Life as a New Hire

*Editing magic performed by KJ24 and Shyqash, plus contributions by the regular gang of brigands and neer-do-wells*

*You never really know what you

can't

do until you've tried to do it and failed*

**This is NOT a political commentary; ... public personalities have been butchered in order to make the story light-hearted**

*

{4:45 am Friday, August 29th ~ 10 Days to go}

"Hey," Brooke asked softly, "can I join?"

I was halfway thru my clean up when she'd opened the shower stall door, but I had some time. "Sure. I'll wash your back if you wash mine," I offered.

She gave me a sly grin as she stepped in and closed the door behind her. I signaled her to turn with her back to me (never a safe position), poured some liquid soap in my hands and began lathering her up.

"Did you think you could leave me with only a kiss," she said as she backed up against me.

"I thought you were asleep when I kissed you," I whispered into her ear.

"I was. You are such a romantic -- I assumed you kissed me because that's what you always do. You have a light touch."

"We were up late," I teased.

"You are up early," she let her left hand travel down between us until she could wrap her fingers around my cock.

"Being with you ... it is hardly a surprise," I chuckled.

"Are you implying you

like

me?" she serpentined her body against mine.

"Me likey -- me likey a whole bunch," I told her as I nibbled her ear. Brooke responded by pulling my cock around like a clock arm until it was fixed between her thighs and rubbing up against her vulva. We left it there a while, she rocking her hips back and forward while I soaped up her front the way I had lathered her back. After all, this was foreplay.

This was kisses planted along her shoulders, neck, ears and, as I turned her head around, on her lips. Brooke was whining with need after our last French kiss, so I pushed my hips back and pressed her down with a hand on her mid-back. At the perfect angle, I let her slip my glans between her labia. That was my cue to plumb her velvety, hot depths with one steady penetration.

"Ah ... this is never going to get old," Brooke moaned. She punctuated her statement by rolling her hips back and forth, letting my cock touch every inch of her vagina. In the interlude, I cut off the water so it would cease to be a distraction. Then my hands went to her hips and the pumping began. It was a slow steady wave-like motion.

I would pull out until only my glans remained within, then gently reverse course so that my pubic hair was against her glorious buttocks. Brooke had one hand against the tiled wall while the other reached under to play with her own clit and with my shaft as I went in and my scrotum when I was pulling out. This was an excellent symmetry we had developed.

I pulled out suddenly.

"No," Brooke protested. She turned around to see me pull a condom from behind the shampoo and quickly apply it. Brooke giggled. "Thank you for that, but don't you think it is a little late in our night together?"

"Would you rather I went without?" I smiled.

"No," she sighed happily. "It is so you." I took that as a sign to slip back in. I felt her fingernails run over the condom as I pressed forward. This time around, I let Brooke do all the work. I placed my torso onto her back so I could worry her shoulders and neck (yes, I gave her a hickey) and fondled her breasts.

"No fair," she whimpered. "No fair ... I wanted you to ... cum first."

"I'm working as fast as I can," I huffed. Her fingers were strumming her clitoris furiously, I was picking up my pace, pounding her with growing ferocity, and her breath was coming in labored gasps.

"Noooo!" she howled as her climax gripped her. She bucked up once, twice, then a third time, holding herself tightly against me, my girth all the way in.

"I'm cumming," I growled and I did. Brooke's groans became longer and lower. She wiggled her cute butt against me, urging out every spurt of my semen into the condom. As I was pulling out of Brooke, she stopped me.

"Wait, I want to try something," she told me. She turned around and went to her knees.

Brooke rolled off the condom and made deep, meaningful eye contact before tilting her head back and draining the contents of my condom down her throat. Oh, that was so sexy.

"Yummy," she gulped down my seed.

"Wow ... that was so ... unforgettable," I stroked her cheek.

"I've been reading some porn and wanted to try ... oh, it has an aftertaste of spermicide. At least I think that is what it is," she snickered.

"I wouldn't know," I shrugged.

"Let me find out," she gave me more of that sultry eye-contact. She put her hand around my cock, stuck out her tongue then slipped it past her lips.

