A Long Time from Home Ch. 30

He walked away and I turned to look at the band again. They were singing a song about having whiskey in a jar that caused everybody in the room to sing along and I discovered that I was humming along on the melody.

After the applause had died out, the band wanted to stop, but the crowd chanted for one more song, so the band finished off with a song about lifting their glass in a parting toast.

Again, everybody sang along and lifted their glass each time they sang about it.

The song had almost ended, when Julian came back, but instead of sitting down, he handed me a stiff board with some blank papers on it, a pen, and a bunch of tokens of some kind.

"Hold this for a moment, please." He said and walked towards the stage before I had the chance to answer.

Julian had timed it perfectly, as he walked onto the stage the exact same moment as the song ended.

Leaning back against the bar with the beer in my hand, I watched as he delivered a speech where he did indeed invite the whole bar to an exclusive Irish night with live music aboard a cruise ship.

All the guests had to do was to give their name and then they would get a token, which not only gave them access to the party, but also a free beer.

As speeches go, his wasn't bad and it was well received by the crowd. Even Mr. Smith was smiling widely.

The same was I, until Julian announced that people could either come to him to get their names written down and a token, or they could go the 'the assistant in the bar' at which point two of the lights on the stage lit up.

One was pointed at Julian, but to my horror, the other pointed directly at me.

With about half the bar looking at me, I couldn't do anything else than smile politely, while I cursed Julian inside my head.

If the Gods had been listening to me at that moment, Julian would have gone up in flames as the very least. The gods were either not listening or were too busy laughing at me, because nothing happened to Julian as he finished his speech. A moment later, I was besieged by people who wanted to give names and receive tokens.

"That went swimmingly, don't you think?" Julian said with a satisfied grin on his face, as we left the bar a while later.

Looking around to make sure that nobody was within hearing range, I shook my head. "I think you're an idiot."

He looked stunned. "What?"

I sighed, "Julian, Mr. Smith must have some connections here and when they discover that he never made it back from the party, they will be looking for some answers and since they now think that I'm your assistant, that 'someone' is going to be me if I'm in the area. That gives me a problem, since I'm not sure if my passport is fake or real and traveling on it might be tricky."

"Oh shit!" was his first response. "I'm so sorry, dude."

"Nothing to do about it now, but it is a problem that needs to be solved." I paused as an idea struck me. "Julian, get me a room on that ship. I can pay, but as you know the owner, you can arrange it."

Julian hesitated. "Well... We're not even sure that he will come to the party."

"He'll be there. I saw his face when you announced it and he was all smiles." I said with total conviction in my voice.

Since Mr. Smith had come to me, I had implanted a gentle suggestion in his head as I gave him the token, essentially telling him that such a party would be both fun and secure. As it was only a suggestion, it didn't guarantee that he would be there, but it was the best I could do while keeping a low profile.

Julian was silent for a while, but then sighed. "Damn... It was such a good joke and you really looked funny when that spotlight hit you... Kinda like a deer caught in the headlights." He stopped walking and took his phone. "I'll call the owner."

"Okay. See you later."

He nodded, as he pressed some buttons on the phone and I walked away.

-----------------------

It was still early and instead of going back to the hotel, I walked over to a nearby café, found a table outside where I could sit down and ordered a glass of wine from the waiter.

Since I had only given Julian the paper with the names on it, I still had the stiff board and the pen, so I did a simple sketch until the waiter brought me my wine and then just relaxed.

The weather was wonderful, music was playing, people were in a festive mood and for a while, I enjoyed just sitting there.

That peace was broken, when a female voice said, "May I join you?"

Looking up, I discovered that the voice belonged to the short female international police officer the Twins had called Agent Rao and I doubted that she was here by coincidence.

With a smile, I nodded in the direction of the other chair. "A beautiful woman is always welcome."

While she sat down, I gestured a waiter, ordered a glass of wine for Rao, and used the distraction to glance around. The red-haired police officer was nowhere to be seen, but a short distance away, a fit looking Spanish woman was doing her best not to look directly at us.

