Meditation, I held out my right hand and activated a power called Vigor Gladius (Baylon: 'Energy Sword'). A moment later sparks started to form around my hand and then a glowing sword made of light blue concentrated Vis appeared. Though it didn't hum like the Star Wars weapon, it still looked a lot like a lightsaber. "Oh... you mean something like this?"

"Holy shit!" Delina exclaimed as she looked at the 'Vigor Gladius'.

Smiling slightly, I moved the blade slightly, watching her eyes follow the glowing blade.

Developed in a time when magic still worked, the Vigor Gladius was a back-up weapon with one major advantage: It could deflect a mage's elemental bolt attacks without suffering any damage to the blade or the user, the same way a Star Wars Lightsaber could deflect blaster bolts.

However, since Baylon disappeared and most elemental magic along with it, it was just a useful Vis Power to know, in case you were caught without a sword and needed one.

Delina finally found her voice. "That is so cool!"

"Well, in all fairness it's a lot less powerful than the weapons in the movie, or a real sword for that matter." I said and dissolved the glowing blade, making it disappear. "It also takes quite a lot of energy to maintain, and I haven't used it for a long time. It's more a back-up than anything else."

"Not anymore." Said Delina with a grin. "That lightsaber look-alike will scare the living daylights out of people if you ever use it... hmm.... What do you call that anyway?"

"Vigor Gladius... It simply means 'Energy Sword'."

"Boring but fitting." She leaned over and gave me a kiss before she suddenly grinned again "You better not show that to Petra. Ever. She loves Star Wars and everything about that universe."

"Yes, I've noticed that it's very popular."

The African beauty hesitated for a moment and then said. "Can I change the subject to something completely different?"

"Sure." I said with a chuckle. "And thanks for the warning by the way."

She smiled. "No problem... Hmm... This is strange to ask about."

"Well, if you would just ask instead of dragging it out, that would help, I think."

Nodding, she asked. "Are you going to have sex with Svetlana again? And if yes, can I watch?"

That made me blink in surprise. Svetlana was one of Parker's Russian bodyguards, who had not only seen some of what I could do but following that, Delina had somehow talked the muscular and somewhat masculine woman into having sex with me. A sight that had turned Delina on, and still was, judging from the way the beautiful African was biting her lower lip in anticipation of the answer.

"Well, I'm not against the idea," I told her. "But I have to ask, why does watching me sharing pleasure with Svetlana turn you on so much?"

Looking lost, Delina shrugged, making her brown breasts jiggle. "I have given it a lot of thought, and I simply don't know. I mean, I like watching you with Petra, but it doesn't turn me on to the same degree." She shivered. "Just thinking about it makes me all wet and horny."

"Let's test it." I suggested. "At some point, we can arrange for you to look at me having sex with someone other than Petra. Then we'll at least know if it's because it is someone else rather than her."

"Good idea." She said, hurriedly adding. "And don't get me wrong, I think Petra's one of the sexiest women in the world, and I love when the two of us are together." She fell silent, looking down my body. "I want more... Just talking about it makes me wet. When do you think you're ready again?"

"About now, if you help a bit."

She wet her lips and slid further down the sofa so she could reach my dick with her mouth. Soft fingers caressed my balls, while her tongue played on the shaft and head, and within moments, I was hard again.

"This time, I want to ride you." She declared and sucked the head into her mouth.

"No... objections." I groaned, enjoying the feeling of her mouth around my dick.

She played a bit more, sucking, licking and teasing me, before she mounted me, gasping as she impaled herself in one move. "Damn, I love that feeling!"

I agreed as I watched the gorgeous African move up and down on top of me. Documentations aside, this modern world was good to be in.

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Shopping with Petra

Late September 2000, Rastede, Oldenburg Islands

With Oldenburg Island laying outside Hurricane Alley, many of the wedding guests were scheduled to arrive a week before, filling up the hotels and resorts as they used the opportunity to enjoy the weather and the Caribbean Sea.

"We need to go shopping." Declared Petra as she looked over my calendar. "I've looked at your wardrobe and frankly, the clothes you have are not really fitting for the Chairman of Starlight Merchant Group."

"Funny, coz I thought I had everything I needed for the wedding."

Petra shook her head. "Not in sufficient quality and especially not with the number of meetings you have booked."

I just nodded. When it came to clothes, arguing with Petra was a losing battle. Fortunately, she had good taste, as well as a keen sense of style, and I liked the few things she had found for me so far. The only times I had said no, had been when she tried to make me buy something where the name of the brand meant more than the quality of the clothes.

"I'll trust you on that, Babochka."

Petra laughed softly. "Did you just call me 'butterfly' in Russian?"

"Yeah," I said. The name had popped into my mind as I was talking and just felt right. "I have a habit of giving nicknames to women I feel connected with and like a lot."

"Ohh... I like it!" She smiled. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome."

With a smile, she stood up. "Let's drive."

Petra's favourite car brand was BWM, but in an effort to get me to like cars, she had taken me out in a roofless car, which she called a cabriolet, and I admitted that it felt much better not to be encased in metal. Consequently, when it was just the two of us, she usually drove a grey Ferrari F355 Spider. It was one of the many luxury-cars Parker had invested in and as one of the smallest cars, it was the easiest one to manoeuvre in the narrow streets of Rastede.

We were halfway when Petra asked. "Ivan, may I ask you a question about the criminal organization and Starlight?"

"Sure... What's up?"

"In Costa Rica I thought that the reason you didn't close 'your uncle's' criminal network, was that you would have to close Starlight at the same time. Now, I know that isn't the case, so how come you haven't just closed it down?" She looked at me out of the corner of her eyes, keeping most of her attention on the road. "I mean, you don't really need the money and as far as I know, they're not connected in any way."

"You're right. They're not connected at all. Starlight Merchant Group was created in the mid-70s, with Erebus following a few years later and Parker didn't even start to deal in human trafficking until after he met Curtis ten years ago." I looked at the lush rainforest for a few heartbeats, before looking at Petra again. "The reason I haven't closed Erebus is because of the medicine. Erebus produces and sells counterfeit medicine and if I shut it down, millions will lose access to affordable medication and a lot of people will die. Instead, I'm trying to find a way to limit human trafficking, which is a freaking nightmare, because some of those people only have one valuable commodity to sell to get the medication the family needs to survive and that is other family members."

"Millions of people?" Petra glanced over at me shortly, disbelief clear on her face, before returning her attention to the road. "Really?"

"Yes, really. To use Africa as an example, Erebus sold almost 750 million doses of medication there last year. Real medicine like malaria pills and not Viagra." I stated softly. "It sounds like a lot, but for an entire year, it's just a small percentage of the total sale of counterfeit medicine in that area." I shrugged as I recalled the data I had read. "The need for medicine doesn't go away and if I close down Erebus, 750 million doses of working medicine will be replaced with medicine from other sources.... 85% of which will be medicine that doesn't work, according to various statistics. That's 637 million doses of non-working medicine that will go to people so poor they can barely afford medicine at all. To make it even worse, the situation in the poorest parts of Asia isn't much better and there're even more people there."

"T-That's insane!" exclaimed Petra wide-eyed.

"Yes... but that is the situation and nothing I can fix." I said with a sigh. "According to several sources, counterfeit drugs and medicine is a trade worth 150 billion dollars a year. As I said, I can't change that, but the least I can do is to make sure that some of the medicine actually works as intended by the buyer."

We were both silent for a moment, until Petra slowly asked. "Can I explain this to the others?"

"Please do and if any of you comes up with an idea about how to solve this, let me know... And keep it a secret. That's an order."

"Will do." She paused for a moment. "By the way, I have an idea for you regarding the high-end escorts."

"Yes?"

"With two thousand guests coming in, would anybody notice a few women from all around the world? With all the rich people coming here, some of the men are bound to look for female company, if they didn't bring it themselves."

I thought it over for a moment. One of my problems was that I couldn't examine the loyalty codex Parker and Curtis had put on the escorts without meeting them and as they were spread all over the globe, that would take a lot of time if I had to go visit them. For that reason alone, Petra's suggestion was brilliant, and if done right, there wouldn't even be a connection between Erebus and Starlight.

I nodded with a smile. "That's a brilliant suggestion, Petra. I'll make it happen."

"Good." She paused for a moment. "Those women deserve a chance to lead a normal life."

"I agree."

After arriving in Rastede, Petra avoided both the Old City as well as the Financial District and drove us to an upscale residential area and from her smile when we exited the car, I gathered that it was something special. However, when looking around, I couldn't see any sign, shop window or any other indication that we were near a clothing store.

Looking over at Petra, I flashed her a smile. "You got me... Where's the store?"

She grinned, as she took my arm and guided me towards a beautiful old house. "In here and it's not just a clothing store, it's a tailor. Sandra Rodriquez was kind enough to tell me where Estevez got his suits from, and I gave them your measurements when I was in town a few weeks ago." She squeezed my arm. "I'm sure you'll find something you like."

Petra led me to the door and introduced me to the tailor, a balding middle-aged man named Hawthorn, and then walked off to look at wedding presents, while the tailor started talking about clothes and what I needed to have, while showing me the different kinds of suits and cloth.

As a high-end shop for the many businessmen in Rastede, everything was of extremely good quality and coming from an age where 'off the rack' clothes simply didn't exist, and everything was tailormade, having a tailor around when buying clothes, felt much more natural to me, than a sales assistant. This place was different, as almost everything was either tailor made from scratch or made to measure, which meant that they used the measurements Petra had supplied to find some clothes that were a close fit to me and then tailored it to fit perfectly.

Not only was the quality of the tailoring better than anything I had ever encountered, but the cloth was soft and incredibly light at the same time, and there was little doubt that anything I bought would last me for years to come.

Mr. Hawthorn was both friendly and very knowledgeable about clothes, but Petra must have introduced me as a junior director, because I could feel he thought I was too young to be a serious customer and when an elderly customer showed up, Mr. Hawthorn excused himself and sent in his younger assistant Coleen to deal with me instead, while he took the elderly customer to dinner.

I didn't mind. Coleen was almost as knowledgeable as Mr. Hawthorn and a lot more fun to be around as she explained about different colour combinations and styles, sprinkled with short anecdotes and personal opinions. She was also easy on the eyes, with a pretty face under a mop of short brown hair and a well-shaped body in a business suit, though she didn't seem to react to me sexually.

"Well. Now you've seen it all and I've talked enough." She finally said with a large smile. "What are your thoughts? Seen anything you like?"

"A lot." I said with a smile to match hers. "Tell me you get commissions for your sales."

"Oh, yes I do."

"Good." I looked at the different brands of suits and thought it over. "How long does it take to tailor one of these?"

She shrugged. "Well, your assistant gave us your measurements and we've picked the suits in regard to that, so we can finish a suit in one day."

"And if I want more than one suit?"

"Well, if both Mr. Hawthorn and I work on it, we can sew two to three a day, depending on if you want tailored shirts or not. Just be warned that with the Starlight wedding just around the corner, we're very busy, so please don't expect more than three suits to be ready this week." Coleen paused for a moment. "However, while you think about it, I would like you to try one of our Stefano Ricci suits... I think it'll look very good on you, since you're quite a bit taller, wider and more fit than our usual customers, which is what that suit is made for."

"I'll try it."

Coleen smiled again and a little while later I was in a changing room, putting on a wonderful three-piece blue suit, with a shirt so light blue it was almost white, and a dark blue patterned silk tie. More importantly, it was incredibly light, soft and airy, making it a perfect choice for the climate in the Caribbean.

I had just finished putting on a pair of featherlight leather shoes, when I suddenly felt a spike of desire from the show room and a moment later, I heard Petra asking for me and Coleen answer.

The spike settled into the quiet buzz of an aroused female, and I realized Coleen had to be reacting to Petra.

Curious, I walked over to the door and looked into the showroom.

Petra had started to walk in my direction, and I had to admit that, even plainly dressed in a short loose skirt and a shirt, with some ordinary shoes to go with it, she looked smashing, and Coleen was ogling her discreetly.

As she saw me, Petra stopped in her tracks and blinked a few times, before she said "Oh... my.... God..." Switching to Ukrainian, she continued. "You look so hot, that I can't even explain it!"

"Well, thank you." I said with a slight bow. That gave her time to walk over to me and a moment later, I had her voluptuous body pressed against mine, as she gave me a full body hug to go with a sizzling kiss. I kissed and hugged her back, before I broke the kiss whispering. "We're not alone."

Petra looked over at Coleen, who hastily looked away, and then looked at me again with a sigh, "Damn... I really, really want you."

"Well, if it's any consolation, the tailor's assistant really wants you." I whispered with a grin. Coleen's lust had been rising steadily as she watched Petra and I kiss.

Petra's eyes widened for a moment, before she sent me a kinky smile. Then she turned and walked seductively over to Coleen.

Without saying a word, she reached out, dragged the surprised sales assistant closer and gave her a kiss that was just as hot as the one she gave me.

At first, it looked like Coleen resisted, but slowly her arms circled around Petra and a few heartbeats later, she started kissing Petra back.

The sight of two hot women kissing had the usual effect on me and as their hands explored each other's bodies, I felt my erection grow to full size, but instead of joining them, I leaned against a counter, watching the show unfold before my eyes.

And it was a show, as the two women started to undress each other, seemingly totally oblivious to where they were or my presence.

Being lighter dressed than Coleen, Petra quickly lost most of her clothes but ignored it as she in return did something to Coleen's breasts that made her gasp and moan.

I was enjoying the sight of the two aroused women in front of me, when I suddenly heard steps outside the door. "< Petra, hide! >"

Her military background showed as she without hesitation took hold of Coleen and ducked behind the large wooden counter, dragging the other woman with her, just as the door opened and Mr. Hawthorn walked inside, looking around curiously, when he saw me standing in the shop alone.

"Sorry for interrupting, Mr. Ivan, but I thought Coleen was in here."

"Oh, she and my assistant are doing something, so don't worry about it." I told him with a smile, adding power to the last part of the sentence, making it a mental command. While weaker than regular Ars Mentalis, the ability to use such commands was something I was born with, didn't cost me any mental energy and was for all practical purposes undetectable. "There's no reason why you can't go have dinner with the client."

He lit up in a smile and nodded. "Excellent. If there is something, please do not hesitate to call me."

"Oh, I'm confident that Coleen is completely up to the task."

"Very well." He bowed slightly. "Have a nice day, Mr. Ivan."

"You too, Mr. Hawthorn."

With a nod and a smile, he walked out of the door again.

When the door had closed behind Mr. Hawthorn, I could feel laughter starting to build inside, but I managed to hold it in until I was sure he was out of hearing range, before I laughed out loud.

The whole situation was simply hilarious.

The sound of laughter must have alerted Petra that the coast was clear because she peaked over the wooden counter. "Is it safe?"

"Yes."

She flashed me a smile and jumped to her feet. Since she was only dressed in panties, the simple action made her breasts bounce and I felt a shiver of desire running through me. It disappeared as Coleen stood as well, still wearing only half her clothes, and looking like her world had just fallen into ruins around her.

Petra looked at Coleen and gave her a hug. "Relax, Coleen. It was fun!"

