Maddy's a Baddy
by David J. Wighton
Book #8 in the Wilizy Series
Copyright 2015, David J. Wighton
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Acknowledgements
This book is dedicated to my wife, Dale, and to my other family members whose support made it possible.
Cover design by Rita Toews at WordPress.com
Editing assistance from Michelle Scoville who sees typos that mere mortals would never find unaided.
Wilizy Family Members as of January 2086
• Doc and Granny, about 74 years old.
• Hank (about 44) and Yolanda (about 40).
• Wolf (20), Mac (20), and Jock (1).
• William (19), Melissa (19), Will & Izzy (1).
• Yollie (19), TG (20), Liset (5), and Yo-Yo (2).
• Wizard (17), Lucas (14), Theo (13), Mathias (12), and Reese (11).
• Winnie (9), Patella (3), and Scapula (1).
Also
• Stu McKenzie (45) and Momaka (41).
• Dreamer (15) and Wanda (55).
•Brigadier-General Jock MacLatchie (50).
Main Characters in Toronto
•Judge Foster Lewis, Head Prosecutor Dennis Lee, and his wife Madhuri.
•Annie, Betsy, Christy, Doreen, and Eldreadth (Foster's sisters).
•Helen Masters (Eldreadth's daughter), Basher (Helen's son), and Dr. Sandman.
•General Douglas Cameron of B.C. and Hector Rodrigues (Ontario's Chief Justice).
Main Characters from the slave island
•Marie and Nary
Main Characters associated with Safe Haven Ranch #4
•Big Daddy and Big Momma.
•Karita (Maddy) and Pililiani (housekeeper).
•Boss #24 (Yuri) who becomes boss #15.
Main Characters in Watertown, NY
•Brute and Pissy (Brutus and Priscilla).
This page is to help you if you get confused about who is who in the story. If that happens, click your way back to the Table of Contents and scroll back one page.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Other novels by David J. Wighton
About the Author
Chapter 1
Lucas and Theo awoke the morning of December 26, 2085 to find Marie and Nary in front of them. "It is finished," Marie announced. She was sitting on the ground, dressed as always in her gray leggings and shapeless gray dress. At her feet were four stuffed backpacks. The boys didn't know it yet, but those packs had been owned by four Safe Haven bosses who wouldn't be needing them any longer. Inside the packs were more blades, blankets, and spare clothing. "We should leave now," Marie said. "Another copter will arrive soon."
"What's finished, Marie?" Theo asked this question with some indignation since he had just realized that he hadn't been sleepy when his eyelids had slammed shut last night. He glanced at the sky – it had to be noon already! Lucas had a court appearance scheduled for early afternoon, so he muttered a good luck wish to his brother and disappeared. Nary looked a question at her mother and Marie shrugged. Nary wrapped herself up in a blanket, put her head on Marie's lap, and closed her eyes. Marie stroked Nary's hair automatically, her thoughts elsewhere. Theo would have to find out what was finished on his own.
Seconds later, Theo was hovering above the slave camp and peering closely at the ground below. As he expected, Safe Haven's transport copter was a blackened ruin thanks to Lucas' lightning bolt. Marie referred to Lucas as Shango. In Voodoo circles, Shango is known as the God of Thunder and Lightning. Theo didn't know that when he had devised the plan to have Lucas attack the bosses with a thunderstorm.
Now that it was light, Theo could see what had been only glimmers last night. The slave huts were pieces of kindling on the ground That had been part of Theo's plan. But the bosses were nowhere to be seen – that had not been part of Theo's plan. The dog collars should have kept them inside the security fence. So, where were they? Time-travel would provide the answer.
Theo TiTr'd back to dawn that morning. From there, he skip-TiTr'd to when Marie was standing on top of the waters of the bay. He heard her curse each of the bosses in turn and listened to the reasons for those curses. However part of his attention was focused on Marie standing in water up to her ankles but not sinking into the bay. How? A closer look provided the answer. She was standing on the back of a submerged alligator.
Marie clapped her hands and a fog bank materialized around her body. She dove into the water and a large alligator emerged out of the mists, carrying a large black panther on its scale covered back towards shore. As intended, the panther's gruesome attack on one of the bosses panicked the others. While they were fleeing mindlessly in different directions, thirty alligators came out of the waters and formed themselves into the shape of a funnel three alligators deep on each side. The panther drove the bosses one by one into the mouth of the funnel, and from there, into the waters of the bay where the large alligator did what large alligators do. Those bosses who tried to escape their fate by jumping over the side of the funnel found out why the alligators were lying there three deep. The massacre was over in minutes.