Agent Rao started by introducing herself, explained that she was on the abduction case, had seen me with the women outside the restaurant and wanted to ask me a few friendly questions. She also asked for ID papers, so I handed her the passport, hoping that Julian was right in his assessment that the passport was almost impossible to verify.

She looked it over, wrote something down and then showed me a portrait of Parker and asked me, if I had seen him in town.

"Yeah... He was outside the restaurant as well, but he had a moustache and was wearing glasses. You were there too. Didn't you see him?"

"No, not really." Said Rao thoughtfully.

"Well, that happens." I commented and looked up as the waiter brought the wine. I paid and handed the glass to Rao. "Here you go."

She looked at the glass with surprise, but then shook her head. "I can't. I'm on duty."

"Your choice." I said with a chuckle as I took the board from the table and started to make a drawing. "Do you have any leads on the guy?"

Rao smiled. "I can't really talk about an ongoing investigation."

"Fair enough, I guess... Except that the fact that you're here talking with me about him, makes it clear that you haven't found him yet."

"You're right about that." She admitted. Then she hesitated for a moment, before saying. "May I ask what connection you have with Miss Baker, Meyers and Chai?"

"You may ask." I answered with a smile. "But you'll not get an answer. It has no influence on your investigation and if you really want to know, I suggest that you ask them instead." I paused and changed the subject. "When do you get off duty?"

"Well, technically I go off duty at midnight, but I don't really go off duty until we get the guy."

"That's not healthy." I said and drank some of my wine. "Can you explain why an abductor would continue to stalk police protected victims after having botched an abduction attempt and been beaten up? Because that doesn't make any kind of sense to me."

"Sorry, I still can't talk about an ongoing investigation." Rao said with a little smile.

"Can you at least tell me his name?"

She hesitated for a moment, but then shrugged. "His name is Leonard Parker, but it's not the name he uses here... which I can't tell you..."

"Because you still can't talk about an ongoing investigation." I finished for her with a smile, causing her to nod and smile.

I looked at the drawing I was making, while my brain kept working. All of Parker's identities were house owners, but in my experience, real estate just slowed you down, so why all these houses? In my mind, I recalled the map I've seen in the modern atlas and placed the location of the houses on it. To my surprise, they were all cities with a port, and I had visited most of the cities in ancient times as many of them were placed on ancient sea trade routes.

"Sorry about that." Sheena said, "I can't tell you any more than I've already done."

"Not your fault." I chuckled. "Rules are rules."

She smiled back and changed the subject. "This reminds me... you're not easy to find. We have wanted to talk with you about our suspect for a while, but apparently, you don't live here. Can I get your address just in case we need to talk with you?"

"Well..." I said slowly. "I'm living with a friend at the moment, so I don't really have an address... but I can give you my phone number."

"Please. That would be helpful."

I gave her the number, which she typed into her phone immediately.

"Now could I get your name and number in return? Your first name, that is. Not Agent Rao."

She lifted her eyebrows in surprise, but then smiled and gave me the number. "... and my first name is Sheena."

I repeated the number in my head a few times to be sure I could remember it. Typing it into the phone would have been a more modern thing to do, but I wasn't sure about how to do that, and I didn't want to fumble with the cell phone in front of her.

Instead, I smiled and said, "Nice to meet you, Sheena."

She smiled back. "Likewise, Ivan." Then she looked at the board "What're you doing."

"Drawing." I removed the finished sketch from the board and handed it to her. "Here you go. That's how the guy looked like at the plaza."

She took the paper and looked at it, before looking at me again. "Jeez, you're good and fast."

"Thank you... I figured that you wanted that drawing circulated as soon as possible."

She showed her pearly teeth in a lovely smile as she nodded. "You're right. Excuse me."

I leaned back in the seat, watching her cute, little butt wriggle seductively as she walked over to the fit looking Spanish woman I had noticed earlier and started to speak with her.

Like so many other women of this age, Agent Sheena Rao was a desirable woman and for a while, I pondered the advantages and disadvantages in seducing her.

She clearly wouldn't tell me anything about the case, but there was a possibility that I might get more information about the International Police and their Mentats, which would be really useful.