"I'm so fired!" she mumbled, but it did look like getting a hug from the still naked Petra made her feel better.

"Not even close." I said firmly, projecting reassurance into her. "But let's postpone the rest of the sexy time to another time and place." I sent her a smile. "If you're interested, that is."

Petra relaxed the hug enough to give Coleen a long soft kiss and I could almost see Coleen melt in her arms as the stiffness disappeared. Finally, they broke off the kiss and Coleen was smiling when she said. "I would love that."

"Good. Now you two better get dressed, while I take another look at the suits."

It took a bit of time before the two women were dressed again, but eventually Coleen showed up next to me with a clipboard.

"Have you made up your mind?" She asked in a professional tone of voice, that was ruined a heartbeat later, when she yelped as Petra groped her ass.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist." the Ukrainian said with a grin and looked at me. "Coleen here almost made me forget why I came in here in the first place. You'll need this." She handed me a credit card folder, winked at Coleen, and walked out the door, before the stunned sales assistant could say anything.

When the door had closed behind Petra, I looked at Coleen. "Just to clear up something... There's a world of difference between going with the flow of a moment and planning something. When you and Petra decide to finish what we started here, I'll only be there if both of you want me to."

Coleen was silent for a moment, but then nodded. "I'll remember that... and thanks." She gestured with the clipboard. "I think you were about to say something when we were interrupted?"

"Indeed." Turning around, I looked at the suits. "I would like the blue Ricci suit, along with the shirt and shoes... hmm... How do the leather shoes react to salt water?"

Coleen looked up from the note she was making. "Without a problem. Most of our customers have yachts, so we're prepared for that."

"Excellent." I said with a nod. "Now, I will also like the light grey Brioni suit as well as the blue pin-striped one and the Kiton tuxedo. Add two shirts of different colours to each suit along with a matching tie for each shirt-suit combination..." I thought for a moment. "... Do you have more shoes in the same quality as the ones I tried?"

Coleen nodded. "Yes. House of Testoni is one of our best brands along with Berluti. You can't really go wrong with high quality, handmade Italian leather shoes."

"Hmm... If you have two more pairs in my size, add them to the list." I waited until Coleen had finished writing and then asked. "What have I forgotten?"

"Well, that depends on what you already have, but I would suggest some belts and T-shirts." She pointed in the direction of a mannequin, dressed in a suit, but with a T-shirt instead of the usual shirt and tie. "Hermes makes some really good T-shirts, and we have them in stock."

"Good. As with the shirts, I would like two of them for each suit... and please add some belts as well, while you're at it."

Coleen nodded as she wrote on her clipboard. "Yes, sir."

For a moment, I went through the clothes in my head and discovered that Petra had been right. With all the guests that were coming for the wedding and all the meetings I was supposed to attend, I would need more clothes. "Add the... I think you called it champagne... coloured Kiton suit as well as the grey one and give me the same assortment of matching shirts, ties and shoes as the rest."

Her eyebrows travelled up towards the hairline as she wrote it down, causing me to chuckle.

"Thinking about your commission and where to go on vacation?"

That made her laugh. "Something like that... and that Mr. Hawthorn made a big mistake going to dinner with Mr. Svendsen."

"Well, I think I got everything I need for now."

Glancing at the clipboard, she shook her head slightly. "I doubt we have time to finish all of these before the wedding, so do you have any favourites?"

I went over the schedule in my head again. "The Ricci I tried first, the grey Brioni suit and the Kiton tuxedo... in that order."

She nodded and walked towards the counter. I followed, admiring her well-shaped behind moving under the skirt. Reaching out with my mind, I could feel that her fear of discovery had been replaced with a renewed lust and longing for more sex, though those feelings were connected with Petra.

Colleen looked up from her calculator. "No offence, Mr. Ivan, but are you sure you want all this?"

As I was still concentrating on her feelings, I could sense she was genuinely concerned if I could afford the clothes, which in my mind just showed she was a caring person.

The concern for me evaporated as she saw the black and gold Elite credit card I placed on the table. Issued by the Bank of Oldenburg, the Elite credit card was only given to people with an extremely good credit rating.

"I can afford it," I chuckled, "but thanks for worrying about me."

With a smile, she nodded. "You're welcome."

--------------------------------

"So, did you find a wedding present?" I asked Petra, when the shopping was done, and we were seated out in one of the many small cafés in Neuhafen.

She shook her head, looking irritated. "No. Finding presents for rich people is a bother. What do you give people who can buy pretty much anything they want?"

"Something they can't buy or something they don't know they need."

"Hmmm that's not as easy as you make it sound." Petra said with a soft laughter. "What are you giving them?"

"I don't know what to give Manuel Estevez yet, but I'm considering a car for Ayanna."

Petra coughed in surprise. "A car?"

"Yeah... I'm aware that Manuel can easily afford to give her one, but I'm thinking that he's going to give her something romantic and if she has a car, she can come visit whenever Manuel is busy."

She thought it over for a moment and then nodded. "That is an excellent idea. Which car did you have in mind?"

"The Adler Retro."

Petra looked puzzled. "Never heard about it."

With a grin, I finished my cider and stood up. "Come."

Ten minutes later, we were standing outside Oldenburg Auto, the biggest car dealership in Rastede, but the car I had been thinking about wasn't there.

"Hmm, apparently the model I was talking about hasn't arrived yet, but it's the modern version of that one." I said and pointed at an elegant old car displayed in the front window. Its paint gleamed under the sunlight coming through the window, highlighting the graceful curves of its body. The chrome accents glistened, tracing the contours of its long hood and sweeping fenders. The soft top, folded back, revealed a leather interior and a dashboard of polished wood.

"Oh my god, that's SO cute." Petra exclaimed as she studied it. "What brand is that?"

"The Adler 2.5 liter cabriolet. Made by the Adler company in Germany in the 1930s." I explained, trying to sound like it wasn't something I had discovered a few weeks ago, which it was.

"Well, that explains why it looks like the Volkswagen Beetle." Said Petra thoughtfully. "Coming from the same area and time period."

I had no idea what she was talking about, so instead of commenting on it, I continued my newly learned explanation. "The modern version is wider and has modern technology, but otherwise it is a cheap, durable car with excellent fuel economy."

"What's the price?"

"About nine thousand dollars, depending on the model and equipment. The cabriolet is about eleven thousand."

Petra nodded slowly. "Well, that IS cheap... So, what's the catch?"

I shrugged. "It's built for the Indian and Chinese markets and it's only the design that is new. The engine is from the old and tested Honda Civic VX and the rest of the technology isn't exactly state of the art." Petra looked like she was about to ask some more, causing me to hold up a hand. "That's the extent of my knowledge... If you want some more answers, ask the people at Starlight Motors."

She blinked a few times, looked at the car and then at me again. "Starlight Motors builds cars?"

"Yes." I grinned at the stunned expression on her face. "What did you think Starlight Motors did?"

"Sold other companies' cars." She said with a sigh. "Do you know how Honda got involved?"

"It was a trade-off." I explained with a shrug. "They wanted some aerospace technology, we wanted auto technology... of course, it helps a lot that Starlight owns ten percent of Honda."

"Of course." She echoed and shook her head with a sigh. "That's it. I need a course in exactly what Starlight Merchant Group does and owns, before I embarrass myself more. Anything else I should know about Starlight Motors? What other brands does it make besides Adler?"

"Fafnir, which is the luxury version of the Adler, and a South Korean brand, named Kia."

She blinked in surprise a few times. "What? Starlight makes Kias? Why?"

"Because we own it. It's part of Starlight Motors."

"You're fucking kidding me." Petra sighed. "How did that happen?"

"Nothing special about it." I said with a smile. "Kia went bankrupt during the Asian Financial crisis in 1997 and Starlight Motors wanted to buy it. However, Ford and Hyundai also wanted to buy it, so we made a deal with Hyundai and got a share of Kia. A year later we bought most of Ford's shares and ended up owning the majority of the company, though Hyundai still owns thirty percent and, according to the agreement, is the official partner for Kia."

Petra was silent for a moment, but then asked. "You don't happen to have shares in BMW?"

That made me laugh as I shook my head. "Not a single one. Starlight Motors bought two old and mostly defunct German companies, which are Adler and Fafnir, but as far as I know, that's as close as Starlight comes to owning any European car companies."

"Too bad... oh... and I know that Kia makes solid cars, but unless they change their design, I'm going to quit as your driver if you want one as your company car. They're simply too ugly."

The tone was jesting, but I could sense the steel beneath it and there was no doubt in my mind that Petra would do exactly as she said.

"Anyway," said Petra with a smile. "You just solved my problem, along with the rest of the girls."

Puzzled, I looked at her. "How come?"

"Because, if you're giving her a car, we can pool together to give her something she doesn't know she needs, which is a driver's licence." She said as she looked at the car again.

"Sorry, but she got the driver's licence while you were getting the scuba course."

"Oh yeah, I...." Petra stopped speaking as something caught her eye. "You got to be fucking kidding me!"

I looked in the same direction, but aside from the façade of the Oldenburg Car Museum, I couldn't see anything special. "What?"

"Is that a Duesenberg standing in the window?"

"Petra, I have no idea what you're talking about." I said with a sigh.

She stood from the chair. "Come. I need to see this."

Chuckling to myself, I stood from the chair and followed her, as she walked so fast, she was almost running towards the window to the car museum.

That car she was admiring was another elegant old car, though this one was much bigger than the Adler. Being dark blue in colour, it had a long, sculpted hood, large sweeping fenders, and the chrome grille, bold and intricate, bore an emblem that read Duesenberg. A name that was repeated on the small sign in front of the car, telling whoever read it, that it was a 1930 Duesenberg J Graber Cabriolet.

"They have a freaking Duesenberg!" mumbled Petra in disbelief and looked at me. "Do you mind if we go inside? I really want to see this!"

"Fine by me."

With most of the tourists gone, the museum was almost empty of visitors, but I doubted Petra ever discovered that, as she walked between the cars, excitedly telling me about the ones she knew, such as the Duesenberg in the window or a 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC that almost made her faint.

Admittedly, the antique cars were beautiful, with rounded forms that looked very different from many of the cars in the streets, but they were also primitive, and though I already knew that technology had evolved at an increasingly rapid pace, seeing the difference in technology from the 1930s to now was kind of mind-blowing. Especially considering that the 1930s were only some sixty years ago. Compared to the rest of history, that was an insanely fast pace.

When we were through the first part of the museum, Petra discovered a workshop where they were working on several cars and immediately dragged me in there.

We were greeted by an excited young man, whose name tag identified him as Peter. In the beginning he tended to address me first, but he soon realized that the beautiful woman by my side was way more interested in the cars than I was. Then it evolved into a conversation between the two.

I swallowed a laugh. Some things don't change and the young man's reaction to the attention of a beautiful and sexy woman was one of them, as he desperately wanted to impress Petra.

As it turned out, the Oldenburg Car Museum had once been the start of Starlight motors. Like some of the other Islands in the region, Oldenburg had placed a heavy tax on imported cars, but unlike the other islands, vehicles made on the island had a lot less tax on them. So, a company had been made that imported car parts from abroad and used those parts to make new cars. The rule was that to be considered a new car, at least half the car had to be produced locally.

So, they had taken a clue from how things were done almost a century ago and imported only the engine and chassis for a car, while the cabin, seats and everything else were made on Oldenburg. The result was some good-looking cars and the lack of taxes on them even made them cheaper than most imported cars.

I quietly tagged along as he explained all that to Petra, while showing her around in the workshop, and was nearly run over by an almost silent car that was driven into the workshop.

"You need to look out." Said Peter with a slight smile, obviously happy that I had made a fool of myself by not paying attention to my surroundings. "Electric cars are difficult to hear."

For once, Petra and I reacted the same way as we both snapped our heads around to look at the small car. Like so many other cars on the Island it was small enough to navigate the narrow streets of Rastede and the other old cities of Oldenburg, but large enough to hold four persons. Being somewhat angular in shape it wasn't the prettiest car in the world, but they had to be popular, because I had seen a lot of them in the streets. Usually when Petra drove me, which explained why I hadn't noticed how silent they were until now.

"Are you telling me," asked Petra slowly. "That the car over there is an electric?"

Peter nodded proudly. "Yes. It's the Adler EV. Totally electric and can drive some two-hundred and fifty kilometers (155 miles) on one charge. Very practical here." The proud nod turned into an equally proud smile. "It was originally developed by Starlight Research."

I nodded slowly. One of Parker's many quirks had been a passionate love for ecology and in the mid-80s he had created Starlight Research. A research company specializing in the development and use of renewable energy, which more or less meant any power technology that didn't involve the use of fossil fuels like oil or petrol.

For that sort of research Oldenburg was almost ideal, as the volcanic island allowed for the use of wind-, water and solar power, as well as geothermal energy, and most of the energy used on the island came from exactly those sources, meaning that electricity was readily available and extremely cheap on the Island.

Later Starlight Research had been split into three branches, with EcoTech being the original division, while Starlight BioTech researched in medicine and Starlight IT took care of electronics and computer chips. Initially operating at a loss, Starlight Research had made a lot of inventions over the years, making money from patenting them and licensing them to production companies all over the world.

I would have been more impressed with the work Parker had done, if I didn't know that one of the reasons, he had been into renewable energy was that he had planned on taking over the world and wanted it to be in as good a condition as possible when he became world leader.

Now that I knew what to look for, I did a quick search of Parker's memories and as it turned out, Starlight Research was only partly responsible for the electric vehicle. Originally, the car had been the creation of the American company General Motors, with the model called the General Motors EV1. One of the people at Starlight Research had driven one while on vacation in California and had excitedly told the rest of the company about her experiences. Eventually, the story reached Parker, who liked the idea, and lured some of the engineers at General Motors to Starlight Research to build a new version.

I snorted to myself. Parker had loved the Roman Empire and it wasn't the first time that the way he operated reminded me of how they had operated. When the Romans had seen something they liked, they took it, refined it and made it Roman. When Parker had seen something he liked, he had copied the idea, had people refine it and made it a product of Starlight Merchant Group.

"Do you happen to have a cabriolet version of that?" asked Petra with hope in her voice.

Peter shook his head. "No. Not for the Adler. You would have to choose a Fafnir for that."

"Show me." Petra said in a voice that wasn't a request. It was an order.

Peter nodded eagerly and gestured towards another door, as he started to walk and explain at the same time. "This way, then. Just be aware that the Fafnir EV's are luxury cars, usually copies of antique cars that have been updated for a modern age."

"So, they're expensive?"

"That depends on what you're comparing them with." Peter said with a slight smile. "They cost a lot more than the Adler EV, more than an ordinary car, but less than say a big Mercedes or Audi."

He opened the door, allowing us to look inside the next room. It was a showroom and for a moment, I thought that we had gone full circle and were back in the museum, but then I noticed the modern looking steering wheel on the cars.

"See anything you like?" Asked Petra with a grin as she looked at me. "You keep complaining about the noise of engines and here're some almost silent cars."

Peter hesitantly said. "I'm afraid, that depends on the speed. At more than sixty kilometers, or forty miles, per hour, you will hear the tires on the road and the wind."

