Chapter Two

After many minutes of searching I located Sandy lounging beside the indoor swimming pool reading a book; her pretty stretched nipples standing up nicely. Her legs were slightly open displaying the silver coil that was threaded through her many lip piercings and terminated in the piercing through her clit.

She waved to me as I approached and closed her book. I asked, "Hungry?" And she nodded. I took her hand and helped her out of the comfortable but awkward lounge. We walked slowly back toward our little apartment in the hotel where she put the book on the nightstand and we both entered the large shower area.

We played in the water washing each other for a long time but finally I decided that further play would have to wait as we better go to the cafeteria before they shut down for the night. Well, actually, they never shut down but the selection becomes almost nonexistent between mealtimes according to Jim.

Apparently Jim and his wife were waiting for us as they were sitting at a table with only coffee cups in front of them. I waved and they joined us as we entered the very short serving line as two other couples fell in line behind us.

Jim and Lucy filled their trays and as I moved forward I noticed that the serving pans were nearly empty. When I asked if there were more serving pans ready to be brought out the same guy that was there for our late lunch stated that there were not and there would be no more cooking today.

I looked behind me and now there were about a dozen people waiting to be served. Something wasn’t right here; too many people were going to be without a decent meal.

I tapped Jim on the shoulder and quietly asked him who was second in command in the cafeteria. He pointed out a girl of about twenty-two with a nice belt tattoo and a couple dolphins tattooed on her back. He said her name was Sue. Good enough, I had seen her at the house with the collage kids Jerry had invited there. Now it was time to educate that jerk in the serving line.

In an overly loud voice I asked Jim if he had an opening for someone with few skills and even less brains that was in need of an attitude adjustment.

He nodded, "I need someone to swing a sledge hammer and smooth out the rough spots in the runway base."

I pointed at the bad tempered jerk and said, "This is your man."

There was an immediate roar of laughter and applause. He got red in the face and stated, "You don’t have the authority to do that, Old Man."

There was a chorus of boos from the entire room and a couple of, "Oh boy, he did it now," comments.

Jim was chuckling as he said, "Sounds good to me. Tell him to report to the construction office at six in the morning."

I turned to him, and said, "Be at the construction office at six in the morning and you had better not be late and you had better be ready to work."

"You don’t have the..."

Jim jumped in, "Yes he does and it is a done deal."

I motioned to the giggling Sue to come forward. When she did I told her she was now in charge of the cafeteria.

She was still grinning but asked, "Are you serious?"

"Yep, we need someone here who will see that the people get a good meal particularly at mealtimes."

Suddenly there were full serving pans being brought in from the kitchen. The jerk stomped out of the room.

As we continued down the serving line several people thanked me for getting that jerk out of there even though most of them thought Jim had done it because I had asked. Most of the people didn’t recognize me or didn’t know me to begin with. I like to keep it that way as much as possible; I can usually get a much better feel for situations if they think I’m just another member.

Jim and I talked about the progress and the expected completion dates for several of the projects. The subject of Paul’s progress with the legal stuff came up and I learned that he was having some difficulty with some of the residents on North Island.

I suggested that it might be a good idea for me to go to North Island for a day or two. Jim agreed and said he needed a little time off and suggested that we could go there in his cabin cruiser. We set a time of ten in the morning to be at the boat and ready to go.

Sandy and I went to the beach. As it was nearing sunset; someone had built a bonfire and the group of college kids were roasting marshmallows over it.

Several people were swimming and another group was dancing to the sounds coming from the ever-present boom box but most were just sitting on the sand watching the sun disappear below the horizon. It was a beautiful, lazy evening.

Sandy and I went back to our little apartment about ten and we showered again to get all the sand off. We played in the shower until the hot water ran out and then a little bit longer to discover that the unheated water was comfortably warm too.

Finally we dried each other off and went to the bed. As she lay on the bed with her hands behind her head I put a small plastic zip lock bag between her breasts.

She looked at it, then picked it up and looked closely. "What is all of this for?"

I grinned, "Just for you my Dear, just for you."

