Divine Artifact in a Scientific World

"It's not yours?" Katie asked.

No," Jack shook his head

She looked puzzled for a moment, then exclaimed, "Oh!" and jumped out of bed and rushed over to a drawer along one wall.

He admired her slender waist, shapely ass, and long slender legs as she fished something out of the drawer.

Seeing what she was holding, he asked, "Is that a satellite phone?"

She nodded as she flipped up a long antenna and pressed a button.

"Dad?" she said.

He couldn't quite tell what the person on the other end was saying, but it sounded vaguely like Orin, her father.

"Yes, we are safe," she said, puzzled. "Why are you asking? What happened?"

He could feel her getting a little anxious.

More indistinct words from her dad.

"What?!" she cried, then rushed over and sat next to him on the bed, grabbing his arm.

He assumed her father had gotten word of what had happened and was telling her about it.

With her sitting right next to him, he could hear her father clearly.

"A local gang tried to kidnap everyone at the party. That Westlock wastrel pulled a gun on the thugs, but much to everyone's surprise, every weapon there was either loaded with duds or empty! Except one. Darrel got ventilated -- no loss there -- and that Garland boy gave the thugs a master class in baton techniques."

Katie looked at Jack wide-eyed. He shrugged in return.

"Ventilated? Is he..."

"Dead? Yes. Very. Saved me the trouble. Anyway, everyone else is safe, but the feds will probably still be at the club when you get back to shore in the morning, so call me before you head in so I can have my lawyers meet you. Take care, gotta go. *click*"

She got up and put the phone back in its drawer, then climbed into bed and snuggled up to him.

But instead of closing her eyes, she said, in a tone that meant it was as much a question as a statement, "You weren't surprised."

He'd planned on telling her about his knowledge of and interference in Darrel's plan after they left the club. He wasn't certain how good an actress she was and didn't want to avoid a situation where she would have to lie if asked the wrong question.

However, since he'd asked, he would tell her now.

He "knocked" on her mental door. Since they could communicate privately, mind-to-mind, there was no need for her to re-activate parallel self.

She re-opened her mind gate.

"Did you know about Darrel's plan?" she asked.

"When Darrel insulted you and his 'friend' tried to warn him about your father, I got curious. I created a sapient template of Darrel and interrogated him. It was then that I learned about his plan."

"But why didn't you...Right, never mind. You couldn't warn anyone without drawing a target on your back. There was no way for you to explain how you knew about Darrel's plan without looking like you were involved."

"Correct. I did consider inviting Keven, Jason, and the three girls to join of on the 'yacht tour', but with all the live ammo removed and replaced with fake ammo, I figured the danger was mostly gone. That and I didn't want to be cockblocked."

"But you didn't remove all the ammo; Darrel got ventilated!"

"I, um, didn't realize that some of the pistols would have rounds already chambered." He thought to her with chagrin.

It was a mistake that could have cost innocent lives. That only Darrel died was a happy accident.

"I was as surprised as everyone else when Darrel got shot. As soon as it happened, I realized my mistake and scrambled to remove the remaining chambered live rounds."

"I doubt anyone was as surprised as Darrel. Still, couldn't you have pulled the fire alarm or something?"

"I did think about that, but the thugs were basically pulling up out front as we were going down the stairs."

"And you figured the added chaos might have caused injuries that could otherwise have been avoided?"

"_Yes. I worried that even without live ammo, the thugs might panic in the chaos and resort to knives or something."

"I guess that makes sense. What was Darrel's plan anyway?"

"Darrel gave the thugs rifles and ammo that he knew was fake but the thugs assumed was good. He told them to kidnap Lily and two other girls. He intended to pull out his own pistol and shoot the thugs, thus saving Lily and gaining her favor."

"So Darrel was after Lily's dowry and thought a fake rescue would win her over?!"

"Yup. But one of the thugs tested the ammo and discovered it was fake. So they decided to kidnap everyone and kill Darrel."

"Damn, I wonder what would have happened if you hadn't interrogated that copy of Darrel."

He thought about that for a moment. He probably would have tried to disable all their weapons, then used a Somnusol injector to knock them all unconscious.

"I think I could have still handled the situation, but it would have left some serious unanswered questions for the FIS."

She hugged him and snuggled closer. "Well, I'm glad you did what you did. Darrel deserved what he got, and you saved everyone else from being kidnapped."

They chatted for a bit more, then went to sleep.

At 10 at night, he woke long enough to deploy one of the mobile security systems Madison and he had created, then pulled them both into his soul space before going back to sleep.

When they woke in his soul space, he told her about how he had discovered Darrel's plot and what he'd done.

He'd expected her to be upset that he was at least partly responsible for Darrel's death, but instead she was impressed with how he'd handled things and declared that Darrel got what he deserved.

During second through fifth Saturday, Katie got to meet all the girls and learn about what they were doing.

When they finally woke on Sunday morning in the physical world, Katie made breakfast for Jack, then after they ate, she called her dad before they headed back to the shore.

They had just finished climbing the stairs and were walking down the hall towards the entrance foyer when a uniformed police officer standing in the foyer noticed them and turned.

"FREEZE!" yelled the youngish-looking cop as he drew his sidearm and pointed it at Jack and Katie.