I shrugged slightly as I looked around. Most of the cars were fairly big, but there was one exception. In one corner stood a smaller and more streamlined car, with a long hood, swooping front fenders and a short, rounded rear.

Normally cars meant very little to me, but for some reason it reminded me of the panther we had encountered in Costa Rica and with a small nod, I said. "The small black one over there."

"Ahh!" Siad Peter with a happy smile. "That is the Fafnir SSK. A copy of the famous Mercedes-Benz SSK Count Trossi from 1934."

He started to walk in the direction of the car, and Petra whispered. "There's still hope for you." before she followed, her ass wriggling temptingly in the skirt.

I left the talking and questioning to Petra and walked around the car. It was actually a nice car, and the shining black finish was contrasted with its elegant chrome details.

"Let's try it." I determined and looked at Petra and Peter, who were talking about things such as range and charging time.

"Excuse me, sir?" Said the young man.

"I want to try it... or rather the lovely young woman will try it, with me in the passenger seat." I told him and looked at Petra. "Fetch the Ferrari. We can park it here, while we try the Fafnir."

"I.... think I need to go get my boss." Said the young man. "I have a feeling that this is more than I can handle."

"Very well. Go get your boss while Petra gets the Ferrari." I told them. "I'll wait here."

About two hours later, Petra and I were driving home in the Fafnir SSK, with me enjoying the lack of engine noises. As an added benefit, even the constant irritation to my danger sense was gone, and as we drove down the road with the sea on one side and the rocky hills on the other, it felt more like sailing really fast.

Smiling, I realized that for the first time, I enjoyed a trip in a car, which meant that the source of discomfort had to come from the engine somehow.

Once Petra had parked the Ferrari in front of the museum, the rest had gone smoothly. Mostly due to Peter's boss, an elderly man named Hans Nielsen, had recognized both the Ferrari (Apparently, there was only one of that type on the entire Island) and the SMG 6 number plate as belonging to the Vasa Estate.

Long story short, I bought the Fafnir and promised Hans Nielsen that when the other cars arrived from Costa Rica, he could add some more Ferraris to the exhibition, if he wanted them. An offer he gladly accepted. Especially after I added two other electric cars to the order. The first one was a wedding present for Ayanna and was a small car she could easily handle. The other was due to Petra commenting that we needed a bigger car when the Twins came to visit, so I ordered a larger car as well.

"You know, I didn't think you would actually buy one, much less three." Said Petra with a grin, her eyes never leaving the road. "What made you do it?"

"The test drive. Normally, engine noises get on my nerves, but as there's no engine in this car, I have to admit that I like driving like this." I said, adding. "And yes, I know that there's an electric engine, but this is so much better that I can't even describe it."

That made her chuckle. "I don't get it, but I'm glad you finally found a car that you like."

"One moment." I said and collected my thoughts, before I placed a hand on her leg and sent the feeling I had when driving a normal car into her. "This is how I feel."

She grimaced. "Fuck... that would drive me insane... It's like ants crawling under your skin!"

"Yeah, it sucks."

She spotted a rest area and quickly drove into it, parking the car and looked at me. "Ivan, if I experienced that for more than a few minutes, someone would die. Damn, that's irritating!"

I shrugged lightly. "That's how I feel when there's an ordinary engine running close by. My guess is that it's the elemental chaos created by the rapid burn of the fuel, but to be honest, I don't know for sure. It's a little better, or at least less pronounced, with turboshaft engines like those on a chopper, where it's usually the noise that bothers me."

"What about jet engines?"

"I don't know. I haven't been in a jet yet, but as far as I know, the jet engine is closely related to a turboshaft engine when it comes to how they function, so I guess it's pretty much the same."

"I'm sorry." She said in a low voice. "If I had known how it made you feel, I wouldn't have tried to make you like cars that much."

Reaching out, I dragged her into a hug. "It's okay. It's not like I really have a choice, unless I insist on walking to Rastede." I smiled. "And I'm not going to waste the hours it takes to walk there."

That made her smile a little. "You could ride a bicycle."

"Not going to happen." I told her firmly. Petra liked to cycle and had done it for years, which, according to her, was why she had such well-shaped legs and ass, but when she had persuaded me to try it, I had ended up in some very thorny bushes and it had had taken forever to get the thorns out again.

While I'm not inclined to give up on anything just because I failed on the first try, I didn't want to try again. Mostly because I had found it pointless. While it was sort of the horse for this modern age and did a lot of good for people's health, I was more than busy with training Martial Arts and the estate had horses if I wanted to use a slower mode of transport than a car.

I sent her a smile. "Now, let's get home."

Her eyes widened suddenly. "Damn, I completely forgot the wedding present!"

"You got time."

"Yes, but no ideas." She said and started driving again, the wheels of the car singing against the road.

I smiled to myself as I leaned back in the luxurious leather seat. With a top speed of 120 kmh (75 mph) the car wasn't fast, but it was smooth, relatively silent and blessedly far from the annoying feeling of danger the other car had given me, so I just relaxed and enjoyed the ride and the feeling of wind in my hair.

Suddenly, a memory flashed through my mind, transporting me back to Baylon. I was no longer in a car but sitting on the back of a Draco in the sky over northern Baylon, with the wind in my hair and whistling in my ears, as I studied the ground far beneath me, looking for an insane mage along with Captain Acadian Draconis and the rest of the Dragon Riders.

The memory disappeared just as fast as it had come, leaving me slightly dizzy and I shook my head to clear it.

To me, dragons were not the legendary creatures they were to humans. Mostly because we had built them. What I knew as Dracones or Dragons were not natural creatures, but magical constructs with a rudimentary intelligence to allow them to bond with their owner, and back on Baylon, they had been used in much the same way as human civilization used horses, despite dragons being a lot bigger and having the ability to fly.

Of course, with the armor and the ability to breathe whatever element the Magi had put into them, they were more like the Baylon flying ancestor to the attack helicopter, like the one I had seen in action in Costa Rica. Most of the dragons had even had the same size as the helicopter.

Not that they all had been big or even had wings, since that all depended on the when, where and by whom it was made, but the majority of them had been quite big.

Some Baylon nobles had used them as pets and personal transport, and there had even been a special flying group in the military, aptly named 'The Dragon Riders' that flew on dragons. Of course, as they had to pay for the dragons themselves, that group consisted only of rich nobles and it had been famous on Baylon.

There was even a possibility that what the humans knew as dragons was the same as those built on Baylon. Depending on where they had been when Baylon disappeared, there was a good chance that they had been left behind, if flying them back to Baylon had taken too long. Not to mention that as magical constructs, they would have continued to function for at least five hundred to a thousand years before the magic consumed them.

Therefore, the latest possible sighting of a dragon would be well after writing had spread in the human world, which might explain why they were remembered.

Pushing the thought away, I returned my attention to the present, the marvellous inventions and the hot woman by my side, who was smiling happily, as she drove the car securely down the road towards the breath-taking villa I could call home.

Chuckling to myself, I reached out and let a hand slide over Petra's leg, enjoying the feel of her soft skin under my hand.

She shivered and sent me a smouldering glance before getting her eyes back on the road again. "If you are going to do that, you better be prepared to finish it when we get home... I'm still horny from the interrupted encounter with Coleen."

"Not a problem, but it reminds me, that if you want to take things further with her at some other point in time, you'll have to do it alone." I told her. "She's not turned on by me or by anyone watching her have sex."

Petra grimaced. "Damn... Are you sure?"

I started to nod, but then realized that with her eyes on the road, Petra couldn't see it. "Yes, I'm sure. At least for now. If you do end up sharing pleasure with her repeatedly, the situation may change."

She sighed. "So, no threesome. Too bad... I was looking forward to having one with you and her."

I laughed. "It still might be possible, but if it happens, it's going to be with you in the center, and without me touching Coleen or vice versa."

She looked speculative for a moment. "I will have to think about it."

I felt my eyebrows rise in surprise. "Really? I thought it was a no-brainer."

"I happen to like seeing you pleasuring women... it turns me on, so a threesome without that is something I need to consider."

"Fair." I said and fell silent. At some point I needed to do some investigating and figure out if it was part of the Loyalty Codex Parker had put on her, or if it was just the way her sexuality worked. If so, it was a remarkable coincidence as Delina had told me almost exactly the same regarding Svetlana. No-matter what, it was for another time when she wasn't driving.

-------------------

"Damn." Sighed Petra when we parked in front of the Vasa Estate, where an ordinary grey car was already parked. "Do you have a meeting with Giles Cornell today?"

"Not that I know of." I replied, looking at the grey car. "But I guess I do now."

"Bye, bye, pleasure," she mumbled grumpily and turned the key to switch the car off.

"Go seduce Delina, while I talk with Cornell." I suggested with a smile. "If she has the time, that is."

"And if she doesn't?"

"Go to my bedroom, undress and tease yourself, but don't come." I considered that for a moment and liked the idea. "On second thought, skip Delina and go to my bedroom right away instead."

"Yes, sir." She said with a smile and jumped out of the car.

With a chuckle, I exited the car as well. Petra was under normal circumstances a cheerful and positive person, but I had discovered that not getting sex when she had either been promised it or had expected it, could bring her into a bad mood. Fortunately, it never lasted for long, and the situation could be fixed by simply showing her that she was wanted.

"Come here, Petra." I ordered as I walked around the car.

When she obeyed, I took her into my arms and gave her a kiss filled with passion and longing, making her shiver as a spike of lust ran through her.

"Wauw." She breathed as our lips separated. "That was some kiss!"

"To be continued." I said with a smile and a wink. "Go to my bedroom."

"See you there." She answered with a lusty smile and walked into the house.

I walked into the house as well but turned and walked in the direction of the living room, where I found Giles Cornell sitting in a chair, waiting for me. The CEO of Starlight Security was a mild looking and slim sandy-haired Englishman in his late forties, dressed in an impeccable business suit and from the looks alone, it was impossible to guess, that he was a former soldier from the British Special Forces that had gone into security work after leaving SAS, as the unit was called.

"Hello, Mr. Ivan." He said and stood from the chair when I walked in. "Terribly sorry, but I believe we ought to have a word."

"About what, Mr Cornell?" I asked as I walked over to him and shook the offered hand.

He nodded in the direction of a laptop. "About the computer you handed me some months ago."

Glancing over at the mentioned laptop, I nodded. It was the laptop I had taken from Curtis' house in Malaga. Knowing close to nothing about computers at the time, I had handed it to Starlight Security as soon as possible, leaving it to the experts to figure out what was on it.

"Ahh... have you found anything on it?"

Mr. Cornell nodded slowly. "Indeed, we have, Mr Ivan. May I ask what happened to the previous owner?"

The unexpected question caused me to hesitate. "Is it relevant, Mr. Cornell?"

"Not for the content of the laptop, but if the wretched fellow still draws breath, I would very much appreciate your permission to put an end to the bastard." He said calmly, studying me carefully as he spoke.

As the CEO for Starlight Defence, Giles Cornell knew about Erebus, Parker's criminal network, but Parker had wisely decided that the Englishman was too strait-laced to know details and Cornell was largely in the dark about Erebus' activities. A decision that, judged on his reaction to the content in the computer, was a wise one, as Parked had wanted to keep Curtis alive.

"And I would happily have granted you that permission." I said with a slight smile. "But as I watched the bastard draw his last breath, that won't be necessary."

"A pity." He commented, still sounding as calm as if he was debating what to eat for dinner. "After having seen the content, I would have liked to kill the bastard myself."

"If the content is what I think it is, so would most decent people." I said dryly and thought for a moment. "How much of it can we hand over to the police without incriminating anybody in Erebus or Starlight? Oh... and if anybody at Starlight is involved in this, I want to know."

"Most of it is safe to hand over... though we might need to run it through several digital cleaners to make sure the source is as anonymous as possible." Cornall said immediately. "Unfortunately, I found at least one person that is an employee of Starlight in there."

Considering the amount of people working for Starlight, that was good news, though one person was one too many. On the other hand, if there was one, there was a good chance that there might be more.

"Was he or she an active part in anything?"

"Yes, he was, sir." Said Cornell with an expressionless face.

"I will have a talk with him tomorrow morning if possible. If he has done anything of his own free will, I want him banned and his home, as well as everything he owns, searched by both Starlight Security and the police." I smiled a bit. "And I don't know why I'm telling you this, since you know how to do your job better than I do."

He smiled a tight smile. "Not a problem, sir, and he will be there tomorrow morning, but I will recommend that you record the conversation." He thought for a moment. "There's quite a number of non-Dutch nationals there. Shall I turn the information over to the Interpol as well?"

"Yes... a copy to each of them will ensure that the information isn't lost."

He nodded. "Thank you, sir. I think I got all the answers I was looking for."

"Good. I will see you in the morning."

"Yes, sir. Have a good evening, sir." He said, took the laptop and walked out, while I walked up to my bedroom, hoping that Petra was there. After that little piece of news, I really needed something to relax me.

--------------------------

The next day was anything but pleasant. As I had promised Giles Cornell, I held a meeting with the man Cornell had identified as being an employee of Starlight, a middle-aged man named Michael Kansick, who worked as an administrator.

I had hoped his identification was a mistake, but he turned out to be a sadistic paedophile and a complete swine, and confronted with the evidence Giles Cornell had, along with some mental pressure from me, he broke down and confessed everything, making me glad that I had followed Cornell's suggestion and had the whole thing videotaped.

Knowing that doing anything on Oldenburg Island was a bad idea due to the efficient police force and the Island's relatively small population, Michael Kansick went on 'business trips' four to six times a year to places where such activities were less dangerous than here. At least if you knew the right people and had enough money.

He also had a disturbing tendency to describe everything in detail, which, considering the subject, was very disturbing, but at least he was just as detailed when talking about the two places he frequented for years. Both of them sounded like the compound we had raided in Costa Rica, though they were located in completely different countries.

---------------------------

"Well done, sir." Said Cornell some hours later, when I had left Michael Kansick to himself and walked into the room where Cornell was sitting. The Englishman had been able to see the interview on a screen and listen to what Kansick had said, while taking notes. "You're a very good interrogator for a civilian."

"I wasn't always a civilian." I said lightly and changed the subject. "The biggest question is what we do now."

Cornell showed his teeth in a predatory smile. "Well, I would like to request permission to have some Cobras visit those two 'camps' he was telling you about."

I thought about that for a moment, as I pulled the knowledge about the Cobras from Parker's memory and discovered that 'Cobras' was a codeword for any mercenary unit employed by Starlight to solve a problem that couldn't be done legally.

Like so many other multinational companies, Starlight Merchant Group had been the targets of kidnappings, hijacking and piracy, but unlike most other companies, Parker was both willing and able to strike back, usually with lethal consequences for those trying to prey on his company. Somalian pirates, South American kidnapping gangs and other groups were targeted by mercenaries that appeared out of nowhere, took revenge on the involved persons and then disappeared.

As time went by, word spread among pirates and kidnapping gangs alike, that attacking Starlight Merchant Group personnel or transports was a very bad idea, and the number of attacks dwindled to almost nothing.