A dispassionate observer might have noticed how quickly and efficiently the bosses had been killed. Theo was not dispassionate, so that wasn't what he noticed. He just saw the blood, the guts, and the gore. Mind you, he had witnessed animals killing animals before. But he hadn't ever watched helplessly as animals killed people before. And he certainly hadn't ever stood aghast when alligators ate people before. Theo's stomach reacted like any teenager's stomach would react when he watched an alligator trundling down to the water with a dismembered guard's leg sticking out of its mouth. That leg was slowly disappearing down the alligator's throat, crunch by crunch.
When Theo could look up again, he saw alligators taking care of the bodily flotsam floating on the
surface of the bay. In the midst of this environmental cleanup, a large alligator was swimming towards shore where the black panther was waiting. Theo actually saw the bodies change form. One second the large alligator was swimming, the next second Marie was wading. The conversion of the panther's body to Nary was just as quick.
# # # # # # # #
An unappreciated beauty of time-travel is that an observer can see a scene a second time. Theo had been revolted by how Marie and Nary had killed the bosses. There had been no hint in his meetings with Marie that such violence was coming. He had given Marie and Nary food; he had talked with Marie face-to-face in her clean but empty hovel; he had sat beside Nary and read picture books to her while munching on a dried piece of venison that she had offered him. These interactions had been civilized. What they did to the bosses was savage carnage.
Theo TiTr'd back to when Marie first appeared on the water and he listened closely as she listed the reasons why she was cursing the bosses. He watched the bosses die again. It was quick. The other old women who had lived in that camp had died from prolonged starvation, continually fearing an alligator attack every time they approached the water. In the end, every woman sent to that island had died with the exception of Marie. It had taken them months to die.
Theo took advantage of another benefit of time-travel: the opportunity to go off by himself into the past, take as much time as he wanted to think about what he had seen, and then return to present time. Theo did that. A calmer young man emerged in the clearing where Marie had put him to sleep. Theo had concluded that justice had been delivered. The reader may have a different opinion.
At that clearing, Nary was lying on the ground, swaddled inside a blanket. Marie was sitting next to her, stroking her hair. Theo couldn't leave them here. How would they survive? But both Nary and Marie were aware that Theo and Lucas could fly; both knew that a sailing ship was anchored in the air above the camp. Theo realized that he had to take them onto the ship to keep those secrets safe. As to what would happen after that, the Wilizy's directors could make that decision.
When Theo explained that his flying suit only had room for two, Marie refused to let Theo fly up to the ship with Nary. Theo thought that Nary was afraid of flying without anything visible holding her up, so he tried to reassure Marie. "I'll be there to hold Nary in case she becomes frightened of falling."
Theogun engaged in holding Nary was exactly what Marie was worried about. She insisted on seeing how tight the flying suit would be around them. She watched as Nary and Theo stepped into the suit and then she wrapped Nary up in the blanket she had been sleeping in. A second blanket would be even better. Only when Nary was mummified inside three blankets was Marie content to let Theogun take Nary up to the ship. Nary paid no attention to the mummifying or to the trip up to the ship. Theo took her into the ship's living room where Nary curled up on the deck, mummy and all.
A second trip took care of the luggage Marie had taken out of the camp as well as what Lucas had stored for her earlier. The third flight up to the ship with Marie took longer. She was curious about seeing the entire island from the air, so Theo flew a giant circle around it.
"How high can you go?" she asked.
"Extremely high."
"How fast can you go?" she asked.
"Extremely fast."
"Show me?"
"Will you answer some questions first?"
"OK."
"How was Nary able to see us when we were in our flying suits? How did you know that we had a flying ship? Could you see it?"
"We couldn't see you but we could smell the covering you wore when you flew overhead. We thought something was burning. Something high in the air smelled like that too. I knew that it was a sailing ship because that had been foretold. But the odour was very faint and only I could detect it."
"I am going to talk with Shango now. Tell me if you can hear our conversation."
Lucas, the slings give off an odor that Marie and Nary can smell. They can't actually see us when we're flying inside the slings. Marie can take the form of a very large alligator. I expect that she used that form to thwart the security fence.
That explains a lot.
Marie and Nary killed all the bosses this morning when you and I were under a sleeping spell. I saw Marie as an alligator and Nary as a panther.
Tell me more later. I'm at the courthouse and the judge looks like he's ready to start. Give me an hour.
"Do you know what I just said to Shango, Marie?"
"I didn't hear anything. Being able to talk so quietly is a good power. Can you teach me?"
"How about I show you how fast we can fly instead?"
...
Theo did a ten minute trip towards the Atlantic and back at under the speed of sound. Marie nodded at him and touched his arm in thanks. Theo now knew what Lucas meant when he said he didn't want Marie's hand touching him ever again.
