Jaci Stone - Act 02

"Do you take gold?" I asked.

"I'll take a kiss," Starr pursed her lips.

On Thursday I took another load of gold to Arumas. It was a fun time because I loved sneaking millions of dollars worth of gold through the city. It seemed to be a good story for a movie, if there were villains lurking around.

The interchange I had to navigate through to get to my parking spot near downtown was fun. I had to cross two lanes of traffic to go up a ramp on the left, then across four more lanes to go down a ramp on the right. It's a delicate maneuver, performed by thousands of Angelenos per day. You depend on the courtesy of other drivers to do it right, which I did. The old Lincoln I saw in my side view was not courteous at all and almost kissed the wall because they cut off a big black Suburban.

I registered the Suburban and dismissed it. Every once in a while one of Francine's guards tried following me and lost. Those drivers were always women and dressed like Feds, this driver was neither. I shifted my attention back to the Town Car while I performed another lane change. This time I took an exit that went down on the left and the car did its best to follow me. I took a left, it took a left.

A bright idea popped into my head. It was time to see if Francine would do me a favour. "Hello, Jaci," Marcie purred.

When Marcie answers Francine's phone, that means the latter is in one of her 'special meetings' that I am not privy to. Although Francine concedes pretty much everything to me, which gets rather annoying because I like banter, those secret meetings are off limits. "I have a problem, Marcie, I have a tail."

"How is that a problem? I've seen your driving, you lose our tails all the time."

"This isn't one of your tails, you gals don't use Town Cars from the eighties. Besides I want to know who they are."

"Where are you at?" Marcie asked with concern.

As I moved into less-congested areas, I kept Marcie updated on my progress. The next thing I knew, we were in a bottlenecked street and two Suburbans were in front and behind me and the Town Car. The driver of the Suburban in front of me got out and walked past me, indicating that I should follow her back to the Town Car. The driver and the passenger of the car were both trying to dial their cellphones and it seemed like the phones weren't working. I rapped on the driver's side window and gave him the sign to roll it down. I got a middle finger in return.

"That's fun," I said to the women flanking me. "Do you know who they are?"

"The car has Hollywood plates," a woman who had come from the rear Suburban said. "Two golf alpha tango one two three."

"There's only what, about ten thousand of those plates running around," the woman from the front Suburban said. "Madam Stone, I am Case."

"I'm Jer," the other woman said.

"Can you run the VIN?" I asked.

Case stepped forward with a wand and scanned the VIN barcode visible through the windshield. "Nice toy, right?"

"If it works." I tapped on the window again, getting the finger in return. "The window sounds like plastic."

Jer repeated my tapping on the window and moved her tapping to the body of the car. "Window is polycarbonate and body sounds like it's lined, probably with Kevlar."

"Kevlar plates," Case agreed. Her little wand beeped. "Car is registered to Dorian Delvecchio. No wonder they can get away with Hollywood plates."

"West Coast Mafia," a third woman had joined us. "They work for Roy Palamo."

I knew who Roy was. When I had been working with some of the 'social clubs' around the city, the Mafia had taken the absence of visible organized gang activity to try and move in. Starr, Pete, and I had nipped that in the bud, ninja-ing our way into Roy Palamo's bedroom to deliver our message: Stay out of our neighborhoods or we'd skip over the horse head. He listened then, would he listen now? "I need an ASP."

Jer produced an ASP, a metal baton that extends by inertia. I flicked it hard down to expand it, then whipped it around and struck the plastic window between me and the driver. While the plastic was older and probably past its designed lifespan, it resisted my first and second strikes and shattered on the third. The break startled the driver, who immediately went for the shoulder holster. I had the tip of the baton at his nose before he could complete the action, releasing a dilation wave in the process.

"What do you want, Goombah?" I asked.

The driver looked around, and it dawned on him that nothing else was moving, even his companions were frozen in time. "Boss wants a piece."

"Of what?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Your find. Nothing is this town regarding gold goes on without his cut."

"And what do I get for this cut? Protection?"

"Exactly. Your mine could suddenly collapse, your workers involved in accidents. The works."

"That's funny. You don't even know where or who to hurt."

