Chapter 01: Stopping the Game

I returned to humanity to be served with a notice that I was being served with a divorce suit. I had just landed at the airport, and was waiting for my luggage to be spat out of the souvenir breaking service when a guy asked me to hold a folder of papers for him while he tied his shoe lace. When he stood up he walked away a few paces until I called him. I had already rifled through them and noticed they were a legal brief about a divorce; being a nosy bastard was part of my job. I noticed a name: Nicholas Daniel Kestles; that was me, then another Esther Hannah Kestles.

"I'm being divorced?" I asked.

"You've been served!" The guy called back with a shitty smile.

While a few idiots cheered I was white in fury for a few minutes as I considered what crimes I could get away with. Then I settled down in a coffee shop and read the papers. Esther, my wife, was suing for a divorce after fifteen years of marriage. She cited that I was away from home for months at a time, frequently got phone calls from strange women and the disappeared for hours. In my job this was normal practice, she knew that. She had been the strange woman who called men at inconsiderate hours to meet up in confidential places. When she had done that I had not complained because it was her job.

I switched my phone on thinking of telling her this was bullshit, the text message came through before I could call. It was from her, telling me that my number was blocked on her phone and that I should contact her through her lawyer. A second message informed me that she had taken out a restraining order and that I could not come close that three hundred feet of her or my daughters.

I looked through the brief and found the restraining order. It stated that I was prone to sudden bursts of rage and that I had a demonstrated predilection to violence. Attached were two cases of assault, in one three bikers had not taken no for an answer about sharing Esther and ended with well-earned vacations in hospital with rehabilitation therapy session as a complimentary gift. In the other a three hundred pound, six foot six man had pushed our oldest daughter into a baseball pitch fence because she had dared to hit his pitcher son for four home runs. That had quickly escalated to five friends having a go at me and ended with the pitcher's father being castrated (his most minor injury) and three of the friends stuck in special care facilities for issues like brain damage, physical paralyses, and severe visual impairment.

After some thought I got in touch with a lawyer, then a supply vendor who understood that his best customers valued discretion. The supply vendor was faster giving me what I wanted in three hours, the lawyer needed forty eight hours to get out of bed. That gave me two days to play with what the vendor had given me.

A crucial aspect of being successful at my job is a somewhat occasionally conforming consideration of legality. It was not difficult for me to set up an observation post with visual and audio recording capabilities. The nice thing about my job was the vast amount of highly specialized training and no trade union to tell me where and when not to use my abilities. On the contrary we were encouraged to keep our skills up.

I got some lovely pictures of Esther screwing a guy, our daughters looking pissed off about this new dad, and of him threatening to beat our youngest, Nicole who was eleven. I got a few audio recordings of him speaking to our oldest, Cathy, in very rude language describing to a fifteen year old what boys wanted and telling her to put out or get pushed out. Another recording of him telling Nicole that she cost too much money because she wanted a bicycle, and another telling Esther that she should sell her body if she wanted more money were very good to have too.

I slipped into Cathy's room after the lights were out and got an immediate and desperate hug when I woke her up. She told me about how Esther had suddenly brought the guy home and how he wanted to be the center of everything. I got a name, Jerry Shennan, from her and set up an emergency contact system for her. I explained that I was working on getting them out of this and that she should be nice to Jerry because I wasn't going to be. Nicole burst into tears to see me and didn't want to let me go. I told her how to get in touch with me too and assured her that I would get her out. She asked if I would get back together with Esther and gave her a straight answer even though it hurt her.

Esther had been accusing me of having affairs for eight years by the time Jerry appeared. I had never cheated on her despite the temptations and opportunities my job frequently presented. I was through with that. In fact I was through with my job because taking care of my daughters was going to need me to be home.

A quick rummage through our home the next morning informed me that Esther had been promoted and transferred at work and now dealt with mission reviews. A section that reviewed how much our missions cost, whether the operations budgets were suitable, what we used credit cards on and settled them, and where we spent our slush funds. This was the section that gave us trouble when we got back every time. She was now earning twenty thousand dollars per month.

On a month to month basis she out earned me, on an annual basis I still earned more because I got additional allowances when I went operational. I earned, for lack of any better description, a retainer of fifteen thousand dollars per month with a deployment allowance equal to twice my monthly retainer the moment I accepted a mission. I also earned time bonuses for speedy achievement of objectives, and I earned victory bonuses based on which objectives I achieved; and could keep anything we looted from our targets. I had been overseas for four months when I was informed of the divorce, my pay for those four months would equal Sybil's annual income; aside from private income derived from my cover occupation of business investor and speculator.

I decided to focus on Jerry. I found out that Jerry ran a struggling resort hotel he had inherited. Struggling was a generous term, it was on the IRS records as a dormant business. A tour of it showed three old geysers who drove around on lawnmowers pretending to maintain a golf course, dusty beds, an old tart in reception and some drunks in the bar who brought their own booze and hid away from their wives. Jerry himself was a bodybuilder lived a lifestyle that indicated an income of twenty five thousand dollars per month or more with no job or running business to substantiate the lifestyle.

