Johan Birch

"Very good, sir."

The setup was interesting, seven guys sitting behind a table, bright lights above to hide the men standing against the wall behind them. I sat down in the chair, leaning back a little bit. "So, Goodfellas. What's the score?"

"We want you to sign over Jacer Semiconductor to us. For a sensible price, of course," the man in the middle said.

"You're Luca Salucci," I said, pointing to the man to the right of the speaker. "I remember you now, your ass got kicked out of LA for selling underage girls on the corners."

"What's this about, Luca?" One of the other wiseguys asked. "Kids? You're selling kids?"

"This man, he don't know what he's talking about," Luca stuttered. "I never did nothing involving kids."

"Luca," I shook my head. "Is that bonehead button-man Alanzo still hanging around you? I mean, his shooting shoulder got dislocated pretty bad. I heard he was flopping around like a fish when he got shoved out of that van with you and your other friends."

"Pick him up and take him out back," the end man said to one of the family men in the back of the room. He waited until Luca's screams went out the door before sitting back down. "Mister Birch..."

"You're Don Rico Rossi," I finished. "Yes, I've heard of you. What I don't understand is what I've done to wrong you or your family."

"Family," one of the other men snorted.

Rico turned around and pointed at the man. "Go outside." The man obeyed Rico.

I actually found that amusing. Rico had the same name of a law that Congress passed, RICO. This was a law specifically crafted to deal with 'Family' related activities.

"I've only come here to tell you that there is not going to be any business regarding Jacer Semiconductor, especially at gunpoint."

"No one in my family condones kidnapping. That was solely Luca's doing and he'll pay for it," Rico admitted. "And we are prepared to make a good offer on the company."

"Don Rossi." I had decided to show a bit of respect; "First of all, I don't have the power to sell Jacer Superconductor. I am merely managing it for the owner. Second, you'd have to sell some of your businesses to afford even a bit of that company."

"I think thirty million dollars is within my reach," Rico scoffed.

"Thirty million?" I gave a snort. "That company is worth three hundred million dollars, and that's not including the hundred million I have invested in it!"

"You're kidding right?" A man down at the other end of the table asked. "That place is worth thirty million at most."

"The thirty million you think you are talking about is the initial capitalization. For those of you that don't speak business, that's the beginning pool of money. That was eight years ago."

"You're full of it," the man accused.

"Show me a company that is eight years old that starts out with thirty million dollars and is worth the same now," I countered.

"That makes sense," Don Rossi nodded.

"Thank you," I said. "I don't know why you would want Hillary's company, but she would never part with it."

"Let's go for a walk, Mister Birch," Rico stood up. I heard a shuffle of leather holsters in suits behind him; the men in the shadows, but Rico waved them off.

We walked out of the warehouse into the alley. "You're very respectful to me," Rico observed. "Not so much to Luca."

"I spent some time in Italy," I admitted. "I had a few Italian friends. They showed me the difference between the Fathers and the wannabes."

"Some of those goombahs in there don't even know Italian," Rico shook his head with a chuckle.

"Why did you want Hillary's company? It's not like you can run it, that company thrives on science, and you would lose all of the scientists."

"I have a feeling that you really did put a hundred million into that place," Rico said. "Why?"

"Don Rossi, I am the owner of Birch America. Have you heard of that company?"

"Yes, I have," he nodded. "I remember your face now. I know why you're invested into that place, it is the science. Here is the problem:"

Here it comes.

"This acquisition was being handled by us on behalf of Nevada NorPo. They want you out of business, you can guess why."

"I can," I nodded. It was the solar.

"There are more people who are willing to take up that contract should The Salucci Family withdraw. They will not be as nice as we have been."

"Well, I wasn't expecting you, but I will be expecting anyone else," I said. "And I will not be as nice to them as I have been to you."

The look on his face was priceless. "I'll make a note of that, Mister Birch. You have my word that nobody from my family will mess with you or your friends."

"Agreed, sir." We shook hands and went back inside. Shane was waiting beside our car, Rico gave me a little salute before climbing into his.