"Noooo ..." it was my turn to moan. She was getting me hard again and I had a date I couldn't be late for. Maybe. The moment her gag reflex kicked in, I pulled her up into a kiss. My hands cupped each ass cheek, I raised her over my cock and impaled her in one rapid motion. Face to face, I began bouncing her hard and deep.

{8:00 am}

I wasn't late, but it was a close thing. I had arrived with three minutes to spare, only to find Hana and Libra waiting for me at Amy's Bread on 9th Avenue. Over some coffee and scones we soaked up the city's morning ambience. I was in my biker clothes with my bike locked up within sight of the counter.

"So," Libra started off after the initial hugs and kisses (Hana on the lips, Libra on the cheek ... no titty snuggle for me at the moment), "how was dinner with Brooke last night?"

I didn't believe Brooke had given anyone any details in the period between since we'd had our last round of high octane love-making at one a.m. and before I grabbed my shower, or the two quickies in the shower, or feeling her up at the door. I had kissed her before leaving and she had been out like a light, naked and curled up with my pillow while resting her weary head on the other one. I had whispered a farewell to Casper, but not looked in. After that, I had biked over to Havenstone for my six o'clock firearm's practice.

There, I had picked up my current minder, Juanita Leya Antonio Garza. She was a mocha-skinned Dominican, twenty-nine years old and a brand-spanking new member of the Isharan House Guard. She came to me by way of Havenstone's Buenos Aires' Acquisitions department. Juanita had earned her spot as my guardian by qualifying for that office's Rapid Response Team. (She had been good enough to qualify for that team's lead. Since there were not enough Security Detail (SD's) to staff all the satellite offices, the offices made do with teams trained by the SD as part of their normal career training.)

She had spent the past week as part of an ad-hoc training program addressing how to bodyguard from on top a bicycle. (The SD had actually been planning this since I had been kidnapped.) Juanita had been identified by Buffy and Halen as a Runner to be brought into House Ishara and she had a seal of approval from both Buffy and Rachel as a bodyguard, so I was more than willing to put up with an aggressive road buddy.

"Entertaining," I grinned. "Definitely something we are going to have to work on together next time."

"Next time?" Hana regarded me studiously. "Was last night that good?"

"We are not going to go there, Hana. I'm doing my best within my limited Code of Sexual Misconduct. I'm trying to be discreet."

"Hana," Libra added her voice, "when you first met Cáel, he was simultaneously dating me and Brooke. At the same time he was also seeing that police officer ..."

"Nikita," I clarified, "and we are keeping it at the 'strictly friends' level right now."

"I was hoping to have something more than just a part-time husband," Hana stated softly. Hana wasn't whining. She was testing our boundaries ... for the long term control of my being. After all, wasn't that what marriage was all about?

"At this point in my life, I'm not that guy," I pushed back. Most of the women I'd been with hadn't been happy about sharing my attentions -- often violently so. Those who did found ways to emotionally blackmail me into spending more time with them. Up until now, that had never worked.

"When I saw you with Õnnela, I realized that you are much more than some sort of playboy," Hana countered.

"I'm learning to like kids," I shrugged happily. "I never thought I would, quite frankly. I wasn't called 'Captain Condom' for nothing."

"I'm not on birth control," Hana enlightened me. Oh shit!

"Good thing we are getting married," I joked feebly. "So, does Õnnela want a baby brother, or sister?"

"Would there be a problem with a boy?" Libra asked.

"Not anymore," I guaranteed them both. "I couldn't ..."

"Couldn't?" Hana requested what I had let slip.

"What used to happen to Amazon boys?" Libra pressed.

"Not something that I feel at liberty to discuss," I hedged.

"That doesn't sound good," Libra mused.

"Would our child be at risk if something happened to you?" Hana worried.

"No," I reached over and squeezed her hand. "There are plenty of people that know how I feel and wouldn't let anything happen to my children," I didn't quite lie. Honestly I had never talked over such things, even with Buffy. Would my sons be okay? Would my daughters?

I needed to reexamine my future plans ... which is to say I needed a plan.

"So how would we deal with your grandfather?" Hana redirected my thoughts.

"Oh ..." I had been worried about my Amazons, not my family.

"I will find a way to deal with Alal," I promised her. What a bold-faced lie. I hadn't a clue how to counter the man yet. I was still playing catch up with several thousand years of what he had already accomplished, much less plumbed the depths of his future conspiracies.

