The Remote Traveler (The Remote Series Book 1)

by Finian Blake

  “Yes I let her talk to Terri. I think that things will be better for her now.” Lynn smiled at Layla and stroked her cheek.

  Lynn spoke over Layla’s shoulder, “Much better thank you. Terri is gone and I can deal with it. Susan you need to have a nap with Layla. You can say good bye to Terri.”

  “Maybe later, I think that Edward and Layla need to tell Alex the news about the Farm.” Layla was half way out the door when she turned around and hugged Susan tightly.

  “I love you mom.” Susan felt a twinge of guilt as she watched Layla sprint down the hall to catch up with Edward. The comment made her think of Layla as a daughter and not Terri.

  Edward stopped in security to locate Alex finding that they were just walking into the building. Layla and Edward were out of breath when they got to the pub. They ran up to Alex and Anna who were in deep conversation with Nadia and Ted.

  “They had several lightning strikes at the Farm and it triggered off half of the defenses. There were twenty plus explosions out there. Evan went crazy, so they had to sedate him and after he was out they called someone named Raymond.”

  Alex felt some encouragement. “We need to see what’s up out there. With someone else in charge they may call this off. Can you have a look?”

  “Layla, do you want to go along?”

  “No I am exhausted. I did the dream with Lynn and the trip to the farm. I think that the lightning storm drained my energy more than usual. That will be something to keep an eye on as we experiment. I will guard the room while you go.”

  “I will get Alex and Anna to do it. All I need is someone to guard the door. Go get something to eat and take a siesta. I will be back before you know it.” Edward left Alex and Anna in the sitting room and lay down on the bed. Lynn and Susan left as he went in the bedroom.

  “If you need us we will be at home.” Susan stopped after a few feet asking, “Alex, do you think that Edward could do the same thing for me?” Alex was concentrating on the activity at the Farm.

  “Edward was going to do some reconnaissance at the Farm. Something strange has happened there and I need some more information.”

  “Dad, nothing is more important than my mother. Let’s give it a try. I think that we might want to include Lynn too.” Edward took Susan and Lynn by the hand leading them into the bedroom. He looked around and found the bag that Lynn brought with her when she came in with Layla. On top of everything were the ankle boots that triggered the whole thing with Layla. Edward examined the boots they were handmade with a gold jeweled spur attached to the heel of each boot and the heel was a tall four inches. An idea came to him as he examined the boot.

  “Lynn, would you put the boots on Susan?” Lynn gave him a strange look, but complied without questioning him. He lay down between Lynn and Susan being glad that it was a king size bed. Sleep came quickly. After a short while the REM state started.

  Lynn admired the boots on Susan’s feet. Susan sat on the edge of the bed and Lynn stroked the boots.

  “This is the first time that I have seen them on your feet. I gave them to you twenty-six years ago.” There was a frost in her voice.

  “They were hidden in Terri’s studio.”

  “Did you even try them on? I had them made especially for you, with the spurs I paid over a 1,000 pounds for them.”

  “No I was afraid to wear them.”

  Lynn was crying, “And you lent them to Terri!” Susan lightly touched a heel to Lynn’s inner thigh. Lynn’s hose instantly ran and there was a red mark where the heel had touched.

  “Lynn, I was afraid to hurt you.”

  “You could have worn them without playing. You have never worn any of my special gifts. Those boots were the last special gift that I bought for you. Your closet is full of gifts that have never been worn.”

  “They were special gifts from you and I kept them in a special place in my closet. I didn’t give them to Terri to use. She took them without asking.”

  “I thought that you allowed her to take them.” Edward sat behind Susan with his arms wrapped tightly around her.

  “You went all of this time without even discussing it. As close as you are I can’t believe that you two have held a silent feud for all of this time. No wonder Terri had to come back. Layla was right. It was the boots. Terri had to put an end to this fiasco.” Lynn knelt up straight and put her arms around Susan’s neck,” giving Susan a passionate kiss holding her embrace.