***

In the morning I apprised security of the situation. We found strategic places to set up the 'whisper sticks' that Artemis and Gemma had copied to scare off people who would try sneaking in from the desert. Other measures would come later, once we got a better look at our opposition.

The guardians eventually picked out the 'duck' and 'goose' players. Both goodfellas and four fifty-seven security were following me and Hillary around. The goodfellas were new, meaning that there was another player in the game. The appearance of the four fifty-seven club added a new variable to the game, so what had changed?

I dropped by Hillary's house a week after my meeting with Rico Rossi to lay it all out for her. She collapsed, Petra moving fast enough to catch her. Petra told me that I should have been a little softer with the news. I countered that there was no easy way to tell someone they were being followed by The Mafia. She told me that she would keep Hillary company if I wanted to go for a walk and see the sights.

The desert was cooling down with the setting of the sun. I tried ignoring the eyes that I knew were watching me. How were the neighbors oblivious to the club vehicle? Maybe the drivers had identified themselves as FBI. Jaci had known at least one woman in the club that had a badge, but she hadn't known if it was real or fake.

I went past the club vehicle, not even giving it a glance. When I was a block away, I turned around and started walking back to Hillary's house. Sure enough, there was a tiny bit of white paper in the shadow of the vehicle. I bent over and picked it up, not even breaking my stride.

Hillary was sitting up on the couch when I re-entered her house, sipping on a glass of water. Petra motioned to me to come into the living room when I passed. I made the 'phone call sign,' getting the eye roll and the pouty lip.

There was a name and number on the paper. The name was 'Poll,' and that's who answered it. "Who are you?" She demanded.

"You're very rude," I countered. "As for who I am? I'm Johan Birch, president of Birch America."

"Owner of," Petra clarified from behind me. "Hillary needs to talk to you ASAP. Fool with the tarts later."

"Hear that Poll? I can't play right now, the boss-lady wants me. Toodles."

Hillary seemed more alert when I went back into the front room. I sat in the chair across from her and met her eyes. "What's up, Hillary?"

"Johan, I want you to take it over, my company," Hillary sighed.

"I don't think that this is a good time for discussing this, Hillary. I've hit you with a pretty hard emotional club. Why don't you think it over first?"

Petra tapped me on the shoulder with a leather binder. "Here's some explanation."

I took the binder and sorted through the pages. Three days before, Hillary had went to talk to her attorney and came out with these papers. For a price of three hundred million dollars, Hillary would sign over the company to me, but stay on as an advisor. That basically meant that she wanted to be back in the lab. I could sympathise with that.

"All right," I said. "Bright and early tomorrow, so you can sleep on it and change your mind."

"I'll think about it," Hillary promised.

***

Hillary was at her lawyer's office before Petra and me. I was the person trying to talk her out of the sale, but her lawyer was backing her up.

Huh?

After the meeting, Arthur (Cecil) told me that he charged extra for being called for duty earlier than noon. I told him to bill me, plus a tip.

The tip that Cecil gave me was this: Do more background on something before I spend three hundred million dollars on it. I told him that I had been over and under the company for a little while, and if something was wrong with it, I would know. He apologized for his remark and wished me good luck.

Hillary rode with Petra in a separate car back to the complex, and I was left alone with my thoughts and some paperwork. It came to me fast, something I should have seen sooner: Petra was spending so much time with Hillary because she was trying to get Hillary to accept our help regarding healing her wounds. I obviously hadn't seen Hillary's chest, but Petra said the damage was substantial.

I had my driver, Auralene, slow down so that Hillary's car would arrive at the complex with decent time to spare. I was sure that Hillary would be having an informal meeting with her department heads, letting them know what was going on. Then I could be fashionably late, picking up where she left off.

The department heads seemed to be receptive to the idea, as I had been around but not micromanaging them. Goldie would stay in her position as administrator, and Hillary as lab rat.

I called the handover meeting to a close, now I wanted to have a 'boss' meeting. My first question was this: Was there a way to store the day's surplus energy within the panel itself like a battery and let it out during the night hours?

