The Layered World

Author's note: Please join Joshua and his incredible women friends for an extended tale of international intrigue and ISIS radicalism.

The Layered World - Part 1 - His Story Begins

Prologue

The phone chimed on auto answer and Natalie said, "Yes?"

He was warming her back, his arm over her side. "Can you talk? Is he there?"

"Yes, and yes."

"I'm not interrupting?"

"We are working on that."

He had opened the curtains before joining her in bed the night before. The view from the twentieth floor across the East River to Manhattan was superb. He was awake frequently in the night and never tired of looking out, feeling the power of the city. He gazed at it now over her shoulder.

A finger traced around her nipple and she clamped her hand on his. "Be good."

"Is he pestering?" Sam was his PA in London, where it was still early in the morning.

"He is, but will behave. He knows you wouldn't call now unless it is important."

"Hold on a sec, I need to conference Kelly in."

He lay back and wondered what was important enough to wake Kelly at 12:20 am.

"OK, she is with us. What I am calling about is that there has been another plane crash, this time in Ukraine. I've had calls from Sybil and our security people in the last few minutes saying there was some sort of explosion, and that one of our biggest insurance clients was on board."

Natalie asked, "Does Sybil have anything from the reinsurance people about our exposure?"

"No. Not yet. Kelly, sorry to get you up at such a bad hour but the client on the plane was part of that group headed your way next week. In fact, he was the only person we were seriously interested in. You need to start damage control first thing in the morning."

"Natalie, you were going to host him at a private lunch. I assume you will work something out. I'll post news in the secure email. Please tell Jay that there is another angle about this crash he needs to discuss with me on his personal line. But not right now. Natalie, see if you can get him to sleep a little more before he goes to the gym. Bye."

The phone clicked and she turned into him. "Are we still doing the job you expect of us?"

He pulled her head to his chest and kissed her hair. "After six years, you have to ask?"

Chapter 1 - Ithaca

In the UK, they would call him a polymath. In Ithaca, New York, he was just a prodigy. The second child of an academic couple who had professorships at the university. His sister was six years older and very bright. He was big, over eight pounds when they came home from the hospital, and ate ravenously. Martha had red chapped nipples until her husband, who was inordinately proud of having a son, began applying Vaseline twice a day. She told him his reward for having got her with a male child was to change the diapers. Jack laughed and did it.

He had the blue eyes of an infant, but as he got older, they stayed blue, even though his familial genes were all from southern Europe. Strangely, he didn't cry. Not once. Also strangely, no matter how quietly they entered the nursery, his eyes were always open.

The peaceful calm and lack of crying unnerved them. At his three month's doctor visit, Martha asked if by chance he had Down's. The pediatrician performed a battery of tests, on which he tested above average in every category. "Martha," she said, "notice the eyes. He has examined every single thing in this room. That is unusual. Be attentive to his needs and let's talk more at the next visit."

Joshua, for that was his name, acquired a nanny as soon as Martha felt safe in returning to her teaching, his strange behavior notwithstanding. Anita was an au pair from Stockholm and eighteen. She was a very pretty blond and got attention from boys that made Martha nervous. She finally sat the girl down and said straight out, "Anita, you are a very attractive young woman and the last thing I want to have happen is that you go back to your family in the summer carrying a baby."

The girl hugged Martha and laughed. "Mom, I have been on the pill for ages. My own mother said the same thing to me before I left home!"

"Besides," she added, "none of these boys here interest me. I have a friend at home. Kjell is waiting for me."

When he was six months old, on a Saturday when the parents were away, Joshua took Peggy's hand and pulled himself up. He looked across the room at Anita and walked straight to her. She shouted and hoisted him high in the air.

He said, "Put me down, please," and they were struck dumb. They had not recovered from that shock when he clutched Anita's finger and led her to the bathroom. He pushed his diaper to the floor and said, "Please hold me while I go."

By Sunday afternoon, there was a whole new order in the household. He spoke softly and always said please, but most of what he said turned out to be orders of one kind or another. When it was time for sleep on Saturday night, he told Anita that it would be warmer and nicer if he and Peggy slept in her bed with her. Just before the parents got home, he told Peggy and Anita it would cause a terrible fuss if Jack and Martha knew he could talk, and they must keep his secret, at least for now.