The day before I met my lawyer I bought a house three doors down from Esther and hung a recognition banner in the front widow of the house for Cathy and Nicole to see and know where to find me. They visited me that evening after they were supposed to be in bed. I had basic furnishings only, Very basic, but they could see me doing something and took courage from that. I gave them a basic self-defense class and showed them an observation skills game to play, then sent them home. They left happily knowing I they had a place for them to run too if needed.

The lawyer whistled at the restraining order. You seldom found a guy who would pick a fight with three bikers. I told him to draw those court files and he would find that the verdict in each had been self-defense and that the entire story would be in the dockets. He agreed to appeal the restraining order if the court cases matched what I said. He explained that the restraining order was illegal anyway because I had not been informed of the hearing before the event; that was only allowed if there was physical evidence of abuse.

"She has compelling reasons to divorce Mr. Kestles."

"No, she knows my job; she works at monitoring what I do."

"What is your job?"

"I work for the DOD. I work in the section that goes overseas first. She works in the section that sends us and sees to it we have things we need like passports, actually she did when I left. Now she works in the section that sees to it our credit cards work."

"Who? Army Intelligence, Naval Intelligence? And aren't you guys based in Virginia?"

"You don't need to know... Believe me you don't want to either."

The lawyer looked at the restraining order. He learned quickly. Instead he decided to look at my evidence and shuddered at the thought of what was going to happen to Jerry. He took his mind off it by discussing how divorces worked. There had to be a visible attempt at reconciliation, that meant a marriage counselor would either be selected by her and I or the court would appoint one.

"You're not going to reconcile are you?" He said.

"She accused me of having affairs for eight years. Then she picks this thing and exposed our daughters to it. No, I do not reconcile this."

"Then I would advise you to consider what you want out of this divorce. Also understand that the sole priority of the court is the welfare of the children."

"I want Cathy and Nicole."

"Your case looks good for that given this evidence despite custody laws favoring the mother... What about alimony?"

"Not critical. If my work is an issue I can resign."

"The court will want to see gainful employment Mr. Kestles."

"In a variety of other identities I have an MBA in business and entrepreneurship at Cornel, a PhD in sociology at Princeton, a PhD in psychology at Delaware U. I also have a master's degree in hospitality management at the New York School of Entertainment and Catering sciences. A trade certificate in robotics, and a trade certificate in aircraft maintenance certified for Cessna. I also have my own business as a commodity broker. Gainful employment is not an issue, I just have to get all my qualifications and title deeds under one name."

The lawyer looked at me with his jaw hanging.

"Esther is a chartered accountant also Delaware U and has an actuarial science MBA at Cornel."

"What the fuck are you guys doing working for the government?" he asked in shock.

"Protecting the country from enemies both foreign and domestic. Right now I have a somewhat more domestic enemy than I anticipated."

"I'm surprised it's going to a divorce."

"We won't get away with the quicker and less painful alternative."

After the lawyer I shut Esther out of my bank accounts. That should not have come as a surprise she would have been told the papers had been served. I still got a furious call from her within minutes as she tried to pay for lunch with my card and it was declined. After that I shopped for furniture, food and clothes. Last, just before the dealership closed, I bought a done up but second hand Hog.

The next morning Jerry started being pestered by me channeling a biker punk with a big bike who was in his face wherever he turned. I made sure that he noticed me as he bought a protein shake on his way to the gym, he saw me outside his gym when he finished pumping iron, he saw me when he came out of a brownstone mansion with a lady twenty years older than he was, he saw me outside the tennis club they went to, he saw me on the way taking her home, he saw me on the road to Esther again. Satisfyingly I watched him try to lose me when he turned into our neighborhood and let him go.

I visited the older lady that night, discovering that she lived alone with six cats. I went through any documents I found, then went through her wardrobe while she slept six feet away. She had a lot of sexy underwear, sucked at tennis evidently given that her shoes were very expensive look alike versions but would give her hell if she actually ran around in them. I planted a few bugs and left quietly.

Jerry got the biker again the next morning, similar pattern, but no tennis club, instead they went to a high end restaurant. She paid by discretely handing her credit card to him. I watched Jerry get more rattled by the day as he got me in his face all the time. He asked Esther and the girls if they had noticed a biker riding around the neighborhood. The visuals of that were entertaining as the girls said no when they had seen the Harley in my garage. He asked his old lady the next day who turned out to be his aunt, she had not noticed anything.

The next day there was no biker. He did meet me as an unremarkable office worker joining the gym to get fit and maybe meet a few chicks. He cancelled his aunt as he stood outside the gym with no biker visible. I followed him in my unremarkable ford until he stopped at an apartment block. He stood on the doorstep looking up and down the street for the biker and then rang a bell to apartment seven fifteen. This was what I had spent four days to get.

He was in the apartment block for sixty seven minutes. Then it just got better. He drove to a small complex of mini factories and did the stupid thing of looking around again before going into one unit. Two hours later he was out again and on his way. I had had a good look at the other factories and had a plan for keeping this place under observation.

He stopped at the hotel next. I couldn't tail him further because any new vehicle would be remarkable and I was not exactly kitted out to be anything other than an office jockey, I was also semi-known. I did watch him go to the lake though through binoculars on the roof of a projects apartment block. Half an hour later he left the lake with a bag exchanged for his package, dropped on the jetty by a speed boat and two college age kids.

