Chapter 22

Boz spent a few hours seeking and banishing villains and considered it a productive evening.

Then, having placed robots shoulder-to-shoulder on deck surrounding the ship's superstructure, with extras in front of and behind every hatch, and the external security systems turned on, he considered himself safe enough to curl up with a book and read for a while before turning in for the night.

As he read, part of him seriously considered just going shopping and buying some UAV's to avoid having to talk to Lisa again.

What else was money for, after all? But he realized that despite being annoying, she could still provide critically useful information. And so, to avoid alienating her, he resolved to agree and call her again.

He passed a quiet night, with no attack by Contessa, despite him being almost alone on the ship. Almost everybody else was off vacationing in the Virgin Islands.

In the morning, he awoke to a call from Ron, who said, "Boz, you've got to come down here and join the fun! Yesterday Abe went hunting with only a spear and brought back a wild boar - It was amazing. He said he'd always wanted to do that."

Boz laughed and Ron continued, "Anyway, Simon has arranged a Hawaiian-style Luau, with roast whole boar and everything. The party is supposed to last all day! You've got to come," Ron pressed.

A frown replaced the smile on Boz's face, and he asked, "what if I'm attacked? That's been predicted by one, or maybe two, people with predictive super-powers. I don't want to risk collateral damage to partiers if my attacker should show up there to get me."

Ron countered, "what if you don't get attacked? I'm sure you've used the Determine Destiny Console to try to prevent it. Who is to say that won't just work?"

"True, and not just that one - I found a way to set the Probability Control Console and the Order Console with the right settings so I can just sit a robot in front of them and have him activate it when I give a verbal command." Boz enthused.

"See? That should be plenty. So come on down and have fun with us. Bring some more robots - we already have a few here - if you feel the need, but come!"

"OK, maybe," Boz allowed. "You know me, I want to think about it a while first. I'll take a shower and decide by the end of that."

"See you soon!" Ron responded. Boz imagined he could hear him grinning in anticipation. He hadn't agreed to go, but his friend knew him well and expected that he would.

He considered it while showering, and decided to go on vacation too.

Before leaving, he paused to make a couple Duplicates of himself.

He also got some General Purpose robots and some Repair robots Replicated to go with him, along with some equipment.

Lastly, he stopped by the command center to check over what he had been doing last night.

Instantly one console caught his attention. The Detect Affinity for Hurting Others Console showed a big red blob on the highway 17 miles north of town and headed south.

Bas-Ra, Bas-Oon, and Basil each sat down at a detection console and got to work learning more.

A minute later, Basil said "Sprich mit Lisa."

"Boz!" Lisa started cheerfully, then instantly got serious, and asked "what's up."

"My scanner shows a large force headed into the town from the north. Maybe 500 people, dressed like a biker gang that particularly favors human bones and teeth. They are very hostile and intent on hurting others. I hoped maybe you knew something you could tell me about such a group. I could send you a video tape of what the scanners show."

"Video tape!? Are you kidding me? Nobody has used that in ages. Have you got DVD or, better yet, USB?"

"What are those?" Boz asked.

"Nevermind. I have one of my guys launching a UAV here. If you'll just 'banish' it like you did Lung, but instead move it to a point above the incoming biker gang, I can get my own video feed of them."

Bas-Oon, who had left a moment ago, now re-entered the command center, followed by 8 more Duplicates.

They manned several consoles, and it didn't take them long to send Lisa's UAV to a point a thousand feet above the biker gang.

They judged that a thousand feet of altitude would make it invisible and inaudible to the gang.

While they were doing that, Boz said, "I presume I shouldn't banish the whole biker gang, since they are working together already, for whatever reason. But you did want me to check with you, so do let me know what you think."

"Bah, you'd have called me about these guys anyway - you're just trying to get the UAV's I promised." Lisa huffed.

Then she grew serious. "OK, I have the video feed from the UAV... It's The Teeth."

There followed nearly a full minute of Lisa swearing, then "I'll need to get out of town asap. Maybe go to Florida. And my organization too...what parts of it I can get, anyway."

Boz put Lisa on mute and hit a firing button. The big guns on the ship started booming as they fired a broadside.

Such was the excellence of the Communications Console that he didn't miss a word Lisa said.