On the downside, there was a slight possibility that she discovered that I was a Mentat. However, that possibility was very slim. After all, this was exactly what I had been educated for.

"You look thoughtful." Remarked Sheena as she came back to the table again. "Anything you want to share?"

I shrugged. "Not anything you guys haven't been thinking about. I was merely wondering where the guy was hiding." I stood up. "Hmm, I'm hungry... May I invite you for a late-night snack?"

She looked pleasantly surprised once again, but then nodded and smiled. "Sure... Do you have anything special in mind?"

"Not really, so if you have a favourite place, just say so."

"I do, but I think they've closed by now." She looked around. "Let's just go exploring."

We spend the next two hours walking around in the city, chatting as we visited different sites and got something to eat, while we mixed with the thousands of other tourists, doing exactly the same thing.

That we were followed by a female police officer didn't really bother me, as I was used to high-ranking women having armsmen following them around and at least this one kept out of sight.

Feeling in a playful mood, I backtracked our path from time to time, just to see her play a tourist each time Sheena and I walked past her.

I also got a good look at her and she looked quite ordinary with her dark hair and brown eyes, but then again, if you needed a discrete bodyguard, you didn't pick one that stood out in a crowd.

Since Sheena asked about my past, I told her that I was from Croatia, had studied ancient history as well as Traditional Chinese Medicine and was here on vacation. In return, she told me that she was from Melbourne in Australia but had been educated in London.

She was a bit vague on how she had entered the International Police, but from what she didn't say, I guessed that she had been chosen her due to her mental abilities. That she was a Mentat was clear from the moment she tried to mind probe me.

She didn't even do it on purpose. It was more like an instinctive action and instead of letting my mental shield take care of it, which would have been suspicious, I let her see a carefully constructed upper layer of my mind that corresponded with the story I had told her. I also let it be clear that I found her drop-dead gorgeous, sexy, and desirable, causing her to smile even more.

I was still pondering what to do with the bodyguard, when we reached a beach bar and settled down at a table from where we could see the ocean.

Deciding that we needed some more to drink, I walked over to the bar and almost laughed when I saw the bodyguard hurriedly take a seat there as I came nearer. While it was a normal action and therefore was the logical thing to do to avoid suspicion, it clearly showed an unfamiliarity with Mentats, because it allowed me to get close enough to touch her, which made it a lot easier to use mental powers on her.

Accepting the unknowing invitation, I walked right up next to her and seemingly by accident touched her bare shoulder as I leaned in to catch the attention of the bartender, while I quickly connected with the bodyguard's mind and did a fast scan.

Her name was Roberta, 27 years old, divorced and had a five-year-old son, named Manuel. Being the dutiful type, she was determined not to lose Sheena from her sight as that might put the Interpol Agent in danger. She was also gay, which was what had caused her divorce, and thought that Sheena was one of the sexiest women she had ever seen, while I was merely 'interesting' in a mostly non-sexual manner.

The bartender arrived, and I ordered some drinks, while thinking about what to do with the information. I really wanted to be alone with Sheena, but we couldn't just dump the bodyguard somewhere, without raising all kinds of hell.

The Spanish police officer suddenly yelped, as a drunk tried to walk away from the bar with two beers and a drink in his hands, dropping the drink as he turned to walk away. The drink hit the edge of the bar and splashed its content over the police officer's dress.

The drunk replied in Spanish and while I didn't get it all, it was something about it just being an accident and she should relax.

Roberta replied, but I wasn't listening as something about the man caught my attention. His eyes looked strange, slightly unfocussed and with an iris way too small for the low light. He was clearly under the influence of something stronger than alcohol.

A heartbeat later he proved either that or a serious lack of self-control, as he started threatening Roberta in Spanish, waving a fist in front of her face.

With a sigh, I reached past the police officer and caught his weaving hand, holding it still and causing him to look at me. Having his attention, I shook my head disapprovingly and added some mental power to my words as I said, "Just go away." and let go of him.

