Chapter 03

Saturday

Kim wakes up while Sonja is handing over to Betty for the first twelve hour weekend shift. He glances around the room, and he sees a small child in the other bed. The child is sweating profusely while rolling about on the bed, obviously not well and in some pain. He waits until Sonja leaves before saying, “Morning, Betty. What’s wrong with the child?”

She turns to Kim and smiles at him, “I see you know who I am so I won’t bother with the introductions. That’s my neighbour’s boy, Bill, the local doctor thinks it’s just a simple flu, but I think it’s more. She had to go to work so I brought him in to have a doctor give him a thorough check. But one won’t be able to see him for another hour or so because they’re very busy in ER this morning. I’m worried since his temperature has gone up very fast in the last twenty minutes or so. I’d hoped you wouldn’t mind and Sonja assured me it was OK when I called in earlier.” Betty has a worried look on her face.

He smiles, “It’s OK. Please bring him over here for me to look at him.” Betty looks confused while she brings him over. Up close Kim can see Bill is only three or four years old. He reaches out to take hold of Bill’s hand to start a scan of his body. He sees a lot of black and bright red areas around the brain and the top of the spine with the colours marking them as dangerous. But they’re writhing about.

Kim looks up at Betty, “What sort of illness would settle into the area around the brain and sort of writhe while causing such temperatures?”

She gulps while her eyes go wide, “I don’t know how you can see that, but a girl a few streets over is fighting for her life because she has Meningococcal disease. I think she goes to the same playgroup as Bill.”

“Shit! I’ve heard of that. First, I never asked that question, and what’s about to happen never happened, right?” She gives a stunned nod yes. “Second, get me a bowl with a cover and put in it something that’ll kill the bacteria involved. Third, see if you can get me in to see the other case without anyone knowing about my visit. Fourth, contact someone and suggest they get all of the kids who have come in contact with the girl checked out for it because we don’t want an epidemic starting up.”

An agitated and wide-eyed Betty races off to carry out his orders. As she dashes out the doorway Kim glances at the two security guards in his room, neither is paying any attention to them: two guards because Jim has doubled them. Neither Betty or Kim had spoken very loudly. Betty is soon back with a big covered bowl half full of some strong anti-bacterial agent. She places it on the table with rollers they serve Kim’s meals on.

Kim is very careful while he uses his new skills to teleport small groups of the bacteria from Bill’s brain to the bowl. Betty’s eyes almost pop out of her head when she watches the material appear in the bowl. Because he has to be so careful it takes Kim about thirty minutes to get it all out of Bill’s system. He confirms this with a very fine scan. But Bill is still suffering from many of the side effects of the infection. With the cause gone he should recover fully, but they now have to worry about the symptoms doing damage while he recovers.

Betty is crying when she takes Bill from Kim, she takes him into the room’s attached shower to cool him down with cold water. She says, “I just called the ICU, Xia died about two hours ago. They’ve put out an alert to the local doctors and they’re having the cause publicised.”

Kim nods at this sad news. If he’d known earlier he may have been able to help. At least he was able to save Bill.

While Betty and Bill are in the shower the floor nurse brings Kim’s breakfast in. There are no other patients on the floor now as they were sent home late yesterday so she has nothing to do. She’s aware Betty has a sick child with her today so she’s helping out. Just when Kim is finishing his meal the pair are coming back into the room, Betty is dried and dressed with damp hair and Bill is wrapped in a towel while she finishes drying him. A few more minutes and he’s dressed again, looking much better than he was before. She puts Bill down on the bed with Kim, asking him to watch the boy while she gets rid of the bio-hazard in the bowl. She’s very careful how she handles the bowl when she takes it out.

Ten minutes later she’s back with a needle plus an ampoule of the broad spectrum antibiotics an ER doctor said to give Bill to help with his recovery. About mid-morning Bill is almost back to normal again. Kim spends most of the morning finishing his homework along with the other school assignments he has to do, then he reads ahead in his text books.