The next morning I visited apartment seven fifteen and a few others as a public health inspector checking for rodent control measures. Apartment seven fifteen was occupied by a nice boy who would bend over and allow a man to screw him in the ass for a fee. I quickly scared him into telling who Jimmy was to him: a regular customer who liked to use a flogger on the boy's back while screwing him. I saw a few capsules of pharmacology between the drinks glasses too. The boy was not the type to know how to source this. Later that day I visited a park at the top of a hill from which I could see the apartment windows and had a truly brilliant piece of optics set up and recording every move in that apartment.

That night I visited the mini factory and found a small date rape drugs packaging plant, with a sideline in illegal hormones and steroids, whether in gyms or nightclubs. Along with a few other choice products I found out that Jimmy was a sales representative. He seemed to prefer selling to college students, from the delivery addresses. And had a good market in a business segment that wanted faster results for little effort. I lifted a few samples from the original bulk packaging and from the sales stocks before leaving.

Two factories down the road and on the opposite side I broke into another factory and surprised a few cops. Some minutes later I was speaking to the detective in charge. With him being dead sure that I was not there he learned that he was watching the wrong factory. He was watching a chop shop for stolen cars while a much juicier investigation was available in the other direction.

He was informed that Jimmy was the salesman, had an unhealthily close relationship to his aunt, and used the hotel jetty as a dispatch point. The samples were very interesting and I became an incident report of a sneak thief who dropped loot taken from the factory. The detective in charge completely understood when I told him that Jimmy was on the removal list.

At home I let the girls know what symptoms to look out for, gave each a baby browning pistol and I taught them how to use it. Each had a key to my house, each got a panic button and a phone that would dial straight to me. Each got smart nail polish that changed color when exposed to most of the more common drugs. I took the self-defense classes up a notch and improved fitness levels with ballroom dancing, showing them a studio and suggesting they nag Esther to let them join.

Within a day I had search and surveillance warrants for Jimmy. The detective came to the gym to tell me, he had been put onto tailing Jimmy to confirm my information. I greeted him as a good buddy and set Jimmy up to sell him some steroids and a few other products mostly by saying that the detective was an area compliance auditor for a fast food franchise. The detective watched the speed at which I made it happen in bemused surprise at how easy I was making it. The detective did well though as he played a wary but potentially high volume customer well.

Over the next week I got a recording of Jimmy date raping his aunt. The detective from the factory also started an after gym breakfast get together with me, over beer and French fries he told me that search warrants had been granted or what the progress was on Jimmy's case. Anything I got on Jimmy would be treated as legitimate police material if it was original. I called him for the rape and the entire detective team got to watch it live.

I had an idea the rape was coming because Esther was having her period and was being bitchy as she always was at that time of month. The old woman never knew what hit her. From her initial words when the drugs started taking effect this was not the first time. I had taken pictures of him spiking her gin and tonic water. He was very good at getting her to his car. His aunt begged him to not leave her, he assured her that he would not if she did as he told her.

"You'll do as I tell you? You need to; you know that." he said a few blocks from her house.

"You know best Jimmy." Her voice had a near sleep quality.

A sharp slap coming over the audio, and the old woman crying out followed.

"You know I don't get called Jimmy when you are like this."

"Sorry master." She sobbed.

"And you know why you get like this."

"Because I am an old whore master."

"Good, take your shirt off and your bra. A whore does not get to look respectable."

I had heard nastier and more entertaining foreplay to date rape.

I switched to the cameras and bugs in her house as she they stopped in the driveway of her house. Jimmy pulled his aunt out of the car to then half walked and half carried her through a side door. She got pushed to bend over the arm of a divan in her lounge, then Jimmy threw her skirt over her back and pulled her panties aside to try and screw her as she was bent over. He didn't get much right apart from finding her rectum. Then her sphincters were stronger than Jimmy was so he pulled her to the bed where she obeyed his instruction for her to get her panties off with difficulty.

He turned her over and loosened her skirt before turning her onto her back again. His entry was forced and she started crying out as he mounted her. She only stopped after he was fully penetrated, Jimmy rested a bit then thrust twice. Nothing about her body language and expression said she was enjoying this. She moaned after his second thrust; Jimmy took that to be pleasure. He drew back and started speaking as he thrust.

"You like this." He said to her.

"I like this." She was so drugged she was in no state to disagree: her slurred and dreamy word were clear signals of that.

"You need to be screwed."

"I need to be screwed."

"A whore needs to have a man in her."

"I need a man to screw me."

"I have a great body."

I laughed at the vanity of that. Jimmy's aunt agreed and agreed that she was privileged to have him. The rest was similarly selfish as he screwed the old woman for his own pleasure and relief until he ejaculated then lay beside her telling her that she had needed that and that he had just helped her get the dick an old whore needed. He stood up when she was asleep eventually, the aunt would naturally have no clear recollection of events when she did wake up, that was par for the course for the hypnotherapeutic drug that was in the cocktail Jimmy had fed her.