For a long moment, he looked at me and while his eyes were still slightly unfocussed, they widen a bit as he discovered I was a head taller than him as well as quite a bit wider. He didn't try to pull away and I realized he didn't understand English, effectively rendering my mental powered commands useless. Switching to Spanish I did it again, hoping I got the right word. "Vete!"

To my relief, he turned around and walked away, taking his two remaining beers with him.

Turning around, I saw the bartender place my drinks on the bar and then look a bit unsure about what to do next as he gazed at the drink-drenched Roberta.

"Can I have a towel for the lady, please?" I asked him, snapping him out of his indecision. The beach bar where I had slept the first day in Malaga had towels for their sun chairs and unless I was mistaken, it was standard for any beach bar.

"Yes, sir." He nodded eagerly, reached under the bar, and handed me a fluffy blue towel. "Sorry about that, sir."

I took the towel and handed it to Roberta. "Here you go. That should take most of it."

"Thank you." She said in heavily accented English and stared to dry herself off. I glanced over at Sheena and discovered that she was watching the scene. When she saw me looking at her, she just smiled and waved me over.

I nodded and paid the bartender for the drinks as well as the towel before I turned back towards Roberta again. Lowering my voice, I said, "May I offer you a seat at our table instead of here? It's less crowded and a lot more comfortable." The police officer blinked in surprise a few times, but as she still looked unsecure, I added. "My companion is waving at us, so you might as well come."

She glanced at Sheena, before looking at me again, nodding as she did so. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Oh, I'm Ivan."

"Roberta."

The look of disbelief on Sheena's face when I brought Roberta over, almost made me laugh, but I stopped myself in time and placed the drinks on the table. "There you go... and this is Roberta... but unless I miss my guess, you knew that already." Looking at Roberta, I said, "You're a police officer, right?"'

The two of them exchanged glances, before Roberta nodded and sat down. "Si."

"Good. Then we can stop playing games and just enjoy ourselves." I said with a smile, as I sat down as well and took my drink.

Sheena laughed. "How did you know?"

"I'm terribly sorry, but I can't talk about an ongoing investigation." I said deadpan, making her laugh even more. Roberta looked confused.

"Sorry, Roberta," I said, "A little private joke... Sending a bodyguard to watch the Interpol agent seemed logical and I've seen you several times tonight. Also... the drunk guy didn't scare you, you're fit enough to be a police officer, you ordered the same drink as Sheena, who had just told me it was non-alcoholic... because she doesn't drink alcohol while on duty." I held up a hand. "I know it doesn't prove anything, but it did make it highly likely, that you were a police officer."

"And yet, you invited me over?" asked Roberta, causing me to shrug. "Why not? I haven't done anything illegal... Unlike Agent Rao here."

Sheena looked surprised. "I haven't done anything illegal!"

"I'm not an expert in law, but I'm pretty sure it should be illegal to be as hot as you are and not have a warning label." I said with a grin, making Roberta nod slightly before she stopped herself, and Sheena to look a little embarrassed, mumbling. "Smooth."

"Not really." I drank some of my drink. "But the look on your face was priceless."

Roberta laughed a little. "It was."

We spent some time talking about Malaga, with Roberta doing most of the talking since she was local and didn't mind sharing her knowledge about the city and the area with us. It was interesting, but not nearly as fun as messing with Sheena. For some reason she kept probing me and in self-defense, I filled the upper layer of my mind with images of the three of us having sex.

She was clearly not opposed to bedding a woman, because the imagery didn't make her stop, and as we talked and time went by, I could feel the lust emanate from her like an almost tangible thing, and somewhere back in my mind I started to ponder how to make it happen.

Unless Sheena had some hidden reservations, it was Roberta that was the stumbling block, as I doubted that I could seduce her. She didn't give off any signs of being interested in me, so any seduction had to come from Sheena and given that Roberta was on duty, that was highly unlikely.

Unless I gave her a little push in the right direction. Trying to influence Sheena was too risky, so instead I constructed a scenario in my head, where she seduced Roberta so she could get a threesome with both of us. That done, I projected lust into Roberta. As my ability to project emotions was completely natural, Sheena (or anyone else) wouldn't be able to detect it, making it safe to use.