Kim is just finishing his lunch when Bill’s mother arrives. She’s on her way home from work so she visits to see how Bill is. She’d heard the radio news about the local medical concerns and she’s worried because Bill’s symptoms match those reported. She smiles when she sees he’s well. Betty mentions the concerns on the disease and how she gave him an antibiotic just to be safe. Mother and son are both happy when they leave to go home together.

After they’re gone Betty sits on the side of Kim’s bed, “Thank you. I’ve known that boy all his life and he’s almost like a son to me. Just for my own peace of mind, what did you do and how could you do it?”

He glances around the room. No one’s paying any attention to them so he whispers, “When I got hurt my brain got well and truly fried. It did something to the circuits and I’m still full of a lot of electricity they can’t get out of me. Since I woke up I’ve been able to tell what’s wrong inside of someone when I touch them and I’ve developed the ability to teleport small amounts of matter about. When I saw he had a bacterial infection in his brain I used my teleportation skills to move the bacteria out of him, but I had to do it in small groups I can safely handle. With the infection gone he soon recovered.”

When he finishes she smiles, nods to show she understands, and says “Thank you. I’ll keep quiet. But can I bring a few extreme cases to you if I hear of them?”

“I don’t mind helping out. In fact, I’d like to. But I won’t risk certain people finding out about my skills because I don’t want to end up as a lab rat being experimented on by a bunch of scientists. Understand?” She nods her understanding and agreement with his stated position.

Afternoon Activities

Kim gets time to read another chapter of his book on dragons on the planet Pern before Tim Waters, Jim’s brother, arrives with some news. In a quiet voice he says, “This morning Harry coerced Helen to sign some papers at breakfast. He refused to say what they’re about. Helen didn’t fight much as she just kept saying she has no right to sign any papers, but signed because she was told to. Lee was sitting at the table too, so she watched how Helen signed, smiling when she did. Harry signed them too. He put the papers in his pocket then hustled them off to get dressed because he was taking them down the coast for the weekend. While the girls were packing a man turned up to take the papers from Harry. He’s not one we’ve seen before so we set a new team on him. At first it was only the extra person watching the house, but the man didn’t even look for a tail. He ended up at a very big place, so we’ve put multiple teams on that house while we find out who owns it. Things are getting interesting, and we’ve now got all of our people out as tail team leaders with all of our casual staff plus a few other PIs as their helpers. Jim said to tell you it looks like going a lot higher than you thought, whatever that means.”

Kim has a grim expression when the report ends. He turns to Tim, “Tell Jim to make sure everyone looks out for themselves and they watch their six with great care. It sounds like this is sliding over from the political world to the criminal world, and I don’t want anyone getting hurt because they got caught from behind.” Tim is worried when he nods he understand, pats Kim’s shoulder, then he leaves.

A little later Kim’s cell phone rings, he answers it, a familiar voice says, “Target One covered by Alpha Team, Target Two by Bravo Team, Target Three by Charlie Team, Target Four covered by Delta Team. Echo, Foxtrot, and Golf Teams are covering hounds while Hotel and India Teams are holding near Target Four as general reserves. Out.”

Kim almost laughs on hearing the status report. He’d be surprised if the other side aren’t monitoring his cell phone by now, and they’ll go crazy trying to make sense of that weird message, unless they have someone on their side with the knowledge and experience of Jungle. Then that person will be very worried. Jungle is on hand with a larger group of combat veterans than Kim asked for. Each team consists of two five person units, nine teams in the field, and knowing Jungle, a tenth as a command reserve, that’s about one hundred trained troops. Some watching Lee, Mum, Maddi, himself, and Jim’s people with some reserves near the hospital. A logical place for the reserves because it’s handy to Madison’s office, Jim’s operations base, and Kim.

It takes a long time for Kim to go through and review all of his preparations with great care. He can’t think of anything else to do, well, anything that doesn’t fall under the heading of totally crazy. Every possible attack on him has been thought of with a counter set, except a major bomb to destroy the hospital or city, which he doesn’t think they’ll do because it’s not politically safe.

