A Long Time from Home Pt. 02 Ch. 04

"Ahh... as you did with the scumbag in Malaga?"

"Not entirely the same, but something in that style."

"Ah... well, good luck with that."

"Thank you."

The rest of the night was a flurry of activity. As soon as I had done what I had told Riya, Ayanna and Delina asked me to help them with the staff, as the two of them were trying to gain access to the computer.

Marching over to the prisoners, I discovered that Curtis had put a loyalty codex on them, preventing them from telling anybody anything about the place. It didn't prevent me from reading their minds though and it didn't take long before Ayanna and Delina had the passwords they needed.

They also gave us the code to a large safe, so while Ayanna and Delina worked on the computer, Petra and I opened the safe.

"Now, that's a lot of money." Said Petra calmly as she saw stack after stack of neatly stacked bills. Like I had discovered in Malaga, the money was all in U.S. Dollars, once again proving that it was the preferred currency of the underworld. "Why the hell are they still here? That's just inviting trouble."

"They're waiting for Curtis to come back." I told her, having read that from the minds of the one responsible for the money. "He was the one taking care of the money, except paying the guards and other normal expenses."

"So, this is what... four to five months' worth of profit?"

"Yes." I confirmed. "Have someone put these into bags. We're taking them with us. If nothing else, they can pay for more rooms at Delgado's orphanages." I spotted a stack of files. "We need everything in here. If it's about the kids, it needs to disappear. If it's about the customers, we'll hand it over to the police."

"Got it." She said with laughter in her voice. "But before we do that, we're making copies of it, so it can't just disappear."

"Good idea. The same goes for whatever Delina and Ayanna finds in the computer."

"Yes, sir." She said automatically and then laughed. "You sound just like a superior office and it's making me say 'sir' in each sentence."

I winked at her. "I might try that later, then. It seems to work."

"Don't." She said dryly. "Two superior officers have tried that, and it didn't work out too well for them."

"Sir!" called Delina from the computer before I could answer. "I got a client list, but it's coded."

I had no idea how to decipher a computer code, but all codes take time to break. "Can we take it along with us?"

Delina nodded. "Yes, but it would be better just to make a copy of the hard-drive and leave the machine here."

Instead of asking what a hard-drive was, I nodded. "Do that."

"Yes, sir."

"And leave the computer open so the police don't have to use the codes. Have you found anything about the kids?"

She shook her head. "Nothing."

"Good. Then I'll assume that is what the paper files are for."

"That is a good bet, sir."

"Alright. Get moving then." I said and walked into the room that held the staff. There were still some people that needed their memory wiped and the women were a lot more competent with computers than I was.

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Cleaning up and getting back to Villa Bonita took most of the night and it was early morning before Petra and I were sitting on the patio outside Villa Bonita, tired to the bone, but glad that everything had gone according to plan.

"By the way," said Petra as she poured juice into a glass. "How long do you think it'll take to heal the kids and bring them back to normal?"

"Well, I start working with them for real tomorrow and I estimate that the basics will take about two weeks. After that they'll need support for a while. I'm guessing about half a year, extending to a year for those who have been here the longest."

She raised her beautiful, sculptured eyebrows in surprise. "That was fast. Ester said it would take them years of therapy to get over it."

"I'm a Mentat." I reminded her. "The mind is my specialty, and I can use powers to speed the process up a lot. I just hope the kids have the same kind of mind control as the four girls from Curtis' house, since I can deal with that."

"Good." She replied with a little smile and emptied the glass before she moved over to hug me. "At least that's one problem solved for now."

I returned the hug. "One problem? What other problems are you thinking about?"

"The other mind-controlled sex-slaves. You know, the ones you told me about one of the first evenings here."

"Ahh. What about them?"

"We, that is Delina, Ester, Ayanna and Riya and I, talk about them from time to time, and a couple of days ago, Delina brought up a good point. If the sex slaves can't be restored to the way they were before, it is possible for them to become normal functioning human beings, but with a different personality than before?"