She looked again, then opened the bag and poured all the piercing jewelry into her hand. "Does this mean I can finally get that coil out of me?"

"Yep, but we will have to do some stretching; the coil is eight gauge and all of these are six gauge."

She held one of the barbells next to the coil to compare the sizes. "They don’t look that much bigger."

"Just a few thousandth of an inch but they are bigger."

She looked at them again, "Well, let’s get started."

We moved to the kitchen area where the light was much better. I asked her to lie down on the table so that I would have a clear and well-lit area to work on.

As she was getting into position I dropped the jewelry into a pan of water and put it on the stove to boil.

I removed the ball from the top end of the coil that ran through her clit. As I turned the coil about three quarters of the way around, the piercing in her clit was now becoming empty while the rest of the piercings were still filled.

I washed my hands several times with a strong antibacterial soap and also scrubbed her clit and the area immediately around it. I removed the taper and one of the barbells from the boiling water. I lubed the taper with an antibacterial jell, secured the end of the new six gage barbell into it and slowly began to insert it into her clit piercing.

The tip of the taper was protruding through her clit so I placed a finger on each side of it and suddenly pushed it the rest of the way through. She grunted with the sensation but didn’t say anything.

I removed the taper from the barbell and after fumbling around with the little ball for a minute or so, finally got it in place and tightened it. I asked her if she was okay she answered, "Sure, it just stings a little at first but I’m doing fine."

I removed the coil completely and scrubbed her lips with the antibacterial soap also. I attached another barbell to the taper and quickly pushed it completely through. She jumped a little but didn’t make a sound. I repeated that procedure seven more times and the change was complete. She now had a double row of shiny little barbells.

It was time to do a little work on me now. I removed my eight-gauge apadravya and put my old friend, the four-gauge curved barbell back in position as a Prince Albert. I attached my old six-gauge curved barbell to the taper and then inserted the taper in a manner that would position the curved barbell as a reverse Prince Albert.

As I pushed the taper completely through there was a moment of serious discomfort but it quickly began to fade. I removed the taper and installed the front ball on the barbell. I now had four shiny balls in the head of my cock; one on top, one in the bottom and two protruding from the front. The additional weight was nice too.

Sandy helped me gather up all the stuff and put it away. She noticed the little plastic bag still had four silver balls in it and asked why there were so many extras.

"They aren’t extras; they’re for a different purpose."

She looked at them again but was unable to determine what was different about them. I pointed out that they had two studs on them rather than one. The studs were on opposite sides of the balls so that a barbell could be secured to them from both sides.

She giggled, "Why would you ever want a barbell on both sides? Where could it be worn?"

I put my evilest grin on my face and said, "You have four barbells in each lip and they are positioned so that they are actually in pairs. When the inner balls are replaced with one of these it will close that nice opening just as effectively as the coil did."

She looked at the balls again, "Oh, I should have known you would think of something like that."

She slid off of the table and stood up with a surprised look on her face, "It feels like something is missing down there."

She took a few steps then stopped, "But it also feels good. The little barbells are bumping together and sending sensations to my clitty."

I patted her on the butt and followed her into the bedroom watching her ass cheeks wiggle and bounce. Did I ever mention I like butts?

I directed her toward the shower area and told her she needed a good internal cleaning. She made a face at me but didn’t object. Over the next forty-five minutes she was filled three separate times until the water ran clear.

We began to wash each other in the shower and one thing led to another as interesting parts were washed repeatedly. I was soon ready for some serious action even though the newly stretched piercing was still very sensitive.

She dropped to her knees and inspected the newly installed jewelry more closely before slowly running her tongue around it. A couple minutes of licking and teasing the poor thing and I pushed her head down so that almost half of the shaft entered her mouth. She began to bob her head up and down slowly, each time going a little further.

I soon had to hold her head still to prevent a premature eruption; I had other plans for the immediate future. I helped her back to her feet and we toweled each other dry before I led her to the bed.

I quickly installed wrist cuffs on her and secured them to opposite sides of the headboard with her lying on her back on a couple big fluffy towels. She looked at me questioningly but I didn’t say a word, I just put a blindfold on her.