Parker had been clever enough to never get his hands dirty himself, leaving the hiring and ordering to Giles Cornell, as the former Special Forces soldier had both the contacts and knowledge to arrange it, whenever an untraceable armed force was needed somewhere in the world.

"The question is what the goal is here." I said slowly. "Revenge for the sake of revenge is just a waste of resources."

Cornell nodded in agreement. "The main objective would be to get the children out of the farms. The secondary objective would be to close them down... preferably in a way that will make people think twice before trying it again."

"And what do you suggest that we do with the kids, once they're out of the farm?"

He looked like I had asked him a really stupid question. "Why, we take them home!"

I sighed and explained what I had discovered in Costa Rica, which was that some of the kids had been sold into slavery by their own family, and by returning them, he would only condemn them to death or a repeat of what had already happened to them.

"Oh, bother!" He mumbled and looked up. "I trust you have a splendid idea, sir, for I must confess, I haven't the faintest."

Despite the seriousness, his British accent almost made me smile as I said. "I do have an idea as well as a place to keep the poor kids for treatment." And proceeded to tell him about Vista Verde Boarding School, ending with. "We can arrange for the kids to go there, but for security reasons, let us find somewhere the Cobras can hand the kids over to my security guards."

"You don't trust them."

"No. I don't know them and have no idea where their loyalty lies, but with them being for hire, I'm guessing the highest bidder." I paused for a moment and then continued. "You may, however, inform them that if any information about the school is leaked, I will find the guilty person and break every bone in his body before I have him thrown into a volcano to be burned alive."

Cornell studied me in silence for a moment, but then nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Before we set anything into motion, I need to know if we can trust the police in the countries where the camps are placed to save the kids." I asked. It was vital information, but also information I didn't have yet.

Cornell shook his head with a sigh. "No. It's not that we know that they are corrupt, but more a question of us not being sure that they aren't corrupt."

I pondered the difference and then nodded. If we didn't know that the police in these areas weren't corrupt, we had to assume that they were for the safety of the kids.

"In that case..." I glanced at the monitor showing Michael Kansick, who was still sitting at the desk looking utterly defeated. "We have a choice to make and it's not a pleasant one."

Cornell eyed the monitor and nodded. "Indeed. One option would be to bring him along for the raid and neutralize him within the camp. When the police arrive to investigate, they will undoubtedly find him, and once his identity is established, they will come seeking answers. At that point, we shall be more than willing to cooperate fully, even turning over any evidence we might find on his computer." He hesitated and then added. "Please do not misunderstand me, sir. Ordinarily, I wouldn't propose anything of the sort, but having seen the contents of his computer, I believe the action is matching with the crimes."

His words rang true, making me nod. "I agree. Let's make it happen."

"Yes, sir."

------------------------------------------

Titan Aerospace

Late September 2000, Oldenburg Island

So far, I'd had meetings with Starlight Global Education, Starlight Finance and Starlight Hospitality, which meant that the turn had come to Titan Aerospace and its subdivisions. A division Parkers gift of precognition had told him would be hugely successful when it was created some fifteen years earlier. Both the private and commercial planes, which was produced under the brand name Pegasus, and the military jets, which was produced under the brand name Raptor. The third brand was Dragonfly, who made helicopters like the ones I had used in Costa Rica, for both military and civilian purposes.

Despite the briefing papers I had read, modern technology, and especially high-tech airplanes, weren't a subject I knew much about and I mostly listened politely, while they gave the boards of both Starlight Merchant Group and Starlight Industries the rundown of the latest developments in the business of commercial and military aircrafts.

One thing I did get from both the material I had been given and from what they said, was that Titan Aerospace aimed at making good, reliable, and cost-efficient jet, meaning that they might not be cutting edge in regard to technology, but made up for it by being solid and affordable jets.

Titan Aerospace had produced aircrafts for a long time under another name, but it was when Parker bought the company and incorporated it into Starlight Merchant Group as Titan Aerospace that the company really took off. It helped a lot, that he had managed to hire a bunch of people from a Swedish aeroplane manufacture named Saab as well as people from the American companies Lockheed and General Dynamics. Not to mention the huge amount of money Parker threw into research and development.

Taking a chance, Parker also used his mind controlling ability to acquire construction plans for some of the best non-US fighter jets at the time, like the Saab produced JAS 39 Gripen. In addition, dome of the former Saab engineers advised him to buy the production rights for some of Saabs older fighters, which he did, getting the production rights for the JAS 35 Draken and the plans for the JAS 37 Viggen.

Another factor was the dissolvement of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. In the chaos that followed as former state-controlled companies became privatized, Parker had taken advantage of the situation in several ways, as he had acquired the plans and production right for a bunch of civilian and military aircrafts. Among them, several cargo planes from the Antonov Bureau in the former Soviet territory of Ukraine.

All these deals eliminated the need for going through the twenty or so years of designing and testing such planes normally require, and armed with that knowledge, the engineers at Titan Aerospace went to work on both creating new planes and improving those they had the right to produce.

It took years of additional modifications, improvement, and testing, before the engineers were satisfied, but in 1995 the engineers were ready with their first upgraded and modernized fighter jet, using the name Raptor-27 Piculet. A single-seat, twin-engine, super-maneuverable fighter, designed for air superiority. Despite the extensive upgrades, the new planes retained their ability to use Soviet Union era munition, enabling the countries that bought the planes to use their existing stock instead of having to buy new and expensive munition.

Lacking the production facilities to mass-produce such planes, Titan Aerospace put forth a unique offer: Nations that bought at least fifty Raptor-27 and had the facilities to manufacture them, would get the job of producing most of them, subject to approval from the Netherlands. India was the first to buy the new plane and a deal was made with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to produce the Raptor-27, followed by Brazil where the planes were produced by the Brazilian company Embraer Air. The popularity led to another version that was able to use the NATO standard of missiles and other munition, further increasing the popularity.

The same happened two years later when Titan Aerospace revealed the single-engine Raptor 29 Kingbird. A light supersonic multirole fighter aircraft, that was designed as an all-weather fighter.

The new planes proved to be an instant hit on the marked, as countries used to buying planes from Russia were looking to upgrade their air forces and found the Titan Aerospace planes were not only better, but also cheaper to buy, fly and maintain than Russian planes. That was exactly what Parker had foreseen, and the factories in Brazil and India were working as fast as they could to keep up with the orders.

Eric Van Koppen, the CEO of Titan Aerospace, brought me out of my thoughts as he stood up and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to our latest and most advanced fighter: The Raptor-35 Draak stealth fighter." The light dimmed and behind him two pictures of a jet fighter appeared.

The announcement got a round of applause from everybody in the room. While some of the engineers at Titan Aerospace had been busy with the Raptor 27 and 29, others had developed a modern version of the Saab Draken, while incorporating the best features from the newer planes and adding a design, that was very difficult to detect by radar. AT least according to the material I had read. The result was the Raptor 35 Draak, that Van Koppen had just mentioned. A highly manoeuvrable delta-winged light fighter that had with a combat range of almost a thousand kilometres (621 miles), while carrying an impressive number of weapons.

To me, it looked somewhat like an incurvate arrowhead, with the blades starting by the cockpit and stretched all the way to the end of the plane, where they turned into a combined tail/ tail fins that stuck out at an angle at the rear of the plane's body.

Even without knowing anything about fighter jets, I could see it was a beautiful war machine in the same way a sword could be both deadly and beautiful and, in my opinion, it was better looking than Titan Aerospace's two other fighter jets.

True to their roots, the engineers had kept most of the features typical of Swedish fighter jets as it was relatively cheap to produce and maintain, could take off and land on short, rough airstrips, like a stretch of reinforced highway, and was so fast that it was able to supercruise while fully loaded.

That were a lot of words I didn't know the meaning off, and with a silent sigh, I dived into my memory to get the explanations and discovered that supercruise was the ability to fly faster than the speed of sound, without the use of an afterburner. That's where I gave up and turned my attention back to the room. There was no way I could understand this highly complicated technology in the short time I had right now, so later I would have to at least try to get a superficial understanding.

Van Koppen bowed slightly, a happy smile on his face. "Thank you, but the credit goes entirely to our designers and engineers at Arcadia." I nodded slightly when I recognized the name of Titan Aerospace's top secret prototype department, responsible for developing advanced military products with help from the other departments. "Besides suggesting the use of a thrust vectoring engine to enhance manoeuvrability like the Raptor-29, they also managed to shave 10% of the weight without losing stability or reliability. Anyway, we have entered talks with South Korea about a deal in the same lines as Brazil and India, but they're dragging their heels. I think, that if we sweeten the deal a bit, it will go through."

That got my attention and after thinking it over for a moment, I asked, "How good it is the plane?"

Van Koppen smiled proudly. "Well, to be honest, it's not as good as the American F-22 Raptor, but we didn't expect it to be as the Raptor cost at least three times as much. Otherwise, it's extremely good. In simulated tests it beat out most of the competitors, especially when working with the Raptor Condor AEW&C airborne radar." He looked at the pictures on the wall for a moment, before looking at us again. "Not that Russia or the US will buy a foreign fighter jet, but I would say that for the next ten years or so, we have one of the best light fighter jets in the world."

"Until the rest catch up." Commented Manuel drily. "As always."

"Yes, but that goes for all fighter aircrafts." Replied Van Koppen with a slight shrug. "With the line-up we have now, and if we continue to upgrade the electronics with elements from Starlight Defence Tech, our Raptor combat series will be among the best for the next 15 to 20 years."

I nodded slowly. "Good. Then don't sweeten the deal."

Van Koppen looked at me with surprise painted on his face. "Excuse me, sir?"

Leaning back in the seat, I said. "If the plane is really that good, don't sweeten the deal. With the Raptor 27 and 29, we have already proven that we produce good planes, and the South Koreans are most likely interested and are just playing the waiting game to get a better offer." He looked doubtful, so I continued. "They might not know it, but we can afford to lose the deal if we don't think it's good enough, which place us in a position to use their own game against them. Especially since they're still hurting from the 1997 financial crisis."

I might not be an expert in modern military technology, but I did recognize negotiation tactics when I encountered it. It's simply human nature to try to get the best deal possible, and the tactics the South Korean were using was about as new as the Pyramids.

There was total silence in the room for a few heartbeats before Van Koppen asked. "Exactly what are you suggesting, sir?"

"What is the projected cost?"

"Due to the advanced nature of both the plane and electronics we had to place in it to make it as good as its competitors, the selling cost per unit is calculated to 57 million dollars initially, going down towards 54 million dollars as production goes on." He said with regret in his voice. "While that sounds expensive, it's still cheaper than most of the Raptors competitors, but if we're to get a foothold on the marked, we need to be that much cheaper. In addition, much of the development cost have gone towards making it as reliable as possible for a high-tech fighter jet, so the running cost per flying hour is about $5000 or about a quarter of what the Rafale or the Eurofighter requires." He smiled again. "It's even 5% lower than that of the Gripen, which is famous for having a low running cost."

"Excellent. One moment, please."

I activated my memory and looked into the air, as I quickly reviewed the statistics and papers, I had read about the aircraft industry as well as the various air forces. Combining them gave me a large range of possibilities, but after removing those who were improbable due to political or economic factors, only a few remained.

Van Koppen waited patiently until I returned my attention to him and said, "First of all, contact the Japanese and offer the same deal to them. They have a lot of the old F-4 Phantom II from the 1960 and 70s that needs to be replaced soon. They also have the production facilities and electronics companies to function as subcontractors. Honda is already trying to get into the Aerotech industry and my guess is that they're very willing to make a deal." I paused to give Van Koppen time to think and when he nodded ever so slightly, I continued. "Another possibility is India or Brazil. As they showed us with the Raptor-27, they already have the production network in place. Fourth option is Turkey, as they're looking to make their own jets, making them extremely interested in the technology transfer."

"And the South Koreans? What do we tell them?"

"We tell them, that due to their inability to accept the contract as it is, we've been forced to look for other partners and any counteroffers they give, will be reviewed in competition with other nations... India, Brazil and Japan among the most likely. I think Samsung, Hanwa, Hanjin and rest of the large South Korean conglomerates or chaebols are going to be highly dissatisfied if this deal goes wrong and they do carry a lot of political weight."

The people around the table nodded slowly.

"And if all the countries have an equally good proposal?" asked Van Koppen.

"Depending on the number of jets sold, say yes to all three." I replied with a chuckle. "If the plane is good enough for three countries to want to buy fifty as well as producing them, we're going to sell more than that eventually."

"That's not the way it normally done." He said slowly. "But it might work."

"It wasn't an order, Mr. Van Koppen." I said as I leaned back in the chair again. "Just a suggestion and to be honest, we could just lean back and wait for them to come to us."

To my surprise, Eric Van Koppen smiled at that. "Yes sir, but while your suggestions are unconventional, they make a lot of sense, so I'll run it by the salespeople and hear what they say."

I thought for a moment. "Good... Hmm... While you're at it, consider giving Egypt the offer as well. They have bought 25 Raptor-27 and 30 Raptor-29's. If they can't get the subcontractors, give them some other offer. They have bought a lot of jets and deserve some kind of encouragement for that... Even if it means involving one of the other departments."

He nodded again. "We'll talk it over and get back to you on that, sir. Fortunately, like most of our planes, the Draak's major components are modular, allowing for easy repair or replacement of equipment. However, it also allows us to produce the components in different places and assemble the plane elsewhere." He paused. "Now for the next generations of planes. The Americans are developing several new fighters as always, the Chinese are working on the J-XX series and the Russians are going for the Su-57, so the competition is fierce. On the other hand, we got some very promising ideas on the drawing board, so it might be worth going forward with them."

"I suggest we wait." Said Manuel Estevez calmly. "We'll never be able to match the amount of research and money those countries have and more to the point, it was never our intention to make top-of-the-line jet fighters. Like always, we aim to make affordable and reliable planes. More to the point, in about fifteen years several nations, especially India and South Korea, will want to develop their own fighters and instead of trying to push our own fighters, like the bigger nation's most likely will, I suggest making partnerships with them. That might prove better in the long run."

Several of the other board members nodded at that, though Van Koppen just looked around with an expressionless face. Remembering Parkers precognition about Titan Aerospace, I reached out with my mind to read his surface thoughts, and he was convinced they could design and produce an even better plane but didn't want to disagree with his boss in an open forum like this one.

I didn't have the same reservations and shook my head, saying, "I disagree. Van Koppen, you just said that our current line of fighter aircrafts is among the best in the world and while that might not have been the intention, it has been the result. So, I suggest that we run with it. Arcadia have just as many top-notch engineers as Saab or Dassault, and those two have managed to construct the Gripen and the Rafale. Yes, it'll cost a lot of money, but considering that over the last four years, Titan Aerospace have earned about five billion dollars on the present planes, we can afford it."

Estevez looked shocked. "Are you sure, sir?"

"Yes." I said firmly. "If the Draak become as successful as you think it'll be, there's no reason to stop the development. Even if we fail, we don't really lose money, we just earn less and we have a solid technology base to build on, so let's take advantage of that." I smiled a bit. "And besides, in this cake we can have out cake and eat it too. We have fifteen years and nothing prevent us from entering a corporation with the countries you mentioned and develop our own plane at the same time."

