Chapter 32

There was a war going on in Boston. But, the war had multiple fronts, and Austin was one of those fronts.

In the week since the war began, Austin had become a front in the war, but the invaders were stymied by the powerful defenses that Vil had put in place in the city. Vil owned the city of Austin, lock, stock, and barrel, with the police and the DA's office in her pocket, and a personal line straight to the Governor of Texas. An example of Vil's power was the old DA that went after Kit. He wasn't a DA anymore. He wasn't even in Texas anymore. While Kit and Jessie were in Kansas, he suddenly retired, "to spend more time with his family" was the official reason, but the truth was that Vil retaliated for the male daring to go after her brother, and she did it when Kit wasn't in town to see what was going on. Vil didn't just force him out of the DA's office, she forced him out of Texas. He moved his family to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he was now a private practice attorney after passing the New Mexico bar. He was stark evidence of what happened to furs that crossed Vilenne Vulpan and the Vulpan family. The new DA was much more "sympathetic" to the Vulpans, which in other words meant that he was owned by Vil. Kit could probably blow up a bus full of kindergartners and confess on live national television, and the Austin DA wouldn't prosecute.

Their elders had to fight an uphill battle against the protections Vil had put in place in Austin to get at those she protected, and that was a very tall order. Their knee-jerk attempt to get Allison arrested showed them that Vil had planned for this very event, and was ready for them. This left Kit, Jessie, Sheila, Allison, and everyone else free to live their lives, to ignore what was going on up in Boston, which was a brutal, knock-down drag-out slugfest. The elders had pulled out all the stops and were attacking Vil any way they could, from the cruel to the ridiculous, filing lawsuits against her, mocking her, spreading false rumors about her in the press, and trying to use their money, power, and influence to turn the furs of the shipyard and Boston against her. But Vil didn't bite on their attacks, she just hunkered down and played defense against their attacks, but she was also fighting back in other regards. She had filed a harassment case against her elders, pointing at the dozens of lawsuits filed against her in a matter of days and claiming that they were using the court system to harass her. She walled herself off in her manor and didn't talk to the press to answer the charges her elders had leveled against her in the court of tabloid public opinion, just letting the tabloids print whatever they pleased, but she did release a single press release stating that everything going on was part of an attempt by the elders to wrest control of the company away from her.

That single release all but dropped a bomb in Boston. The press knew something was going on in the Vulpan family, for Zach's assault on Terry was now public knowledge and the Vulpans had cleared out of Boston like they were running from the law. Vil's release suddenly made everything make sense, and it put the elders on their heels. They never expected Vil to aire Vulpan dirty laundry in public like that, thought she would keep the reason for their war secret, as the Vulpans kept everything secret. Reporters that had been eating up the slander and rumors spread by the Vulpan elders literally turned on the paws that fed them. The pack of reporters that had been all but camped out outside Hart's Crossing were now stalking Zach, Jake, and Maxine, trying to get the juicy details on this war within the Vulpan family, which put them as much on the defensive as Vil. Now they had to explain themselves to the public, and that was something that none of them wanted to do.

So, since the Vulpans weren't talking, the press started digging, and their actions were making it much harder for the elders to continue attacking Vil. Every single car that left Stonebrook, Twin Oaks, and Sun Garden was followed. Everyone anywhere near the families were questioned, and any strangers that moved in and out of the manors of the elders were noted and checked out. All they could do was call, and when one was arranging potentially illegal acts, one didn't like to do it over the phone in the age of federal wiretaps.

They even went so far as to send clandestine agents to New Orleans to whip up the workers of Avondale against Vil. They spread leaflets and told bald-faced lies to try to incite them to strike, but the simple fact of the matter was that they were too late for that, by about a week. Terry had already stamped out any strike talk because he did exactly what he threatened to do. On the Monday morning they were to vote on striking, there was an army of security guards waiting right across the street from the shipyard entrances, a naked show of force to prove that Terry would carry out his threat to fire anyone who went on strike. When the union representatives indignantly claimed that management couldn't fire strikers, that it was against the law, Terry dared them to try and see what happened. Literally. He said to them "I dare you to strike against Vulpan Shipyards, gentlemales. We are not the spineless cowards you dealt with before. When we are threatened, we don't capitulate, we retaliate."

It was an example of the willingness of the elders to hurt the family business in order to get rid of Vil. But she was ready for them here too. In the week since the war began, the six board members the elders had bribed to form a majority alliance against Vil were all gone. Five had retired, and one had fled the country. There were now only eight furs left on the board, because Jake had vetoed every single candidate that Vil had put into consideration for election to the board, and Vil had blocked every attempt by Jake to fill the board vacancies with furs loyal to the elders, paralyzing any attempt to fill the empty seats. The usual complement of 15 members was down by six due to Vil's actions, and Zach was suspended, leaving only eight left, which would have made it ridiculously easy for Vil to push through anything she pleased were Jake not on the board wielding his power as a Vulpan to gridlock the board. The six remaining board members were absolutely terrified of Vil, and would not vote against her, no matter what, leaving only Jake to block Vil. They didn't want to be called into her office next. Vil's draconian actions had scared the board and Jake enough that they didn't take her bait when she proposed taking the company public. Despite having ears near Zach and Jake both, neither Jake nor any member of the board leaked that bait beyond the boardroom, probably smelling it out as the trap it was.

