Realms of Eden Book 03: Whirlwind

Clinton was sitting in one of the corporate boxes ranged across the top of the eastern stand and Jerome was surprised when he found that the man was not alone. "Ah there you are Sergeant!" Clinton called as he spied him in the doorway. "Come in, come in. I think you have already met our supreme commander already haven't you?"

The man was grinning broadly as Sydney Douglas turned to watch him enter the room. "Yes sir I have," he replied and turning to Sydney said, "Hello Whirlwind."

Sydney's eyes frosted and taking a deep breath said quietly, "I know this may seem stupid to you Sergeant Adeane but Whirlwind only lives out on the cricket fields and in the campaigns to bring about peace to the world via the social and community networks. Here he does not exist. My name is Sydney Douglas, you may also call me Cue Ball and you may also call me a cunt but there is a line between what we do here and what goes on outside. Is that clear?"

"Yes Sir," snapped the sergeant giving the man a rigid salute as he stood at attention.

"At ease soldier, I just need you to be aware that there is a distinction.

"Your captain has some rather disturbing news and before I go sending you and your men off to investigate it I wanted you to know that it is not some superstar, bed hopping idiot that orders you to do so," Cue Ball said softly.

Jerome relaxed. Cue Ball passed him a drink and resumed the chair he had been sitting in prior to his arrival. "Carry on Captain," he said to Clinton.

Captain Southey pointed to the wall screen showing the warehouse district of Waitaha Cove focussing on several large iron and steel constructions serviced by a large jetty on the north eastern side. "This is where we believe the drugs are being stored, Cue Ball. They are being ferried in from some of the islets to the east of Pitt Island. We think that someone has been making low jet hover runs and dropping barrels of the stuff off into the water then getting them retrieved, storing them on the islets and running them in hidden in normal legal domestic trade. There is so much aquaculture and fishing out that way that it could be any number of modes of concealing and transporting them in."

"Any idea who is doing the drop offs and where they come from?" asked Jerome.

"We do have some intelligence on that Jerome," said Cue Ball and he beckoned Clinton to show it. A vid started on the screen showing a black jet hover releasing something from its underwing storage areas into the water then screaming off into the sky, too quickly for whoever was doing the filming to follow.

"Unfortunately our informant turned up dead the following morning after she sent this via coded transfer. Her unit destroyed in what seemed to be made out to be a burglary gone wrong," said Southey.

"Her name was Palena Yua!" snapped Cue Ball. "Never forget the names of the soldiers Captain Southey! Especially the ones that you get killed!"

He stood abruptly and said, "Fill him in on the observation mission and I will see you this evening Sergeant Adeane."

Cue Ball left them both slightly stunned.

Jerome Adeane eyed his Captain as the commander left. "I cannot work him out, Sir," he said softly.

"You don't need to Jerome. Cue Ball says, we do," was his Captain's reply.

At 10:00 pm Jerome was lying on his stomach on top of a storage tank with a set of night glasses pressed against his eyes. Observing the warehouses some 300 metres down the road waiting for his commander's signal. Beside him were two of his unit dressed in the dark camouflage fatigues that he was also wearing. There was no movement at the buildings and he strained his ears to hear any sounds indicating movement on the water of the cove. "Anything Sergeant?" came softly in his ear piece.

"No Sir."

"Good. Keep an eye out I am going in for a look."

Jerome looked back through his glasses and saw briefly a flash of what he thought was a man running from the jetty up to the buildings. The shadow stopped then waved back to where he was observing from. "Give me 15 minutes. If I am not back out report back to Captain Southey and await further instructions!"

"Acknowledged, good luck Cue Ball," he replied into his microphone.

One of the other observers nudged his ribs and pointed across the water. Training his glasses he saw a hover, with no lights on, running towards the jetty. "Cue Ball you might have company," he whispered into his mic.

"Yep got them. Huh oh, Sergeant, get your men down here, armed and lethal mode! Now!"

Jerome and his men slid down the ladder and raced towards the jetty. "Let the men, three of them, get out of the hover first and take them down. I don't care if they are dead but do not let them get to the building!"