"We'll figure it out," he smiled.

"Do you, right now, realize what is happening? Anybody coming after me will need to get through my friends, then deal with someone who can just go 'poof!' I could melt the skin off your bones right here and now and be gone."

"We have protection from the witch bitches in this town."

"No, you don't. Tell Roy-Boy that I know the people who are willing to skip the horse head. He will know what I mean. Got it?"

"Whatever, bitch," he snapped.

I released the dilation wave and took a step back. "Let them go," I said.

There were no questions, and no discussion. The three women returned to their vehicles and our four vehicles started moving down the street. At the next intersection, the lead Suburban and the Town Car peeled off in opposite directions. That left the Suburban behind me, and they didn't break contact. I pulled into the parking lot next to a fruit stand and the Suburban pulled in behind me.

I ordered five fruit cups and waved at the women I knew were inside. The four of them got out and joined me at the table I picked out.

"Any one of you calls me 'Madam Stone,' you're fired," I said.

"That's Cyn, Par, and Kie," Jer said, pointing to her three companions in turn.

My father had explained the necessity of having the shortest identifier as possible for quick radio contact in tactical situations. It varied by service, but there was an identifier for every member of a unit according to their rank and position. These women were using single syllable parts of their names. I should have figured that out sooner.

"What's with the tactical names?" I asked.

"They're just for quicker communication," Jer explained.

"So you're the team leader," I said with a nod. "It fits."

"You watch too much TV," Jer accused.

"I watch very little television," I countered. "My father taught me about tactical identifiers. It's always a variance of unit squad and position. So, who's your poppa?"

"You are," Jer said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Madam Talbot is absolutely convinced that you need protection. It seems that you do, Mafia thugs following you and all."

"I could have handled them, but I didn't want to kill anybody today," I said.

"Huh?" Kie asked.

"I'm kidding, of course," I said. "Stopping them for a chat would have been really hard to do by myself, and I didn't want to scratch my truck."

Jer's companions laughed, but not her. She probably knew, deep down, that I could have handled myself if it was necessary. "So, you called for us. Are you going to ditch us again?"

"There are some things in my life that I want to keep private. Everyone has secrets, mine belong to me and no one else."

"We are sworn to keep the secrets of our principals," Jer huffed.

"Tell me, Jer, what is the name of the little club I appear to be a member of?"

"The four fifty-seven club," Jer blurted out, much to the surprise of her companions.

"Jer!" Cyn was appalled that Jer would let that out.

"Par, what's my temporary designation?" I asked.

"Poppa twenty-ten," Par confirmed.

"Par!" Cyn exclaimed.

"Hmm. My secrets." I looked at each of them in turn. "You can't even keep your own."

Jer squinted at me. "I think that we could keep your secrets from everyone but you."

"Cyn, Who's the leader of the four fifty-seven club?" I asked.

"Anna Forrester," Cyn replied. "Major General, United States Army..."

"Retired," I finished. "I know who she is, and she's a good leader."

"She is," Jer nodded. "You'll get to meet her soon."

"I'd like that. I'd like to see if she remembers me," I mused. "As far as following me around, here's my concession: My home is somewhere in a one hundred square block area inside North Angeles. When I leave that boundary, you'll be able to follow me. Take it or leave it."

"I'll take your offer on behalf of the teams assigned to you," Jer said.

"How very precise of you," I nodded.

"Now, why?" Jer asked.

"There is a thief among the highest levels of your group. I have personal knowledge of her activities and I don't want her knowing anything about me."

"Fair enough," Jer nodded. "I'm sure this has something to do with the visits you've been making to Arumas? Don't worry, we haven't reported on that."

"You're very good," I nodded.

"Blame the cellphone Francine accidentally left in your car once. I stress the word 'accidentally.' She loves you alot and wouldn't do anything to betray you."

"Thank you for being honest. I'm going home now to switch cars. I'll call you when I'm on my way out of my neighborhood."

"Confirmed," Jer said.

We finished our fruit cups and went to our vehicles. I drove LA normal style, but didn't lose them until I hit the town limits of North Angeles. They had stopped at a house which had been converted to a small business-like building. There were four identical Suburban trucks parked outside. I did a loop around the block to get a second look-see at the place, Jer waving to me as I went past.