But that didn't slow her down. Since she now had an iron-fisted grip on the board, she moved decisively. She made her move on a hot, sunny Monday. Kit should have been at work, but he, Jessie, and Sam were all at the airport, sitting on the back of Kit's Pathfinder gate watching as Sheila taxied out in a Cessna 172, going on her check ride. Still on the flight line in the other trainer, Allison was standing by the wing of the 172 talking with the FAA examiner, still undergoing her oral test before they got into the plane and took off. Today and tomorrow were test days for the summer flight class. The seven furs in the class would be doing their check rides, and Sheila and Allison had volunteered to go first. Kit and Jessie had helped them study for it all weekend, and Kit was utterly confident they would pass. Sheila was actually serious about learning to fly, but she was nowhere near as serious as Allison was. Kit's casual comment that her IFR was the only thing standing between her and being able to fly to New Orleans to see Terry whenever she wanted had lit a fire under that femme's tail. She had been studying like mad ever since, and had also already enrolled in a three week IFR course that AAIA offered, which Kit would help augment with personal lessons and also by giving Allison lessons in his plane. Sheila and Allison were still quite serious about going in together on a plane, but Kit had convinced them to hold off on a Cessna 400 and consider other possibilities, like a used King Air or a Crusader or a Grumman. A used twin engine might be cheaper for them to buy and still give them the same functionality as the 400, and Kit was certified to train them in multi engine planes.

Sheila's fun of flight and Allison's burning need to be able to fly to New Orleans had prepared them well for the check rides. Kit, Jessie, and Sam were watching from a discreet distance as Allison motioned at the wing, the ferret examiner nodded, and then they climbed into the plane.

"There goes Sheila," Jessie said, pointing as the 172 took off, climbed, and then started a banking turn to the left.

"Think she'll pass?" Sam asked.

"Oh, heck yeah," Jessie giggled. "She's ready."

"Let's watch Ally take off, then go do the deed," Kit sighed.

Today wasn't just all fun and games. Today, Kit had to move the 400 out of Avia's hangar. The Lear 450 would be back this afternoon, and he had to surrender the spot. Alice had agreed to lease him a tie down outside the hangar, at one of their tie down spots, which would maintain the plane as based at Bergstrom and allow them to evade several fees levied on visiting planes. In a show of faith, they even let him keep the remote to their hangar doors and gave him and Jessie access to Avia's building, letting them use their flight plan computer, lounge, and bathrooms. Alice had been quite fair to them, and she honestly regretted having to kick Kit and Jessie out, but they all knew that the day would come, and it was just business. Kit had rented the space fully knowing that it was only temporary, and he did not begrudge Alice or Avia one bit. They had been very kind to him, and he honestly appreciated them letting him rent the open space in their hangar while he could. The 400 would just have to sit out on the flight line until he could get hangar space for it.

They watched as Allison took off in the flight school's other trainer, then they got into the truck and drove to Avia. Alice met them in the hangar, and there were quite a few pawshakes all around as Kit and Jessie greeted Alice, Mike, Tommy, and Hank, the maintenance furs that worked on the jets. "I really hate to do this to you guys,"' Alice said earnestly.

"We knew it was coming, Alice," Kit chuckled. "But thanks for the tie down and the run of the hangar."

"Hey, we may have kicked you out, but we can still pretend to be your FBO," she winked. "Any leads on hangar space?"

"Nothing," he said with a shake of his head.

"We put ourselves on the waiting list for those tee hangars down on the south end," Jessie added. "It'll be a while 'til we get in, though."

"Well, you can always bring the plane into the hangar to load it, guys," she told them. "That's why you're keeping the remote for the hangar doors. We don't mind that at all. That way only Kit has to get wet untying the plane and getting it in so you and the baby can board it under cover," she said with a grin at Jessie.

"That sounds good to me," Jessie laughed, winking at Kit.

"Mean kitty," he teased.

"You want to taxi it out, or want us to hitch it to the crawler?" Alice asked.

The crawler was how they got the jets in and out of the hangar. It was a low-slung motorized towing unit about the size of an exercise treadmill that hitched to the front wheel of an airplane and then pulled it, guided by a controller using a remote steering device. It moved at a slow walk, which was why they nicknamed it crawler, but it could tow just about any small jet. Despite being very small, the thing had a lot of towing power, and was more than capable of towing about anything up to a Cessna CJ3 or a Lear 450.

"I'm going to taxi it out," Kit answered.

They took care of that quickly. Kit didn't bother with preflight, since the plane wasn't going very far, so he just went through cold start, started it up, and Tommy guided him out with paw signals as Jessie picked up their wheel chocks and followed him out. The tie down they gave him was at the corner of the hangar, the first available tie down, which would make it very easy for him to taxi the plane into the hangar when he needed to do so. It was also close enough for the auxiliary AV gas hose to reach his plane without him having to move it. "Are you guys going to even bother with carrying AV gas now that you've gotten rid of the turboprop?" Kit asked as he and Jessie got help tying down the plane from Alice and Tommy, basically giving Jessie a refresher course on how to tie the plane down. From now on, it would be a necessity.

"Actually, no," she answered. "What we have left is basically yours," she chuckled. "There's about enough left in the tank to fill your plane up twice. We've put in a work order to have a contractor come convert the AV gas tank to jet fuel. Until they get here, feel free to use what gas we have left."

"Hmm, I think we could do that," Kit chuckled. "We're planning on taking a trip tonight."

"Not a trip insomuch as a joyride," Jessie corrected. "I'm taking the girls flying to celebrate Sheila and Ally getting their pilot's licenses. They're taking their check rides as we speak."

"Really? Well, tell them congratulations from me."

"We will," Jessie nodded. "This'll be my last hurrah too," she laughed. "After today, I'm grounded until I have the baby."

"There's nothing stopping you from flying while pregnant, Jessie," Alice protested. "I think the FAA doesn't ground a pregnant femme until she's two weeks from her due date, but I'm not sure."

"I'm getting to where I don't feel comfortable in the seat while flying," she explained, patting her rounded belly. "I'll be a passenger after today until Laura's born."