Jerome and his two men slipped down low as they found cover at the end of the jetty. They watched the large hover lift off the water and settle down around 50 metres from the doorway that his commander had entered.

Three large figures got out and appeared to be checking weapons as they leisurely stretched then holding the weapons in front of them prepared to walk up the pathway. Shots fired out and the figures dropped. Jerome and his team rushed forwards checking the bodies. "All dead Sir," he called.

"Good, now get some ambulances here. We need a security team to lock down this building.

"Oh and tell Captain Southey I will see him tomorrow and it's not drugs in here! It's under-age girls!"

Jerome made the calls and soon a fleet of ambulances, lights flashing and sirens blaring were on their way.

The team entered the building and Jerome watched a man sitting and talking amongst about twenty girls between the ages of 18 and 20. Many of the girls showed bruising on their arms and legs, as well, a few had cuts and scrapes on their faces, wrists and ankles.

He looked around the room and saw shackles attached to the walls. Most of them looking as if someone had snapped the bracelets open viciously as many were bent beyond recognition. He turned towards the girls and they cowered from his approach trying to hide behind the big man who stood as he walked over.

"Drop the weapons down people you're scaring them and show them your faces," the man softly ordered.

The team did as ordered as the man surveyed the team. Turning to the girls he said, "See I told you that they would be friends, didn't I Alison?" One of the little girls barely up to the man's hip nodded but still didn't let the man's leg go as she held on tightly.

"Do you have any sweets?" he asked the soldiers. A couple of chocolate bars and several bags of jelly beans appeared. The man requested them to be given to the girls.

One of the older girls sobbed as she greedily sucked a piece of chocolate. Cue Ball beckoned her towards him and wrapped her up in his arms rocking her as she cried against his chest.

Jerome noted that the big man himself was crying as well.

The ambulance crews arrived and soon the girls were chattering with the women in the crews as they were checked. A security team arrived taking up positions around the surrounding buildings and immediately outside. They stayed out of sight on Jerome's orders, until the fleet of ambulances had left taking the man that Jerome assumed was Cue Ball with them. Jerome and his team were unsure who the strange man was but he could only be their commander as no-one else had gotten past them into the building.

Jerome simply shook his head when the others of his team asked about him. Whoever he was he refused to let the little girl, he had called Alison and the older girl that cried on him called Janine, out of his grasp. Or more honestly it should be said that they would not let him out their sight.

Reporting in the situation to Southey he was directed to head home. Jerome did so reluctantly and hoped that Cue Ball would give him an explanation later.

The ambulances were directed to kill the sirens and lights as they transported the girls to a military hospital in an area outside of Wellington.

By the time they arrived Cue Ball had Alison and Janine chattering merrily to him as unconcerned as all young girls should be. He had taken from them the memories of their ordeal especially for Janine who had been repeatedly raped by her captors. Though she tried to be strong the appearance of Whirlwind as her saviour had broken her resolve.

The medics in the craft with him were still in shock at the changes that he had been able to achieve in the thirty minute drive.

When Bonnie stood at the back of the vehicle as the doors opened he introduced the two of them to her and told them to go with her to get something to eat.

Over the next few hours the medical staff were amazed as the man had the girls giggling and laughing with him as they sat in the mess of the hospital waiting for their parents. When the head of the hospital told him that all of the girls' parents, except for Alison's had arrived, the man asked where the girl's mother was.

When Jo looked hard at him with tears barely held in check he knew the answer immediately. Alison's memories showed her mother injecting needles into herself and the man was not surprised when the woman told him that she had died of an overdose.

Sydney had left Bonnie and Jo with the girls telling them that he would be back soon.

The parents of the girls were being given tea and sandwiches in a separate building. Talking with Thelma and several military doctors. Many of them were almost as distressed as the young women had been when Sydney had found them. Some it seemed were nervous.

Sydney stood outside of the room where the group of parents sat waiting for news. As he scanned and watched the parents through the one way glass of the room his face became flat and emotionless. Calling a Captain over he asked if there was an interview room that he could use. The woman directed him to a small room where a desk and several chairs were arranged. With a hard stare at the officer he then asked the captain to have two armed guards positioned at the doorway of another room that held a dozen or so chairs that she told him was a group therapy room.