With a jerk Kim sits up when he thinks of the one thing he hasn’t prepared against yet. He signals Betty and the senior guard over. When they arrive he says, “I just had a nasty thought. The bad boys I’m about to play games with may decide to put something in my food. We need to set up a way of my meals being prepared by someone we trust but isn’t part of the hospital structure and for them to bring it to us direct. Betty, can you let the kitchen know I’m organising my own food if they’ll give me the nutritional plan drawn up? Mallory, can you have Jim organise someone safe to prepare and deliver the food?” Both give him a weak smile with a nod yes as neither likes the idea of playing the food taster of possibly poisoned food. Betty leaves the room to talk to the kitchen staff while Mallory uses her encrypted radio to talk to her command centre.

Knowing he’s now done all he can think of Kim lies back and goes back to reading his story. The afternoon and evening pass without any troubles or any visitors. Kim’s meals are prepared by Jim’s wife and brought in by her or Jim or his eldest son. They taste a lot better than the hospital ones. Just to be on the safe side Jim has the meals for the duty nurse and duty guards provided in the same way too.

Sunday

Kim wakes up when his breakfast is being placed before him. Looking around he smiles to see Betty and one of the guards are waiting for him and the other guard to eat first. He eats fast to finish his breakfast so Betty can get started while hers is still hot.

About nine fifteen Gabby arrives with another girl who’s clearly her younger sister, as they look so very much alike, and a man Kim knows. Kim smiles and holds out his hand, “Hey, Punky, how you going?”

The man smiles while he limps across the room, “I wondered if it was you when Gabby told me about another patient who was very nice and told me the name. As you can see, I earned a medical about eighteen months ago.” They shake hands while Gabby pushes her sister to sit on the side of Kim’s bed.

Kim pulls the sister, Ellen, around so she’s leaning against his chest with his arms around her. This gives him the contact he needs to work on her while he talks to the retired soldier. His mind is now getting used to how he does these checks so he’s going over her skeleton; starting at the skull and fixing things while it goes, all on automatic. He smiles when he asks, “What are you doing now? You’ve had time to finish rehab and to look around for work.”

Bob ’Punky’ Dukes loses his smile, “Yeah, I finished rehab. But no one wants to hire an ex-soldier with a limp, cause I can’t move fast enough.”

“Hmm, that cuts out working for Jungle or Jim Waters as you’d be too slow and stand out. You never were any good with paperwork, either. But, if I remember right, you’re a wizard at the wheel of any vehicle.” Punky looks puzzled while he nods his agreement with the statements. Kim smiles while he moves on to scan the rest of Ellen’s body. When he finds and starts fixing where nodes of cancer are she starts to squirm about, but he holds her tight while Gabby signs for her to sit still. He says, “Well then, it’s a good thing you know Gabby and she brought you to me just when I have to start looking for a good driver. I’ll need you to drive a car plus a coach bus for me. I think we’ll even get you licensed as an armed guard to be an extra back up in that area. What do you say?”

He has a huge grin at the prospect of work he likes doing. Then his grin shrinks, “Ahh, Kim, I’m the only family left for, and guardian of, Gabby and Ellie, how does that affect the situation?”

“No trouble as we’ll just organise suitable housing for you when we settle down in a house again, and when we go on a bus trip we make sure there’s enough room for them to join us so the tutor I get can look after the lot of us, OK.” Punky grins, so do the girls. Kim keeps Ellen sitting with him for few more minutes to finish clearing out the cancer within her while they talk about how they’ll organise to live when he gets out of the hospital.

When he’s finished Kim lets Ellen get up from the bed and signs for Gabby to talk to her about keeping quiet. He takes this time to tell Punky how to contact Madison or Amanda to organise to get on the payroll.

They all sit around having a good chat until lunch arrives. Gabby is envious of what Kim gets for lunch, he winks at her when she leaves to have her own lunch down in the children’s ward she’s in.

Sunday afternoon is spent with Kim searching the Internet for data on things of interest for school work and himself. He also finishes off one of the longer school assignments due this term. The whole day just seems to drag along very slow. Dinner time comes, so does dinner - another lovely meal, and more reading after dinner.