Estevez got his facial expression under control and nodded. "Yes, sir."

In contrast, Van Koppen was smiling widely as he glanced around to see if there were any questions, but as there weren't, he said, "Good, and now for some completely new." He turned to look directly at Manuel Estevez. "Titan Aerospace have a little surprise for your wedding."

He pressed a button and the picture behind him shifted to a smallish looking jet fighter. It had the same delta wings and double tail fin as the Draak but was more compact and the front was completely different. "During the work with the Raptor series, we tried to make it lighter as well as smaller, drawing inspiration from the SU-25. Originally meant to be a trainer for the larger aircrafts, we build and tested it along with the Draak and it's surprisingly good." He smiled proudly. "We call it the Raptor-40 Kingfisher and in the true spirit of Starlight, it's a cheap and reliable lightweight subsonic fighter jet, built mostly with the technology from the Pegasus series of business jets. Besides functioning as a trainer, it can be used as a ground support attack aircraft, armed reconnaissance, air escort of ground forces or counter-insurgency operations. Due to the use of commercial parts, we have been able to keep the cost of the plane so low, that the sales price is..." He paused for drama "... 14 million dollars."

A hush went through the room, causing me to do a quick search of my memory again. While sounding expensive, it was a lot less than the price of the Raptor-27, which in the world of fighter jets was an extremely affordable plane. Even its nearest competitor, the Russian Yak -130, cost a million dollar more per unit.

"Even more important..." Continued Van Koppen, "... by using proven and widely deployed commercial systems, we have been able to keep the running cost per flying hour down to about two thousand dollars, with a reliability on par with the Pegasus series, which means ninety- three percent." He grinned proudly. "We'll have to lie and say eighty-five, for people to believe it."

Now I was really impressed. As part of the briefing on Titan Aerospace, I had read up on the cost of operating fighter jets and it was normally more than twenty thousand dollars per flying hour, with the Gripen and our Raptors as exceptions to that rule. Getting that cost so far down was sure to attract some customers.

The reliability or readiness was also impressive. Due to the many advanced systems, most fighter jets were notorious unreliable. The Raptors had a readiness of about 85% and at the beginning many customers had trouble believing even that, so an even higher reliability sounded fictitious.

"Another benefit of using already tested and tried parts, was that we could do the testing in only two years, which have kept the costs of development down to an acceptable amount."

"How good is it?" Asked Manuel interested.

"For a budget fighter it's very, very good and even more important, it's extremely tough... Like the SU-25, it's armored and build to withstand damage, but due to the design being drawn from the stealthier Draak, it's much harder to get a missile lock on then the SU-25. We tested the living daylight out of it, and it just takes everything we throw at it and keep on flying." Van Koppen said, sounding like a proud father. "We estimate that we can sell at least five hundred of these to the smaller nations, that doesn't have the need for the more advanced, and expensive, fighters. Though not designed to replace the old Northrop F-5, it can do everything the old F-5 can, just better and cheaper, and there's a lot of air forces out there looking for a cheap replacement for their old F-5's. If we take Mr. Ivan's suggestion," he nodded to me with a smile. "Both India and South Korea have F-5's and a replacement plane could be part of any deal. The same goes for Egypt, who, as far as I remember, has a lot of old Dassault Alpha jets that will need replacement soon." He showed a new picture. "It's not a replacement for any modern fighter jets, since the Raptor 40 will lose almost every time, but by using this for missions where bigger jets are overkill, air forces can save a lot of money and equipment."

People around the table nodded.

"How many do we have now?" Manuel Estevez asked speculatively. "And how many Draak?"

"Well, we made eight of each type for testing as usual and six of those are still active." Van Koppen shrugged. "We destroyed the last two of both types to find out how much abuse they could take. Aside from that we have an additional six Draaks that are intended for Oldenburg Air Guard."

"Excellent... Get hold of the Dutch and tell them that all planes carrying guests will be escorted as soon as they enter Oldenburg Airspace." Estevez smiled a little. "Having a Raptor-25 on one side and a Raptor-40 on the other side of each plane might stir some interest."

Van Koppen nodded. "Considering that at least four Dutch ministers are coming, that shouldn't really be a problem." He paused, and the smile faded into a more serious expression. "Sir, can we consider manufacturing either the Raptor-25 or the Rapto-40 in Holland? Fokker closed down a few years ago and we could use their manufacturing plants to assemble at least some of the planes instead of partnering it all out as we have done so far."

Manuel glanced over at me. "What do you say, sir? It's a break from our tradition, but it's your call."

Looking at Van Koppen, I could feel the pride in his country of birth emanating from him. "Does it make any sense to do that in the long run?"

That question took him by surprise, but he took a moment to consider it before nodding. "Yes, sir. Many of the European nations consider planes not produced in Europe or USA to be of inferior quality, which is one of the reasons why the R-27 and R-30 don't really sell there. Just by building them in Europe, we have a greater chance of selling them there as well. At least when it comes to the Raptor-40." He shrugged lightly. "The various Air forces know better but buying new fighter jets is a political issue as the politicians are the ones approving budgets and new acquisitions."

I nodded slowly. Unlike the tech talk earlier, this made a lot of sense as people had always nurtured preconceived opinions and views on goods from other nations. "Good point. Let's see if we can't make that happen."

That signalled the end of the meeting and as everybody broke up, I took the elevator to the fifth floor of the building, where Starlight had a large penthouse apartment visiting CEO' could use. However, as everybody had rooms on the big hotels and resorts for the wedding, the apartment would be empty, giving me some space and time to relax for myself.

First, I treated myself to a long bath, before I dressed in a bathrobe, started the stereo, and sat down in a chair with a glass of wine to unwind, while listening to the music. Petra or Riya had loaded an R&B music CD and I enjoyed the soft voices of Toni Braxton, Whitney Houston and others, as I just sat there, letting the music fill my mind.

As all Baylon Mentats, I'm good with numbers, but while I could easily calculate the billions earned or used by Starlight Merchant Group, the value, and jobs for ordinary people these numbers represented was mindboggling. At some point, I started thinking about the time where Baylon had been in this world and poured myself another glass. It might have been three thousand years ago, but it still hurt as if it had happened only a few months ago.

--------------------

I had just finished the bottle, when the door opened, and Riya walked inside, carrying some shopping bags. I shook my head slightly, when I suddenly remembered that all the women had a key to the apartment and used it when they had errands in Rastede.

She stopped as she saw me sitting there. "Sorry... I didn't know you were here." She looked at the empty bottle and the glass in my hand. "Drinking on your own?"

Looking at the glass, I nodded. "Yeps. I needed to unwind. I'm really not cut out for this owner and Chairman job."

Placing the bags by the door, she closed it and walked closer. "No offence, Ivan, but that is bullshit. You might not be like the rest of the CEO's, but you got a lot of people skills and you'll do fine." She looked around in the semi dark living room. "Why's there so dark in here."

I shrugged. "I forgot to turn the light on when I sat down and after that I got caught up in the music and wine."

She laughed. "You're drunk!"

"Yeah... for the first time in... well, it feels like forever."

"Can we get some light in here?"

"Sure." I said and extended my will. Being drunk, it probably wasn't the greatest idea, but as intended, every candle in the living room lit up, casting the room in a soft glow. "There ya go."

"Wow." Riya said softly as she looked around. "I keep forgetting you can do things like that."

"Sorry... didn't mean to spook you."

"I'm not spooked, just surprised..." She said and looked at me in silence for a long moment. "You look tense. Do you want a massage?"

That sounded like just the thing to make me relax, so I nodded. "That would be nice."

"Good. Wait here." She disappeared into one of the three bedrooms.

A little while later she came back out, with her hair set in a ponytail, wearing a white short-sleeved blouse and skirt combo, and rolling a massage table in front of her. I watched as she placed it in the middle of the room and locked the wheels in place. "Jump up."

With a shrug, I stood up, dropped the bathrobe and lay down on the table, putting my face into the hole designed for that. It was very comfortable, and I started to relax again, listening to the music that was still playing.

Though I couldn't see her, I could hear Riya squeeze some oil into her hands and stared to oil me up, by letting her hands run down my back. Next, she moved towards my feet, lifting them up one at a time and began rubbing the sole of each one, gently at first and then with a little more pressure. It felt heavenly and I enjoyed every heartbeat of it.

"By the way, why did you say that I would do fine?" I asked lazily.

"Because you will." She stated. "You might not be educated in business, but you know how to be a leader, and, in your position, that is more important than any degree. Leave the tech babble and accounting to the experts. That's what they're there for. Now, relax and stop thinking about business."

She began working on my legs, running her soft oily hands from my ankles up my calves, over the back of my legs working towards my inner thigh, before going down towards the ankles again.

I was ready to melt into the massage table and Riya must have felt it, because she laughed softly. "You know, it's okay if you fall asleep... the instructor didn't call it 'relaxing massage' for nothing."

"Good point." I said and just relaxed as she massaged the back of my legs, working her way up over my butt to my back. Together with the candles, the wine, and the music, it all helped me relax and I dozed off.

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Department 55 -- A new Team

Late September 2000, London

Sheena Rao was sitting in her office in the Interpol building in London, when Luis Vela knocked on her door and came in with a big smile on his face. "Sheena, we got a hit."

For a moment, Sheena had no idea what the young Spanish computer expert was talking about.

"On what?"

"Ivan Kolba." Said Luis with a patient look on his face. "After Malaga, you asked me to keep a passive lookout for him... and I might just have found him."

Surprised, Sheena sat up straight. "Where?"

"Oldenburg Island." Said Luis Vela and added. "It's a small island in the Caribbean... about 450 kilometres south of Jamaica."

"How on earth did you find him there and isn't that out of our jurisdiction?"

"No, like Aruba, Bonaire and several other Caribbean islands, Oldenburg Island is part of the Netherlands, which makes it our territory." Luis explained. "Anyway, I have the computers looking for abnormalities done by persons named Ivan and someone named Ivan Emilian took exams in seven different languages on the University of Oldenburg."

"Okay, that's a lot." Stated Sheena. "Go on."

"I checked the records, and a Croatian national named Ivan Kolba Emilian became a citizen of St. Kitts and Nevis some five years ago." He smiled slightly. "And in case you don't know, St. Kitts and Nevis is a small island state in the Caribbeans, infamous for having no income tax and selling dual citizenships to everybody who can afford it."

Sheena nodded. "Yeah... I think most Interpol agents know that Island."

"Most likely... However, earlier this month, Ivan Kolba Emilian renounced his citizenship of Croatia and became a citizen of Oldenburg Island, changing his name to Ivan Emilian two days later."

"Yes!" Exclaimed Sheena. When she saw the amused expression on Luis face, she added. "Sorry, but I feared that the American would find him before we did."

"Without a name, that is highly unlikely." Said Luis dryly. "But I have more information for you." He handed her two printed articles. "There are articles from the newspaper on Oldenburg and from the newspaper on the University of Oldenburg. There are more, but these about sums it up."

Taking the papers, Sheena skimmed through them, eyes widening as she took in the information.

In short, Ivan's uncle had died, leaving what sounded like a multimillion-dollar company to him and making him chairman of the board at the same time.

"This..." She waved the articles in the air. "Is the stuff movies are made off. It is even real?"

Luis nodded. "Yes. I checked with the Dutch and they confirmed it. So did the police on Oldenburg when I talked with them. Ivan Kolba Emilian is the nephew of the former Chairman and minority owner of Starlight Merchant Group, Giles Oldershaw, and have now taken over the company according to the law."

"Okay, but why is he taking exams at the university then?"

"According to what I could get from the university, Kolbas.. Sorry, Emilians papers was lost during the war in Croatia and they're helping him getting his credentials back." Luis told her with a shrug.

Sheena thought it over for a moment, but it did sound straight forward and fit with what she had learned about the war in Croatia and what Ivan had told her. "Nice of them... but you think there's a problem."

Luis nodded. "Yes. Ivan Emilian is going to Los Angeles for an Ancient History exam in December, which isn't good, because we have a request from our American friends in Unit X, who wants to know what really went down in Malaga. Apparently, the brief we sent them wasn't quite detailed enough for their taste."

Sheena sighed and nodded. As American citizens had been involved in the case, the Department had sent a short rapport to their American counterpart, but with the attention it had gotten with the capture of Parker, they naturally wanted to know more. "Damn... We want to talk with Ivan before they do, but I really need Honeycutt and Zavala."

"I agree. When do they return?"

"They still have a few weeks of vacation left." Sheena said and smiled at the thought.

Zavala had proposed to Maya Honeycutt after less than a month and she had accepted. Then he had visited Department 55 and after a long talk with Mr. Newport, Zavala had joined the Department full time as Maya's protector.

The wedding took place in mid-August and they were now honeymooning in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. A very long honeymoon, since Maya had a lot of unused vacation and Zavala technically didn't start in Department 55 until they both returned. That had left Sheena with a desk job since she wasn't allowed in the field without a protector and protectors were always in short supply.

"Well, they'll be back soon enough." Said Luis and stood up. "I'll go report the findings to the Old Man."

"Okay.. and thanks for keeping me in the loop."

"No worries."

--------------------------

Sheena had expected to be called to Mr. Newport's office for a meeting later the same day, but it took four days before that happened, and for some reason she could feel butterflies in her stomach as the guards opened the heavy wooden door to let her inside.

Mr. Newport's office looked old fashioned, more like a library than an office, and there was an air of quiet and timeless elegance over it. Dimly lit, with warm ambient lighting provided by green-shaded banker's lamps placed strategically on large, dark wooden desks, the mahogany walls had floor to ceiling bookshelves, many of them filled with leather-bound volumes, old tomes, and classical literature. Some of the shelves had glass doors, displaying various framed pictures, old artifacts and an old globe.

The desk he was sitting behind was just as imposing, made from some sort of dark wood, but adorned with intricate carvings and brass accents. Behind it, a large high-backed chair was placed, and as usual, Mr. Newport was sitting on it, somehow fitting the rest of the room perfectly. Soft spoken and polite, but still coming off as a strong person, Mr. Newport reminded her of the modern English gentleman portrayed in film and TV-series, complete with an immaculate three-piece suit.

Mr. Newport rose from his chair to greet her, when the guard let her in. "Ahh Miss Rao. Nice of you to join us." He gestured at a woman in a business suit sitting in the offices soft leather chairs. Pretty with short blond hair and big brown eyes behind a pair of glasses, she looked like she was in her early thirties.

"Allow me to introduce you to Miss Angie Larsen who is on a permanent loan from the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service." He smiled. "I'm afraid I cannot pronounce the Dutch name without butchering it, but it is normally shortened to 'AIVD', so that is what I'm going to call it from now on."

Sheena turned towards Angie Larsen. "Nice to meet you, Miss Larsen."

The Dutch woman stood and offered her hand with a smile. "Likewise, Miss Rao."

If took an effort for Sheena not to lift her eyebrows as she took the offered hand. While at least ten centimetres taller than Maya Honeycutt, Angie Larsen had the same body type: Extremely curvy without being overweight and the suit she was wearing did nothing to hide it.