He nodded that he was ready and sent Thelma a message to send the parents to him one at a time.

By the end of the interviews he re-united thirteen of the girls with their parents. Sending them home with information on who to contact for help and ensured that they spoke to staff at the hospital before they left.

He made sure that the parents were aware that he was not part of the military just someone who was helping as part of the current awareness campaigns. They thanked him profusely and wished him well.

That left 3 girls with parents that he would not re-unite them with, as well as Alison. Having discovered in the interviewing and reading of their thoughts that they were responsible for the sale of their daughters or were part of the under-age sex trade. Sydney was in danger of causing mass murder as the warrior in him tried to come to the surface to perform acts of retribution on behalf of the girls.

One who was in danger of this revenge was Janine's father. It was all he could do not to blow the man's brains all over the floor when he learnt that he was one of the participants in the girl's rapes. He sat with Thelma and cried with her then composed himself as they planned what actions to do.

"We can't expose them while the girls are here Thelma. Janine is just holding together now. I will have to spend a lot more time with her to make sure my hasty repair work holds," he said as he paced the small room.

Thelma watched him, her heart aching as he warred with losing the parents of the girls and how to make up for it.

A blue glow appeared in the room. "Sydney, Thelma leave them with me, please. I need some new life in my realm. I can give them parents and memories that will be far more enjoyable than what they will go through if they stay here. Please! Let me help!" begged Jebidiah.

Sydney heard another voice in his head. "They will be princesses Sydney and besides it will keep him out of our hair for a while. He only thinks he knows how to deal with young women it will be a good education for him as well," sent his older self.

Sydney nodded then said, "Jebidiah what about the parents?"

"You can shoot them all for all I care Sydney they don't belong in your new world!" Then he was gone.

"Without the girls you have no case against them," said Thelma.

"Got it!" said Sydney excitedly and dashed from the room.

Signalling to the guards at the doors he sent one of them off to secure a vehicle to transport the seven people and walked in the doors. He stood there as the warrior persona and heard them squeaking and screaming as his fiery visage challenged them.

"You people disgust me!" he roared. "Especially you!"

Singling out Janine's father he held his sword against the man's chest above his heart then pressed it through his body. The man dropped to the floor dead, without a mark. Medics that examined him later would diagnose a heart attack.

He glared at the rest and ordered them from the room to be escorted by the guards to the waiting van. He contacted Captain Southey telling him to organise some men to be at the jetty and told him what he wanted done. Thelma, Jo and Bonnie watched him walk towards them with a satisfied smirk on his face. He asked, "So who wants to take me home?"

On the way home Jo asked, "Sydney how are you going to keep a lid on this?"

"Lid on what Jo?" he asked grinning.

"Well there was a whole hospital full of people, all those ambulance officers, the girls and their parents all saw you. One of them is going to blab to the press about Whirlwind being in a rescue mission."

Thelma smiled. "Jo, you, me and Bonnie are the only ones that saw Sydney there, everyone else saw someone different. It's called mind masking. Ask Jenny to give you a demonstration."

"There was only one girl there who saw Whirlwind. She needed to see a hero, someone to take away her fear and make her feel safe," Sydney said.

"Janine," said Bonnie her eyes tearing up.

"She will never remember it now, Bonnie," said Sydney holding the girl close to him. "Jebidiah will make sure of that!"

He sat there holding her for a while then said, "Who is looking after Jenny?"

"Mumma Moira!" the three of them said imitating the little girl's voice.

Thelma's voice rose a little above the noise of Jo and Bonnie's giggling as they snuggled closer to Sydney in the hover. "So what did you do with the six remaining parents Sydney?"

"I sent them back to wherever that lot that came to collect them using the backtrack routing codes on the hover and what I gleaned from their memories. Bound in the chains that they had the girls in, naked and disguised as fairly plain 19 year old girls," he looked at the three women as they stared at him in shock. "Yes even the men," he chuckled, "but it will only last until someone sticks their dick in them and finds that they have fucked a man up the arse.