The 'sex-slaves' Petra was talking about were the many women, whose personality Curtis and Parker had destroyed in their effort to make a perfect sex-slave. They were taken good care off and lived in small groups that shared a large apartment or small house, depending on the location. Everything was paid or taken care of for them, they had a weekly allowance that they could use on whatever they fancied and bodyguards to protect them.

It sounded good, if you didn't know that the women had their minds warped and their personalities destroyed. With little to no will left, they were addicted to the pleasure they got during sex and lived only to please their customers or whoever they were commanded to please.

To make it even worse, most of the women couldn't be healed. Curtis and Parkers crude, but powerful, method had done too much damage and there was no way, I could restore them to how they were before.

Looking into the air, I thought it over. Delinas suggestion was a possibility I hadn't considered, since according to my Baylon way of thinking, once the personality had been permanently changed, the person that once was, was dead. Mostly because such a major change normally meant that the Centrum Potentia was damaged beyond repair. However, as humans didn't have a Centrum Potentia to start with, that wasn't a problem, and it 'only' came down to how much damage Curtis and Parker had done to the minds of their victims. Since they had become better with experience, some of the newer sex slaves might have a chance of a new life as different versions of themselves.

The bad news was that it would take a long time and a lot of mental power. So much power that I needed the help of at least four other Mentats. Alternatively, I could try to find a Baylon Focus Crystal, which would multiply any power put into it, but I haven't seen a Focus Crystal since Baylon disappeared and the chance of finding one was slim. On the bright side, Focus Crystals were not magical, so the magic wouldn't have consumed them by now and as crystals, they didn't corrode. There even was a chance that someone had found one and used it a decoration, as they didn't know what it was.

"It is possible, but it will take a lot of power." I said slowly. "Mental power that is, so none of you can help and the twins won't be ready for years."

"What about Shelly?"

"Unlikely, but I won't rule it out. Unfortunately, I'll need four assistants, so even if Shelly becomes good enough, I still need one more. It was still a very good idea, though."

"Yeah, just too bad it can't be done." She replied, sounding slightly bitter.

"You're wrong. It can be done... I just need to find the right people or the right way..." I stopped speaking as a thought hit me.

When I had done the Vis Ritual on Karen in Malaga, a lay line had interfered and almost killed us by power overload. That at least was one place where I would have power enough to do it alone if I were there at the right time.

Another place was the ley line node in the ocean we had passed on the way across the Atlantic. It was even a better option as that one wasn't depending on a specific time.

"You have an idea." Stated Petra calmly and looked at me.

"Yes." I admitted. "Remember the shining pyramid we encountered on our way here?"

That made her nod with a smile. "Yeah. There's no chance I could forget an experience like that."

"The pyramid was there, because the area contains a lot of free, natural power." I explained. "If we get some of the women on Dream Weaver or a similar large ship, I might be able to draw upon that power to heal them."

"That would be so cool!" She said happily.

"Yes, but it'll take time and once I start, moving out of the area will severely hurt me, so we need to wait until hurricane season is over. Then we can test it."

"I just hope that it'll work." Petra sighed, followed by a yawn. "Sorry, but I really need to go get some sleep."

"Me too... Just be aware that I'll need all five of you in the courtyard around midday."

"For what?" She asked, yawning again, as she stood from the sofa."

"A surprise." I told her and stood as well. "Go sleep, Petra. You need it."

"I will. Good night."

"Sweet dreams."

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After dinner the following day, I was standing in the courtyard, flanked by Petra, Delina, Riya, Esther, and Ayanna. We weren't the only ones there, as the four Asian security guards were there as well, while the rest of the security guards were watching the perimeter.

I smiled to myself, as I heard engine noise and a few moments later, an old bus with blacked out windows drove into the courtyard, parking in the middle of it.

The door opened, and a woman dressed in a leather jacket came out, nodded to us, and then turned around to help the next one out of the door. That was a short Asian woman and I guessed she would have been good looking if she hadn't had a look of total defeat on her face. She was followed by seven other Asian women.

Suddenly there was a howl of joy and both Su-Yun and Li-Na came rushing towards the bus, hugging, kissing, and talking with the newcomers the moment they reached them.

