Author's notes:
This is the continuation of A Long Time from Home and if you haven't read that, I advise you to do so. The series is self-edited, so any mistakes are mine, though I now have a proofreader, that can catch missing words ect. Thanks to Jessejames932006 for doing that.
Some of the chapters will take place in the ancient past and while I have done a lot of research for that, there might be small errors here and there. If you think you found such an error in the story, please double check to be sure that you're correct and then PM me about it, so I can fix it. :)
Normally, I prefer to use real locations, but for this and future chapters, I have invented a Island in the Caribbean called Oldenburg Island, so don't try to find it on a map :)
Due to its length, I placed ALTFH under the 'Novels and Novellas' section, but as you can see, ALTFH II is placed in the 'Sci-fi and Fantasy' section, which fits it better due to the elements of magic that's in it. At least in my opinion :)
Have fun and while you're at it, please rate the chapter and leave a comment :)
I have stated that I would upload chapters of 'Into the Chaos' (my Star Wars: The Old Republic story) every other time and that is still the case.
About the notation:
Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"
Some warnings
:
This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.
This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.
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6 -- Oldenburg Island
September 2000, Vasa Estate, Oldenburg Island
For most, the Caribbean hurricane season was still going, but as Oldenburg Islands was situated south of what was normally called Hurricane Alley, the weather was beautiful.
So was the island. Roughly the same size as the island of Martinique, Oldenburg was one of the few volcanic islands in the southern Caribbean, and was largely covered by forest, offering a spectacular blend of mountains, forests, and beaches, only broken up a in few places in the otherwise rugged landscape, where the soil was suitable for cattle and farming.
Its history was just as special as the landscape. Most islands in the Caribbean had been settled by nations, but Oldenburg had been settled by and named after the European noble house of Oldenburg, and with that, the Island became a duchy under the protection of the powerful Oldenburg family.
One of the most successful noble houses in Europe, members of the House of Oldenburg had ruled all of Scandinavia, Greece, northern Germany and even the Russian Empire, and had married into most other European royal houses. They had especially close ties to both the British and Dutch royal families and while the first settlers had been Danes and Norwegians, many later settlers had been German, Dutch, and British natives fleeing religious persecution as religious wars and the Inquisition swept through Europe.
In the eighteen-hundreds, the control of Oldenburg Island had passed to Denmark as an autonomous territory, where it stayed for almost one hundred and fifty years and it was the Danes that had had the greatest influence on the food, culture, and architecture of the Island.
While all this mattered little in the modern age, these ties had kept the Island out of most wars that had plagued the area during the last three hundred years, while the actual control of the Island had changed with whoever was in control of the House of Oldenburg. Due to this, the people of Oldenburg Island had always had their citizenship tied to the Island instead of the nation controlling it and the noble house had kept the Island as tax free as possible, getting its income from taxing the trading companies and goods instead of the people.
Even after Oldenburg Island became a constituent state under the Netherlands in 1972, when the Danish king died and passed the Island to the King of Netherland by the old agreement, the practice had continued, gaining popularity and importance since the late 80s. Consequently, there were a lot of corporations, banks, and other financial services on the island and as a whole, the Island was as modern as any part of the world I had seen in person so far.
Known by the locals as Vasa Estate, the house we were living in was just as beautiful as the weather and was in a small bay fifteen minutes' drive to the north of Rastede, the capital of Oldenburg Island. A rebuilt plantation estate house, it had a main villa, and two guest houses with lots of bedrooms, as well as a fitness room, lounge area, living room, dining room, an office, multimedia room and one of the most beautiful gardens I've seen in my life.
However, it was the pool area that took the prize, with gazebos spaced in regular intervals around a giant pool made to look like a lagoon and with a perfect view over the actual bay beyond. The best part was that the pool ran all the way around the sides and backside of the house almost like a moat, making longer swims possible.
There was also a guardian's house with bedrooms for the staff who did all the manual work on the estate, as well as the security guards. Like the estates in Costa Rica, the Vasa Estate had a stable building with room for eight horses and everything needed for that, including a large smithy.
The last outbuilding was a large garage with room for the estate's many cars. A collection that was only going to get larger when they were done transporting Curtis' cars from Costa Rica to Oldenburg Island.