"You big liar," Hana smiled warmly. "That man has your number, even though you don't see it yet. We will have to work on something together."

"I'll help," Libra offered. "That guy weirded me out."

"He did?" I looked her way. I'd been good at avoiding ogling her cleavage for Hana's sake. "I wish I could clarify how

I

feel about him."

"That man is evil," Hana insisted. "Don't you see that?"

"It isn't that simple for me," I shook my head. "It is ... I can get inside his head and figure out what motivates him ... and sometimes it is scary. In a way, he's lost faith in humanity. His friends have all long since died and he has carried on alone. I get the bizarre sense he is even looking forward to having something he's never had before -- a family."

"What about your -- ummm -- aunts?" Libra challenged me.

"They don't count because he ..." I couldn't say 'made them in a lab'. "He never knew them as children, only after the fact and they have always lived in his shadow and under his control. This time, with me -- us -- things can be different."

"He doesn't deserve a family in my book," Hana shook her head. "Not my family."

I had to think about Katrina and Aya. How different was Katrina, who purposely sacrificed Aya to achieve her long term goals of screwing over the Seven Pillars of Heaven? Aya would bear a permanent scar of that betrayal ... and Katrina had an ironclad faith I would save us both ... a faith I didn't have in myself. I liked Katrina and even trusted her somewhat. Could I afford to feel the same way about Grandpa Cáel?

"Hana, I'm not looking to give you a sane reason for dumping me, but my family is more than a little fucked up," I began. "I have to face the fact that right now, I really can't stop Alal from doing what he wants. That doesn't mean I accept the situation, yet it is what it is. When I have a chance at putting him away, I'll take it and that decision goes beyond my family. He needs to be stopped. As you said 'he's evil'."

"Will you let us help you?" Libra inquired. 'Yeah right, what can you do versus a 5000 year old criminal mastermind' wasn't the appropriate thing to say. The truth rarely is.

"What would you suggest?" I did say. "Considering the resource gulf between what we can bring to bear versus his legions of followers and unspeakable power, what chances do the three of us have?"

"Is that a concession, insult, or genuine inquiry?" Hana questioned.

"Genuine inquiry," I answered. "I hardly feel I know it all. And the more insight I can gather, the better my long-term chances are."

"We can start by finding a way to get rid of my Irish 'minders'," Hana gave me a quirky grin. "They are very good at fitting seamlessly into the background, but I can spot them."

"Keep them around for a while, because all we can accomplish right now is getting a few more we can't identify," I pointed out. "The Ghost Tigers?"

"Oh, they are out and about," Libra snorted.

"They stop by long enough in the morning to get my itinerary, then ... I guess they are out there somewhere," Hana told me. "A few times they have acted on my behalf, so I know they are close by ... and that people really are trying to kill me. But they work their way ... and that includes not being seen with me, it seems."

"They are assassins, so I guess I should have expected that," I shrugged. "Still, while they are on the job, you are safer than you realize. None of the others ~ groups ~ will bother you while they know those two are close by. It is two, right?"

"I've seen two. A young woman and an older man," she elaborated.

"They both come across as diligent sociopaths," Libra added. "I've never seen them emit a single emotion ... and they don't like my sense of humor."

"I'd rather have you two alive than have them chucking at your innate comedic talents, Libra," I smirked. "Besides, the things they find funny you might not appreciate."

"Good point," Hana nodded. "Some of the Great Khan's people certainly have an odd sense of humor -- things that don't translate over well."

I had an alternative to telling what I knew about the Earth & Sky and why they were so grim: that they saw their father's lifetimes, their own and that of their children filled with warfare and struggle. They were geographically trapped between two of the world's greatest powers ~ Russia and China. At best, they had been pawns in the Great Game and even independence had not brought forth a promise of hope. Too many of their kin remained prisoners in other lands.

No, I really had an out ... and I took it, like the big coward that I am.

"Casper's sense of humor is coming along well," I sighed. "She looked somewhat at ease last night. Her salad was the highlight of the meal."

Libra looked out the window while Hana looked down at her plate. Libra had not been as good a friend to the girl as Brooke had been. For Hana, it was the pain her father had gone through over her half-brother's death.