As their hands touched, Sheena felt a light probe, clearly indicating that Angie Larsen was a Psychic. She wasn't a skilful Psychic though, as the probe was both weak and easily detected, indicating that Angie Larsen was new to being a psychic. It was still rather rude to probe someone without asking permission and just to teach her a lesson, Sheena deflected the probe and did a quick scan, easily defeating the Dutch woman's mind-shield.

Larsen's eyes widened slightly in surprise, causing Sheena to smile slightly.

Mr. Newport had obviously detected the exchange, because he coughed lightly, drawing their attention. "Play nice, Ladies. We have a job to do."

He waited until they were seated and then said. "Manuel Estevez, the CEO of a private company named Starlight Merchant Group is getting married in a grand wedding on the Caribbean Island of Oldenburg." That caused Angie Larsen to sit up straight in surprise, but Mr. Newport ignored it as he continued. "Among the guests are a lot of important businesspeople from all over the world and I would like the two of you to travel to Oldenburg and keep your minds open for signs of psychic activity. " He looked at Sheena. "I know Miss Larsen is very new to this, but you are going to mentor her on this trip."

"Yes sir." Mentoring the new psychics was an important part of the job and while Sheena had only done it once before, the request wasn't unusual. What was unusual, was that it was the same company Ivan had inherited from his uncle.

Since Luis had told her about Starlight Merchant Group, she had tried to find more information about the company but had found very little. Apparently, it was a private company and didn't have the level of transparency that publicly traded companies had, and she had been unable to find any financial data, ownership details or operational insights in her search. Granted, as she hadn't used the Departments connections for what was so far a private interest, there was a limit to what she had expected to find, but even so the level of details was extremely low. Not even their homepage had given her much, except for a lot of material about its history dating back to the company's creation in 1713, which wasn't relevant for her research.

"However," continued Newport, "while Miss Larsen is new to our business, she is not only an experienced information collector, but was also born and raised on Oldenburg Island, so she knows both the area and the languages used there, which by the way is Dutch and Danish."

"That will be useful, sir." Said Sheena patiently.

"Especially for the next part of your assignment." Said Mr. Newport. "We're not only interested in Starlight Merchant Group because of the wedding guests, though they're extremely important. But as Miss Rao discovered recently, their previous chairman died recently, leaving the control of the company to his only living relative... Ivan Emilian."

Sheena smiled a bit as she nodded, but before she could comment on it, Mr. Newport handed her a photo. "Is this the Ivan Emilian we have been searching for, Miss Rao?"

Looking at the picture, Sheena nodded slowly. The quality of the photo wasn't good, and it had been taken at a distance, but she had no problem identifying the white-haired young man on the photo. "Yes, sir. That's the same Ivan we encountered in Malaga."

"Excuse me, sir, but why are we interested in the Chairman of Starlight Merchant Group?" asked Angie Larsen.

"We suspect that he might be a Psychic, but we don't know for sure." Said Mr. Newport and smiled slightly. "While you're at Oldenburg Island, I would like you to try to confirm it, if possible."

He looked at the two women. "Miss Rao, you will brief Miss Larsen on the incident in Malaga and Miss Larsen, you will brief Miss Rao on Oldenburg Island and Starlight Merchant Group."

"Yes, sir." The two women said almost in a chorus, before Sheena added. "Who's going to be our guardian?"

"Sean Bakker. He's in Australia for the Olympics at the moment but will meet you on Oldenburg."

Sheena nodded. Besides being Dutch, Sean Bakker was one of the Departments Guardians and she had worked with him several times before. Unfortunately, he rarely said much and while he was good at his job, Sheena privately considered him to be one of the most boring persons she had ever met.

"Any other questions?" asked Mr. Newport, but when both women shook their heads, he stood up. "Good. The Department jet is ready to fly you to Oldenburg. Have a nice trip, Ladies."

"Excuse me for saying so, sir." said Angie Larsen as she stood up as well. "But if we're to arrive unnoticed, that's a bad idea. Starlight owns the international airport and if we arrive in a private jet, we're noteworthy." She paused for a moment. "When I go visit my family in Rastede, I usually fly to Miami and then take the regional plane to Oldenburg, so we can take the Department jet to Miami and then Air Oldenburg the rest of the way. It's still not perfect, but at least we don't arrive in a private jet."

"Good thinking, but it is not really necessary." Said Mr. Newport with a fatherly smile. "You're both at Oldenburg Island as members of Interpol and they know you're coming, so there's no need to keep a low profile."

Angie Larsen quietly followed Agent Rao's lead, as they travelled to the airport. With only twenty-five Psychics in the Department, she had heard about Rao several times during her training and Rao's reputation as a Detector was just as stellar as Honeycutt's skill in using Retrocognition to look back in time. A skill she still had trouble believing was for real and despite her years of experience in information gathering, she felt like a rookie.

"Sorry about the scan earlier, Miss Rao." Said Angie Larsen when they were sitting in one of the cosy sofas in the Department jet. "I didn't really do it on purpose."

"Never mind." Said Sheena. "We all do it from time to time... and please drop the formalities."

"Oh, thank God. I feared we needed to keep that up for months." She leaned back against the armrest. "So, what was that Malaga incident, Mr. Newport was talking about?"

"Have you read the brief?"

Angie shook her head. Like all new psychics, she had been isolated for protection and training, until the Department was sure she had her powers under control. "No, I've been in intensive training for the last five months."

"Well, it's somewhat complicated, so listen carefully." Said Sheena and told the story, supplying it with pictures from the case file of most of the placed and persons involved. The attempted kidnapping of the Baker twins and the death of Curtis by the hand of an unknown Psychic. The discovery of the stolen antiques, the kidnapping of everybody and how they were rescued by the unknown Psychic, who then disappeared without a trace, leaving a neutralized Parker behind for them to interview. She finished off by describing how that had led to the arrest of numerous paedophiles as well as the rescue of hundreds of children.

"You guys have way more action than I was told during training." Declared Angie with a smile when Sheena had finished.

"Adventures are hardship remembered in comfort." Quoted Sheena Rao with a shrug. "It wasn't fun while we were in the middle of it and to be honest, it was the most action-packed mission in decades. Normally, they're much more relaxed and doesn't involve psychics as powerful as Parker."

"Good to hear." Smiled Larsen. "I guess you guys suspect that the Unknown Psychic is this Ivan Emilian, since Mr. Newport mentioned them almost in the same sentence."

"Yes, but please remember, that we still don't know it for sure. Until we have confirmed it, it's still just a theory. Unfortunately, we don't know much about him." Said Sheena and leaned back in her seat. "Both according to the passport he showed us in Malaga and from his own statements, he's originally from Croatia and..."

"Hold!" interrupted Angie. "His own statements, you said. You guys talked with him?"

"Yes. By coincidence, I saw him while out for a walk and had a chat with him, to see what kind of guy he was." Sheena chuckled, when Angie lifted her eyebrows in surprise. "I wasn't alone. There was a very competent policewoman looking out for me." She paused of a second. "I have to say, that I like him a lot. He's smart, funny, well-educated and in general good company... you know, one of those guys that actually listen to what you have to say, instead of just passing the time until they try to seduce you."

Angie nodded and was silent for a moment, while Sheena's story ran through her head. There was something wrong with it, but she couldn't pinpoint exactly was it was.

"Anyway," continued Sheena. "If you're going to meet him, without him knowing you're an agent, be very careful. Emilian is as sharp as they come and even spotted my backup."

"Okay." Said Angie slowly, while she digested the information. "You said Ivan Emilian is from Croatia. Couldn't we get some information from them?"

Sheena looked at her in a way that made Angie sure, she had asked a stupid question. "What do you know about the Croatian War of Independence?"

"Not more than most people." She admitted. "I worked mostly with intelligence gathering within the Netherlands."

"It was brutal and Vokuvar, the city in which Emilian was born and raised, became the first major city in Europe since World War II to be almost destroyed after a three-month long siege in 1991. It's been called Croatia's Stalingrad."

"Holy shit." Mumbled Angie.

Sheena nodded and continued, "Their archives and databases are gone and it's almost impossible to get anything from them. To make matters worse, it was before the internet, so there not even an online back-up somewhere. " She sighed. "I don't know any details, but I think his closest family was killed there. We also don't know if he was involved in the fighting but judging from his willingness and ability to kill people that threaten someone he cares about, I guess he was. At least if he really is the Unknown Psychic."

"Alright." Said Angie and looked at the pictures. "The American women are beautiful, but what does Ivan Emilian look like? There's no picture of him here and the one Mr. Newport showed us wasn't that good."

Sheena Rao took a moment to gather her thoughts and then said. "Take my hand. I'll send you some mind-images."

Nodding, Angie took her hand.

Images flooded into her mind and they all showed a good-looking platinum blonde man, with sparkling blue eyes and a charming smile. The blonde hair was a nice contrast to the golden tanned skin and the body looked muscular and well built, reminding her of an athlete.

There was especially a mind-image, where Emilian was sitting among some musicians on a café that caught her attention. He was playing some sort of stringed instrument, clearly having a good time along with the rest of the band and the guests were either clapping the rhythm or dancing between the tables.

According to her trainers, most untrained or emerging Psychic had problems controlling their powers and for that reason avoided public places, but that was evidently not the case here.

"Good looking guy." She commented. "What is his connection to Miss Baker and her friends?"

"Well, we have no idea how they meet, but after that it was apparently all fun and good times."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you have problems with pictures of people having sex?"

Angie almost laughed. "I'm from Oldenburg. We belonged to Denmark when porn was legalized there, so no, I don't have a problem with that."

"Good."

Several mind-image followed, showing Emilian having sex with Rita Meyers, who in turn were busy licking and fingering Karen Chai. On the next mind-image, Emilian was laying on a bed, with Alice Baker riding him. Then an image of Emilian slowly fucking an ecstatic Karen Chai followed.

Angie felt a surge of lust running through her body. Everyone in the mind images were hot as hell and knowing that the mind-images were from a real situation, just made it sexier. A thought hit her. "Is this of their own free will or are they mind-controlled?"

Again, according to her teachers, many Psychics used their powers in illegal ways and those with mind-control seemed to gravitate towards money, sex or both and in her opinion, that wasn't that much difference between mind-control and a date-rape drug. Both left their victims incapable of using their fundamental right to say no.

Sheena chuckled. "That's an excellent question but put your mind at ease. I scanned them and there's not a hint of mind-control involved."

"Seriously?"

"Yes... this is consenting adults having good sex... I did say that we have no solid evidence of Emilian being a Psychic."

"Oh..." Angie fought to dampen the feeling of desire the flooded her body, but it was a losing battle and holding hands with the beautiful Indian-Australian in front of her didn't help. She quickly though of another question, but the only thing that popped into her mind was, "He must be awfully good to be able to keep the interest of three women as beautiful as the Americans."

Another set of erotic memories flooded her mind, but this time it wasn't limited to visuals. Angie felt her body shudder as she watched a smiling Ivan Emilian dive between a pair of spread bronze-coloured legs and started to lick. The sensation was only a memory, a shadow of the real feeling, but it caused her to gasp. It had to be Sheena's own memories she was reading, and it was like watching point-of-view porn, complete with sensations!

In her mind, Emilian circled her clitoris with a soft wet tongue, while strong fingers caressed her inner thighs, drifting towards her pussy, sending...

The images were cut off with an abruptness, that made Angie's head spin and her body arching for more.

"Shit, that was hot!" She mumbled, as the real world returned as she could see Sheena Rao looking at her with a worried expression on her face. "Sorry about that. I didn't think you could read me that deep, so I didn't shield."

Not trusting her voice, Angie just nodded, as their eyes meet. As they were still touching, she could feel the lust boiling in Sheena and she knew that the more skilled agent had to be able to feel the same from her.

Taking a deep breath, she dropped her mind-shield and asked, "May I see the rest?"

First Rao's dark eyes widened in surprise, but then she smiled and nodded. "Close your eyes."

Angie did and shivered as she felt Sheena's hand on her neck and a moment later Sheena whispered. "There's one thing that doesn't figure in the report..."

Angie listened, but most of her senses were focused on the soft feminine hand that slowly crawled in-between her bare legs under the skirt, heading towards her soaked panties.

The fingers reached her soaking wet pussy, gently stroking the outer lips from top to bottom, spreading the juices even more and making the whole area slippery. The sensation of his tongue on her clitoris and his fingers sliding over her shaved pussy was wonderful.

"... and that is that not only did I talk with Ivan in Malaga," said Sheena's voice, while her hand reached Angie's panties. Almost without thinking, Angie spread her legs, giving the other agent better access. Then she moaned softly, almost inaudible, when she felt Sheena's fingers through the thin fabric, teasing her pussy. "I had sex with him. Lots of sex."

Two fingers slipped inside of her, while the tongue on her clitoris suddenly became stiffer and licked harder. Her hips buckled when the fingers found the G-spot and started to massage it, making the clitoris less sensitive. There was no hurry, as fingers and tongue worked in unison to give her pleasure.

Angie shivered as a hot tongue licked the edge of her ear as her panties were pulled aside and two fingers expertly circled her clitoris. The tongue retreated, but she could feel hot breath against her skin when Sheena continued. "He seduced both me and my bodyguard... Or perhaps I seduced him... I don't know and quite frankly, I don't care."

The pace slowly picked up and an orgasm began to build, while she luxuriated in the feeling. Her hips bucked uncontrollably as they tried to follow the rhythm of the tongue, but the feeling of fingers gliding in and out of her while massaging the G-Spot made that impossible. The head of another woman entered her field of view and blocked out Emilian. It was an ordinary looking Spanish woman, but the look of desire in the dark eyes was not to be mistaken. Smiling, the Spanish woman lowered her head until she reached the waiting breast. Her tongue swirled around one areola until she flicked the puckered nipple with the tip of her tongue. Lips closed around it, as the woman began to suckle it between her teeth.

Angie could feel soft lips against her own as Sheena kissed her and she quickly responded by kissing back hungrily. The kiss was not only extremely good, but it also dampened her own involuntary groan, as Sheena without warning pushed two fingers into her soaking pussy.

The lips were removed again, and she could hear Sheena whisper. "Shyyy. You're going to disturb the crew if you're not quiet."

In her mind, she cried out on pleasure as the Spanish woman licked her way to the other breast and repeated the treatment there, while her clitoris and pussy felt like they were on fire. Emilian lowered his pace again, keeping her on the edge and giving the Spanish woman time to give her sensitive breasts the full treatment, slowly dragging her towards an orgasm, but slowing her down at the same time. It was wonderful torture.

Sheena's tongue found the sensitive skin on Angie's neck and licked it ever so slowly. On most other circumstances it would have tickled, but the feeling of two fingers sliding in and out of her pussy somehow kept that from happening. It also drove her excitement to new heights.

"You see," whispered Sheena between licks. "I don't care if he's Psychic or not. I like the guy and I want to fuck him again."

In a fog of lust, she heard Emilian say, "Faster now."