Family

Early evening sees Helen, Lee, and Harry drop in on their way back from their weekend down the coast. Lee is a bit upset about not being able to see Kim all weekend, Helen is not happy with the way Harry has been all weekend, and Harry is happy to have kept them away.

Kim smiles when they walk in and he winks at Lee while Harry spends a lot of time looking around the room: it’s clear he’s memorising where all the furniture is. The girls chatter on about their weekend then Kim tells about all the school work and homework he got done. Handing it over to Lee to hand in for him in the morning, while she’s bent over to take it from him he takes the opportunity to whisper to her about taking extra care tomorrow. She gives him a smile and a wink in reply.

About half an hour later, when they’re ready to leave, Kim holds out his hand to Harry while thanking him for taking the ladies away for a fun weekend to relax during this time of stress. Harry is so surprised about this offer of friendship he actually takes Kim’s hand and shakes it. This is about the third or fourth time there’s been any physical contact between them. Kim smiles when he notes a part of his brain making the physical connection with Harry while they shake hands.

After they leave Kim reads some more about Pern before he settles down for an early night’s sleep. He thinks he’ll need to get a good rest tonight because he expects to be up late for the next few nights. If he’s right and things go as expected the dark brown matter will be hitting the fast spinning air circulation device about the time the courts open in the morning.

Madison will be in to see him but she’s already arranged for people to be at every court in the city tomorrow, to be there all day to make sure someone can challenge any papers that may be put before the courts concerning Kim. The politicians can justify putting things to any court in the city, but an attempt to place the matter before a court elsewhere will be a clear case of trying to manipulate the system to pervert the course of justice, thus it would be immediately rejected on appeal.

Monday

Monday morning Kim is woken up by Judy for an early breakfast. They chat while he eats, she’s still very happy about Friday’s lunch. As he’s finishing the meal Maddi arrives to talk with him again. They go over the plans of what to do in various court scenarios. Jim has kept her up to date with what his people have learned.

Tim turns up just as Maddi is leaving. They nod in greeting when they pass each other. Kim smiles because there seems to be a bit of a personal interest there, on both sides. Both are single and they do suit each other well with compatible personalities.

The news Tim has makes Kim laugh. While the family were away on the weekend Jim had people break into the lock-up Harry has, going through it with care. All of the fake paintings at Kim’s home have been exchanged for the real ones Harry stole and put in the lock-up, so had a lot of jewellery they found there as well. All the real stuff is back where it belongs. Tim has just come from watching a crew of specialists enter the house. Amanda has sent them to collect all of the paintings and family heirlooms so they can be better detailed for insurance purposes. Harry was sweating when he heard what they were up to while Helen waved for them to get to work. Harry settled down when he saw they were just taking the items, ticking them off a pictorial list, and packing them for shipping to Adelaide. Tim thinks Harry is sure it’ll be a few days before any exchanges have been noticed, so he should be safe. But the real gear is now on its way to safety in Adelaide, and under a large armed guard.

Courts

Solicitor Barry Reading is sitting in the back of his local district court where Judge Jeremy ’Jumping’ Bean is presiding. Judge Bean earned his nickname early in his career, shortly after being appointed to this court. That was before it was found out, but not proven, he was in the pay of the most powerful local crime boss. Matters in this court are decided by the law only if Doomben Dave didn’t give orders for it to be decided in another manner. Dave made his reputation and some money out at the Doomben Racecourse, hence the nickname. Also, it’s widely said crossing Dave is a fatal and final mistake for anyone. He’s also rumoured to be very well connected, politically. Barry has several matters before Bean today and he’s making some extra money by sitting in the back of the court all day. He need only be here for this afternoon’s session, but he’s being paid by Madison Evans to cover the whole day and to keep an ear out for any matters concerning one Kim Majors, so he’s doing some case work while sitting in the back of this court. No one with any knowledge of Bean requests or starts a matter before him unless they have an ’in’ with Doomben Dave, because you never know how Dave will react.

At eleven o’clock Barry is very surprised when he hears the bailiff say, “Matter of the Department of Education and Kim Majors.”