"Ah, well, in that case, I understand completely," Alice smiled.

They returned to the flight line close to AAIA and waited. Both of them were still out, and would probably be out for about another half an hour, so Kit tuned a portable scanner to the local tower frequency so they could listen to the girls calling in, and Jessie and Sam discussed her baby shower. They'd set the shower for August 23rd, which was fairly early to have a baby shower given Jessie wasn't due 'til September 30th, but Jessie wanted it done before Vil got married. Vil intended to attend her baby shower, and that meant that Jessie had to have it before Vil went on her honeymoon. August 23rd was about the only day that Vil could spare to come down for the shower.

Jessie and Sam fell silent when Sheila's voice came over the scanner, as she requested permission to land. They heard the controller grant her permission, then they watched the runway. Sheila's trainer appeared from behind a hangar as it slowed on the runway, coming to a stop at or near some spot the examiner chose for her runway positioning test; a pilot had to bring the plane to a stop within 200 feet of a determined point to pass a check ride, and within 100 feet of it for a commercial rating. Sheila stopped the plane, sat there for just a second, then started moving again, turning off the runway at a taxi ramp and entering the flight line, taxiing towards AAIA's hangar.

"If the examiner aimed her at the taxi ramp, she passed," Kit noted.

"Huh?" Sam asked.

Kit explained the landing test, then pointed. "She's pulling in. I think we can go over now," he said.

As they approached, Sheila's actions told them everything they needed to know. The examiner, a short femme raccoon wearing a white blouse and a pair of black slacks, got out of the plane and came around as she chocked the wheels, then after she said something to her, Sheila gave out a squeal of delight, jumped up and down, then hugged the startled raccoon. She let go and ran towards them. "I passed!" she screamed ecstatically, and then literally jumped into Kit's arms, giving him a fierce hug. She hugged Jessie, then Sam, then she ran over and hugged several AAIA teachers and the other students who had come out to see how she did. "I'm a pilot now, cousin!" she beamed, accepting a form from the examiner after she called Sheila back over. "I'm going to go get my temporary license from the FAA office right now!"

"Let's wait for Ally," Jessie urged. "Then you can go together."

"She's still out?"

Jessie nodded. "She left about five minutes after you."

They didn't have to wait long. Allison's confident voice came over the scanner in Kit's paw, and then they all looked to the runway. Allison's trainer landed near the end of the runway and rolled to a slow and smooth stop right at the turn-off to AAIA's section of the tarmac, then moved forward and turned towards them. Allison taxied the plane to a park beside Sheila's trainer, then she turned off the engine and performed postflight actions inside as the ferret seemed to be talking to her. They got out of the plane, and Allison immediately rushed over to them. "I passed!" she declared with a smile, hugging Jessie fondly. "And tomorrow I start the IFR training course!"

"So do I!" Sheila added. "She talked me into it!"

"Congratulations, Ally!" Jessie beamed.

"Thanks guys, for all your help!" she said as she hugged Kit.

"No problem, Ally, no problem," Kit told her. "Now, you and Sheila need to go get your temporary licenses from the office, and I'm sure AAIA has other things for you to do," he added when Allison hugged Sam.

"And when you're done, we're going on a victory flight in our plane," Jessie told them.

"Oooooh, can I fly it?" Sheila asked, which made Kit laugh.

"Not 'til you're thoroughly trained on a four hundred, cousin. I told you, my plane is a lot more complicated than the trainers you've flown. There will be no flying our plane 'til we know you won't crash it."

"What? Don't you trust me, cousin?" she gasped.

"You? Hell no," he answered immediately, which earned him a slap from her.

"Girls! We have paperwork to do!" the ferret called to them. "And there are other students waiting for their turn!"

"Go, go, go," Jessie shooed them. "And call me when you're done, so we can go flying!"

"I'm going to head on into work, love," Kit told them. "Got your keys with you?"

"Mmm-hmm," she nodded. "Can you lock up my van on your way out? I don't think I locked my door."

"Sure thing, pretty kitty. See you tonight, have fun, and remember what Nick said."

"I know, no extended stays anywhere. If we land, just get gas and go."

"That's my girl," he smiled, then he kissed Sam on the cheek. "Have fun, Sammy."

"This should be fun, especially when I make those two sit in the back seat," she winked.

Kit laughed. "Let the front seat war begin," he told them as he headed for his truck.

He was happy for them. Sheila had been bitten by the flying bug just like Jessie had, but Allison was very, very serious about getting her IFR, already with an appointment with Kit tomorrow evening to go over things and go for a flight in his plane so he could show her IFR in action. Kit wouldn't be formally teaching Allison, AAIA was going to do that, but Kit could teach her if she wanted to spend the time. Kit couldn't get her her IFR as fast as AAIA could through their training program, and she was willing to pay the $4,500 to take their dedicated IFR course, which covered everything, to get her IFR as fast as possible. Sheila didn't mind blowing $4,500 on something she liked to do, so they'd both enrolled in the IFR training program. In about three weeks, right before the wedding, they'd be getting their IFR ratings. And they'd work for them. There were a lot of requirements for an IFR, and they'd be in a very demanding program to get it, one requiring a lot of work and was scheduled for their check ride the Friday before Sheila's first semester at U.T.; the next semester started August 18th, and the program scheduled the last possible day to take the check ride the Friday before, on the 15th. AAIA set it up that way on purpose so their IFR program didn't overlap U.T. They had to do the logged hours, the ground training, and the studying to learn the procedures and rules of IFR. They'd be looking at 8-10 hour days in school, most of it spent in the cockpit getting the logged hours done, flights at all kinds of times, including the required night flying, and a lot of studying. The only real advantage they had was that since they were trained at AAIA and it was on Bergstrom, they already had experience dealing with air traffic control, and they also had Kit and Jessie to privately tutor them.

