Hinn Ch. 22-24

Author's Note - Please read from Chapter 1 to make sense of this. This is not a quick stroke story. There will be sexy-times, but they will only happen as the story's pace dictates.

Edited 14 November

All characters participating in sexual activities are 18 or older.

*****

Chapter 22

Amber spoke up, "Different topic, if I may - I've got a list of four properties you might want to look at, Ray, Tauriz. I think they might do well for you, albeit in different ways. One of the nicest things is that this far off the coast, the property values are almost sane!"

Ray chuckled a little as he moved over to look at Amber's tablet. "So, what do you have?"

Time passed, keeping busy, learning more about each other, and the situation. Before anyone realized, Mac spoke up, "It's time for ya to go get ready fer yer first meetin' tonight."

"Thank you, Mac -- you beat my alarm."

"Sure, Ray -- glad ta help. 'Course, I stole a look atcher timer."

Dean McKettrick said, "I'm afraid I have other commitments tonight. I'll meet back up with you at nine tomorrow if that's acceptable?"

"Perfectly, Dean. Thank you for all you've done already!"

"Not a problem, Professor. We're paid quite well, after all!"

"As if you do anything just for the pay nowadays, Dean?"

"He caught you, McKay!"

"Fine, fine. You're quite welcome, and in return, thank you for giving me a reasonable shot at poking the government in the eye again."

Ray and Tauriz retreated to the master suite and its attached bath. Jessica said, "Half of us are going to the hotel to get cleaned up and changed, we'll be back in time to go, and we'll bring a war wagon to drive you there in style."

"War wagon?" Ray wanted to know.

"Armored limo. Quite a nice ride, in point of fact, and rather difficult for someone to play silly buggers with."

"Ah, OK, if you think it's appropriate."

"Oh, we do! We do!" Jessica chuckled as she walked out the door with half her staff, leaving Monica, Hina, and the sleeping Jonathon behind.

Retreating to his bedroom with Tauriz, Ray closed the door and stepped over to hug her. "How are you holding up, love?"

"This world of yours is beyond odd, my Ray. The relationships are there, the people are there, but there is always a twist, a variance from my experience. It is, frankly, exhausting."

"Pull the book 'Future Shock' from my memory, love. I'm sure I don't have the whole thing memorized, but it'll be enough to help a little, maybe. I have a physical copy of it someplace around here. Hrmm, that gives me a thought." Ray wished that all of the published materials he had access to be added to Hinn, with proper cross-referencing and the ability to meaningfully search across the whole of them. He felt the wish begin to work, 'hanging' with others that were pending completion. It was the first time he'd found a wish that was active but still took significant time to occur.

"So many books. So much writing. Any human can produce a scholarly work now, from the proper use of dung for raising cow beans to sharpening a sword. And so many have! It is astounding to me."

"You're the amazing one. You're taken from your world, your experience, and thrown in the deep end. Some of the great powers of the human world are against you, and yet you're willing and able to support your partner, to learn and grow. To blossom.

"Come, my rose, let us get clean and ready for these meetings. It's going to be a long night."

"Master, you forget," Tauriz gently chided him before wrapping him in jawhar, refreshing, cleansing, and transforming. Not even a minute later and he stood in a three-piece suit, polished shoes, freshly washed, scrubbed, and trimmed. "Or, you could..." and she flickered, reappearing with a subliminal hint of a brassy cloud around her, wearing a floor-length gown, hair restyled in a fancy braided web with short braided bangs that left her long golden-brown neck bare save for her collar.

"I am even able to stand and move wearing these torture devices your people have appropriately named stilettos!" half-complained a smiling Tauriz

Ray wished that Tauriz would be as comfortable and effective in any footwear she desired to wear as she had been barefoot.

"Master is kind."

"Tauriz is deserving of kindness. So, now we have a half-hour free. What would you like to do, love?"

She stepped up to him, eyes locked on his with a slight, mischievous smile gracing her lips. Walking well into his personal space, she licked her upper lip then gently kissed him.

As Ray returned the kiss, his world spun. This time not figuratively. As soon as he'd been distracted by her kiss, she flipped him onto his side in the middle of the bed. She was there on her back before him, cuddling up close before he even stopped bouncing.