  Edward had one more point to make before the dream ended. He slipped his hands between both women and started to grope their breasts. Edward started to slide his hand inside of Susan’s blouse. They both slapped his hands.

  “Edward, we are your mothers. That’s wrong!” Edward pulled Susan back on the bed and tried to kiss her. She pushed him off of her and Lynn held him back.

  “We said that’s wrong.” Edward lay back on the bed. He did not try to hide the frustration in his voice.

  “Layla is my wife and that makes her your daughter in law.”

  “But we thought that it was Terri.”

  “Now, that you’re sure that she only has Terri’s memories, what now?”

  “We will treat her like a daughter.” Edward rolled over willing himself to wake up. Lynn and Susan were sleeping peacefully in each other’s arms, so he decided to make his trip to the farm.

  Edward slipped into his meditation mode. Only one team was working the repairs to the defense systems. Five of the routers had been toasted by the lightning. They would have to order replacements the idea of having one claymore guard the routers proved to be a disaster. Routers on the main road seemed to still be intact, but the whole section on the North east needed to be replaced. Edward marked all of the locations. He looked at the map making a note of all of the routers. Edward went to Evans office checking the ID badge of the man on the phone his name was Donald.

  Edward looked at the notes on the pad:

  Evan black to DC.

  Raymond to take over Farm.

  Third sweeper team to Farm from Miami.

  Check out name Adam Chalenger from 1990 Ford Taurus.

  The last part unnerved Edward. How would they come up with that name? Edward felt a strong need to return.

  Lynn was shaking him and Susan was just coming in the room with Alex. Edward did his best to mumble the word.

  “…Ok?” Susan was panicked. His eyes are open but he is not moving. “Edward, are you alright?”

  Alex did his best to hold her back, “Susan, this is Normal when he takes one of his trips. It takes a few seconds to reconnect to his body.”

  “We were with him in the dream and he disappeared. When we awoke Edward was unconscious and we could not get any response.” Alex turned to Edward.

  “You went on a trip while they were still in the room?”

  “They were still asleep. I thought that I had enough time. There was something interesting. It was worth the trip.”

  “What could be worth scaring the shit out of your mothers?”

  “They have your name.” This froze Alex in his tracks.

  “Do you have any idea how they came up with it?”

  “There was a note next to your name: 1990 Ford Taurus.”

  “I can handle that. I sold the car to a false name and registered it to a false address. Still, I must respect the fact that they have our name.” Anna and I are going back to our cottage. You need to apologize for scaring the shit out of your mothers.”

  Lynn and Susan were still coming down from their scare. They hugged Edward fiercely and refused to let go. Lynn was the first to speak.

  “We thought that you were dead. Susan shook you hard and there was nothing. You disappeared while we were hugging.”

  “Lynn what happened after you were finished hugging?”

  “We had sex.”

  “That is why I left. You were sharing a dream and I was a hitch hiker.” Lynn changed her line of thought.

  “Can you teach us to share dreams?”

  “Ly
nn, you always could. Everybody can do it. They just don’t know that they can.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “You just have to be brave enough to allow somebody into your dreams. I have enough practice to get in, but I have to be careful. If I just invade without approval the person that I invade will be pissed off to the max. You and Susan were going to do something so I left quietly.”

  Susan pressed, “We were thirty in our dream, and I don’t remember ever having that good of a body.”

  “Layla and I occasionally have sex when we share a dream. I find that it is as good as we could imagine. That makes it better than it could ever be when we were awake. After some practice you don’t even have to be in the same room. You just have to be asleep at the same time. Sex for most people occurs mainly in their head. The glands are basically along for the ride. Have you ever wanted to have sex with someone and when you finally do it was nowhere as good as you imagined?” Both women nodded their head with a knowing smile. Edward continued, “In most cases it never had a chance of being that good, because we built it up to a level that could never be reached. As far as your body is concerned that is your self-image. That was how you see yourself.”