Kit got to work around 11:00, but nobody said anything. Nobody ever really did, since Kit got all his work done even if he left early or came in late, often working from home. They all knew that he had to go move his plane today anyway, so it wasn't like he didn't have a good reason to be late. What was out of the ordinary, though, was the three furs waiting for him in his office. All three were foxes, two males and a femme, wearing dark suits and a dark skirt with a blazer respectively. "Mister Vulpan," the taller of the two males said as he stood up, offering his paw. "Arthur Bridgestone. I'm from the legal office attached to Vulpan Shipyards. My associates, Leah Manchester and Richard Cooper." Both of the younger foxes nodded to him upon hearing their names.

"What's a company lawyer doing down here?"

"I was instructed to have you call Miss Vulpan upon our arrival, Mister Vulpan. She'll explain it."

"Uhh, sure," he said, sitting down and picking up the phone on his desk and speed-dialing Vil. She picked up.

"Hey bro, are they there?" she asked immediately.

"Uh, yeah, but what's going on?"

"First things first. Is Jessie there?"

"No, she's down at the airport."

"Call her and have her get there as fast as she can," she commanded.

"Why?"

"I'll explain when she gets there, so I only have to do it once. Call me back when Jessie's there."

Kit hung up and dialed Jessie's cell phone. "Any idea what the hell this is about?" he asked the lawyers.

"We'll abide by Miss Vulpan's wish, Mister Vulpan, and allow her to explain it."

"Alright, but all this secrecy is a touch ridiculous. Pretty kitty," he called when she answered the phone. "I need you to come to the office, right now."

"What's wrong, handsome fox?"

"I… honestly have no idea. Vil wants you here, she has something she wants to talk to us about."

"Oh, okay. I can be there in about twenty minutes."

"Alright. See you then."

"Do you have a coffee maker in the office, Mister Vulpan?" Bridgestone asked amiably.

"Sure, in the break room. It's across the main room, you can't miss it. It has no door."

The three lawyers left his office and went over to the break room to get coffee. While they chatted with the gang, who was curious as to what was going on, Kit could only guess at what was going on. Was this part of the war? If it was lawyers, then it meant something pretty serious. But he had no idea. He could only wait and find out.

Jessie got there about a half hour after he called her. "Sorry, love, I caught every red light all the way here," she fretted when she came into his office. The three lawyers quickly joined them, and Kit picked up the phone again and redialed Vil as Jessie sat at the extra chair Kit kept near his desk just for her, so he and Jessie could look at his computer monitor while sitting down.

"Is Jessie there?" Vil asked without even a greeting.

"She just got here."

"Good. Close the door and put me on speaker."

"Could you close the door please?" Kit asked. One of the lawyers hurried to do so, and Kit turned on the speaker and hung up the receiver. "Alright, Vil, what's going on?"

"We're burying the uncles, effective today," she said immediately and in a very brusque tone. Vil was in her business mode, and he knew that he'd get nothing but terse replies and exacting comments from her right now. "Bridgestone?" she called.

"Yes, Miss Vulpan?"

"Give them the contracts."

Bridgestone opened his briefcase and withdrew two sheafs of papers and put them on the desk and pushed them towards them. Kit saw that they had their names on them, and Kit's was nearly twice as thick as Jessie's. "What are these, Vil?" Jessie asked.

"If you've ever trusted me before, bro, sis, trust me now. Sign them. Both of you have to sign Kit's, but Jessie has to sign her own. Sign them immediately and in the presence of Bridgestone."

"What's in them?"

"I'll explain later."

"I don't like where this is going, Vil," Kit said suspiciously.

"It will take too long," she told him. "I need those contracts back in this office by four, so you don't have time. So sign them. I'll explain after Bridgestone is on his way back here."

Kit really did not like this. He trusted Vil… up to a point. Her willingness to meddle in his life was an established pattern, and now she shows up telling them to sign thick contracts when he had absolutely no idea what was in them, and being very pushy and intentionally evasive about what they were for. "Right here, Misses Vulpan," Bridgestone said, flipping papers to the very end, where there were five pairs of signature lines separated by short paragraphs. "Sign here and here on Mister Vulpan's contract."

"It's Vil, handsome fox. If she does something naughty, she knows we'll spank her," Jessie told him with a slight smile, taking the pen that Bridgestone offered, and she began signing. Kit grunted and sighed, then he took a pen from his desk and pulled the contract over in front of him.

"Where do I sign?" he sighed

"Hold a second, Mister Vulpan," he said, opening Kit's pages to about the middle, where there were two sets of signature lines separated by a large paragraph. "Sign here, and here. And on the back page, sign here and here."

"Can you tell me what the hell we're signing while we're signing?" Kit asked in irritation, but he did start signing his name.

"Are they signing, Bridgestone?"

"Yes, Miss Vulpan," he answered. "I witnessed Misses Vulpan sign her sections of Mister Vulpan's contract and is now currently signing her own contract, and am currently witnessing Mister Vulpan signing, as are our two notary witnesses."

"Good. Make sure they do it exactly right, and make sure they don't scrawl. We don't have a second chance."

"Yes, Miss Vulpan."

Kit and Jessie dutifully made all their signatures, and then Bridgestone took the sheafs from them. "Will the witnesses to the contracts please sign and affix their seals?" the lawyer prompted. The male and female took the contracts, signed them twice on the back page, then they used notary crimping stamps to stamp their signatures, notarizing their validity. "The contracts have been legally signed and notarized, Miss Vulpan."

"Good. Return immediately."

"We are on our way. Good day, Mister Vulpan, Misses Vulpan. Congratulations," he said with a smile, nodding to them, and then the three foxes quickly hurried out. They almost ran.