Ray laughed once he realized what she'd done, then hugged her close. "Silly girl. You could have just asked!"

"And then I would still be waiting to be held by my Master. My way is faster and more efficient."

"More fun, too?"

"Of course, my love," she chuckled, and he couldn't resist joining her.

Twenty minutes and another quick wash of jawhar later, they were wrinkle-free and ready to go. Stepping out of the bedroom, they found Hina in a new suit with her hair up in a fancy bun, paired chopsticks seemingly holding it in place. They could hear a hairdryer coming from the guest bath.

"Monica's almost finished getting ready, and then we'll be ready to leave."

"Did anyone think to discuss what we're doing with the police?" queried Ray.

"No. They didn't offer to coordinate, so we'll bull through any roadblocks they wish to try to put up."

"Hrm. Confrontational, but they did get aggressive earlier, too -- I have no objections, just curious."

The three in the room each felt Hina's phone vibrate in their own ways. She excused herself and walked to the guest bath, unhurried but not wasting time. "That's the five-minute warning."

"Should we start and trigger any of their traps, or all go together?"

"Master, I would prefer we all went together. That way you have professional witnesses with you each step of the way, both for immediate reaction and for later recounting the events in front of a legal ... judge? Is that the correct term?"

"Fine, and yes, Judge is probably the term you were looking for, Tauriz."

They could hear Hina and Monica coming back. Monica had changed to a royal blue silk gown with a surprising amount of cleavage showing and a long slit up her left leg, her feet in strappy gold sandals slipping in and out of view as she walked.

"Distraction tactics, Monica?"

"They'd be more suspicious if we didn't try something," she replied.

"Well, our combat chariot awaits, or will soon. Shall we, ladies?"

The four exited the door, and Ray locked up behind them. Idly, he wondered if he'd be back there. So much was changing.

Tauriz felt the wistful sadness in Ray and stepped up to hug him as they walked to the stairwell. It was a mess -- no one had cleaned up after the SWAT troop's accidental discharges. Gravel, half-deformed bullets, and a few wires lay across the floor. There were new surveillance cameras in opposite corners of each level of the stairwell as well.

"Let me, please," asked Hina. She pulled one of the chopsticks out her hairdo. Twisting it caused it to triple in length, letting her use it to flick the wires out of the way before leading the way down the stairs. Her nimble body had no problem moving down the stairs hunched and bent to access and clear anything questionable from their path.

Moments later, they were past the worst of it, and they continued down to the ground floor. The door opened into the lobby. Two policemen stood there swapping stares with building security. Peter, one of the first of the guards Ray had met here, wished them a good evening.

Exiting the building without complaint by the police, they stepped out to the curb just as a stretched black SUV drove up, and the passengers' side rear two doors popped open. "Let's go, folks!" Jessica's voice echoed out of the enormous vehicle.

Hina opened the door and looked in, not-so-accidentally blocking Ray from entering it until she'd checked it out. Seeing who she expected, and not getting any of the subtle wave-off signals she'd half expected, she held the door for the party to board. Hina was tail-end Charlene.

"You folks clean up nicely," mentioned Ray. "Unsurprisingly, I should say."

"Wait until you see who we'll be meeting with, Ray," teased Amber.

"Oh? Shock and awe?"

"Something very similar to that. You'll see. I almost hate giving you that much warning, spoiling their surprise."

Amber kept her eyes flickering between Ray and Tauriz. Ray informed Tauriz of Amber's expectation of a possessive reaction. Tauriz had no interest in playing to Amber's playbook.

After another moment's silence, Amber pouted and handed Jessica a twenty. "You were right, boss."

"And what was the bet, ladies?" asked Ray.

"Amber thought she could get a rise out of Tauriz. I figured she's been through worse."

Ray and Tauriz chuckled. "Truer than you know, Jessica."

Hina asked, "Anyone see anyone following us?"

Tauriz explained the situation for the rest. "There are two drones of different types, following us at a couple hundred feet. Unmarked police cruisers are paralleling our route two blocks left and right. The SWAT team is following us about a half-mile back, loaded up in the backs of two unmarked vans, rearmed with melee and throwing weaponry. There's a second squad with a traditional firearm loadout another half-mile behind them. There is a New York National Guard muster in process, both MP and infantry assault units. We should start seeing them in two to three days. Planes and satellites are being used as sensor platforms aimed in our general location, and there are other planes to include strategic bombers either in holding orbits or ready for rapid take off."