Lisa snorted, "Too bad, things were looking up - I just consolidated full control of Coil's organization, and with that, was going to start a new venture - hiring capes. Using some legal shenanigans and loopholes, I found a way to do that. I was going to start with The Undersiders, who are a lot more well-adjusted and easier to deal with than they used to be, before someone...your guy ... machine-gunned them with some special bullets, thanks very much for that by the way."

Boz had stayed busy making calculations for a second broadside and for firing missiles, while Lisa rambled, but now he murmured "have you noticed how nicely bunched-up The Teeth are?"

"No, don't bombard them!" Lisa suddenly shrieked. "Their leader, The Butcher, is with them! Whoever kills The Butcher becomes the next Butcher and is driven insane by all the memories and personalities of the previous Butchers. Don't let that happen to you!"

Boz became very focused but stayed calm. He responded while 3 of his Duplicates immediately got up and changed what consoles they were sitting at.

He said "OK, important safety tip. We have several things that should protect me from that, but I hate to trust everything to those if it isn't necessary, just like no rational person chooses to get shot just to test his new bullet-proof vest. So I want to avoid even a small risk of that fate - better safe than sorry - so we're hurrying to banish him quick before the first wave of shells get there."

The rolling booming sounds of his second broadside cut him off.

This was a "time on target" bombardment - where the first shells flew in higher arcs and so took longer to arrive, with it all calculated out so that more than one volley would arrive on-target at the same time.

That was probably overkill for this target, none of which were armored nor dug-in. It was just a half dozen busses, about 20 trucks, a couple more cars than trucks, and maybe 50 motorcycles.

But Boz wanted to be sure - it was easy to take them out now - all bunched together on an otherwise-deserted stretch of road. But if they got into town, taking them out without collateral damage would be harder.

Then his train of thought got derailed by unexpected opposition.

A tarp on the Protectorate oil-rig was released, revealing a new laser emplacement on the top corner of the rig. That laser fired at Boz's outgoing shells, detonating in mid-air first one shell, then another, before the remaining shells passed out of range.

Boz's Duplicates responded by using the ships lasers, particle beams, and railguns to shoot the Protectorate's laser off their oil rig.

The lasers hit first, making the oil rig's force field flare, then wink out. That took just long enough for the particle beams to arrive, so Boz couldn't tell whether it was lasers or particle beams that vaporized the Protectorate's laser, and also destroyed a little bit of the top corner of their oil rig.

But it was clear that the railguns had nothing to do with it. Their shots traveled at a mere 7,000 meters per second - very slow compared to the directed energy weapons - and by the time they got there the hostile laser was just an expanding cloud of gas.

So the railgun shots sped onward, past the bay shore and into a small rocky hill a couple miles inland.

The four railgun slugs - each a 3 inch diameter solid chunk of metal weighing 17 pounds and moving 7000 meters per second - slammed into the hill simultaneously.

The shots tore into the hill like a red-hot ice-pick through Styrofoam - passing right through as if there was no resistance at all. They burrowed clean through the 400-foot-wide hill and out again the other side, then continued on almost 4 more miles before hitting the ground and making large craters.

Boz reflected again on the equation k=1/2 mv^2 and just what amazing things could result from a really high velocity.

The 120mm main gun on a leopard 2 tank had 9 megajoules of energy at the muzzle, not counting the energy in the explosives the shell contained.

The 16 inch main guns on a Iowa-class battleship had 360 megajoules of energy at the muzzle, also not counting the energy in the explosives within the warhead. That was much more than the 12 inch main guns on his own ship, which originally - before Grandpa had improved their velocity and range - only had 129 megajoules of energy - again not counting explosives - at the muzzle.

But his railguns had 189 megajoules of muzzle-energy, and it seemed like that was all focused on penetration.

The solid railgun slugs flew right through the hill, throwing up clouds of dust and plus lots of flame generated by the friction of their passage.

Boz was relieved that there wasn't a shopping mall or something - just open forest - beyond the hill, or, behind what was left of the hill, that is.

He'd included the railguns since he wasn't sure what it would take to knock down the oil-rig's forcefield. Now he knew.

He'd also included another full set of missiles heading towards the Teeth, to make up for the lack of the 2 shells the Protectorate laser had shot down.

These missiles would arrive later than the rest of the bombardment, but that should be OK.