The look of relief on the newcomer's faces were heart-warming to see and tears of happiness ran down their faces, as smiles slowly started to show.

Turning towards the five stunned women, I quietly said. "Go help the newcomers, Su-Yun and Li-Na to the guest house, please. There're clothes for them in the closets and the cooks should have a meal ready for them shortly." Glancing over at Riya I added. "They'll need a medical check as well, but we're not in a hurry."

Glancing speechlessly at me, they nodded and walked over to the bus, while I kept my distance.

Using Erebus, I had been able to locate most of the Gippeumjo or Pleasure Group and simply buy most of them back. Three girls had been sold as brides somewhere in China and couldn't be found. Another had died when the brothel she lived in collapsed in an earthquake, but the remaining eight were here.

Despite the serenity of the situation, I almost laughed as Petra, Delina and the rest reached the group of North Koreans. All of them were tall and looked like beautiful female giants among the much shorter Asians, as they with kind words and gestures guided the others towards the guesthouse. Su-Yun caught my eye by looking up at me with a tear-streaked face before she smiled and bowed deeply.

I nodded back to her and still smiling, she turned and followed the rest into the house, while I walked upstairs to sit on the balcony.

Asking the five women from Malaga to be there when the newcomers arrived had been arranged more than a week ago, before the plans for liberating the kids was finished, as I had wanted them there to see and feel that if I promised something, I kept my word. Admittedly, after having liberated the kids, it wasn't necessary anymore, but the joy of both groups was a good thing to experience, so I had just followed the original plan.

Now I needed to relax. Despite sounding easy, healing the kids was going to be a horrible experience, as I needed to look through their memories and change the worst of them into something more bearable, to make it easier for the kids to live with and speed up their healing. Disgusting as it would be, it was just one of those things that needed to be done, and unfortunately, I was the only one that could do it.

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Forging again

Mid-August, Costa Rica

Even with the powerful Ars Mentalis tricks I knew, healing the minds of the kids in the Youth Camp took four hours per person just to get started, meaning I couldn't heal more than two a day. Consequently, the whole process took about two weeks, just as I had told Petra.

It was gut-wrenching work and for once, painting wasn't enough to make me relax. I needed to hit something repeatedly, so I took up smithing again. Not only was it creative enough to activate my mind, but it also enabled me to use my body at the same time and there was a certain satisfaction in bringing a hammer down on a piece of red-hot metal.

The smithy at Villa Bonita was made to enable the elderly farrier to shoe horses and repair farm equipment, but it was more than adequate to make short blades and as Alonso Jasso, as the farrier was named, didn't use the forge in the evening, I could use it freely without disturbing anybody. Alonso had thought it was a joke at first, but when he discovered I knew what I was doing, he started to stay a few hours every other evening, chatting about smithing and helping me with the steel. I greatly appreciated the last part, as Alonso knew a lot about modern smithing and was more than willing to share that knowledge.

Like so many other things, metallurgy had come a long way in the last two thousand years and the steel they had now was better than anything I had seen since Baylon disappeared. Machines had been developed to lighten the workload, but as both the Chinese and Romans had used water-powered trip hammers, the biggest discovery for me was not the power hammer, but the grinding belt. It was a lot more effective than I was used to and after having spent up to eight hours a day using Ars Mentalis on healing the girls, I just wanted to do something manually, without spending days on it.

The first item I made was a steel butterfly pendant, designed to be used in a necklace. I had planned to forge one for each of the children but making the first one took me two days and instead of forging them, I used the steel butterfly to create a mould, enabling me to cast the pendants in bronze. That worked extremely well and after filing the edges and polishing the rest, I gave one to each girl, along with a necklace to go with it. Those I had already worked with got one right away, while I gave the rest their necklace at the end of our first session.

Still needing something to hit, I started to make steel knives. With the mood I was in, I didn't want to create weapons, so instead of making fighter blades, I made cooking knives, using the chef knives from the kitchen as models. Not only were they useful, but I could also use them as gifts to Alice, Cyra and Zena.