I rummaged around in my suitcase until I found what I was looking for. I planned on this being a long session and wanted to have everything I would need readily available.

I started with a nice long feather that I used to tease the exposed tips of her nipples. Just a light brush across them resulted in a moan as she tried to rise up to get more contact. I teased those little buds until she was unable to lay still. I then switched to running the feather tip around the base of her breasts time and time again making sure to let it also lightly slide over her ribs.

She was moaning and giggling at the same time and soon was twisting and turning as she tried to get more contact on her breasts and at the same time prevent any touching of her ticklish ribs.

Time to give her a break; I walked into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. When I returned she’d settled down to just soft sighs. She hadn’t heard me return so I quickly stuck the tip of the feather in her belly button.

She was caught totally by surprise and jumped and screamed. I laughed at her as I continued to tease that shallow opening. She was soon squirming all over trying to get away from that terrible feather. I stopped to watch for a couple minutes and then tickled her ears as she shook her head back and forth to avoid further contact.

I moved the feather to her ribs and stoked both sides alternately for a couple minutes, which resulted in giggles and screams that built until she was having trouble breathing.

I sat down and drank some more of my now lukewarm coffee as she continued to twist and squirm. When her breathing returned to normal I started again, this time circling her breasts a few times and gently dragging the feather over her nipples before working downward in a slow zigzag pattern to her belly button as she moaned.

I circled her belly button with the tip of the feather several time before again dipping the tip into that shallow opening. She jumped and screamed, again. I continued this gentle torture until her breathing became erratic before doing another zigzag down to the top of her close-cropped pubic hair.

I think I surprised her by passing that interesting area to use the feather on her inner thighs. She closed her legs so quickly she almost caught the feather between them.

I moved my attention to her outer thighs and she twisted to the side to avoid it, which gave me a nice view of her luscious butt. I ran the feather along her ass crack and she rolled over the other way.

I attacked her thighs again and she again rolled away. Back to tickling her ass with the feather. Back and forth she went for a long time.

I finally got on the bed, pulled her legs apart and knelt between them so that she couldn’t close them again or even roll away. I ran the feather over her inner thighs until she was screaming and giggling again.

One slow pass of the feather over her clit and she exploded into an orgasm that lasted for a full two minutes. As soon as it began to die down I did it again.

Each time it lessened I would bring it back to full sensitivity. I continued this for a half hour. She was now in sub space and not really able to do much but she continued to explode time after time until she was unable to move at all.

Time for another cup of coffee. I sat down and waited for her to wake up. I had finished a second cup of coffee before she was able to speak coherently.

She was still a little dopey when I again placed myself between her legs. I noticed the towels were wet from her juices now. I began to lick her outer lips as she started to sigh. As I continued I would occasionally tickle her pee hole with my tongue as she would buck and raise her hips to gain more pressure there.

When I finally moved my attentions to her clitty the first lick produced a scream as she exploded again. I continued to flick my tongue over that tasty little bud until she was again lost in sub space. I clamped my lips around it and gently nibbled on it as I continued tease the tip with my tongue. Her orgasm deepened and continued until she suddenly squirted her ejaculation on my chin.

I used the end of one of the towels to wipe my face as I got into position to enter her. She was well lubricated and to my surprise the entrance was easy and painless. My newly stretched piercing had adjusted nicely to the larger gauge.

A dozen long, slow strokes and I added to the considerable dampness in the towels under her ass.

As I withdrew she was still experiencing her orgasm, humping and moaning. I released her wrists and watched her recover her senses until she was able to say, "Wow."

With a little help she was able to sit up and I helped her into the shower. A quick scrubbing and we returned to the bed. I positioned her face down and lubed her little brown spot. Slowly I worked her butt plug into place as she moaned softly from the sensations it was generating in that still sensitive area.

I lay down beside her, pulled her close and was out like a light.

I woke up with bright sunlight streaming through the windows. Sandy was still asleep as I made a pot of coffee, which took much too long. I returned to the bedroom with two cups and woke her gently by kissing her pretty nipples.