In the night, he was awake, as he was most nights, and realized a charade was not going to work. His brain and his body were developing too fast, and he didn't want to hold them back. In fact, he wanted all the baby stuff to go away as fast as possible.

When Martha came into the kitchen at seven to grab a cup of coffee before heading to campus, he was seated on the counter, legs folded around a bowl of cereal and fruit. He smiled at her and she said, "My goodness, Anita must have got you up early. But where is your diaper?"

He looked directly at her and said, "Don't need one anymore."

She dropped the coffee cup just as Anita came into the kitchen, wiping sleep from her eyes.

He said to Anita, "I'm sorry I didn't wait for you, I was hungry."

The two women knelt to clean the floor and Martha said, very quietly, "He is talking?"

They stood, hugging each other and looking at him. Anita answered, "I am afraid so. Walking too. And using the toilet."

There was dead silence. Martha finally said, "Joshua, can we talk when I get home?"

"Yes, mother. You should run to class."

When they looked up, Jack was in the doorway, totally bemused. He said, "Son, that was a terrible shock you just gave your mom. Next time, a little warning would be helpful."

"Yes, father. I didn't mean to be cruel."

Martha, totally panicked, fled out the door.

"Don't worry about it. How long have you been able to understand what grownups are saying?"

"Almost from the beginning. Maybe a little before I was born. There's not much to do in there except listen and kick once in a while."

Anita was bent over the counter, shaking and laughing with relief. Peggy came in with a smile, "Daddy, he's talking!"

Jack boosted her up on the counter and said, "It's going to be fun, having Joshua grow up so fast."

The next months were tumultuous. It seemed he could read almost as soon as his tiny hands could turn the pages. Anita tried books for two year olds and he sharply told her to find something she liked in adventure fiction and read that to him. Before a year, he had a tablet and told Martha he loved the touchscreen keyboard because his small fingers were a good fit.

One evening at dinner, when Joshua was almost three, and asking Jack a question about the calcium channels he was researching, Martha broke in and said, "He's not going to preschool, is he?"

"Afraid not, honey. Nor kindergarten. Maybe not primary school if he keeps on like this."

Tears ran down her face. "Oh dear, what are we going to do. My poor boy." She gathered him up and walked to the living room sofa. He had a tissue and wiped her eyes. "It will be ok. I've read about prodigies and all their troubles. We can have a conspiracy to hold back the nasty world while I grow up. You can apply for home schooling permission. I will practice behaving at the right grade level."

Jack was in his recliner, puffing on a pipe, and smiling. "Martha, we should be overjoyed. We have a supersmart kid who already knows a little about how tough the world can be."

Visits to the pediatrician were full of laughs. Joshua was at two hundred percent of all the body size and maturity measurements. He tried pretending to be a normal four year old and failed miserably. The doctor eyed him suspiciously, "What are you hiding from me, rascal?"

"I was pretending to be a normal four year old, but it isn't working."

She looked at Martha, "He is exceptional?"

"Very. He has been talking to Jack and me about prodigies and their troubles. Says he wants to avoid all that. He has already left primary school behind, so we are just concentrating on subject mastery."

"I think I can assist. I would like to do that. We need to help his body catch up with his brain. And keep an eye on his blood chemistry."

The doctor, whose name was Helen, was added to the conspiracy, and came to dinner once a month. She took him to his room and did all the routine checks. He was very healthy and his bright blue eyes smiled at her. "I've been reading about sex."

She smiled back. "You have to wait."

"Yes. It tries my patience. You have a nice body."

"My husband thinks so. You know about flirting?"

"May I practice on you?"

"No. Definitely not. You are a terrible handful already." She laughed with him, and knew things would only get worse.

After Joshua took over his mother's computer, he quickly discovered the Internet and the world of information in cyberspace. Stock markets fascinated him. Using Martha's credit card and identity, he opened an online brokerage account and transferred a few thousand dollars to it from a savings account. He smiled at himself about how easy it was to use other people's money online once you had their passwords.