Everybody except for Hillary dashed out of the room and scattered. Hillary explained that it was an honor for them to scurry out like that. I asked her what she thought, and she agreed that the energy could be stored in the panel, like a battery.

The advances we had made in battery power alone could make that a reality, she told me. The system could be made more efficient than block battery storage systems because there would be less cable to run.

Hillary excused herself, much like an employee would, and strutted down the hall toward her new office. Something told me to let the fact that she had just treated me like her boss go, because that's what was exactly what she wanted.

***

During the next few months, my wonderful helicopter claimed hundreds of hours of runtime before it was recalled from service. I got a sparkling new helicopter in return, and had the pilot run me to Jacer Semiconductor. Hillary had been instrumental in the battery design, and I wanted her to see the practical application.

Hillary wasn't in her office or lab when I arrived. Gloria said that Hillary often wandered the laboratories, looking for inspiration from the other experiments that were taking place.

After a few minutes I went wandering myself. Although I 'owned' everything, I made a beeline for warehouse fourteen. I wanted an up-close and personal look at the new generation of solar panels. Hillary had taken a lithium-ion cell, and stretched it flat to the size of a solar panel. We were still prototyping those panels and they showed promise.

Hillary wasn't at that warehouse, either. I called Noel, Hillary's unofficial detail chief, and she told me that Hillary was at home. The previous evening, Hillary had asked the team watching her to park outside the gate. It was probably because she wanted the security away from her house, giving her some fresh air, so to speak.

The community where Hillary lived was gated, with a single street going in and out. There was also a half-assed access road so new house materials could be brought in quietly and without blocking the main road.

So the team did have a choke point where they could monitor the area. As Hillary liked to drive herself, she allowed us to tag her cars and put panic buttons in them.

I asked Noel to go check on Hillary, and she came back five minutes later and said that Hillary was gone. There was a lot of blood on the carpet in front of her makeup table, and evidence of at least two other people there.

Noel quickly shared one detail she might have overlooked from the previous night: An ambulance had entered and exited the community at twenty-two hours and ten past twenty-two respectively. It hadn't had its lights on, so the thought of an actual emergency had never crossed their minds. I told her to not beat herself up over that, I wouldn't have thought of a kidnapping by ambulance either.

My next call went into the city. Birch America had a presence in Vegas in the form of offices off The Strip. Those offices were newer, more advanced than most, and had a really nice IT department. I called them up and asked them to look and see if there were any public or private medical dispatches before Noel's team had recorded the arrival of the ambulance.

A woman named Sheridan took my questions, and did a lookup on whatever computer she was at. There were no official radio calls during that time; but on the frequencies allocated to, but not yet used by, the first responders of Las Vegas there were bursts of encrypted VHF traffic. I asked her if she could figure it out and got a scoff in reply. I was told fifteen minutes.

Sheridan called me back in ten minutes, telling me that the conversation was on my phone.

I found the file and started playing it.

"Sierra one-four to base."

"Base."

"Advise poppa zero-one that Hillary Milano attempted suicide.We have her stable and are awaiting transport."

"Transport en route.Verify no external force involved?"

That was something I would like to know.

"Base, negative.No signs of external forces."

"One-four transport four minutes.Stats?"

"White female, fifty-six.One meter seventy-five, fifty-five kilos.Heart rate forty, BP low but steady.One bag saline in progress.It looks like the patient may have lost two-plus pints."

"Copy one-four."

I listened to the conversation for another minute. They hadn't taken Hillary to Vegas, they had put her on a puddle jumper and flown her to LA. On cue, my cell started ringing with Petra's song. She immediately told me that Hillary had not even thought about suicide, so she didn't know what was going on.

Two hours later, we found out why: Hillary's ex-husband was no longer in prison. His lawyer had found some stupid technicality and appealed the sentence. That's why she had attempted suicide, she had put her faith in the justice system and it had failed her. It wouldn't matter in a day or so, because that animal was going to have some of his bits rearranged.