"Vil, what the hell are you up to?" Kit demanded.

Vil laughed brightly. "Congratulations, bro. You're a member of the board of directors of the company."

"What?" Kit gasped.

"Just what I said," she answered. "You are now a member of the board. That's what the contract was, guys, that was the executive agreement contract with a few extra clauses for Jessie. Jessie is also an employee of the company. You are a member of the board, and Jessie is now your executive assistant, who has the right to vote for you by proxy should you send her to the board in your place."

"Vil!" Jessie gasped. "Why would we want to move to Boston?"

"You're not moving to Boston," she purred.

"How did you pull that off, sis?" Kit demanded. "If any Vulpan vetoes the election of a board member, it's shot down! And it takes a three quarter vote to vote in a new board member! It's in the company charter!"

"Usually yes, but this morning, Uncle Jake got into a car accident," she said. "He should be checking out of the hospital any minute. That's why this had to be done fast."

"Is he alright?" Jessie asked in concern.

"He's fine, actually," she answered. "They put ten stitches in his leg and splinted his tail, but outside of that, nothing major. But, what's more important is the hospitalization clause of his contract," she said in a purring voice. "It clearly states in the contract that any board member hospitalized for any reason surrenders the right to vote at board meetings while hospitalized. When Jake was taken to the hospital this morning, I simply walked into the boardroom during a previously scheduled board meeting and nominated six new members of the board. All six were voted in unanimously. And you are one of them. Terry is the other one that you'd know. The other four are just company executives who are loyal to me."

"I don't understand," Jessie said in confusion.

"Vil cheated. Outrageously," Kit said, nodding as he understood what Vil had done, and more importantly, what it meant. "Vil used a loophole in the way the company runs to basically sneak her nominated executives through a vote, and there's nothing our uncles can do about it. Uncle Zach is suspended, and Uncle Jake was in the hospital, which removed his ability to vote. Since neither of them could vote, there was no Vulpan on the board to veto our nominations. The other board members are too terrified of Vil to vote against her, so they voted for who she told them to vote for."

"That about sums it up," Vil said smugly.

"Why Kit and Terry?" Jessie asked curiously.

"Simple, pretty kitty," Kit said, looking at her. "Vil is absolutely untouchable now."

"That's right," Vil laughed victoriously.

"The only way the uncles could get Vil out of her chair was with a unanimous vote of the board to fire her," Kit explained. "Well, think about it, pretty kitty. Will you vote to remove Vil from her chair if I send you to vote for me?"

"No!"

"Exactly," he said simply. "You and me and Terry are absolutely unbribeable. There is no way our uncles can convince us to vote with them against Vil, not unless Vil deserves to be fired. And so long as just one of us refuses to vote Vil out, she can't be removed as CEO. Vil has a problem with two Vulpans on the board working against her, so she put two more Vulpans on the board that will support her. Vil, this has to be the most sneaky, cunning, underpawed, and brilliant thing you've ever done," Kit told her with strange pride in his voice. "I thought your engagement to Kendall was brilliant. This puts that to shame." He blinked. "Vil. Did you arrange Jake's accident?"

"Ask me no questions, and I will tell you no lies, brother," she said cheekily.

"Vil!" Jessie gasped in shock.

"I was joking, Jessie, seriously! Jake's Cadillac was hit by a school bus. A school bus, guys! Go look at it on the news! Do you think I'd arrange for a bus full of kids going to summer school to hit Uncle Jake's car? Get a grip!"

"Oh. Well, in that case, I guess I'll believe you, Vil," Jessie said. "Are the kids okay?"

"Nobody was hurt but Jake and his driver," she answered. "Jake got a lacerated leg and a broken tail because he wasn't wearing a seat belt, he slammed into the wet bar in the back of his car and cut himself. His driver suffered a mild concussion and a broken finger, and that's all." She laughed, then sighed and blew out his breath. "Of course, this is where it gets touchy," she admitted. "They'll never get me out of the chair now, and they know it, not when I have two absolutely unbribeable Vulpans on the board backing me up, and one of them with proxy powers for his wife. So, Zach has to either accede that fact and try to take control of the family in other respects, or he does something desperate to try to force me out. When he finds out about it, we'll see what he decides to do."

"Well, sis, congratulations. You win," Kit noted.

She laughed. "Not yet. I just scored a huge victory on the battlefield, but the war is still being fought," she said. "So, you two gonna attend our next board meeting tomorrow?" she asked winsomely.

"You're serious? I thought Kit was just a board member on paper," Jessie protested.

"Oh, no, Jessie, not at all!" Vil said brightly. "He is a member of the board, and you are his executive assistant, a company executive yourself! You're employees now, just like me and Terry. I'll have to make some IDs for you two. You even get keys to the executive bathroom here at the main shipyard," she said with a giggle. "I guess I can give you Lewis's office, bro, and Terry can have Simpson's. They're fairly nice. Both of them overlook the back bay."

"Vil, be serious," Kit snorted. "I'll just be a phantom. We're not really employees, we're just a clever trick you set up to keep them from threatening your chair."

"Be that as it may, you're still a member of the board. If you don't want to vote, you can always allow Jessie, or me, to vote for you by proxy."

"Which you want, naturally."

"Naturally," she laughed. "There's absolutely no way the elders can vote me out, not when I can cast a no vote by proxy. And since I'm casting the vote by proxy, I can even get around the stricture preventing me from voting in a matter of my own termination," she said smugly. "I'm not voting myself, I'm just casting a vote on behalf of someone else."

"You realize, sis, that Zach will go absolutely ballistic when he finds out you gave Jessie the power to vote on the board by proxy, and you put the two Vulpans he hates the most on the board of the company. I mean ballistic. He may have a stroke on the spot."