Reading puts the papers he has in his bag while he hears a solicitor he doesn’t know say, “This is a very simple matter, Your Honour. A petition to have the court ratify the compensation agreement between the Department and the parents of the minor Kim Majors. This matter requires court approval since it’s outside the normal compensation levels of payment.” While he walks to the front of the court Barry is having another quick read of his written instructions as he listens to the court.

Bean says, “I see I have before me a medical report on the boy and a contract to pay him one million dollars signed by the Department, one Harry Wells, a Helen Wells, and four witnesses. If the parents’ names are Wells how come the boy’s name is Majors?”

“Harry Wells is the boy’s stepfather, Your Honour, and Helen Wells is the boy’s natural mother, remarried.”

“Right, all seems in order. Anyone here to represent the family or are you representing both parties?”

“I’m representing both parties, Your Honour. The stepfather, Harry Wells, is here in the court, if you wish to verify that.” He turns to look at a man sitting in the front row. The man stands and Judge Bean looks him over before nodding at him and waving for him to sit down.

“Well then. This looks like being a quick one to get out of the way.”

Barry reaches the defendant’s table and says, “I don’t think so, Your Honour. I represent the minor Kim Majors and his legal guardians. No agreement on compensation has yet been reached since no discussion has taken place. A case is down for hearing in another court on this very matter with the Department of Education as just one of a number of respondents. The amount of claims is over three hundred million dollars. Neither Harry Wells nor Helen Wells have the legal right to be involved in negotiations nor to sign an agreement. Also, the doctors treating Kim Majors haven’t yet written a medical report, so it’s hard for you to have a proper medical report before you.” The four people at the plaintiff’s table, Harry Wells, and Judge Bean all turn to look at him as if he’s crazy. Judge Bean is about to speak when he notices the several media reporters who hang out around the courthouse are all in the room making a note of the events and Barry is taking notes at the table.

Bean is very curt while saying, “And just what is your interest in this case, Mr Reading?”

Barry smiles at the judge, “As I said, Your Honour, I represent the boy and his legal guardians.” He holds up a three page document, “I’ve got a sworn affidavit from Miss Amanda Casey. It states she’s Kim’s legal guardian as upheld by a number of state and federal courts and is the only person approved by the courts to authorise any financial matters concerning Kim. She’s prepared to travel to present the papers to the court. Since the matter is already down for hearing in another court I suggest you simply refer this petition to that court or deny it or set the matter down for hearing tomorrow or any day after that so Miss Casey can travel here with the papers.” He smiles at the judge.

A bailiff takes the affidavit and hands it to the judge to read. He goes over it with great care while he considers what to do. When he was given his orders to approve this petition he was assured there would be no challenges to it. Now this comes up, so he’s between a rock and a hard place. But his orders are simple: approve the petition. He looks up while he shakes the affidavit, “I suspect this is just something to delay the boy and his family being paid their compensation. Petition approved.” Barry simply shrugs. He was told that’s what would happen, so it’s no issue for him. “What, no histrionics Mr Reading?”

“No, Your Honour. Naturally, an appeal will be lodged.”

“You’ve got fourteen days if you wish to appeal the decision.” Barry nods to acknowledge the instruction.

Taking his bag and notes Barry leaves the court while the others are still packing up their papers. He goes directly to the Clerk’s Office and asks for certified copies of the decision with all of the papers lodged. He needs this to prepare an appeal, and they know this. One of the staff goes off to get the papers from the courtroom. Within five minutes he’s paid the fees for the copies and is leaving the court. He’s got two hours before his next matter.

He’s soon outside the courthouse and talking to Madison on his cell phone. He’s told to wait in the Court Clerk’s Office until she arrives. He goes back inside to sit down in the Clerk’s Office while he checks his files.

Half an hour later Madison walks in while making a noisy production of finding him then accepting his copy of the court papers and the notes of the hearing. She hands him a cheque while saying, in a loud voice, “Thank you for your work this morning. I’ll take over this matter now. Here’s your payment. You won’t be involved in this any further, unless you’re called as a witness. I suggest you take care and watch out because some people don’t want to see justice prevail in this matter.” Everyone in the office is aware he’s just been paid off and dropped from the case. For a moment he wonders why, then he realises Madison may have just saved him from being beaten up by Doomben Dave’s boys. When she leaves he wonders just what she’s gotten herself in the middle of.