His big breakthrough came when he was six and discovered he could have multiple windows open simultaneously, and that he could access the non-delayed stock information. While he was supposed to be napping, he watched the ebb and flow of trading, and saw the last moment transactions of the electronic traders.

His stock choices were successful and soon there was a million dollars in his account and he had a personal contact at the brokerage. His voice had grown up enough that he could talk to Bruce without giving himself away. One day, he said, "Bruce, it looks like there will be some last minute trades this afternoon in energy. How quickly can you execute an order?"

Bruce had to investigate and call back. "Joshua, the boss says if we set it up in advance, we can execute in a second or so."

That was the beginning of a cat and mouse game in which Joshua made a great deal of money for himself and the brokerage company. So much that Bruce called and said an investigator had been around to inquire about insider trading. He told Bruce, who was a nervous wreck anyway, to take his girlfriend to the Virgins for a sailing charter. The next day, stretching his ever growing mental resources, he began a diversification strategy and moved millions into a number of companies in different geographies. He didn't like having to fill his brain with so much detail, but secrecy was important and he couldn't afford for an eight year old to have records of what he was doing lying around.

He decided that being a market recluse was a bad idea and paid more attention to his family. He apologized to his mother for using some of her money and said that it had grown quite a bit. He showed her a new savings account in her name that had one hundred thousand dollars in it. She was shocked and scared and arranged for lunch on campus with Jack.

"He's playing the market and making money. What are we going to do?"

Jack took a sip of his iced tea and smiled. "Honey, we are the parents of a genius. The only thing we can do is roll with the punches. I'll talk to him about the securities laws if you like."

"Oh, please do, I am worried sick."

Jack suggested to Joshua that since it was a nice spring day, they check the fishing in the lake. Out on the water, in the fading sunlight, he said, "Martha is worried about you and the money."

The fishing lines were hanging very limp. "I needed to say something to her. My investing has been successful. I have a strategy for beating the fast traders at their own game."

"How successful?"

"Before we get to that, I have an idea. You have always wanted your own lab and funding. And to be downstate, where all the medical action is. I think a recently formed foundation should move us to White Plains and fund a laboratory institute at the university medical center."

Even Jack was impressed at this. "We have the resources for that?"

"Yes. I was thinking thirty million to start. But there are problems. We need a good lawyer and a good accountant. There have to be companies and trusts. I'll still be a minor for ten years more, damn it."

"Ok, I guess. How much in total are we talking about?"

"At the close of business yesterday, it was a little more than a hundred million."

His father felt a bite and jerked his line. A five inch perch landed in the rowboat. As he removed the barbless hook, Jack said, "I guess that's a good problem to have. Your mother will be fit to be tied."

"I know. I'm thinking of a chair in art at Vassar to give her a challenge."

Joshua rowed them carefully to shore, his still short arms struggling with the oars. Jack sat in the back and eyed his son, wondering where the brilliant energy would go next.

Chapter 2 - Natalie

They were standing in the kitchen sipping fresh coffee. She had on a fleece tunic that fitted snugly. It was the same off white color as the walls. She rubbed her hip on him and asked, "You are returning to London?"

"Yes. Sybil and Sam will need me around to help deal with the crash."

"Do I get to have a tinge of jealousy at losing you so quickly?"

His arm went around her chest just below the fleece covered bumps. "Natalie, life is nothing but problems. Men are the worst."

She giggled and turned around to kiss him, arms around his neck. "Yes, and you are the best worst problem to have!"

He held her at arms length, eyes dark in the dimness of the counter light, "You are at your peak. Is it time to dump me?"

She teared up and pushed back into his arms. "That's nasty. I know we agreed to renewable contracts, and no love interests, but it's never been that way. We all adore you."

He lifted her to the counter, where the marble was cold on her bare bottom. "Life is short and full of danger. Look at poor Claude. You have to maintain some distance. There are people who would like to see me dead and it might happen."

She leaned her head on him and sniffled. After a minute, she said, "Claude was a dangerous man in a dangerous business. He was grateful to you for helping him have two careers at once."