Boz looked back to the main screen in time to see The Butcher get banished.

His 3 Duplicates had worked with Lisa to identify The Butcher, then coordinate the banishment.

A portal opened 2 inches ahead of the motorcycle being ridden by The Butcher, and his own speed, plus sudden sideways gravity and telekinesis, shoved him through it in an eyeblink.

Then the portal closed.

Lisa had time to ask "where did you send him?" before the bombardment hit.

Six high-explosive fragmentation shells from the 12-inch guns - it would have been 8 but for the oil-rig's laser - hit in a box pattern all around the column of Teeth vehicles.

At the same time eight 9.2-inch high-explosive fragmentation shells hit in a diamond-pattern just outside the box pattern.

And 192 small 40mm rounds from Bofors guns dropped shrapnel and white phosphorous all over the scene.

Plus, 12 cluster-bomb missiles each dropped almost a thousand pounds of bomblets over the whole area, with a double-helping right over the top of the road.

The whole area seemed to explode all at once.

There was no spot in, or near, the target zone which was not hit by at least 3 explosions.

Boz, with his eyes on the screen watching the bombardment, answered Lisa, "The Butcher went to the Australian Outback in Dimension 212. The Earth in that Dimension has animal life, but no humans. So he should not be able to get up to any trouble there. We put him near a pond, so he can find food and water. and we landed him gently on soft sand. We did all that so it would be very hard for anything to be able to interpret it as us killing him."

As he finished saying that, 12 more missiles arrived and detonated in the area where the Teeth had been - first 6 high-explosive fragmentation missiles, and then 6 Thermite-napalm missiles.

"If you're done blasting them," Lisa said, "I'll get my organization together and head up to where the Teeth...were. We'll make sure they're done, without any saved, by, say TinkerTech or super-powers."

"And loot them for whatever you can while you're at it." Boz added.

"Of course! Waste not, want not." Lisa quipped. "Any resources they had, they won't need anymore. Someone will grab those - why not me?"

While she spoke, Boz's Duplicates briefly opened another portal, fired through it, and closed it again.

Before they closed it, they could see through it that the two 40mm shells they'd fired each descended to just above The Butcher on his motorcycle, then airburst with him in the radius of their payloads. Those payloads were the special grenades that Bakuda had invented and used to turn parts of two Tiger G tanks into water.

So The Butcher's motorcycle, gear, and even his clothes, all turned into water, leaving him unharmed.

They hadn't wanted to leave him with any resources, just in case some former Butcher had been a Tinker and could potentially turn motorcycle parts into a dimensional-hopping device.

Boz didn't let those actions break his stride in responding to Lisa "True. I will point out that, technically, since I defeated the Teeth, the salvage from them is mine. But," he hastened to add, "I have all the stuff I personally need, the Teeth are not likely to have any of the things my friends back home need, and this world's money is nearly useless to me, since your economy is so messed up and so little is for sale. Plus it seems like I am taking my life in my hands when I try to buy things here - folks keep attacking us. So go ahead and collect the salvage for yourself. I just wanted to point out my claim for future favors."

Lisa, as usual, rapidly made a mental leap forward, "You know, my dear Boz, if you don't need this world's money, you shouldn't let it go to waste. I know you captured a lot from the ABB. You really should donate it to a worthy cause, by which I mean me, of course."

She laughed at her own joke, then continued "But seriously Boz - you have clearly been interested in playing a paladin for real: smacking down the forces of evil. Let me tell you why donating to me will help continue that effort even after you leave."

"OK," Boz laughed, lay it on me."

While she'd been speaking, six of Boz's Duplicates had left the command center, then launched in ME-163 Komets moments later.

They were no longer needed here, so they judged that, before getting dismissed, they may as well make one more strafing run on the Teeth, just to be extra sure.

As the 6 rocket-planes launched, they sent a radio message to the Protectorate's oil-rig, saying "we are headed inland after a gang, and are not looking to start a fight with you. But if you shoot at us or ours, we will not hesitate to shoot back to the best of our ability. Leave us alone and we will leave you alone."

There was no reply. But neither did anything try to shoot them down.