Twenty minutes later Madison is standing in the Supreme Court to get a ’Stay of Execution’ order against the decision of Judge Bean, an appeal of the decision, law suits against Judge Bean, the Department of Education, the solicitors from the Attorney General’s Department who presented the petition, the Attorney General’s Department, the Attorney General himself, Harry Wells, and the witnesses on the agreement; the papers include civil suits for damages, claims of attempting to pervert the course of justice, and fraud. Most of the papers had been readied beforehand and they only needed the names and final details.

The judge hearing the matter is surprised by the list of respondents and the charges. He reads all of the material presented with great care. Judge Finnegan looks up while saying, “You’ve listed everyone who signed the agreement except the boy’s natural mother, why?”

Maddi smiles, “I know the mother well, Your Honour. She’s very submissive and would immediately sign, without reading it, anything her husband puts before her and orders her to sign. I also know Mister Wells did just that early Saturday morning, so she signed a large document without reading it while stating she had no right to sign anything for anyone. I see her as a victim in this as well, not a culprit.”

Finnegan nods, “I see.” He reads out the petitions, one at a time, while he grants them all. Forty minutes later Madison has several certified copies of all the paperwork in her hand when she leaves the Court Clerk’s Office to enter the Sheriff’s Office across the foyer.

Just over two hours after Judge Bean handed down his decision granting the petition about compensation he’s visited in his court by two Sheriff’s Officers serving him with the papers just issued by the Supreme Court, because these are civil cases they don’t stop him from doing his work but he knows he may get an order to stand aside in the morning. This really worries him since it may mean the end of his working career.

Harry Wells is upset to be served with all his papers which include orders freezing his bank accounts so he may not disburse any moneys that may belong to others as a result of the court cases and an AVO listing Helen, Kim, Lee, and the house he’d been living in with Helen as it belongs to Kim. Copies are delivered to his banks at the same time.

The power brokers in the Department of Education and Attorney General’s office are still having their celebratory drinks when they’re served with their papers, including the stay order overriding all of their plans. The person in charge is very upset since he just finished paying Harry for his help, half a million dollars in cash. He’d already paid the first half when he gave Harry the agreement to get it signed. There’s no way they can take Harry to court to get that million dollars back. Judges don’t like seeing a law suit to recover a bribe to commit fraud.

By mid-afternoon many telephones are running very hot with upset power brokers jumping up and down about the situation. They’d had it well in hand and ready to close off the affair, but now it just turned around to bite them on the arse, big time.

Just after four o’clock Madison gets a phone call from the Attorney General asking how much to settle everything out of court. She laughs when he splutters and hangs up after she tells him, “Seventy million dollars for Kim; one million for Amanda and I, each; pay his medical bills to date and for the next four months; plus two million for the electrician hurt; and a public apology.”

At five o’clock Madison is visiting with Kim to brief him about today’s events. It’s lucky Jim is with her. Jim goes very white when Madison mentions Judge Bean, so Kim asks him why Bean is a problem.

Jim says, “If Judge Bean handed down a decision that was so clearly wrong he must be acting under orders. The only person he takes orders from is Doomben Dave. That means we now have to worry about why he’s involved in this matter.” Both Madison and Kim gulp at this news.

Kim looks up, “Those dirty art dealers Harry was talking to. I think you better find out who they work with and if they’re connected with Doomben Dave. This could get very hairy with him involved.” Both Madison and Jim are now very worried when they leave Kim to eat his dinner.

Evening

About six thirty Lee and Helen turn up with six security guards in tow. Lee has an ear to ear grin when she tells Kim about Harry turning up at the house and being turned away by the security guards. He was unhappy when he arrived as some of Jim’s people had used the spare car keys to collect the car while Harry was in his office. All of the locks on the cars and house are changed and a better security system is now installed.