"If we are lucky they will end up just being cock maidens."

"Cock maidens?" they asked together.

"Girls who are forced to spend their lives under tables or in small rooms with holes in the walls and made to suck the cocks or pussies of anyone who wants it, they perform or they die."

"I'll be your cock maiden anytime Syddy," simpered Bonnie as she slid to her knees in front of him.

Thelma spread her legs wide and crooked a finger at Jo asking, "Want to be mine?"

Chapter 8 - Running in the sun

Robert Dinnane, Sandy Collins and Kelsey Gilroy stood watching Sydney walking and talking with other competitors in the warm morning sun at Brendan McCullum stadium. Thousands of people made their way, chattering excitedly, into the grandstands all around them.

With the help of other athletic associations around Oceania the day, which would not only feature the match race between Sydney and seven other competitors, was a chance for quite a number of other 'grudge' races. The races had at first been mooted as a throwaway line from a reporter that had been interviewing Sydney several days before. The reporter laughingly suggested that there were probably a few people out there that should simply line up and race to settle their differences.

The movement had spread. When Robert had been approached by several community groups to have several staff from businesses run off as an advertising gimmick he had set about stirring up more interest.

In all there were now twenty races on the card featuring run-offs between club mascots in their uniforms, inter pub rivalries, community group fund-raisers and even a few politicians had been cajoled into putting on some shorts and T-shirts.

Robert waited until the night before to tell Sandy and Kelsey that a group of businessmen had approached him to ask if the women would compete in an 800 metre race against several other female 'athletes'. Of course, the businessman assured him that it would not be a competitive race just for fun.

The big dark skinned man had laughed as he shared a drink with these businessmen in an exclusive club in Wellington that featured well-endowed women swinging around vertical poles semi naked. Eyeing the scantily clad waitresses he asked, "Ok gentlemen what do you want them to wear?"

Producing two very skimpy pieces of material that were supposed to be shorts and a running top Robert had examined them and said no deal. Not, he assured them, that the women would not agree, but it was not the image that was wanted to be portrayed on the day and for the cause that Whirlwind was so passionately promoting. He eventually persuaded them to save the uniforms for a more private running exhibition. He asked them to leave it with him and he would find something more appropriate.

In the end Pamela gave him the uniforms as he observed her fitting up Murray King for a run around the indoor arena. She had been getting the wicket keeper almost down to fighting weight and the outfit she had him wearing was perfect for what he had in mind. Talking to the physiotherapist she assured him that the items were readily available and so he had organised measurements of the 'athletes' from the businessmen and ordered the outfits with a couple of modifications.

He had shown the women the suits last night and they had jumped at the chance to model them for him. Sandy had told him to cool his jets when they bounced and jogged on the spot for him and he had shown that he was ready for action after their 5 minute exhibition.

We want to be full of energy tomorrow baby they soothed him as they dropped to their knees and sucked him off instead.

Before the start of the program a minute's silence was observed and Sydney had given a short speech thanking everyone for their support and hoped that they had an enjoyable day. His one minute speech was met with enthusiastic applause and the chant of Whirlwind.

A couple of community leaders gave speeches and as the second speaker went into her third minute the ground announcer called, 'Time," and the crowd erupted into raucous laughter, cheering and clapping drowning out any further speaking. The woman graciously waved and stepped down.

It was a huge surprise to everyone that Jenny appeared on the stage, not even Kelsey knew of her daughter's involvement in the official part of the day. Looking around she saw Moira, Bonnie and Jo giving her puzzled looks then spotted the gleaming eyes of Thelma and said, "What are you up to baby?"

"Just watch and listen," was her reply.

Jenny stood on the podium and held the microphone close to her lips. The little girl's image was displayed on all of the screens around the stadium and the crowd waited in hushed expectation. Jenny began to speak.

"I promise that as I grow I shall respect my parents, my friends, my neighbours and my world. Most of all I promise that I shall respect myself. I promise that I shall not turn a blind eye nor shall I refuse to offer my hand to help. Upon my honour and my life."