"Yes, I know," she said seriously. "I want him too angry to think straight, bro. Sure, it makes him more dangerous, but it also makes him more prone to making a critical mistake that can allow me to can him."

"Why can't you just fire him since nobody will vote against you?" Jessie asked.

"Because I can't fire a Vulpan off the board for no reason," she answered. "I have to show cause. When I tried to fire Zach once before, I had cause, and the board didn't vote to fire him. And the board has what you might call double jeopardy rules for Vulpans, sis-in-law," she explained. "I can't call him up for another vote to fire him using the same evidence. That's also why I can't fire Jake since there's no Vulpan on the board to oppose me. I have to prove that I have a reason to fire him, because he's a Vulpan, where I could call a vote to fire any other member of the board for any reason, even if I just don't like them. Getting a Vulpan off the board is very, very hard. The same rules that keep them from getting rid of me also more or less protect them."

"Sis. You said I'm a member of the board."

"That's right, bro. Fully and completely," she said pointedly. "Your salary was in your contract."

"Vil!" he barked angrily.

She laughed. "Your salary is one dollar. Read the contract when I send you a PDF of it," she soothed. "You earn one dollar a year. You do, however, get a twenty thousand dollar bonus for employment because I know you drained your bank account investing in the magazine and buying Jessie her birthday presents and paying out expenses with the move. You're eligible for bonuses like any other board member, and you get the typical shares of Vulpan stock that comes with the chair, which you have to surrender when you quit. So, put your outrage back in your pants, bro, I didn't throw money at you through the back door. You'll earn about quadruple the norm at the next dividend check because you control much more stock now, but I can't do anything about that and you know it. You know as well as I do, those stocks come with the chair. That is established policy. If I put you on the board without awarding you the stocks, the uncles would claim you have no authority to vote. Aside from those future dividends, you're still disgustingly poor."

"I'm glad you thought about that," Kit said.

"I almost put you in at a million a year, but I figured that might tempt you to vote to fire me," she said honestly. "But Jessie is another matter," she purred. "I gave her a low salary for an executive assistant, but still a good salary. A hundred grand a year. I know better than to give you money, bro, but I also know you won't say a word when I give to Jessie," she said smugly.

"We can invest more in the magazine, Kit," Jessie said, a little soothingly. "And put more money back for our children. And she's right, we can take the money and put it back in our investment portfolio, we've taken out so much to put into the magazine. And maybe buy a few more things for the house. And maybe help Ally buy a plane so she can go see Terry."

"I guess, but I'm not happy about that, sis."

"Bro, you deserve something for your help, and I do not want you to even have to think about money with Laura coming," she said seriously. "My niece is not going to be poor! You think I like the idea of you being in danger because of me? Hell no! That's why Nick is down there. As far as I'm concerned, what I'm paying Jessie is danger pay for me embroiling you in this. And you're not getting even a fraction of what you're due. Between your dividends and Jessie's salary, that's enough steady income for me to feel completely secure that Laura will have everything she needs."

"It's far more than what I want."

"Well, we'll just have to compromise between nothing and millions, then," she said cheekily. "So, anyway, I'm going to have to go. Jake should be getting here, and boy, do I have something to tell him," she said with an amused chuckle.

"Okay, I guess I can go back to the airport. Sam's still down there waiting for me to come back," she laughed. "Bye Vil, love ya!"

"Love you too, sis-in-law, and congrats on your new job!"

"Job, yeah, right!" Jessie giggled, then she kissed Kit on the muzzle and hurried out. Kit picked up the phone to take it off speaker as she left.

"Sis," he said as she closed the door. "Perhaps you can explain how you had two thick contracts all ready to go when Jake had his accident."

"My, isn't it just amazing how I just happened to have those contracts at paw in the brief window where Jake was in the hospital and unable to vote, which happened so fast he was unable to arrange a proxy to vote for him?" she asked knowingly. "What an amazing coincidence."

"You're upping the ante, sis."

"It's Jake's fault for not having a proxy agreement on file that would have let his assistant vote in his place. They can't whine when I beat them at their own game." She chuckled ominously. "We'll see if Zach has a stroke when he finds out that Jessie can vote by proxy."

"That was a very bad idea, sis. I can appreciate why you did it because Jessie won't turn on you, but you just pressed the one button you had no business pressing. You know how rabid a purist he is, and now you just gave my pregnant mixed breed wife the power to vote on the board of the company. And on top of that, you just put the two Vulpans that he sees as destroying the family on the board. That's the worst thing you could have possibly done. Zach would probably try to kill her right there in the boardroom if she showed up to vote in my place."

"From my view, it was the best thing I could have done," she hummed in reply. "An angry opponent is easier to beat. He's much more prone to making a critical mistake if he can't think straight."

"He has Maxine to hold him in check," Kit reminded her. "She doesn't get angry like that."

"We'll see. So, brother," she said with a chuckle. "Welcome to the family business. All that running, and look where you ended up."

"And I will get you for this, Vil," he answered seriously.

"Just don't try to vote me off, and you can punish me all you want," she chuckled. "I take it you'll give me proxy power?"

"Of course. You know I'm not about to set foot in Boston."

"I'll email you the form. Print it, sign it, fax it to me."

"Fine. Do you think Terry will take the board position?"

"We already talked about that. He'll stay in New Orleans to finish the Avondale work, and then decide from there. It'll depend on how much heat he'll take from the family over Allison. If they won't give up on it, he'll stay in New Orleans and run Avondale, but hold his seat on the board and vote by proxy and attend routine meetings via videoconference. He's on the board now, bro, you know what it takes to get him off. He's basically set for life in that regard. But for now, he's given me proxy until we set up a system that lets him attend board meetings by videoconference. I already have our IT guys on the job." She giggled. "Terry also brought up the ultimate weapon to use against the uncles, should it look like they're about to do something really, really stupid."