  Susan returned to the subject that they started with, “What about you? We shook you and could not get any kind of a response.”

  “Susan, have you ever knocked on a door and not gotten a response?”

  “Yes…”

  “Well, I wasn’t home. I was out of body. The body is just a shell to contain the spirit. It is not something that only I can do. Everybody can do it. The problem is can you be brave enough to step out? Holding the spirit together without a container takes a lot of work.”

  “What if something happens to your body when you are out of it?”

  “The same thing, that happens to my body while I am in it. The only difference is that I can protect my body while I am in it. That’s why I need a secure place to start from. I made a mistake of doing it without explaining the situation to you. This was the first time that someone tried to wake me while I was traveling.”

  “What happened when we shook you?”

  “I came home. It just takes a while to reconnect.” Lynn had to get back to the dream.

  “Why did you grope us in the dream?”

  “I was trying to make a point and getting slapped in a dream does not hurt as much as it does in real life.” Susan slapped Edward playfully on the hand and pushed him out the door.

  “Go find my daughter in law.”

  Edward found Layla still sleeping. He lay down next to her trying to sleep. He wanted to tell her what happened when he was disturbed in the middle of traveling. Finally, he fell into a trance and traveled back to the house in Huntington Beach. Something drew him to the rear of the house. Someone was trying to pick the lock at the double security gate that Suki had designed. The outside gate was unlocked and the inner gate was locked. A bolt slid into place on the inner gate and the outer gate locked automatically. This action triggered two ear shattering sirens on either end of the cage. The speaker for the alarm was directional and protected against gun fire. The subject would have to listen to the one hundred fifty decibel shrill alarm at two hundred eighty cycles per second which was four times the human heart beat until it was turned off by the security guard. The alarm also triggered an intense directional strobe at either end of the cage timed to seventy beats per minute which was approximately the same as the human heart beat. The light was so bright that closing your eyes did not do any good, so there was no escape from the sound or the light, which left the intruder completely debilitated.

  Don found the home of Alex Chalenger easily. The front was a garage door and a narrow entrance way with metal trellises and there was a security gate at the beginning of the entry. He decided on the back of the townhouse. There was a double gate at the back of the house. Thick vines grew over an arch between the two gates. He just about had the lock picked on the inner gate when he heard the outer gate close and lock. The alarm started blasting and four strobe lights flared on at both ends of the entry. He tried to open the outer gate and found it secured by four stainless steel pins. Blind and deaf Don tried to tear through the vines only to find they were growing on welded stainless steel bars. Four bolts had slid into place on both the inner and outer gate. The other three men from Don’s crew ran down the wharf to see what was happening. The lights of all of the neighbors houses started to come on. They tried to release the bolts but didn’t have any tools. They tried shooting the bolts but only succeeded in damaging the mechanism as the sound and light was starting to debilitate them. Don thought that he was going to lose his mind with the siren and the lights. The other three withdrew before they were completely disabled and left Don to deal with the security officer. One of his Federal ID’s would get him out of this. The security officer showed up in thirty minutes. Don was sitting in the cage with his hands over his ears and his eyes closed against his knees. When the siren was switched off he jumped up and screamed at the guard. “I am a Federal Officer get me out of here.”

  “You will first need to surrender you side arm, and show me you’re ID.” Don was blind and deaf from the unrelenting assault on his senses. When he finally understood what was being asked for Don produced an FBI ID badge. The guard looked at it and called it in. Don made up his mind to take out the guard and disappear as soon as the gate opened. The guard received instructions for opening the gate, but things were not going Don’s way. The guard used the appropriate key to access the box, but when he threw the switch nothing happened.

  “Someone shot the control panel nothing works. I will have to get a technician out here.”

  “Come on I have to take a crap.”

  “I can get you a plastic bag.” The guard’s cell phone rang. “Yes, I see.”