Petra, as Hillary's champion, begged me not to sic a Revenger on him just yet. If Hillary lived, she would instantly become a suspect in his disappearance. I told Petra that there was more than one way to get revenge. I heard the doubt in her voice, but I got a phone-kiss and she was gone.

My life seemed to be magic-free. Direct application of magic didn't affect me, and I was even immune to the electronic equivalent. What wasn't understood is how I could still read magic books. The basic rule was that if you couldn't read the spell, you weren't ready for the ability to use it.

Every book put in front of me, including some of the books that the Birch sisters couldn't read, I could read. It was very surreal, especially to Petra. One time I spent a half hour reading aloud from a book that she couldn't read, and she couldn't understand half of what I was saying.

One book that I could still read was what I called 'The Revengers Handbook.' I found the page that described the 'soul-capturing' power that Joshua had used on me, and why Revengers had it. Sometimes wrongdoers getting off with death wasn't good enough, so the Revengers would catch the soul and play with it some before letting it eclipse. I asked Joshua who had come up with that, and he pointed to me. I made him swear that he wouldn't use it on me, ever again. He gave his oath, then I proceeded to tell him to pass it around to all the others. If I died again, I wanted to be let go.

My gift to Marty, Hillary's ex, would not be death. He would get something much worse: Pain. The pain of him mauling Hillary would be implanted in his head, something to be relived at random intervals for the rest of his miserable life.

Athena, who had spent her life prosecuting what Ceres had referred to as 'crimes against women,' agreed that my punishment was just. I asked her why her work wasn't a regular occurrence, and she leaned over my desk and told me this: As much as justice was wanted and needed, they were told not to interfere with normal human events, with certain exceptions. There was a balance to be maintained, good versus evil. If that balance were disrupted, then everything would dive into chaos.

I stood up and faced off with her. There needed to be a sense of justice, otherwise we would unwind at the futility. She snapped that I should take it up with Ceres. I told her that I would be happy to make it an order. She got up into my face, so close that her breath tickled my nasal hairs, and said that I had told them as a group to not let my emotions come into play. She countered with the fact: There was a sense of responsibility in ordering the death of a human, and I should not be so hasty in ordering anyone's execution.

After pausing for a moment, I asked her what made Hillary so special, why was she getting special treatment. Athena replied that I had put a supernatural mark on Hillary, and she was under my protection now. I scoffed at that fact, telling her that my mark wasn't doing so good keeping Hillary safe. Athena's reply was that they didn't fill out reports on everything that they did, and to take it on faith.

She held up her hand at me before I could ask her about Hillary's attempt at suicide. Her voice dropped to a whisper and she told me that they didn't have the ability to heal . There were many times that they had to watch a good person die because those were the rules.

I pondered that. The thought of what might happen if evil didn't exist was a bit humbling. As I had recently told Gerard LeFort, men would always find ways to kill each other. He told me not to get too high-handed, because there had been many advances in civilian technology as follow-ups to wars. I replied to him that he should give that speech to the survivors of Hiroshima and Nakasaki. He got a somber face and shook his head. A moment later, he gave me a clap on the shoulder, telling me that the experiments my companies were doing in hyperatomic fusion in the Arizona desert could make The Trinity Test look like a firecracker.

His admonition didn't surprise me. He had been good friends with Jaci Stone, and was even better friends with Johan Birch. Originally I thought that was because he didn't have to worry about me boffing his daughters as Jaci had; but he wanted to share his knowledge with me, almost like a father would to a son. As the man I could be a literal son, I would have to learn some stuff.

My thought-train finally broke, and I told Athena that I got her point. Before she could back away from my desk, I grabbed her head with my hands and pulled her into a kiss. She didn't resist, allowing me to kiss her until I decided it was time to let go. I felt something from her, psychically, and didn't know how to describe it.

"Well, Ceres," Athena wiped my saliva from her lips with a finger and put it into her mouth, looking like she savored it. "What do you think?"

"I think that the last person who tried that got their hands bitten off," I joked.