Lisa began her pitch, "An over-simplified summary would be that I found some loopholes in the law by which I can hire capes - people with super-powers - and pay them for their work. It's pretty tricky to make it work, but I can do it. In broad terms, I'll be forming a voluntary association of capes who voluntarily work together to do stuff for free. That is legal already - independent capes often patrol for, and fight, crime for free. And many form organizations to do so. New Wave is one such organization. Capes can even accept donations, though few people choose to donate. My group will be a share-holding cooperative club. Officially the capes will be donating time and effort for free, which is legal. But the organization will have it's own for-profit goals, and will make donations to club members from the profits. It's a whole lot of smoke and mirrors to basically do a profit-sharing cooperative."

"And what kinds of things do you expect this co-op to do?" Boz asked.

"Everything!" Lisa enthused. "But seriously, there is no category of work that capes - one type or another - can't do well. Even, for instance, super-strength Brutes, who some say are only good for fighting, can do all kinds of manual labor as well as, or better than, specialized machinery. Say you are constructing a building and have several multi-ton girders to put in place - you can have a team of folks spend days getting it done with the help of a crane, or hire, say, the cape Manpower to just lift them into position and hold them still while they are fastened in place. It'd probably take him alone less than an hour to do what teams of regular workers could do in a week. Then there are opportunities in loading and unloading trucks and trains, clearing rubble and so much more."

Boz demonstrated that he followed her reasoning, by adding, "and capes who only shoot lasers can aid in mining, industrial cutting and welding, clearing rubble, and possibly things like clearing out orbital debris, long-distance communications, or even launching satellites into orbit if they are powerful enough and you design the satellite for that kind of launch."

"Exactly!" Lisa agreed. "I want to re-start some international shipping too. I'd need the right capes - called Movers, who can teleport or fly or that kind of thing- or something like dirigibles to do it. But given that, it would both be a great source of income, and a way to lift the whole economy everywhere we trade. I expect I could get the right capes too, once it becomes clear that capes now have a real third option."

"Third option?" Boz asked.

"Yes. Right now, someone with superpowers really only has two options in this country, since they can't work for themselves, or be hired for pay. That leaves the option to live by breaking the law - be villains - or the option to work for the Protectorate, as a de-facto slave. They get paid next-to-nothing, get called out to work whenever and wherever their bosses tell them, no matter the danger, and have basically no say in anything. They are slaves." Lisa huffed.

"They sound like the Ottoman Empire's Janissaries of a couple centuries ago - slaves used as elite military forces." Boz offered.

"Yes, and that's why there are so many villains. Not everybody is willing to be either a slave or unemployed."

"So why," asked Boz, "do you think the government won't just close the legal loopholes you plan to use, as soon as you start using them?"

Boz swore he could hear a smirk in Lisa's reply, "When the stupid government first passed the stupid laws making it illegal for capes to work for a living, they were shocked by just how many capes simply left the country for other places which they perceived as being less oppressive. More than half the capes in the country simply went elsewhere. They don't want that to happen again."

Boz started to speak but Lisa interrupted him, "Sure the government tried to prevent them from leaving. They'd gotten so used to the idea that they could always enforce their decrees that they never even considered how super-powers could change that dynamic. They said 'don't go' and tried to make it stick, but their efforts were, frankly, pathetic. They didn't have the experience at such things that, for example, East Germany did. And even places like East Germany mostly found themselves incapable of keeping the capes that wanted to leave. Of course they had no hope of keeping Movers - capes that teleport or fly or similar, like I said. Nor could they keep Strangers - capes that can go invisible or similar things. But, in fact, there wasn't any category of cape that couldn't find a way to leave if they wanted to. Strong Brutes smashed the Berlin Wall and walked right out. Durable Brutes just walked right past checkpoints, ignoring the machine-gun fire that hit them. Thinkers concocted successful escape plans, and so on. And don't get me started about the absolute havoc a Master - capes with something like mind-control - can play on a government that pisses them off."

Lisa paused, then again answered Boz's next question before he asked it, saying "keeping known capes in prison is different, of course. When you capture them and put them in prison, you have a pretty good idea of what their super-power is, and you put them somewhere designed to resist that super-power. You can also gang up on them with your own capes. But when people Trigger - that is when they suddenly develop their super-powers - only they know it, plus possibly some people around them. So they can choose any point along any border, and any time or method for making their attempt to get out. Even governments with lots of time and resources can't be strong everywhere at once. So it's as simple as can be for new capes to leave if they want to, before any suitable force can be gathered to prevent them."