The rest of the old plantation spread some 7000 acres (30 km2) around the estate house and included all of the small bay, a few farms with horses, cattle and other livestock, and a lot of mountainous terrain covered with rainforest. Not exactly ideal for farming, it did offer a lot of privacy, which was why Parker had bought it twenty-five years ago along with two other estates of similar size.
The other estates had been used for resorts, hotels, and a hospital, but Parker had kept Vasa Estate for himself. Now it was mine and I was going to keep it. Not only was it beautiful and luxurious, but as Parker and Curtis had preferred to live in Costa Rica, where they were sure the police wouldn't come snooping, the Vasa estate was free from the influence of their actions.
I was sitting under a parasol outside the house, drinking my morning tea and eating breakfast, when Riya came onto the terrace, wearing a bikini and holding a newspaper in her hand. I admired her toned body and bouncing breasts as she walked over to me and gave me the newspaper.
"Good morning, Mr. Ivan... I think you need to read this."
I took the newspaper but didn't look at it as she walked on towards the pool, giving me an excellent view of her lovely ass, before she jumped into the water for her morning swim.
Smiling to myself, I turned my attention to the newspaper.
The main story was about Interpol's destruction of a child smuggling and prostitution ring. More than a hundred children had been rescued and seventy people had been arrested, most of them in Europe. There was an interview with a spokesperson for a human rights organization and an Interpol officer, though the spokesperson was a guy named Jonathan Smith and not Zavala, Rao or Honeycutt.
It was nice that the children had been rescued and people brought to justice, but I knew from Parker's information that there were many more out there.
On the bright side, the police in Costa Rica had reacted to the evidence we had sent them. Raids had happened and a lot of people had been arrested, several prominent figures among them.
"Good morning." said Petra as she took a piece of melon from the table. As usual in the morning, she was dressed in a long, thin silk bathrobe and had her long brown hair set in a ponytail. "Slept well?"
"Yes, thank you."
"Excellent..." She flashed a wide smile at me. "...because Estevez is here, and he looks kinda nervous, so I guess he wants to talk about something really important."
I closed the newspaper and looked at her. "Well, show him inside then."
"Yes, Master." She mocked with another smile and sashayed into the house again.
Chuckling, I returned to my tea and breakfast.
During my encounter with the Psychic criminal Leonard Parker in Malaga, I had read his mind, enabling me to hijack both his legal and illegal businesses when we arrived on Oldenburg Island in an effort to save some of the kids Curtis had been trafficking. While slightly less popular than Cayman Island as a corporate tax haven due to a 5% corporate income tax, Oldenburg Island had no personal taxes of any kind, including inheritance, which was how I had taken over the legal part of the business, called Starlight Merchant Group.
Using Parker's own emergency plan and some Ars Mentalis (Baylon: Art of the Mind aka. Mental Powers), I had Parker, or 'Giles Oldershaw' as he was known here, declared dead with me as the legal heir. A feat that was only possible due the mind-control Parker had used on the Board of Directors and other key personnel in the company, as well as a few chosen high-ranking government officials, though there was a certain satisfaction in using Parker's own plans to take over his company. One of the best aspects about it was that it was plausible enough that I could use it as an explanation to everyone, which is always the best kind of explanation.
As I became the heir, all the layers of thrusts and shell companies that owned Starlight Merchant Group were discretely transferred to me. However, nobody under the rank of CEO knew I owned more than the small percentage of the company I had officially inherited from Parker, along with the title of Chairman of Starlight Merchant Group. That made me leader of the Board of Directors and responsible for the overall vision for the company, without getting involved in day-to-day company matters. Handling those was the job of the Managing Director, which was Manuel Estevez. Taking over after the former Managing Director died of a stroke the year before, Manuel Estevez was responsible for running Starlight on a daily basis and he was brilliant at that, despite being only forty-one.
I was glad to have him, since it had turned out that both Parker's fortune and Starlight Merchant Group were a lot bigger than I had expected. Instead of just being a company that rented out yachts and houses, Starlight was a huge conglomerate with a wide area of interests, including hotels, resorts, banking and investment, medical care, schools, car manufacturing, electronic defence, and aerospace.
The sound of a door opening brought me out of my thoughts, and I stood up to greet Estevez, who for some reason looked very, very nervous, exactly like Petra had told me.
"Hello Manuel. I didn't think we had a meeting today." I said with a smile.