As I had predicted, it brought our breakfast to a somber close. Hugs, kisses and I/we were off to the office. Juanita tapped me at a stoplight. Immediately I looked for a possible tail.

"What did you say at the end of breakfast?" she asked. "Whatever it was, it went over like finding a severed head in your luggage."

"Someday I will have to tell you about a girl named Casper."

She mulled that over.

"I know about Casper Winslow," she confessed. "You did the right thing. Some people ..."

"Doing the 'right' thing doesn't mean I did something that caused the least pain. I'll live with what others did at my behest, but I'll never celebrate it," I looked her way.

"They were right," she nodded. "You are complicated."

I took that wonderful assessment into the office.

(JIKIT 2:00 pm Friday)

Any great teacher, or professor, can teach you lessons that you carry through your later life. They open up your eyes to ways of thinking and to ideas that change who you are as a person. It should never be forgotten though, that those lessons are learned through the lenses of the scholar. It was that way with the memories of Alal in my head. I wasn't reading the Book of Alal. I was experiencing things he had experienced, colored by his perceptions at the time.

At one time, Alal had been a man of great superstition and faith. Over time, his belief in higher powers had soured into a hatred of all things divine and a contempt for those who devoted themselves to otherworldly powers. He wasn't an atheist. He acknowledged that there were things beyond the normal senses of mankind, yet denied they were anything but selfish and precocious.

So, when I was talking strategy with the likes of Addison and Lady Fathom, I had to remember whose advice I was taking. I also had to take into account the invisible hand of the supernatural beings he despised. Temujin was a mortal man with an immortal pedigree. That gave him an outlook like Alal's, in that he thought long term.

It was more than a five- or ten-year plan. It was the surefire belief that if this generation failed to do something right, the stage could be set for the next generation, or the next. It also effected how he viewed allies and enemies. For the Mongol-Turkish civilization, only the Han were sworn enemies. One could not be powerful while the other was.

Outside of that, everyone had a choice. Too often, you only got one chance at being on a friendly basis. And all other enemies

would

be dealt with in time. That wasn't an overly rational world view, but it was Temujin's and it infected the upper echelon of the Earth & Sky. JIKIT's problem was getting our respective governments to see things that way.

In the Post-Cold War, nations had squabbles and disagreements. Today's belligerent was tomorrow's regional bulwark. The Khanate didn't think that way. India had gained an ally that would be multi-generational. Pakistan and Iran were running in the other direction, and that meant the Horde would eventually come calling.

The original Khanate of the thirteenth century had been a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic conglomerate. Turks, Persians, Russians and Tibetans were all present in that Mongol court. Power resided in the powerful Mongol clans, but their subject peoples wielded real power as well. In the end, it was the Mongols who tore their empire apart. And as it fractured, the parts then made war on one another ... or so Alal remembered. It was that 'lenses' thing once more.

Alal admired the original Temujin and his successors ~ Ögedei, Güyük, and Möngke who established the prototype for his own plans for world domination -- the

Pax Mongolica

. That admiration influenced and led me down some dangerous pathways. The knowledge that came with those viewpoints was the other reason why I was on JIKIT ... and the main reason they needed me on daily meetings.

(Thailand and the Three K's)

A wise television character once said, '

the avalanche has already started; it is too late for the pebbles to vote

'. The avalanche had already started in Asia, but a few pebbles still insisted on voting ... with their feet. For that matter, four 'peoples' were voting with their feet and with their firearms. They were the Karen, the Karenni, and more important to us at the moment, the Kachin groups in Myanmar plus the average working man/woman in Thailand.

The first three groups were involved in a long-running ethnic civil war with Myanmar ... and were losing. For the Karenni and Karen, there was always the refuge offered by the Thai border, behind which refugee camps had sprung up. Also, since those two ethnic groups controlled the overland land routes between Myanmar and Thailand, they had access to a small amount of 'self-financing'.

The Kachin had no such luck. They were stuck in the northeastern part of the country with their back to Yunnan province in China ... except the PRC didn't control Yunnan anymore -- the Khanate did (it was their overland accessibility to the Republic of Vietnam.) No one much cared about the Kachin either ... except the Dali Lama who, now that Tibet was free, began concentrating on gathering aid for his people abroad and bringing to light the conveniently forgotten humanitarian disasters around the globe.