She took in a breath and continued, "so where that leaves us is the USA had their noses rubbed in the fact that they can't easily bully capes, and that when they tried, the only capes they kept were the ones either too loyal to leave, too stupid to leave, or too willing to ignore the law. They won't likely forget that lesson, since it really hurt them. The USA used to be a super-power, due to its economy and military. When worldwide economies crashed, nobody, not even us, could afford much military anymore. Plus suddenly here were all these capes, some of whom could defeat large groups of well-equipped troops, or expensive jet-fighters etc. That changed everything, and now what determines your national power is how many capes your country has. We're distinctly third-rate in that sphere, having driven so many away by our stupid laws. We would be fourth rate, except so many new capes have grown up since the laws were passed, and are used to things as they stand - but press them and many of them will leave too. So the government is not likely to forget that and drive away more capes by closing our loopholes. And just in case, we'll remind them of that possibility by having alternate headquarters in other countries. And we'll make sure they know it, so it's obvious that if they try to get oppressive, we'll just leave."

Lisa moved to seal the deal, saying "and just think Boz, you can be instrumental in lifting this planet - all that we trade with anyway - back up to a better economy generally, and in doing so solving myriad problems. And my organization is the one that can succeed - a big part of why trade died was that, with so many villains around, shipments routinely got robbed. So just getting a truck, train, or boat working and trying to start shipping with that will just get it robbed. But we already have enough capes on-board to protect our shipments. Villains mostly operate alone, so if we put several capes watch each shipment, we can defeat any robber handily enough to not lose the shipment. We do that, at least at first, to get the idea firmly entrenched that we are not worth attacking. Even if, later, we reduce protection on our shipments, all will have some, and some will have lots of protection, and potential robbers won't know which are which. We can also have other capes track down anybody that attacks us and get even, to further deter robbers. I and my organization can do this, but the more help we get right at the start, the more likely success if. You can help. You want to oppose evil and oppression - you know you can't miss this opportunity. And it won't cost you a thing that's of any value to you! "

"What do you want from me Lisa?"

"Just a head-start. Businesses that get off to a good start are a lot more likely to succeed." Lisa replied.

"Why do I gather that there is a lot involved in 'just a head-start'?" Boz asked.

"It's nothing that will take you more than a few minutes of your time Boz my friend. And think of the good you'll be doing."

Boz started to speak and she answered before he could ask.

"OK, I'll get to the point. If you will send me and a small team through teleport portals and bring us back a little while later, we can get those alternate headquarters set up in other countries and start working out what to ship there and back. Brazil, Britain, and Spain should be a good start there. That team will include Squealer, and we will need you to fix her up first: cure her addictions and heal her mind. She came to us from the gang known as the Merchants and got kinda messed-up there."

"What makes you think I can fix her?" Boz asked.

"That's easy - when you rescued your people from the ABB, you also rescued some prostitutes. I've spoken with a couple of them who stayed in town. They had been traumatized and drug-addicted and you fixed them up. Their mental states are now good and well-adjusted, and they are no longer addicted. Do the same for Squealer - no, rather, do it for all our people: everybody with superpowers has been through trauma, and most still haven't worked through processing all of it. In fact, give us all you've got, or all you can spare, of whatever does this."

"Anything else?" he asked wryly.

"Sure. There's a couple things that'll really help us get up and going faster. Power abhors a vacuum, and you want us off the ground and running asap so gangs like The Teeth don't try to move in now that the existing local gangs have been weakened so much. Think of the service you'll be doing!"

"I'm listening," he sighed.

"Don't be like that - it really won't cost you anything significant. For instance, some fuel. You are pretty transparent, and it was obvious anyway, when you traded that truck full of fuel for a trainload of grain, that the fuel really didn't have any value to you. So give us some. A truckload at each of our stops - Brazil, Britain and Barcelona, will get us off to a great start. We don't have local currency for those places, and, since the global economic collapse, and banking collapse, there isn't really any significant international currency trading or exchanging. There's a bit near borders and such, but the practical reality is that we will need to barter, and absolutely everybody needs fuel."

"Sure, no problem." Boz allowed.

"Thanks!" Lisa responded brightly, "Have you got any dirigibles?"

"Go Fish." he laughed.