I was busy hammering out the tang of my latest creation when I heard Petra say. "Just as I thought you couldn't get sexier, you go and do this."

Smiling, I used the tongs to place the steel back in the forge before I looked up. Both Petra and Esther were standing at the entrance, looking at me.

"What do you mean?"

Petra grinned as she walked nearer. "Here you are, sweating in the light of a forge, dressed in a leather apron, and wearing a leather kilt, swinging a hammer to skillfully create beautiful knives out of raw steel. It doesn't get much manlier than that."

Chuckling, I shook my head. The light was low, because it enabled me to better judge the heat of the steel by its colour. The leather apron was spark resistant, so was the kilt and with the heat in the forge, wearing a kilt instead of pants made a lot of sense as it allowed for better ventilation.

Dressed in nice clean clothes, I had expected her to keep her distance, but she ignored the dirt and grime to give me a hug, reminding me once again that the beautiful and stylish women hugging me, was in the Army less than half a year ago and didn't mind a little dirt. "Have you worked it out of the system yet?"

"Almost." My eyes drifted over at the five chef knives in different sizes and styles laying on the workbench. "This will be the last one for now."

She followed my gaze and discovered the blades. "Wow... they look amazing."

"Very nice." Echoed Esther and walked over the workbench. "May I see?"

"Sure. Just remember they're cooking knives and not fighting knives."

She nodded and picked up one of the largest knives, testing its edge with a nail and gasped as the knife took the tip of the nail right off.

"Sorry, I should have warned you. They're sharp." I said, somewhat unnecessary. After having quenched and sharpened the blades, I had put hilts on them and used an Ars Mentalis trick to make them even sharper and harder. As a result, they were razor-sharp and about as durable as a modern steel blade could get.

"Too sharp, I think." Esther commented as she examined the edge. "Won't the edge roll over when hitting bone?"

"Not a chance. Try hitting the anvil with it. Edge first, please."

She swung the knife, hit the metal anvil with a twang and examined the blade, before looking at me. There was respect in her voice as she said. "Not a mark."

Petra studied the knife in Esther's hand for a moment and looked at me. "Can I persuade you to make a knife for me?"

"If I have the time. Do you have anything special in mind?"

She nodded. "A Kukri like the one you used in the warehouse in Malaga."

It took me a moment, before I realized she had to be talking about the Baylon Long Knife or Diucultro, since that was the blade I had used in the warehouse. Fortunately, the Ancient Greek had copied the design, which gave me a name I could use. "Oh, that wasn't a ... Kukri... It was a Greek Kopis."

"It looked like a Kukri from a distance, but you know it better than I do. No matter what it's called,

it looked efficient." She shrugged. "It'll be a good tool in the jungle."

"I'll make one for you, but it's not going to be right away," I said. "I'm really not in the mood to make fighting blades."

I suddenly remembered the blade in the forge and looked at it. The temperature was just right, so I asked them to stand aside and went back to work, finishing the tang, before I placed the blade in a crate filled with sand, allowing it to cool down slowly during the night. Tomorrow I would drill the holes where the hilt would be fastened and then quench the blade to make it hard.

I had expected the two women to be gone when I was finished, but they were still there. Petra was leaning against the doorframe and Esther was fiddling with the steel butterfly as they watched me work.

"Done?" asked Petra as I stretched.

"For tonight, yes."

"Good. Close down and come inside. You have been missed. You haven't really been around for the last fourteen days." She smiled and added. "Not to mention that Gabriella Delgado is coming to visit. She'll be here soon."

"I'll be there in a moment." I said as I started to place the tools back in their proper places.

Esther held up the steel butterfly pendant. "By the way, why have you made a steel version of the necklaces you gave the girls?"

"It's the other way around." I said and pointed at the mould, which was standing at the table, looking like a box. "I used the steel butterfly to make a mould for the bronze."

She widened her eyes in surprise. "You made them yourself? I thought you had bought them."

Shaking my head, I said. "I bought the necklaces. Making all the small links in a necklace is a pain and I avoid it whenever I can, but the pendants were cast from that mould."