Once on the ship, Theo gave Marie a quick tour – Nary didn't want to leave her napping spot on the floor. Included on that tour were the bedrooms and the bathrooms on the lower deck. He wasn't sure what he should do about the bathrooms, as he had seen no evidence anywhere on the island that such facilities had been provided for the women.
Marie said, "I've seen these before. Nary hasn't. I'll teach her." And that solved that dilemma. Theo was showing her an armchair, which Marie had seen before but had never used, when a Wilizy system-wide alert began clamouring inside his head. He left in a dead run for the ship's command post and set a course for Toronto at the top speed the Wilizy/Asia could manage without shuddering. Seconds later, the alert was replaced by William's voice inside Theo's head.
Back to the Table of Contents
Chapter 2
All I know is that Lucas is unconscious, William messaged Theo. The system-wide alert was an automatic function triggered by his brainwaves falling inactive. His brain-plug is still intact. I read his location as somewhere in or near Toronto's old city hall. Do you have any idea why he's there? Would he be in any danger?
Lucas was working on Toronto's protection racket. Yes, he's in danger. He told me recently that some people had tried to kill him. I'm in the Wilizy/Asia now. I'm about ten minutes away from Toronto and...
Wait a sec, Theo, William interrupted.
Mac's thoughts followed another peal of the system-wide alert. All Wilizy who can do so, report as quickly as possible to the Wilizy/Asia which will be anchored above Toronto. Repeat: All Wilizy to Toronto if you can. Any messages should go through Granny. Keep these to a minimum please. All we know is that Lucas is in danger and is not responding to mind messages.
Carry on, Theo. What are we facing? William was back in Theo's head.
I'm listening in, Theo. Mac's mind.
Theo told them what he could, his two guests forgotten.
Granny says that Jock has the least distance to travel and so he will be at the ship first. He'll take charge of the situation until I can arrive. Nobody is to do anything until we have a battle plan and that incudes you, Theo.
Are you taking battle command, Mac?
Yes. Melissa is backup. William, TG, and Wolf will TiTr through the city hall as soon as we get there. We're still a long way out but we're coming as fast as we can. Can you give me any idea what time it was when Lucas arrived at the city hall building?
# # # # # # # #
Theo had only a few minutes to tell Marie and Nary that Shango had been injured and wasn't answering calls. He warned them that Shango's family would be responding to the threat and they'd all be crowding onto this ship. Did Marie and Nary want to go down to the cabins?
Marie responded by taking all of their backpacks to the corner of the living room where Nary was now lying demummified. Marie took one of the blankets, made it into a pad, and sat down next to her. She put out a hand to Nary but Nary pushed it away.
After that, Theo became busy.
As predicted, Jock was the first to arrive and he took up station immediately
outside the deck door leading into the main quarters. He had a clipboard at the ready and began checking off Wilizy personnel as they arrived. His basic message to each arrival was: "Go inside, find a place to sit, and wait quietly. We don't know anything other than Lucas is unconscious and he had been in some danger before today."
The Wilizy were good at following the first part of that instruction; not so good on the sitting and waiting quietly part. Theo became the center of a large noisy circle. He told the milling crowd what he could about Lucas' recent activities, including his discovery of a key witness to a murder and how a judge was going to listen to this witness in a hearing. He couldn't say much about the attempts on Lucas' life since he didn't know much himself. As new members arrived, they clustered around Theo repeating the same questions while the others huddled together in the galley. Nobody noticed the two strangers sitting in the corner of the living room. That was understandable because Nary was in a dark corner and she was wearing black clothes on black skin. Marie was there too, but mostly out of sight behind one of the comfortable chairs. Both were watching and listening to the burny-smelly people as they came into the ship.
Hank and Yolanda arrived and Hank spoke with Jock who by now was inside the ship and doing a head count. "Who's not here?"
"Yollie is staying at the satellite compound with the babies. Melissa and Mac are about five minutes out. They put six extra pinky-rings onto their slings and probably broke every known speed record on the way here. They're currently taking their time coming down from high altitude. Wolf, William, and TG are a few minutes behind them but they will go to the old city hall first. Mathias is in Southeast Asia loading a cargo. He will park it there if we want him here. I told him to carry on with his duties unless he hears from us otherwise. Winnie had to go searching for Reese who was out somewhere playing crib. They will be landing any minute. She's bringing Patella and Scapula. Wanda is seconds away. That's about it, Hank. Everybody else is here."
At that point, Wanda pushed into the galley crowd and right behind her came Reese, Winnie, and the two wolves. The hubbub became even more hubbubblier.
"People. PEOPLE," Hank raised his voice to get their attention.
An angry cough was followed by a half scream that echoed in the small interior of the ship. Everybody froze. Tiny arm hairs rose in alarm. Only Theo recognized the sound. He had heard it on the island right after the beast had killed the deer. With his height, Theo was able to see what was happening in the living room.
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