Pulling his head up by the hair, she kissed him lightly. "You are too damn cerebral. It's only when you take us to Orgy Day and get drunk that we see the real Jay."

He sucked her tongue and they kissed for a long moment. "You are invading my gym time with your mush."

She slipped the tunic over her head. "Perhaps you need my mush more than the gym."

The tight curves of her body shone in the dim light. She dipped a finger between her legs and stuffed it in his mouth. He sucked on her flavor and thought about the invitation. They all did this to him and he enjoyed it. When he decided his persona at this layer would be represented by smart, beautiful women, he should have known sex would become a necessary ingredient. A lapse in judgment, but a delightful one. They knew it and teased him unmercifully. At odd low moments, when things weren't going well, they would accuse him of thinking with his cock. Like right now. He was hard as a sledgehammer and the discipline of the gym workout was fading.

Her fingers were in his hair, and she could detect his hesitation. The other women would be so pleased if she succeeded in diverting him back to her bed. She leaned and whispered, "I'll move your breakfast meeting and you can be late to the gym."

As he carried her to the bedroom, she went on, her head close to his ear, licking at him. "Don't overthink this. Let your body do the thinking."

He stood her on the mattress and bit her nipples, each in turn. "You just want the animal in me, is that it?" His hands roamed up her calves, circling her thighs and pressing thumbs deep. She leaned backward until her hands met the wall, thrusting her pelvis into his face. "Please."

His PA's had decided, years ago, that having survived the horrible boot camp of auditioning for his job, they would work extremely hard and express their individual personalities at the same time. In the beginning, he hadn't even let them know there was more than one job. The final night of the audition, he invited them to a very private dinner in this Brooklyn penthouse. They were scared to death and dressed to the nines. He served wine and tortured them, each in turn, with even more puzzler questions, making them think through the answers, not give him a rote response. He excused himself and left them in awful suspense while he supervised the dinner service and sent the kitchen help home. He carefully seated them and poured champagne in each glass.

His toast was, "Here is to my four new assistants, you have all passed."

They screamed and shouted, almost in a faint. Then their own drive and ambition kicked in. They stared daggers at him. "That was very bad." But they lined up and kissed him. Before he knew what was happening, Sam had her elegant dress off and was standing in front of him in the laciest lingerie money could buy in London...

His daydream was interrupted by another "Please" from Natalie, this time with an edge in it. He plunged his mouth into her sex, rubbing his unshaven chin in her muff. "Yes, yes. Oh god, I want you."

She collapsed to the bed, taking him with her. His robe had dropped to the floor. His strong hands had her ass in a firm grip and his tongue was attacking her like it had last night. She had never been able to resist oral sex with Jay, and couldn't now. She screamed, "Yes," and came in a great shudder. When she recovered, he was against the wall, legs spread and cock ready. She impaled herself and said, "Jay, I'm not maintaining my distance." She squeezed as hard as she could and added, "And I'm not dumping you anytime soon."

They smiled at each other and she posted slowly on his big cock. He kissed her and rose to his knees, driving deeper. She knew all about pussy power. Had used it with lovers before getting the PA job with Jay. But it didn't seem to work with him. She squeezed again and remembered the night when they had been hired. The wild sense of freedom that passing his test generated. Getting out of the dresses started as trying to protect them from lounging around. But the women had pushed him to the sofa in the living room and started dancing. All the deodorant hadn't helped. They stank of the anxiety. They could smell each other. He could smell them. He couldn't help getting hard, and tried to cover himself. Sam laughed and unfastened her bra. He watched eight breasts wobble in front of him and got even harder.

The scraps of lace that covered their pussies were next. They crouched on the sofa to kiss him and the odor was overwhelming. Kelly stood and said, "Jay, you have been decent and never hit on us through all this. Never suggested a trade of sex for a job. But now we are hired and you need to experience all of our charms. Doesn't that require a workout?" She pointed to his crotch.

They were both daydreaming in the comfortable sex play. Squeeze and thrust. Back and forth. She hoped he would come, because she was almost there. "Now, Jay, NOW!"