The Spanish woman flashed her a smile and a wave of pleasure rolled through her as lips closed around her nipple again, tongues flickering on both nipple and clitoris, hands caressing her body and two stiff fingers creating ripples of bliss, as they massaged the G-spot in an ever-increasing rhythm. Ripples and waves joined, and the resulting orgasm tore the breath from her lungs as muscle contractions made her body spams. It was ecstasy, bliss and joy.

Doing her best to keep silent, Angie came in a long, drawn-out orgasm and she suddenly became aware, that Sheena was kissing her intensely, her skin hot as small spams ran through the Interpol Agents body. Recalling the memories and sending them must have affected her the same way.

It hadn't stopped the Indian from moving her fingers though and Angie shivered when she felt them making a circle inside her pussy.

When she regained her senses, and opened her eyes again, the view had changed. Instead of looking at the Spanish woman's head, she was looking at a delicious wet pussy, placed just within reach of her tongue, the scent of aroused woman filling her nose. Something pressed on her pussy lips and then she was penetrated. It was a gentle penetration, made easy by her slick juices from the resent mind-blowing orgasm, but the thick cock stretched her out as it made its way into her tight pussy and she could almost feel every bump and vein on it.

The feeling made her groan lustily and the pussy in front of her were suddenly lowered onto her mouth. A flick of her tongue on the clitoris and the Spanish woman moaned. So did she, when the big cock inside her reached bottom and stayed there for a moment, before it was slowly pulled out again, feeling like a hot firm pole that massaged all the right spots inside her.

"I'm gonna scream if you keep this up!" Warned Angie in a whisper as she shivered. Both the memories and Sheena's talented fingers in her wet pussy driving her wild. A moment later, a piece of cloth was stuffed into her mouth.

"No, you're not." Whispered Sheena in response, certainty in her voice. "Bite down."

The fingers between Angie's legs curled and hit the G-spot, sending small pulses of lightning through her body.

Strong hands grabbed her hips, followed by the feeling of his big cock being pushed into her again, and again, and again. With a scream she came, crying into the Spanish pussy. Reaching around the leg with an arm, she stuffed two fingers into it as she gave the clitoris a good licking. She started to really fingerfuck the Spanish pussy and was rewarded a moment later as the cock moved faster and harder.

With a scream she came again, even harder than first time, consuming her with eternal bliss as it thundered through her body.

Angie bit down on the cloth in her mouth as Sheena's fingers brought her to an orgasm at almost the same time. Desperately, she grabbed the Interpol agent and held on as a wave of pleasure ran through her. Beside her, Sheena was containing her own orgasm, having relived the same moment.

The memory faded and Sheena retracted her fingers, as Angie's vision returned to normal.

"Holy shit." She mumbled to Sheena after removing the cloth from her mouth. "That was wild."

The Indian nodded slowly, looking at her with her dark eyes. "Yes, it was... but as far as the memory goes, this was just twenty minutes out of four hours." She smiled at the memory. "It was a good night... wild, but good."

The sound of the door to the cockpit opening, made them move back to their original places.

Another door was opened and closed, causing Angie to giggle. She felt like a teenager that had just avoided being caught in something she wasn't allowed to do.

With a grin on her face, she reached into her purse for a perfume and spread some perfume in the air. "This should mask the smell of sex." She placed the perfume in the purse again, just as there was a knock on the door. A moment later, the co-pilot popped his head inside to ask if they wanted something to eat but disappeared as fast as he had appeared when they declined.

"That reminds me..." said Angie. "How did you know that I'm bi-sexual? Could you feel it in the probe?"

Sheena looked surprised for a moment before she laughed softly. "No. We all are, honey."

"What do you mean with 'we all are'?"

"Exactly what I said. All Detectors are bi-sexual." Stated Sheena. "It has something to do with how our brains are wired. We also have a higher sex-drive and evidence shows that lack of sex actually lessens our ability to detect and track other Psychics."

"They didn't tell us that in training!" Protested Angie.

"I know... they didn't tell me either." Said Sheena, "but that is why the Department allows Detectors to have sex while on assignment... even with suspected Psychics or teammates." She reached over and caressed the other agent's knee. "When you dropped your mind-shield, I felt your lust for me clear as day."

Angie nodded slowly, as she regarded the other agent speculatively. "You know, I normally don't have sex on the first date and despite this not being a date, I just realized that I know next to nothing about you, Sheena. At least not aside from stories and rumours and we really need to get to know each other, if you're to work together on this."

"Good point and likewise." Said Sheena. "Just about the only thing I know about you, is what I got to know at the meeting." She grinned. "Oh, and that if you weren't a member of the 'mile-high club' before, you are now!"

Angie blinked in surprised, but then a smile spread on her face. "I wasn't and thank you."

"Any time!" Sheena said with a wink, but then became serious. "You know, neither Starlight Merchant Group nor Ivan Emilian is going anywhere, so let's use the rest of the trip to get to know each other. The rest of the briefing can wait until we reach Oldenburg."

---------------------------

The flight was uneventful most of the way, but as they came near their destination, Sheena suddenly noticed that they were being escorted by a fighter jet.

At the same time, the planes speaker system came to life, as the captain explained that the two-plane escort was a celebration gesture from Starlight Merchant Group due to their CEO getting married. He went on to explain that the fighter jet on the right side was the new Raptor 35 Draak, while the smaller plane on the left side was the equally new Raptor 40 Kingfisher.

"I didn't know Starlight Merchant Group made fighter jets." Mumbled Sheena to Angie.

"Titan Aerospace is among the largest producers of airplanes in the world." Answered Angie calmly and continued. "They make military, commercial and business jets and helicopters." She looked around. "Including this plane by the way. If my memory serves me right, The Department uses Pegasus 12 planes to get us to the places we need to go and Pegasus is a subdivision of Titan Aerospace."

"Impressive." Mumbled Sheena as she studied the fighter jet outside the window. A thought hit her, and she looked at Angie. "How did they ever get permission to fly this close to a civilian aircraft?"

"I guess they called someone and asked for it." Said Angie dryly. "It's not like Oldenburg, or the Netherlands for that matter, is going to deny a reasonable request from a company responsible for a sizeable part of their Gross Domestic Product."

Sheena sat down in the seat. "Now, I think you need to tell me something about Starlight Merchant Group, 'coz I have no clue what you mean."

Angie smiled. "Money talks and last year alone, Starlight Merchant Group paid about one billion US dollars in taxes to The Netherlands and the same amount to Oldenburg, for a grand total of two billion dollars. If they want permission for a fighter escort, they'll get it."

Sheena's eyes widened in shock. "Billion? With a 'B'?"

Angie nodded. "Yes."

"That's insane!"

"Not really." Said Angie with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "With a tax rate of ten percent, that equals a yearly profit of twenty billion dollars, which doesn't even place Starlight in the top ten of the most profitable companies in the world. However, unlike most companies, Starlight do pay their taxes without trying to find loopholes to avoid it." She smiled. "How much do you know about companies and finance?"

"Not much." Admitted Sheena. "Normal school level I think... and I've never heard of Starlight Merchant Group before today."

"That's because it a conglomerate: A corporate group with a lot of subsidiaries operating in different industries." Explained Angie. "You would know some of the subsidiaries and a lot of the brands, but not the parent company." She paused to think for a moment. "Do you know Lipton Tea, Dove and Ben & Jerry Ice-cream?"

"Who doesn't?"

Angie smiled a little. "Yes, most people do, but do you know a company called Unilever?"

Sheena thought for a moment and shook her head. "No, but if it fits with your explanation, it most likely owns the three companies you mentioned."

"Exactly." Angie said with a smile. "It's the same principle."

"Alright, so what makes Starlight Merchant group special?"

"Well, it's a global company, but unlike many other companies registered on Oldenburg Island, Starlight has lots of facilities there. It owns a quarter of the Island, including the international harbour in Christianshavn, the bank and the airport in Rastede, and employs almost sixty percent of the total workforce." She smiled slightly. "Both my parents and my sister work for Starlight or one of its subsidiaries, and close to everybody on the Island have someone in the family that does that."

"So that's why you reacted so strongly, when Mr. Newport said that the CEO was getting married."

"Yes. Duke Olaf and his family might be the local aristocracy, but the board of Starlight is the real nobility for most people here."

"Including the Chairman." Guessed Sheena, but to her surprise, Angie shook her head. "Not really. The CEO and not the Chairman has always been the public face of the company." She shrugged. "The previous chairman, Mr. Oldershaw, was an eccentric person, who were never seen in public and as far as I know, there isn't a single picture of him anywhere." She smiled slightly. "If you haven't guessed it, Starlight also owns the both the newspaper and the TV-station on the Island. I don't know anything about the new chairman, but then again, I haven't read my email for months and I guarantee that it's filled with news from my family about Starlight Merchant Group, the new chairman and the wedding."

That caught Sheena attention. "Any chance that there's something useful in there?"

"There might be and I will look, but the local police can tell us most of what we need." Angie looked thoughtful. "Sheena, you're not from here, so you have no idea about the impact Starlight have on Oldenburg Island. There's an old law that states, that trading companies can pay up to half their taxes in goods, provided that the Island need those goods, subject to approval from the local government. Not only have Starlight paid a great deal of taxes, but they have also used that law a lot. The Island's schools, hospitals and the universities are either supported or owned by Starlight." She gestured towards the windows and the fighter jet outside. "Titan Aerospace along with Starlight Defence Tech are the reason why the University of Oldenburg has a world class Engineering and Aerospace Department." She paused for a moment and then added. "... and on Oldenburg, Starlight Merchant Group is just called Starlight. Using the full name will mark you as a tourist."

Sheena thought it over and then slowly said. "So basically, Starlight Merchant Groups owns Oldenburg Island."

"As usual with finance it's a bit more complicated than that." Said Angie with a smile. "Even if they move to another country, the facilities will still be here, and I think that the Island can survive on tourism and agriculture alone. It wouldn't be easy, but we could do it. However, Oldenburg is roughly the same size as the island country of Martinique in the east Caribbean, but due to Starlight's presence on the Island, Oldenburg have a Gross Domestic Product equal to that of Panama or Bulgaria. So, yes Oldenburg benefits a lot from Starlight, but we're not completely dependent of them."

"Close enough." Mumbled Sheena, again looking at the fighter jets outside her window. "Anything else I need to know?"

Angie thought for a moment and then nodded. "We'll have to meet Giles Cornell when we arrive. He's the CEO of Starlight Security and, along with Jacco de Windt, the Chief of Police, responsible for the security at the wedding."

Sheena frowned. "Does Starlight own the police?"

Angie chuckled. "Of cause not, but every member of Starlight Security is also a member of Oldenburg Gendarmerie when they're in Oldenburg Territory and the Gendarmerie is responsible for the external security. Thus, it all works better when they work together."

"What exactly do you mean by external security?"

"The air and sea around Oldenburg Island." Said Angie calmly. "Unless I'm mistaken, during the wedding the Gendarmerie is maintaining a constant watch around the Island with jets, helicopters and patrol boats to prevent any unauthorized entry."

Sheena blinked a few times. "Wait a minute! Are you telling me, that the Gendarmerie have a freaking air force."

"Well, air force is a big word, but Oldenburg Air Guard did have eighteen fighter jets and a similar number of helicopters about a year ago."

Sheena blinked in surprise and then shook her head. "Angie, that means that Oldenburg Air Guard have more aircrafts than Mali or Tanzania, and as far as I remember, those countries use old Russian jets and nothing like what's outside this window!"

The Dutch woman extended her arms in a helpless gesture. "Sheena, I don't know what to say. Starlight uses Oldenburg Air Guard to test their planes and helicopters. My dad told me that we had a problem with drug smugglers going through the area some twenty years, but after Oldenburg Air Guard and Oldenburg Sea Guard was created to watch the ocean, that problem have gone away."

"Do I even want to know what the Sea Guard have?"

"Six patrol boats." Said Angie without hesitation. "One of my uncles is in the Sea Guard."

"At this point, I'm amazed they don't have destroyers." Chuckled Sheena. "But I guess that's not necessary with all the aircrafts."

Angie tilted her head. "I don't get why you're so upset about it. It's just the way things are here."

Sheena leaned back in the seat with a sigh. "I'm just surprised about the size of Starlight, I guess. I mean, if Ivan turns out to be the Unknown Psychic from Malaga, I highly doubt that he'll agree to work for the Department, when he has a huge company here."

"Good point." Angie thought for a moment. "However, you're still thinking that he can become an ordinary agent and if he's the Chairman of Starlight, that is not going to happen."

Something in her voice made Sheena say, "But?"

"But if he's as good as you say, he could become a trainer and Oldenburg would be a good place for new training facilities. I mean, I've just finished the training and not only were the facilities old World War II buildings, but the weather was terrible. If you could get him to cooperate in making a new facility here on Oldenburg and perhaps even give some lessons once in a while when he has the time."

"I don't know about that." Said Sheena thoughtfully. "It sounds good on the surface, but there's a lot of security issues to consider. I think, I'll take it up with the Old Man later. It's above my pay grade."

"Yes, it probably is." Agrees Angie and then smiled as the 'fasten your seat belts' sign lit up. "We're there. Are you ready to see one of the most beautiful airports in the world?"

"No." Chuckled Sheena as she fumbled for the belt. "But I will look forward to it."

"Good." Said Angie, but the wriggle and grimaced. "Damn."

"What's the matter?"

Angie held up the panties Sheena had pulled off her. "I forgot to put these back on."

"I'll live." Grinned Sheena. "And the thought of you walking around without your knickers on, is not a bad one."

------------------------------------------

Happy Birthday, Riya

Late September 2000, Vasa Estate, Oldenburg Island

I stretched lazily on the lounge chair and smiled as I looked out over the moonlit Caribbean Ocean.

The dissertation for my Ancient History degree, 'Phoenician trade and it influence on the ancient world', was finished and it had even been relatively easy to write despite taking a lot of research.

However, with the help of an Ars Mentalis trick, I could not only read a page as fast as I could glance at it, which meant that a two-hundred-page textbook took about five minutes to read, I also remembered it perfectly. The biggest problem and the reason for the extensive research, was that there was a large difference in what I knew and what the rest of the world knew. Since I couldn't just write 'because I remember it that way', which would have been the truth, I had to have an official source on everything.

Straight forward as it was, it had still taken weeks to write so far and to make matters even more complicated, the university on Oldenburg Island didn't have the professors to grant me a degree.

At first, the University wanted me to use a university in Holland, but the exam was in December, where I had planned to visit Alice and the twins in LA, so on my request, they arranged for the University of Southern California to do the exam instead.

"Even when you relax, you look serious." I suddenly heard Riya's voice say and looking in the direction it came from, I discovered that she was standing just a short distance away, watching me with a small smile on her face. As always, she looked lovely, with her hair set in a simple ponytail and dressed in a tight-fitting halter-top and skirt. "Your smile rarely reaches your eyes."

"Well, I'm usually more fun than this," I assured her. "but with the children in Costa Rica, followed by the business here, I have been rather occupied."

"But it's getting better now, right?" She walked over and sat down on the chair next to me.

"Yes, things are starting to fall into place... How are you doing? Are you okay?"