"The things you could do with that information," mused Hina.

"Those are likely the thoughts of those we're at odds with, as well as the thoughts of those who enslaved Tauriz all those years ago," said Ray.

"We're here," said Pete from behind the wheel.

Jessica started giving orders to her team. "Hina, please give a quick check to the route to the room and the room itself before calling back in. Stay in the room and keep an eye on that end. Pete, take a careful check on the way to the room. Once you're partway, the rest of us will come along. We'll arm the war wagon before we leave."

Her only answers were head nods as Jessica's team smoothly left the vehicle. Tauriz' tactical knowledge held Ray in his seat until Jessica asked him to go. If they wanted to do their jobs, he didn't want to make it any more difficult than it had to be.

Two minutes later, Ray's door opened, "OK, Ray -- let's see what we see," said Jessica.

"Oh frabjous day," quoted Ray as he climbed out. "Callooh! Callay!"

"No mome raths outgrabe, though, Ray," returned Jessica.

"So glad when people catch the classic references," Ray grinned to Jessica, who chuckled in return.

The walk to the lecture hall was uneventful. Ray and Tauriz kept the rest of the team up to date on the police's actions, sending patrol pairs to blanket the campus much to the chagrin of the University police.

It turned out that Dean McKettrick had had a quiet word with the University police chief, letting them know about the problem and the probable actions. Knowing precisely who buttered which side of his bread, the chief had laid on additional officers for coverage for the next twenty-four hours, with more overtime likely to be offered after that.

It's good to work with competent people.

Ray took the time to trigger the return-to-base software on the two drones as he was walking into the building. The router that all of this portion of the campus' security cameras mysteriously crashed and got stuck in a reboot cycle. It would take at least a half-hour for the techs to reach it, to say nothing about finding the bitflip caused by a cosmic ray in the code on the system. Ray was amused to use his namesake to cause such nondestructive havoc.

As they stepped into the building, Tauriz' head whipped around. She'd felt something, something different, another something new.

An Aside

Elsewhere

She practiced her spear forms, whipping the blade fast enough to make the air whistle and crack as the tip broke the sound barrier. Her thrusts sank at least six inches into the dense granite targets, causing sprays of fresh gravel traveling at ballistic speeds. With every significant strike in the practice form, she muttered a name. "Dhole. Athathaani. Byachie."

One jagged piece of gravel cut her just above her left eye. She never paused, using jawhar to heal the damage at speed. Ripping her spear out of the latest hole while muttering "Ferruz," she realized she'd penetrated all the way through. She used fresh jawhar to grab the ancient rock she stood on and forced it to meet her desires, pulling up a new target.

She returned to the weapon form. Always the form, striving for every last tiny improvement. And one final strike. "TAURIZ!"

Chapter 23

Ray muttered, "Heads up, Jessica," just as Tauriz sprinted into the building foyer. Ray followed, glad she'd decided to keep things to human limits for now. She grabbed and caught something very challenging to see.

Picking up the technique Tauriz had used, he saw what looked like an underclassman in her grip. Sweatpants, a university tee, and flip-flops with her keys on a lanyard. "And what, precisely, are YOU," asked Tauriz.

"How'd you do that?" asked the shocked girl. "What, how?"

Ray and Tauriz felt more oddness coming towards them. Tauriz gently lifted the whatever-she-was off her feet and told her, calm as ice, "Stop your friends from coming too close." One of the girls' flip-flops dropped to the concrete.

At the same time, Ray grabbed the door frame and took the shock in his arms and hands to stop, Turning back to Jessica, he said "Incoming, something new -- we're working on it," he told her. "Get them all into the lobby, defensive perimeter, minute or two only." Jessica's voice got sharper, more precise, but no faster, as she started to direct her team to close in rapidly and build a perimeter in the open space.

Tauriz told her captive, "So. First things first. I'm Tauriz -- who are you?"

"Heather, Heather Shultz."

"And how are you so hard to see, Heather Shultz?"

"How are you so quick and strong, Tauriz?"

"I'm not human. I don't think you are, either, are you?"