I told her I would be going to the northern island for a couple days. Since it was still populated, clothes were required and I preferred for her to stay here and help the girls who were in the offices. She agreed; she wasn’t interested in the political situation at all.

I reluctantly got dressed and walked to the dock. Jim was already there and was getting the boat fueled when I arrived. The young attendant greeted me with, "Good Morning, Sir." I nodded to him as I stepped aboard the boat.

Jim soon joined me on the flying bridge and we set out on the little trip to the northern island. It was a beautiful day and the breeze felt good as he pushed the throttles forward and the boat picked up speed.

About a mile off shore he asked if I was in a hurry. "No, not really but I do feel I needed to see Paul."

He pulled the throttles back to an idle and motioned for me to follow him as he went down to the main deck. He handed me the largest fishing pole I had ever seen. He baited the hook and told me to throw it in the water and let a couple hundred feet of line out.

I sat down in of the two swivel chairs that were bolted to the deck as he explained what I should do. This was all new to me so I listened closely.

Jim got another pole and joined me in the other chair. The boat just kept chugging along at about two miles and hour. Yes, I know when on the ocean speed is measured in knots instead of miles per hour but old habits die hard and besides everyone know what miles per hour means.

In the next couple of hours we both had a couple of hits but didn’t hook anything. Then Jim said, "Get you line in quickly," so I started cranking on the reel which wasn’t as easy as it sounds; all of those things are made for right handed people, which I ain’t.

As I was laboriously trying to comply with Jim’s instructions I saw a big something or other jump almost completely out of the water. And I do mean big!

I finally got all of my line in and put the rod and reel away as I watched Jim trying to get his line in. He would reel in a few feet and the fish would decide to go back out and he would lose all that he had gained.

He wasn’t able to carry on a conversation but he did manage to tell me to shut the engines off. I went back up to the flying bridge and turned the switches off.

I watched from that vantage point for a few minutes and began to wonder what in the world we were going to do if Jim managed to get that monster up to the boat. How would we ever be able to get in on board? And where would we put it?

The ensuing battle raged for almost two hours before the fish tired enough to be pulled up to the boat and even then there was some fight left.

I could look at that monster up close now. My first thought was that it was a swordfish with that long spike on the front. But then again it could be a sailfish. Anyway it was a nice cobalt blue with a silvery stomach and was about six feet long.

Jim instructed me to get what looked like a small green toolbox and bring it to him. When I brought the toolbox on deck he handed me the rod and said to keep the line tight.

Okay, now what?

He open the tool box and removed what almost looked like a pair of pliers but on second thought it was more like the tool used to clamp the bull rings used to fasten seat covers on worn car seats. He also picked out a small piece of shiny metal.

With both of these items in his hands he leaned over the side of the boat and clipped the metal to the dorsal fin. The fish flipped around when this was done and I saw Jim jump back with blood coming from his hand.

He looked at the cut on his finger and then ignored it as he put the tool back in the box and removed a pair of wire cutters. He reached over the side again and cut the line.

I really hadn’t know what to expect, I had never caught anything more than a foot long in my life, but cutting the line certainly wasn’t something I had even considered. I was still tugging on it pretty hard when he made the cut and I damn near fell over the other side of the boat as I staggered backward trying to get my balance.

Jim sat down on his side of the boat and laughed at me. Yeah, right, very funny. I was about half mad, I can swim but I wasn’t interesting in any company in the water the size of that thing. Not only that, but after all the effort that had been spent the least I had expected was a nice trophy to mount and hang over the fireplace at home.

"Why did you cut the line?"

He waited a minute or two before answering as he was out of breath from laughing, "Here at the islands we don’t keep the little ones."

"That thing must have weighed three hundred pounds."

"Yeah, just a baby, but I think it was closer to four hundred," He had to be pulling my leg.

Before I could say all the dirty words I was thinking he said, "That was a Blue Marlin, they get to be as big as eleven feet long and weigh as much as two thousand pounds, this one was just a baby. The local record is about one thousand pounds."