"What?"

"If it looks like they're about to get out of control, Terry will threaten to sue you."

Kit drew a breath, choked on it, then exploded into laughter. "Dear God, sis, that is brilliant!"

"Yes, I'm quite proud to call Terry my cousin," she agreed. "Terry could challenge the agreement in court, which would invalidate the entire thing. Yes, that strips him of his fortune, but it also strips the rest of the family, and leaves it up to you how to redistribute the family assets… which would allow you to cut off the family members that have been mean to you," she giggled girlishly. "I couldn't do that because I'm blood related to you, but Terry could. I'll be honest that I never considered that possibility, because I can't do it. The agreement specifically states that I can't challenge the agreement in any manner, just as you can't. Terry would take a big risk that you'd backstab him when he killed the agreement, but it would be a threat so dire that it very well might make the uncles back off."

"I should say so!"

"We decided that using that will be the last resort," she told him seriously. "To make a threat like that might tear the family apart, disintegrate the whole family and turn this into an open civil war, because it brings everyone into it. And whoever did sue you would be an absolute pariah in the family forever afterward. They'd never be forgiven for disrupting things and stripping them of their fortunes."

"You're right. If Terry ever did that, it would be over for him. And it would be the absolute last resort." Kit sighed, then laughed ruefully. "Sis, you'd better live in a bunker for the next month," he warned.

"Yes, I'm expecting it," she agreed. "All week I've been running around putting out the fires they set, answering their lawsuits, countering their gossip and rumors, chasing them away from Austin, and tightening my grip on New Orleans to protect Terry, and have done nothing in reply except get engaged to Ken. They knew I'd eventually retaliate much more directly, and I think they won't really like the way I've done it," she laughed. "In a month, I'll be married to a Brighton, and my brother and a Vulpan who owes me way too much to go against me is on the board. Zach has no chance of taking the company from me now unless he does something drastic."

"And that's exactly why you need to be very, very careful. I would not put it past Zach to try something drastic."

"I know, bro, I know. I won't be leaving Hart's Crossing except to go to work, and effective today, I'm commuting via helicopter. Stav and Marcus don't even want me riding to work in my car. They don't want me having an accident," she chuckled. "Anyway, I need to go, bro. I do have some work to do, and Jake will be here soon. When he gets here, I'm going to tell him all about the six new members of the board and watch his tongue flop out of his mouth," she laughed. "I'll call you tonight, bro, and tell you what happens."

"Alright. Despite being mad at you at the moment, I love you, Vil."

"I love you too, Kit. Bye now."

"Bye sis."

Kit hung up the phone, both mightily impressed and a little angry with Vil. He could see the utter brilliance in her move. By putting Kit and Terry on the board, she ensured that it would take something very, very big to get her out of the chair. Zach couldn't bribe Kit or Terry; in fact, both of them hated Zach as much as Zach hated them. Kit's hatred of his elder was the same hatred he held for all his elders, while Terry had a very personal and very viable reason to hate his uncle, the fox that tried to get his girlfriend arrested and had gotten him arrested after pushing him down in his office. Vil had stacked the board not just with furs loyal to her, but with two furs that the elders could not buy off. Just as Vil had wrapped herself in the protection of the Brighton family when she engaged Kendall, she solidified her hold on the company by loading the board with two allies that would fight Zach and Jake to the bitter end. He could admire her cunning and intelligence, but he was a bit miffed that she had included Jessie in her little games. She'd employed Jessie as well, made her an executive in the company, and gave her a huge salary that rang Kit's bell just a little bit. She certainly knew better than to try to give Kit that money, but she also knew that Kit would not say a word if she gave that money to Jessie. What Vil and Jessie did was their business, and he would never give a single word against what Jessie wanted. She had proclaimed that she was alright with the salary, and that was that. But he was still a bit angry with Vil for sneaking it around him, for pressuring them into signing those contracts without letting them read them first. She may have only given him a dollar's salary, but she could have easily given him a million dollar salary, and given Jessie a similar salary. Instead, however, she went on the side of caution, giving Kit basically no salary and giving Jessie probably one of the lowest of the upper executive salaries, so at least nobody in the company could accuse her of loading up the payroll.

Of course, Kit having no salary also made a statement. It said that he wasn't there for money, that he was there more or less to back up Vil.

He was taking sides.

He may take some heat for that, but he honestly didn't care. Zach had tried to get Allison arrested, tried to frame Terry, and was harassing his sister. Damn right he was taking sides.

Terry's idea of the last resort was also clever, but it was very, very dangerous. If Terry made that kind of threat, then the entire family would explode, which would make it almost impossible for anyone to maintain any kind of control, even Vil or Uncle Zach. The family would shatter into bickering factions, and it would be the social death of whoever made the threat. Such a dangerous weapon was like a nuclear bomb… it would only be there as the deterrent of last resort to prevent the uncles from doing something inexcusable, stopping something outrageous with something equally outrageous. Vil was too right in deciding that Terry's idea would be the last thing they'd try, since it had such an awful risk of backfiring and destroying the entire family.

His involvement certainly didn't escape attention, either. After lunch, he got another phone call from Boston, and this time it wasn't from Vil. "Kit Vulpan," he answered absently, pointing to a filename on the computer screen to Pat. "This one, Pat."

"Got it, boss," Pat nodded.

"Kitstrom Lucas," came a low, angry voice. It was Maxine.

Kit's tail nearly stuck straight out when he heard that voice. He shooed Pat out of the office quickly and switched the phone to the other ear, to his undamaged ear. "What do you want, Maxine?" he asked coldly.