"Fair enough," she said, "I feared they'd be beyond a size limit or something like that, and from your reaction I can tell that's so. How about hot air balloons?"

"Three," Boz replied, "One of the regular, stereotypical kind, and one shaped like a soda can and colored to look like a popular brand of cola, and one that looks like a goldfish."

"Ooh!, the cola can one will be perfect." Lisa cheered. "Can I get three dozen of those? They can serve as the gas bags in the dirigibles we'll make, and having them will significantly speed construction time. Speaking of the dirigibles, can you supply us with helium and with thin lightweight solar panel film for the tops of them? That'd help a lot too."

"Can do," Boz said, "what else?"

"Awesome!" Lisa enthused. "That'll save us a lot on fuel, by cruising above cloud height and using electric motor power most of the time. And that will greatly enhance profitability and so make the whole thing more likely to succeed. Dirigibles don't have much cargo capacity, but while Leviathan is around, they're better than ships."

"I can see that," Boz allowed. "They're a bit faster than ships too, as I recall."

"Yep," Lisa chortled. "Cargo ships usually cruise at 15 to 20 miles per hour. I'm looking at Hindenburg's blueprints and specs right now, and they say it's four 1190 horsepower engines gave it a top speed of 84 miles per hour. By the way..."

For a change, Boz cut her off, "Yes, I have engines like that which I can provide."

"You're a dear, and yes," she anticipated him in turn, "I'm aware that I can't keep them forever. There's some kind of time factor with your gear, and, while it can be permanent, you don't like that and usually have it vanish when it's job is done. Don't worry about that. We'll get off to a running start with these first dirigibles, then commence building our own. Squealer is excited to begin, although I'll be trying to keep her as close as possible to standard, reproducible technologies, so that it can be maintained by people other than herself alone - except for the dirigible she herself will be driving, of course. She gets to try whatever she wants to with that one, and I expect to be surprised by its capabilities, especially since we've contracted with Uber - a skills cape - to help"

"That's good," Boz allowed, then added, "You know, if you asked me for the metal framework too, you'd be getting just about everything needed for dirigibles."

"No thanks, Lisa laughed, "we're already getting the aluminum-alloy frames from Kaiser. I tricked him into thinking they are reef-growing frames and he is investing in a long-term fishing enterprise. So thanks, but we're good. But if you want to provide something more, then a couple fishing ships could help, both with our deception of Kaiser and with our income stream diversification."

"I'll have some repair robots start fixing up a couple of the sunken ships there in the bay," Boz allowed. "Is there anything else? I have somewhere I'm supposed to be."

"Ahh, yes, the big going-away party in the tropical islands!" Lisa demonstrated, again, her know-it-all proclivities. "I'm glad you decided to go - you need to unwind more. And do try, my dear Boz, to circulate and talk to everyone before retreating to the book I know you'll bring."

That was spot-on-target, and they both laughed.

"There is one more thing," Lisa resumed. "People are funny sometimes, and, if there is the perception that my organization is small, weak, operating on a shoestring budget, or otherwise likely to fail, folks will not join, which will, in turn, make failure far more likely. The opposite is true as well. So we were wondering if, for our initial video announcement, you could loan us the kaiju Go-Jira. Just having that huge monster there, and obviously under our control, should be impressive enough to really get us started well. And it will give folks second-thoughts about opposing us as well. Especially if I can ride it? Pretty please?"

Boz conditionally agreed, and they discussed details for a few minutes, then ended the call.

Boz stayed around, for the sake of security, while his Duplicates brought a blindfolded Squealer in through a portal to the medical bay, fixed her up, then sent her back.

As they re-opened the portal to send Squealer back, Lisa unexpectedly popped through the portal from her side of it.

She set down a crate labeled UAV's, gave Boz a quick kiss on the cheek, then she waved and popped back thru the portal, taking Squealer with her.

Boz was not expecting that at all, and had yet to come up with any response by the time the portal closed.

He wondered for a moment what she was up to, then gave up and went back about his business.

He left a pair of his Duplicates to take care of Replicating things, sending them to Lisa, and keeping watch, alongside a few dozen robots.

Then Boz took a small backpack of equipment - leaving behind the book he had intended to bring - handed the backpack to the repair robot following him, and they both went thru a portal to join the party his crew were having in the Virgin Islands.