He went into the cabin and returned with the first aid kit and handed it to me. I looked at the cut in his finger and selected a band-aid that would cover it. It was about a half inch long and looked like it had been sliced with a razor blade. He explained that the scales on that fish were very sharp. Obviously.

He handed me two pieces of cloth and said, "Put these on the radio antenna with the rectangular one on top. I opened them up to find a picture of the fish he had caught on it. It was blue with the fish in white and was a small flag about two feet long and fifteen inches wide with Velcro at one end so that it could be secured to the antenna.

The second flag was triangular in shape and bright red with a lazy ‘T’ on it. That is, the ‘T’ was on its side, in Texas that is called lazy when used in cattle brands.

The blue flag signaled that a Marlin had been caught and the Red one indicated that it had been tagged and released.

While I was putting the flags up Jim started the engines, checked the compass and turned the boat back to our original course. The silhouette of the first island was visible on the horizon. It seemed much lower than the center island that was still visible behind us.

The rest of the trip was uneventful except when we passed a fishing boat and they waved and tooted their horn in recognition of the flags.

Jim and I discussed several of the ongoing projects including where to build my house on the island. He agreed with my choice of location and said the master plan was for several large estates to be located there, but he suggested that I should consider the third island also.

He was still skeptical of the large seaplane that was being rescued but as long as it didn’t interfere with the other projects he could live with it.

The construction of the airfield was the first priority closely followed by the construction of private cottages as well. They would have to be built completely on site as there just weren’t any facilities capable of prefabricating various sections of them as was done at The Project.

Since the second island was intended to be the center of all activities I was curious how any ‘Nilla visitors would be handled. Jim didn’t see a problem, as all three islands would be ‘Clothes Optional’ which really meant ‘Do Your Own Thing’. He explained that the docks were on the west side of the mountain and totally out of sight from the rest of the island.

Any visitors arriving by air would quickly be lowered to the dock area by an elevator. Their trip would continue by boat from there if their destination was the northern or southern islands. A shuttle bus would transport center island visitors to the hotel. All foreign boats and ships would be directed to the docks.

A small hospital was in the plans as well as a ‘National Capital Complex’ as he called it. He rambled on and on as we drew closer to the first island.

We were now seeing more and more boats of all types but mostly fishing boats with a few cabin cruisers and even a few outboard motor boats. Apparently Jim’s boat was well known as most of the people waved and a couple even yelled a greeting.

Jim turned to run along the coast about a thousand feet off shore as I used the binoculars to scan the coast while we idled past the main dock areas. They looked as crowded and nasty as some of the pictures I had seen of Chinese ports. From the appearance of many of the boats this was a very poor area.

As we continued there was a row of shanties that could be seen lining the beach; none of them looked habitable to me. Soon they became further apart and then the shore was clear.

It occurred to me that I hadn’t seen any motorized transportation, people were walking and a few were riding bicycles, but there weren’t any cars in view.

I asked Jim about this and he replied that there were very few roads that could be driven on with a car and all the population was grouped in this part of the island so vehicles were an unneeded and unaffordable luxury.

He turned toward the shore and a set of new commercial sized docks with several nice boats tied up to it as well as a couple of the barges. Behind a grove of trees a new building could be seen. Jim explained that this island was going to be the industrial center and the building was intended to be a factory designed to build components for the prefabricated houses that were needed to relocate the population.

As we tied up to the dock I saw Paul walking toward us dressed in Bermuda shorts, a light sport shirt and tennis shoes. He waved as we started towards him.

He greeted us warmly and expressed his relief that I was finally able to visit the islands. I suspected there were some tricky situations he wanted to discuss.

Jim interrupted this train of thought with the suggestion that it was dinnertime. I glanced at the position of the sun, it was well down to the west; about six in the evening was my guess. Paul agreed and led us to a small cafeteria at the rear of the big building. It wasn’t fancy but Paul said it was as good as it gets unless you were invited to the French Embassy.

The menu consisted of mostly seafood of various types that was well received by the locals that were hired to work on the factory. I ordered a shark steak with all the trimmings; it had been a long time since my breakfast of coffee.