Starr and Pete were busy down in the cavern, and I gave them the low-down on what had happened.

"Sounds like we need to pay another visit to the Hollywood Don," Pete said.

"I need to check with Samantha first. The goombah said something about being protected against magic, so their property may have a warding on it."

"Maybe you're reading too much into it," Starr offered. "The Gold Rules, remember?"

"Maybe," I shrugged.

"Enough with that," Pete said. "There was a little nudge in what that woman told you. She said that Frannie loves you. There's something there, methinks."

"Pete, I don't know. Frannie is absolutely great, but I spend more time in bed with her surrogates than I do with her."

"You told us that she wanted a lot of children," Starr said. "Does that hold as true in the present as it did in your dream?"

"Yeah."

"Well, even when Frannie reaches the end of her reversion, she can only have one at a time," Starr offered. "She wants to build a family with you, Jaci, isn't that what you want? I guarantee that if she's paying people to follow you around to keep you safe, that's what she wants, too."

Starr had a good point. The logistics of Frannie's security operation were mind-boggling, not to mention the cost. The surrogates were another matter. All of those women, and they were willing. IVF was the best way to go, but they all wanted sexual intercourse. They wanted me.

"She finally got it," Starr teased. "For someone so smart, you should have got that sooner."

"I just wasn't expecting that," I countered. "Nobody expects to have a harem like that."

"True," Pete shrugged. "But it's every other man's dream."

"Nice turn of phrase," Starr nudged him. "We'll talk about that later."

"What?" Pete asked.

"He doesn't get it yet, either," Starr smiled at me. "Are we going to hit Palamo or not?"

"Let me consult Samantha," I hedged.

The Librarian told me that Samantha had gone back to her home in Germany. She was fine, but that's all The Librarian would tell me. She did point me to the section on property warding, which was three shelves of very durable-looking books.

A couple hours later I was satisfied that there wasn't much Palamo could cast by himself. The simple invitation protection didn't really apply to him because he had sent stooges after me. The ambiguity in the spell books was astounding. My property was protected by a blood spell, doubly because of the gold underneath, and triply by the reinforcement that I had applied myself.

Palamo, on the other hand, was more than likely unprotected. He had sent people after me with the message to not only extort me, but to pay him in gold. There was a reference in another book to Revengers prosecuting crimes involving gold, upholding The Gold Rules. I had twisted those a little bit to get Starr and Pete to take money for helping me remove the gold from my cavern.

Starr had given me a suspicious look when I told them that they had to take ten percent of the gold they 'mined' or some unspeakable harm might befall me. They finally agreed, then proceeded to subtly donate most of their cut to the dozens of charities around Los Angeles. I felt cheated, so I had to find shelters in other cities to help.

I gave my friends a call, telling them we needed to plan our assault on Palamo. I asked Jer to meet me in my condo to arrange her team's non-presence around me for the evening. When she asked why, I told her what the plans were and I didn't want her team to get caught in the crossfire. Jer called Cyn and asked her to get the blueprints and layouts of Palamo's properties.

Jer's team was not happy when I told them no firearms. They could have their knives and batons, as Starr and Pete had their katanas, but no guns. Starr didn't think I should have set that rule, as she and Pete had seen me shoot tight groups at seven hundred yards with a rifle. There were some days I wished that I didn't have that knowledge because sometimes I got sniper paranoia, especially out in the open. There was a difference between the sending of a message and the starting of a war, that's why I didn't want guns involved.

I still had to maintain the peace. If I didn't, the leadership of the Los Angeles area social clubs which deferred to the so-called Queen of LA would get involved. I really didn't want that, because I was known by law enforcement and the Laws of Man would come into play. I had to smile. That title had been given to me when the truce between all of the gangs in LA had been instituted. I never used that title for money or any kind of personal gain. The position itself was without station but with power. I had initiated the peace and I was allowed to move through their territories with impunity. My little protest could have gone the other way; my chalk outline could have been added to the tiny one already in the street where I was building my flower box.