  He stepped back from the gate. “It appears that Agent Wright is having cocktails in New York City as we speak, so the FBI is sending a supervisor out here to see who you are.” Don had a copy of a real FBI agent’s ID and with his connections it was not difficult to come up with a badge. He usually just flashed it and would be gone. Getting trapped in a security cage was not part of the game plan. He knew that there would be a shit storm over this one, interdepartmental cooperation only went so far. Breaking and entering into a home without a warrant and using a real agents name stretched the rubber band too far.

  “You have no idea of what you are messing with.”

  Thomas the security guard was former Air Police at Sembach annex in Germany and clearly not impressed by Don’s threats. He had seen these assholes before, super-secret jerk offs that thought they were untouchable.

  “When the FBI gets here, we will find out who we are dealing with. You wouldn’t happen to have a warrant would you?” Thomas originally wanted to hire on with LAPD when he got out of the service, but his former CO had not liked him, so before leaving he restricted his entire file to the point that no recommendation was possible. Thomas landed a temporary job with Four Diamonds Security. It was a fairly good job, because they only dealt with high end clientele. The pay and benefits were good since Four Diamonds tried to hire former military police because of their training. It was a way of avoiding ‘want to be cops’. The equipment was the top of the line and the manager had given him a substantial raise with a supervisor’s position after only two months on the job. If an offer came now, he would be hard pressed to decide between the two jobs.

  Edward picked up the phone and called Alex.

  “I have news about your house get down here ASAP.” He hung up the phone without waiting for a reply. Edward called the kitchen at the security center. “John, I want six eggs poached, three muffins, cottage potatoes, a half a rasher of bacon and four kippers.” Layla was lying in bed watching him. She whispered in his ear.

  “I am not that hungry.”

  Edward laughed, “That was for me. Would you like anything?”

  “Were you traveling?” Layla asked pulling out a
recorder.

  “Yes, I have big news for mom and dad.”

  Layla pulled Edward to her and cradled him in her arms. “What did you do last night?” Edward recounted his shared dream with Susan and Lynn. He also detailed both trips that he made. Layla interrupted him long enough to turn on the recorder. He was almost finished when Alex and Anna burst in the room without knocking.

  “Edward, what’s the emergency?”

  “Don from the Farm tried to break into your house. He ran afoul of Suki’s security gate damaging the gate and now he can’t get out. Don handed the security guard Thomas a fake FBI ID and they called the FBI. Don is stuck in the cage for about two more hours. You have a chance to act in real time. I thought that you should know.” Breakfast arrived and Edward ate like a wolf, while Alex pressed for details, but that was as much as Edward could manage. He passed out cold with Layla going into her protective mode.

  “That is it. Everybody get out now.” Alex tried to ask another question. “I said get out now! Go do whatever it is that you are going to do. I am claiming my husband!” Anna kissed Layla on the cheek pulling Alex out of the room. Layla kissed Edward on the head and turned out the lights lying down next to him.

  Alex hustled over to the security center going straight to the secure phone. He dialed his special phone number for the security service in LA. Suki set up the security service twenty-five years ago after Alice was kidnapped from her house. Francesca had several high end friends that subscribed to the service and after a few years Four Diamonds was exclusively working with multi-millionaires providing security and body guards. Suki stocked it with former military security officers and there was no problem with the choices since she owned the company. Tom Thomas was her latest recruit and came to them with a personal recommendation. Mark had met him at the Sembach Annex in Germany when he was there for MI. His lack of a recommendation was a plus rather than a minus.”

  Tom was a security AP at Ramstein Sembach Annex and had pissed off several people during the Gulf War which stalled his career. Mark kept his eye on Thomas for several years remaining in constant touch with him. Suki hired him instantly when he retired six months ago. Every once and a while Tom liked to personally patrol when the roster was short. He trusted his men but nothing beat eyes on and Thomas wanted to be familiar with all of the contracts. His name was Thomas Thomas, so they called him Tom-Tom. Since Alex was also a major investor Suki had given him a priority code to access the center with. He dialed the number entering the extension.”