As expected, Paul began to go over the problems he was working on. Most of the population was more than willing to relocate to an island off the South American coast for a price. Paul had offered ten thousand dollars per person with a limit of fifty thousand dollars per family. Some wanted more and a few didn’t want to leave at all.

I did a little math in my head; that would come to about ten million dollars; much less than I had expected. I suggested that he double the amount and add free transportation to the new island. He thought that would work.

The next problem was the French diplomatic group. They didn’t want to leave either.  As members of the French Government all of them had been hit by the stock crash a few months ago. As part of the benefit package provided for their positions they were allowed to purchase shares in a mutual fund that was overloaded with the Mafia stocks. Basically they were broke and it was unlikely they would be able to continue in the government if they returned home.

I told him I would talk to them and see what could be arranged.

The next situation he mentioned was a complete surprise. There were several couples on the island who had college degrees and had been educated in France through scholarships that had been provided for them by the French government. This was done because the local population would not follow the dictates of the French consequentially they were now the leaders of the population. Further more they wished to stay.

Jim brought up the problems that existed on this island. With the exception of the French Embassy there really wasn’t a usable building on the whole island. The sewage system was non-existent and electrical power was from small diesel generators that were only able to serve eight or ten homes each.

I suggested that a complete survey be done and a master plan put in place so that all the systems that would be needed could be completed as soon as possible and in an orderly manner.

Jim grinned. "I already have a master plan, bulldoze everything and start over," was his immediate reply.

I had to laugh at that, "I think you should save the embassy, it can be used as temporary quarters for a while."

"Is anything being done to make the new home island for these people habitable?"

Jim nodded, "The utilities are being installed right now and foundations are being put in place for the houses that will be sub-assembled here in the factory and shipped there as soon as possible. A few houses should be complete in about three weeks and two hundred of them ready in a couple months."

I asked Paul to arrange a meeting with the French officials as soon as possible. He replied, "I can set that up right now; they have been asking about it every day for weeks."

I didn’t expect it to be so easy, the French are known for stalling, "Is there a computer I can use for a few minutes?"

Jim suggested that the computer in the factory office would work so we went to the office. I checked the value of the previously worthless stocks and found that they were still climbing and were at fifty dollars a share from a low of a couple cents a few months ago.

I e-mailed Jerry Kirkland, the psychologist, with a message to come to the islands as soon as possible and to bring testing supplies with him. As a second thought I asked him to bring Jeff Fuller along also. Paul was on the phone with the Embassy and they agreed to a meeting in one hour. We spent the next half hour going over the personalities of the French personnel on the island. Paul was not really impressed with them that much and called them ‘A bunch of stuffed shirts’ which I took to mean they were so full of their own importance that they were almost impossible to work with.

The Ambassador, Pierre Larue, had been in this post for almost thirty years and felt that he more or less owned the place.

The Embassy was about a mile away from the factory so we walked there; the path was too rough for a bicycle and too narrow for a car in many places as it ran between tree and over exposed tree roots.

We arrived at a large stone building that looked like Dracula’s castle, big and forbidding. At least there wasn’t a moat or drawbridge. We were met at the door by a servant in a long tailed suit coat, just the type of dress that would be practical on a tropical island. Right...

He led us into a large and surprisingly well-lighted conference room that was paneled in dark oak. There were a dozen men there all in business suits.

I grinned to myself; I bet we really looked like equals to them dressed as we were in short sleeved shirts and shorts. It was obvious they were not looking impressed and I felt they would try to control to this meeting.

Paul introduced Jim and me to the Ambassador, and then went around the table with introductions. I didn’t really pay much attention to the names; my attention was on the set of papers that were in front of each of them. I managed to sneak a good look at them, which didn’t do me any good; they were in French.

The ambassador asked that we be seated and what we would like to drink. I spoke for the three of us and said coffee would be fine. Apparently he had an intercom build into his end of the table as a servant soon entered with coffee and cups.