"Not entirely. Thank you for not hurting me, by the way."

"We haven't decided what to do with you yet," Ray said as he closed in. "We don't WANT to hurt you, or your friends, but we need to know what's going on here, now."

"We, we live here," Heather said.

"Here. Not the dorms?"

"Here. And whatever you do, please, please, please don't thank me or any of us. We like it here."

A memory started tickling in the back of his head, but he couldn't quite bring it out. "And thanking you would make you move?"

"Yes."

"HEATHER!" came a shout from the second floor of the lobby. Ray and Tauriz turned to look at the ground floor door into the snack bar, which is where the speaker was. Their precise action lead to the young man's consternation.

"She's unharmed, and I do NOT thank you. Yet. Come over here, and let's talk," said Ray.

"How COULD you do that to us, Heather?" the upset young man asked.

"She's trying to help. If you stop playing the blame game, perhaps we can find out what's going on and fix things here," said Ray.

"That's easy. LEAVE," the young man commanded Ray. Neither he, Tauriz, nor either of the sisters moved, but the rest of Jessica's team started to walk to the door. A quick wish later, and they blinked, returning to their places.

"That was understandable, if rude," Ray informed the young man. "I'm Ray. Who are you?"

"You can call me anything you want, Ray. I'm not going to give you a name."

"The old true name thing?"

"Close. The old name thing. All names have power."

"Well, OK then, th... er, I'm glad you decided not to try to use my name against me -- probably smart of you."

"We can feel the weight of you, Ray. I've led here for a long time now. I need to know -- are you going to make us leave?"

"I don't wish to. I don't intend to unless I have to. I see no reason yet that I HAVE to, but I need more information to make that decision in a way I feel is safe enough for myself, my friends here, and the rest of the campus."

"Ray. Raymond. Raymond Helms. Professor Helms. Are you aware that this is the only building on campus where there have been zero violent incidents? No accidental deaths, and only minor injuries, even when that young man tried to jump off the roof a couple years back?"

"Twenty years back? Yes, they still tell that story. You folks have been here for more than twenty years?"

"Yes, Ray. Much longer than you've been here."

"Good. Will you swear on whatever you hold binding that you'll continue to protect this building and its inhabitants as long as you live here?"

"You have my word, barring only expulsion or if someone tries to use us against our will."

The people with techniques felt the change in the building as the not-so-young man gave his word.

"Then, on MY word, which isn't as binding as yours but will still guide my actions, I will leave you to continue to do that what you desire. I will ask you two favors, which we can barter about if you need -- I have three meetings in the next twenty-four hours here. The first favor would be to help us keep the meetings private, to just between the people sitting at the table. The second favor would be to share, trade, or barter knowledge with us, both ways, soon."

"The second we can grant, and happily. The first, what would you offer in return?"

"What can I offer that you value reasonably equivalent with the service I ask?"

"Sing us a song, Raymond Helms. Sing us a song you enjoy."

Blinking, Ray thought for a second, then cleared his throat. "Amazing Grace," he sang, his voice unpracticed but clear in the open space, "How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, t'was blind but now I see. T'was grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed."

The room swallowed the last note, and the young man smiled. It made his face change, from stern and concerned to sweet and young and in love with life. "I cannot thank you, Ray, but your conversations will be as private as we can make them, here in our home."

"Hmm. Yes. That makes for an awkward conversational gap on my part, but -- I understand your position. I look forward to talking to you, all of you, more, when next I can."

Tauriz gently hugged Heather and brought her to the young man, who hugged Heather and Tauriz in turn.

Ray kicked Heather's fallen flipflop over to her as he shared the myth of the brownie with Tauriz in Hinn, helpful Germanic spirits that moved into a home or a business and protected it, providing minor services -- cleaning, washing, eliminating pests -- for as long as they received no thanks. Thoughtful eyes met his, and Tauriz nodded.

"Sorry for the excitement, Jessica -- I think we're good here. I think we're terrific here, in point of fact."

"You're the customer, Ray -- if you say so, I'll trust you on it."

"Oh, trust but verify, Jessica, but thus far, I suspect the trust will not get broken. Shall we get to the room?"

The group left the lobby to the young man and Heather and her other friends hiding in plain sight.