Everyone agreed that it had taken balls for me to go up to the biggest thug on the block and tell him to put his weapon away before he shot another child. Now that I knew about my power, had that challenge been backed by magic? Had Gaia been protecting me that day?

Was Gaia going to protect me now?

Starr led the incursion at one hour plus fifteen. I could see her as she disabled guards and tied them up. Pete followed, disabling the guards' weapons as he went. Jer and I were in third position, conducting mopup and securing the way for the two pairs of women behind us.

Not a soul challenged us when Jer and I walked into the open-air entryway. Starr was at the top of one set of stairs, Pete at the top of the other. Jer, not sure what to think, tensed up as we ascended the stairs. I heard her growl instructions to secure the entryway into her subvocal microphone.

When I reached the top of the stairs, I pulled my batons out of the sheaths strapped to my back. The bars were constructed from titanium, but the tips were loaded with tungsten. Jer stood back as I gave a test whirl, which produced an audible 'whoosh.'

I walked down the hall to the room which had been designated as Palamo's bedroom on the plans Jer had given me. Roy was sitting in a chair, sipping a glass of what looked like whiskey. I learned immediately why he appeared so calm. There were men with guns on either side of the door, and they were immediately pointed at my head.

"I heard your message," Roy took another sip of his whiskey. "I've been waiting for you and your friends to show up. I didn't expect seven of youse."

The dilation wave was reflexive, as was the swing of my batons. The men on either side of me were hit twice each, not immediately crumpling to the ground because they still were in real time. I relieved them of their weapons, field-stripping them before throwing them in the corner.

"Go check on the others," I ordered Starr when she came into the room.

"Back in thirty," Starr confirmed.

The guards were showing their fall now. When I had read the books on time dilation spells, they confirmed that the dilation factor varied if you wanted. You tailored your action to the amount of gold used in the spell and the area covered by it. There wasn't anything on reflexive magic, the way I had fought before I knew that magic was real.

Starr confirmed her presence at twenty-eight seconds, and I let the wave go. "Roy. We were serious. Why do you even need to extort people anymore?"

"That's the way things are done," Roy said.

"I told you, we told you, to leave your family ways behind."

"No!" Roy slammed his glass down on the table. "I will not give in to some twat just because she can sneak into my house and knock my guys down!"

I took a baton and hit the table beside his hand hard enough to break through the wood. The blow splashed the remaining scotch on him. "I can do more than knock your guys down, Roy."

"Bitch," he wiped his hands over his robe. "If you were going to do anything else you would have done it already!"

"Roy, I'm not going to maim an unarmed man. You get a weapon and we'll dance."

He looked at the pile of gun parts on the floor, then back at me. "You're going to pay for this."

"Babe, I welcome you trying to serve the check."

"That's funny," a woman's voice said. I looked to the voice and saw...

"Harriet? You're real?"

"Jaci, he isn't going to give up," Harriet said.

"That's my problem, Harriet. Douchebag or not, I'm not going to kill an unarmed man."

Harriet waved her hands and a plastic bag appeared in them. "Leave this instead. You may still have to fight him later but it will be fun."

"What is it?" I asked.

"A horse's head, of course."

Harriet cloaked herself and her gruesome gift and I went a couple more jabs with Palamo. I ushered Jer and her wingwoman out of the room and dropped another dilation wave. Starr and Pete got to meet Harriet. She showed us how to cause a dilation ripple, which would freeze time in front of us as we left the property then let time resume a minute later. I took the bag and shook the head loose into Palamo's lap and we left the grounds the same way we had arrived.

***

Jer and her team were rather peeved that they didn't get to see any real 'action.' Once her team left the condo, Jer went to my refrigerator and helped herself to one of my beers. "What are you using, technology or magic?"

"Magic," I admitted. "Grab me one."

She slid her bottle across the counter and fetched another. "I knew it had to be something. What I saw tonight; more importantly, what I didn't see, defied a normal explanation. Can you teach us that?"

"All of the fun stuff is reflexive, the three of us grew up fighting like that and didn't call it magic until recently."

"So we're too old to learn how to be a Jedi?"

"I'm not really sure," I shrugged.

"You've also done some of your magic on Ms. Talbot. It is obvious that you're not in the relationship for her money..."