When the coffee ritual was over the Ambassador got directly to the point, "This has been my home for nearly thirty years, I do not wish to leave." All of Frenchmen nodded in agreement.

I asked if each of them had their wives with them and again they all nodded. I asked about children and six of them again nodded. Next were the ages of the children, they ranged from nine to eighteen.

I was on a roll so far, no opposition; time for a multiple-choice question. "Assuming you were permitted to stay here, what positions would you play? How would you support yourselves?"

The Ambassador was the first to answer, "I would hope to continue as the Ambassador and as such I would need a staff." And he motioned toward the other men there.

He had a point there to be considered but would he and his staff be able to meet the requirements we demanded?

I moved the discussion to the financial arena, "If my information is correct you and your staff have recently experienced some financial difficulties. Would you be willing to elaborate on the circumstances?"

They all looked at each other, the Ambassador and the aide sitting on either side of him had a whispered conversation punctuated with glances in my direction. "Your information is essentially correct. We were all involved in the retirement funding that was available to us. A large portion of our incomes were dedicated to this fund. When the stock market went totally berserk a few months ago the value of the fund dropped dramatically. By the time were became aware of the situation it was too late to do anything about it, We tried to recover whatever was left of our funds but all we were able to achieve physical custody of the stock certificates that had been in our portfolios, there were inadequate funds available to even partially reimburse us of our investments."

I thought about this for a few seconds, "You are in possession of the certificates at this time?"

The Ambassador nodded, "Yes, but they are apparently involved with organized crime in some way and when their value was determined a few months ago they were next to worthless."

This was getting interesting now, "Were you aware of the Mafia affiliation of the stocks before that time? You position as an Ambassador would have put you in a position to be aware of it."

He just stared at me for almost a minute; the term ‘Mafia’ apparently hit a nerve. He finally shook his head,   "No, I was not aware of the affiliation. It has been several years since I have visited France. These islands have been a considerable expense and disappointment to the government, which reflected badly on me. They wished to develop them as a resort but the local population resisted even though they were not self-supporting and the welfare costs were considerable."

It was beginning to look like he was an innocent bystander, "Some of your staff members are young enough to have been in France more recently. Were they able to convey any information to you on this matter?"

"They are not of sufficient ranking to have been privy to such confidential information."

He seemed to have all the right answers but my ignorance of the manner in which the French government operated still left some room for doubt. I decided to proceed with the assumption that their laws were in many ways similar to those in the States. "If the fund would have been able to reimburse your investments would you have been assessed with a large tax bill?"

"Yes there would have been a considerable tax liability but even that would have been preferred to the present situation."

I was thinking hard by this time. I needed more information to make a decision of this magnitude.  "I thank you for your direct answers. Do you have any questions for me?"

"Oh, yes, many," He picked up the paper on top of the pile in front of him, "First, what are you plans for this island?"

"It will be developed as a combination resort and light industrial area. As you know a factory has been built near here, there will be a considerable amount of construction in the immediate future including a major hotel and other accommodations. All utilities will be available within a few months also."

He nodded, "Wonderful plans but very expensive to complete."

"Yes, the best estimate right now is about a billion dollars," I replied.

Jim chuckled, "Yeah, and knowing how they operate, probably double that."

The Ambassador just stared at me, "Where is all that money going to come from?"

Paul answered this one, "There is many times that amount available; they are very well funded."

"What will become of the people who are here now?"

Again Paul fielded the question, "They will be relocated to an island similar to this one that is just off the coast of South America. They will be adequately reimbursed for their inconvenience."

"Will they have adequate housing there?"

Jim caught this one, "That is one of the first priorities right now; The factory was built for the main purpose of constructing prefabricated homes that can be transported in sections and quickly assembled."

"What type of government will you install?"

Again Paul came to my rescue, "That has not been fully decided at this point but it will be some type of democratic system."

The Ambassador picked up another paper, quickly scanned it and laid it back down. "I have several more pages of questions but they are insignificant at this point. You have answered my main concerns."

It was time to conclude this first meeting. "We will meet again as soon as a couple more of my associates arrive. Thank you for your hospitality. "