"Yeah... Partly at least. I'm still trying to wrap my head around never going home again and what to do in the future."

With a slight smile, I said. "Become a doctor, Riya. Isn't that what you want?"

Riya sighed. "Yes, but that isn't going to happen. Oldenburg University is not free of charge for non-citizens and there's no way I can afford it."

For a moment, I was silent as I looked at my watch. It was past midnight and taking a quick decision, I stood up and reached out to her. "Come with me."

Looking puzzled, she took my hand and stood up. "Where're we going?"

"Just follow me." I sent her another smile. "Trust me on this one."

Riya smiled back with nod and followed me, as I led her inside the house and into the office, where I opened the closet and took out a small gift-wrapped package.

"It's past midnight, so I guess it's okay to say happy birthday now." I turned around and handed it to Riya. "Happy birthday."

"I should have known Petra would tell you." Riya laughed and took the present. "Should I open it now?"

"That was the plan." I nodded. "Just remember, that this is my gift for you. You'll get the rest of the gifts when the others wake up."

Smiling, she carefully removed the paper, revealing the ornamented wooden box inside.

"Ohh... Beautiful!" she exclaimed, turning it in her hands to admire the exquisite carvings. Seeing the silver lock, she carefully opened the box and looked at the papers inside.

Placing the box on the table, she took the papers out and read them one by one, her face showing increasing disbelief. The first was an acceptance letter to Oldenburg University School of Medicine, an international recognized medical school in Rastede, which operated in collaboration with the universities of the Netherlands and Denmark.

The second paper was an acceptance letter for a language course, held on the same school and aimed at upgrading the applicants English to a level where it could be used on a medical school.

Then there was a student visa, proof of paid tuition and everything else needed to attend the school until she graduated as a doctor.

Finally, she looked at me. "Is this for real?"

"Yes... Happy Birthday, as I said."

"But... but... Why? I mean... We're not even intimate!"

That made me laugh in surprise. I had expected jubilant astonishment followed by great joy from her part, not having to explain my actions to her. "Riya, I accidently bonded the five of you to me. The least I can do is to make sure you have the life you want to have... at least within reason... and getting an education is certainly within reason. Intimacy isn't expected nor required."

Shaking her head in disbelief, Riya carefully placed the papers back in the box, before she turned around and surprised me again by giving me a hug.

I hugged her back and for a moment, we just stood there.

Then she surprised me for the third time, by reaching up to take hold of my neck and give me a long, sweet kiss as her other arm sneaked around me and held me tight, squeezing her firm breasts against me.

First, I tried to keep it somewhat innocent, but as the kiss got more heated, I gave up on that and kissed her back just as passionately as she kissed me.

That caused her to moan into my mouth as she continued to kiss me, and her hands started to wander hungrily on my body, turning me seriously on.

In response, I let one hand slide from her back, down to her firm round ass. I squeezed her cheek and received an appreciative sigh into my mouth as she continued to kiss me, while her hands found their way under my T-Shirt.

Wanting to know the reason behind her, I carefully read her mind to see if she felt obligated to share pleasure with me, due to the gifts I had given her. She didn't, but the slight boost Parker had given her sex-drive had weathered down her self-discipline over the last two months, as she had listened to the cries of pleasure from Petra and Delina, and, somewhat to my surprise, by the sight of me walking around dressed only in shorts due to the heat. Our actions to help the children in Costa Rica and me healing Svetlana had also helped, as in her mind anybody that did such things simply had to be a good person.

She had decided to seduce me with a massage when we had been alone in the Rastede apartment but had gotten cold feet when I fell asleep.

Riya broke the kiss, whispering. "I want you."

"Are you sure?" I managed to ask and retreated from her mind as she started to kiss the sensitive skin on the side of my neck.

She bit me gently, said "Yes." and then kissed the spot she had just bitten, adding a soft warm tongue. "Lift your arms."

I did as she asked and a moment later, my T-shirt was laying in a heap on the floor.

"Now you do the same." I said and with a smile, she complied.

I took hold of her halter-top and pulled it upwards. She wasn't wearing a bra, causing her large firm round breasts to be released as soon as the clothing had left them. They jiggled but didn't fell one bit and the hard nipples looked so inviting that I stopped what I was doing, leaving the halter top covering her head.

Before Riya could complain, I leaned down to kiss one breast, biting lightly into the soft flesh, and then licked the spot in exactly the same way she had done with me.

A groan escaped her lips, and I gave the breast another wet kiss, followed by a gentle bit and a teasing lick.

I continued in that manner, working my way closer and closer to her nipple, until I closed my mouth around it, teasing it with my tongue.

"Ohh yesss." She hissed and leaned forward a bit, pressing my head against her tits.

I released the nipple and kissed my way to the other breasts, gently teasing it.

A shiver ran through her body, as I kissed my way from her breasts over her collarbone and up her slender neck. Reaching up, I pulled the halter top completely off. The long skirt was fastened at the waist, so I undid it and it fell to the ground, leaving her standing in a pair of white panties and nothing else.

My eyes roamed her body, taking it all in. The almost perfect hour-glass shape, the beautiful golden-brown tones of her skin and the long black hair, that cascaded down her shoulders in soft curls.

"You're an incredible gorgeous woman." I told her as I took a step forward and gently pushed her down upon the sofa.

Giggling, she let herself fall into the soft cushions and leaned back, resting with her ass on the edge and I was about to follow her, when I realized the light in the room was a little too bright for what I had in mind and that the door was still open. "One moment."

Walking over to the door, I closed it and switched off the ceiling light, leaving only the desk light on, bathing the room in a softer glow.

When I turned around again, Riya was laying in the same spot, but somehow, she had managed to lose the panties and she was now totally naked.

Her pussy was shaved clean except for a triangle of jet-black curls neatly trimmed into a triangle pointing down toward her pussy. It looked very inviting.

I placed myself between her legs, leaned in and kissed her tempting mouth, before I started to kiss my way down her neck, chest, swelling breasts and flat stomach, giving her a bite here and a lick there. Her breath became ragged as I continued down her legs to the knee and then kissed my way towards her pussy, where I gently kissed her lower lips and the soft skin around them, softly teasing her and making her squirm on the sofa.

"Oh damn!" She moaned loudly as I drew my tongue up her slit, for the first time tasting her sweet juices and receiving a long slow groan of pleasure when my tongue reached the juncture of her lips, where her clitoris was hidden, giving it a long slow lick.

She groaned as I flicked across it with the tip of my tongue several times, making her body jerk and shake with the sudden onslaught of sensations. Using long slow licks, I moved down one side of her pussy, allowing her body to rest for a moment before going up the other side. Reaching her clitoris again, I sucked it into my mouth and circled it with my tongue.

"Oh!" she cried loudly when I flicked her clitoris with my tongue once more and this time slipped a finger into her velvety soft tunnel, the wet walls gripping and holding my finger as I pressed into her. My tongue worked her clitoris, alternately stroking it in long slow circles and then flicking it rapidly as my finger steadily glided in and out of her tunnel.

"Oh my god," she moaned, rocking her hips as my tongue made teasing circles around her clitoris and her juices leaked around my finger. I slipped a second finger into her tight tunnel and curled them up, searching for the pleasure zone on the top of her tunnel, up behind her pubic bone.

"Ohhhh!" Riya cried suddenly as my finger rubbed across the sensitive spot deep inside her. She bent her knees down and hooked her heels on the edge of the sofa cushion, lifting her pussy toward my face as I teased her clitoris more softly, dragging out the trip toward the climax I could feel was building.

I suddenly remembered that it was past midnight, and we weren't alone in the house. Reaching out with my mind, I quickly erected a dome of mental energy around us, effectively blocking any sound from entering or leaving the area. Satisfied, I went back to lick her again.

"Oh shit, oh shit!" she panted rhythmically, following the movements of my fingers. Her juices flowed freely now, dripping on the carpet between my legs, and her hips bucked harder as she grasped for air.

Loving the sight, taste and smell of her, I flicked her clitoris faster, making her hips buck harder toward me as she gasped for breath and her hands moved to my head, pressing it harder against her pussy. My fingers drew small circles on her pleasure zone, and I timed the strokes with the flicks of my tongue on her clitoris until her whole body jerked hard, a gush of her juices spraying out across my chest and neck.

"Yessssss!" she screamed as her whole body jerked again, adding more to the drenching I had received, while my tongue and finger continuing their movement through her orgasm.

When her orgasm had faded, I pulled my finger and face from her pussy, lifting myself to my knees between her legs and yanked my pants down. My rock-hard cock sprang free, pointing directly at her dripping pussy.

She was certainly wet enough, but just to be on the safe side, I spread some of her juices on it, before I slid it up and down her crack a few times, making the head even wetter.

Riya almost jumped when I hit her clitoris, so I pressed the head down on her pussy and made a few back and forward motion with my hips, causing my dick to glide over her clitoris.

She groaned and bucked her hips again. However, as I was still pressing down on my cock to add pressure on her clitoris, her move made the head of my dick slip between her lower lips and into her still spasming pussy.

A "Yesss!" escaped her lips as she lifted her heels from the sofa and spread her legs wide.

Accepting the invitation, I pressed forward, using small in and out movements and going deeper into her hot tight pussy with each stroke until I reached the bottom, where I held still, giving her time to get used to me.

Instead of moving, I caressed her, enjoying the feel of her trembling body. Her mouth was out of reach for a kiss, but her magnificent breasts were right in front of me, so I cupped both of them, squeezing them gently, as I leaned forward and kissed them again, going from one to the other and back again.

Riya moaned and gradually started to move her hips again. In her position, there wasn't much she could do, but I took it as an invitation to start moving again and did exactly that.

Her pussy tightened its grip on my dick as it moved out and then she sighed happily when I pushed it back in, while sucking on her nipple.

The position wasn't comfortable, so I raised my upper body again and took hold of her hips, while I continued to fuck her in a slow and gentle pace, pushing my dick in and out from head to balls with each stroke.

It didn't take long, before Riya began to tremble again and her moans intensified, as she tried to rock in time with my strokes. Then she came with another soft scream, tossing her head from side to side, while smiling widely at the same time.

The smile was replaced with a look of astonishment a moment later, when I picked up the speed.

"Oh... Oh... Shit... So... good." She panted loudly and then screamed once more as she came again, pushing her head back into the soft cushion. Her pussy constricted around my dick, adding to the incredible feeling and her long strong legs flailed up to my hips and wrapped around my ass pulling me hard into her pelvis.

That made it impossible to move, so instead I ran my hands over her body again while her screams turned into gasps for air and finally into just heavy breathing.

Riya shook her head slightly as if to clear it and sent me a brilliant smile. "Crap, that was good!"

I nodded in agreement as I returned the smile. "Yes... Really good." Using my muscles, I flexed my dick inside her, causing her to shiver and moan at the same time. "Are you ready for more?"

She nodded eagerly and relaxed her legs, releasing me from their hold.

Placing my hands on her thighs, right under her knees, I pushed her legs until they almost touched her shoulders. It wasn't normally a position I would expect a woman to be able to be comfortable in, but after having watched the women doing yoga every day for several months, I was sure she could manage it and the angle made my dick rub directly against her pleasure zone.

Riya's eyes widened in shock, as I started to fuck her with long hard strokes.

"Ohh my god!" She moaned loudly, as she closed her eyes.

I increased the tempo, intoxicated by the feel of her tight wet pussy around my dick and a tingling started at my dick and radiated through my body, as I came closer to coming myself.

With a grunt, I released one leg, brought my hand to her clitoris and started to stroke it.

Riya came again, screaming "YES! OH MY GOD! YES!" as she hammered a hand into the cushions, her pussy clamping and unclamping hard on my dick, adding to the pleasure.

The feeling, sight and sound brought me to a boiling point and over it.

"I'm coming!" I moaned and a few heartbeats later, I emptied myself into her, while my thumb stroked her clitoris.

Her eyes opened wide, her mouth flew open and a moment later she screamed again. There were no words or even an attempt to say words. Then she slumped down on the sofa, going completely limp and for a moment I thought she had fainted, but she opened her eyes and sent me a weak smile, looking completely dazed.

I returned the smile, took my T-shirt and used it as a towel. First to dry the sweat of her body and then to stop our fluids from messing up the sofa, as I withdrew from her.

Riya was still looking dazed, so I took her legs and placed them on the sofa as well, turning the rest of her body in the process, so she could relax.

When I was done, I looked at her face and saw her looking back at me. "That was amazing."

"Yes, it was."

She bit her lower lip in thought, before saying. "Sorry for jumping you like that."

That caused me to laugh. "Riya, there's no need to be sorry. You're an intelligent, gorgeous woman and the only reason I haven't tried to seduce you weeks ago, is that I didn't want to press you into doing something you would regret later." I gently caressed her legs. "Feel free to jump me any time."

"I might... No, I will take you up on that." Riya said and reached out for me.

A moment later, we were both laying on the sofa, idly caressing and kissing each other.

"Hmmm..." She mumbled after a while. "On one hand I hope that my screams didn't wake Petra and Delina... but on the other hand, I hope it did. Does that make sense?"

I thought about it and nodded. "Yes. You're a much more private person than they are, but you would also like them to know that you have joined the club, so to speak, and if they heard you, you don't have to tell them that yourself."

Riya's lovely dark eyes stared at me for a few heartbeats, but then she nodded. "Exactly... do you think they heard us?"

I shook my head. "Sorry, but no chance. The door is thick and soundproof, and their rooms are in the other wing of the house." Chuckling at her facial expression, I added. "But if you don't want to tell them that, just don't."

She shook her head and kissed me on the nose. "No. We promised each other to tell, if we had sex with you, so that is what I'm going to do."

I kissed her nose as well in return. "Your choice."

That made her look speculative. "Just out of curiosity... When does Esther come back from Costa Rica? She has been there a long time now."

"I don't know exactly, but she'll be here in time for the wedding." I told her. "Afterwards, I'll visit her and the kids in Costa Rica for a few weeks."

Giles Cornell and I had coordinated the raids, so they weren't going to happen until after the Twins had gone back to LA, giving me time to go to Costa Rica and take help with the newcomers. It wasn't perfect, but it was the best I could do at the moment.

"Are you ever going to seduce her?" She suddenly asked, adding. "Esther, I mean."

"I don't plan on it." I said with a chuckle. "And before you ask, it's not about her looks or type. I just prefer women who doesn't regret sharing pleasure with me afterwards, and I'm pretty sure Esther would do that."

She nodded thoughtfully. "I think you're right. Esther wants to find the right one and it's not a cultural thing. More like a personal preference." Her hands glided over my dick. "And talking about preferences... I would very much like to be fucked again. Are you able to do that?"

"I will be, if you keep doing that." I chuckled and reached out to fondle her breasts. "But for future references, coming just once works best for me."

Her hands closed around my limp dick, stroking it gently. "Why?"

"On second time I'm usually either too sensitive or not sensitive enough." I explained. "I would rather drag out the first orgasm as long as possible, making it better and more powerful, than going two times." I could feel my dick respond to her touch. "But that is for another time."

I leaned over to her and kissed her, soft lips parting to let my tongue inside.

------------- To be continued ------------------

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