"To find out what insanity possessed you!" she answered. "This is not your business, young male! You agreed to stay out of family affairs when you moved to Austin, and you are breaking your word!"

"No, Maxine, I'm not, because you broke your word to me first," he answered flatly. "Uncle Zach had no right to drag Stonebrook into this, and you have no right trying to change what everyone agreed to when we sent Cybil back to Britain! We all agreed to the way things were, and Vil being in the big chair was part of that agreement! You're trying to change the agreement, so damn right I'm going to say something about it! You want me to get out of family business? Stop fighting with Vil!"

"Do you think we relish this, Luke?" she asked tersely. "We do not, I assure you! I for one think that she's doing an excellent job as CEO, but your sister is allowing this family to crumble! She is allowing the children to run wild! What is the company and the money if we lose our pride and our reputation? We'll be a laughing stock in Boston! We'll be no better than new money," she said with an audible sneer in her voice. "We gave Vil a chance, but she has failed to uphold her duties as the family head, and so she must step aside!"

"What? No accusations that I'm destroying the family, Aunt Maxine?" he asked caustically.

"You may have been the first to rebel against the family, but you won't be the last," she answered, a bit ruefully. "The children are drunk with their trust funds and have let the money blind them to the proud traditions of the Vulpan family. It was a mistake to divide the money among all the Vulpans. It should have been left in the paws of the elders, for it's becoming clear that the children were not ready for the responsibility of it." She blew out her breath. "That is why we are fighting Vil, Luke. She won't rein in the children. She's allowing Terry to date that, that, that, whore. Allowing it!"

"First off, watch just what you're calling Terry's girlfriend, Maxine, because she is my friend. It's not her fault that Terry came after her, she tried to warn him off several times, and so did I, but he was insistent. He eventually wore her down and charmed her enough to go out with him."

"But that's what she is, young male!"

"I can't deny that," he admitted. "Or more to the point, I can't deny that's what she was, Maxine. She was only in that line of work for the money, and she left it behind the instant she had enough money to be comfortable. Besides Terry, Vil knows what she's doing. She's giving the cousins a little leash now so she can get a tighter hold on them later. You're right, Maxine, the cousins are going to rebel if you keep trying to treat them like little soldiers. They don't need the elders anymore, and they know it. You've totally jumped the gun going after Vil, because she's actually trying to do the same thing you are, just from a different angle."

"No, Luke, we didn't."

"Don't call me by his name," Kit retorted, almost automatically.

"Well, it's not easy," she said. "You've been Luke to me all your life, young male, and I'm not trying to insult you using it. But aside that point, we've had quite a few talks with Vil, and she refuses to take any action against the children to rein them in. You we have let go, but this business with Terry, and Sheila wanting to be a cook, and Joy dropping out of college before she even begins, and her refusal to banish Bess from Boston and institutionalize Dahlia when that poor girl needs professional help, it's unconscionable and totally against the traditions of the family! And what is worse, it's spreading. Why, even Victor is defying me!" she said in an outraged voice. "He refuses to come home from New York!"

"He's staying out of the line of fire, Maxine. Victor's spoiled rotten, but he's not crazy."

"That's my son you're insulting, Luke!" she said with heat.

"Then you shouldn't have raised him as a brat," Kit shot back.

"Luke. Kit. I didn't call you to trade insults. I called to try to make you see reason. Vil refuses to take control of this family before it flies apart, so we are forced to usurp her and do it ourselves. We thought you would be a fox of your word and stay out of this, but now we find out you've gone behind our backs and let Vil appoint you to the board!"

"I'll be on that board as long as you try to overthrow Vil, and not a moment longer. The instant you leave it be, and I'm convinced you're serious about it, I'll resign. I'm there to remind you that we had a deal, and you're going back on your word. You just need to trust Vil, Maxine. I do. I know she knows what's best for the family, even if it doesn't look it."

"What you think is best for this family is obviously not what we think is best for this family," she said icily.

"You said it yourself, Maxine. The youngers are rebelling. They don't need the elders anymore, and that means that the vaunted traditions you're trying to uphold need to change with the times. This is the modern era, Maxine, not the Victorian age. I for one am shocked you're defending family traditions that stuck you with marrying that unmitigated ass of a husband of yours, denied you a position at the company, and let you watch your younger brothers take what was rightfully yours!"

She was silent perhaps half a second longer than she needed to be, telling Kit he hit a nerve. Maxine's disdain for her husband, Robert Graham, was almost legendary in the family, and it was worthy disdain. Robert Graham was an unmitigated ass, on top of being stupid, selfish, petty, and spoiled. If there was any Vulpan elder Kit felt had a right to cheat on his or her spouse, it was Maxine. If Kit had been forced to marry a female version of Robert, he'd have strangled her after a week. But Maxine was a devout Catholic, and she would never divorce him. Catholics did not divorce.

Which was truly a pity for her. Much as he hated her for what she did to him, Kit could admit that Maxine deserved better than that asshole.

"My personal desires have nothing to do with the needs of the family, young male," she finally said, rather tartly.

"Oh yes they do, Aunt Maxine," Kit answered. "Your personal desires are to keep the family in the past. We're not in feudal England anymore, we're in modern America. The family is a black and white picture in the era of Youtube. It has to change, or it's going to die."

"It needs to maintain its traditions or it won't have respect!"

"It's been forty-four years, I think you can take the steel rod out of your ass!"

"Kitstrom Lucas Vulpan, don't you dare talk like that!" she gasped.

Despite it all, Kit erupted into laughter. "I'm a big boy now, Maxine, I can talk however I please," he finally said. "But you get my point. The family can change and still be respected. The traditions you're trying to defend just have no place in the world anymore. The family needs new traditions that let us keep our respectability but also let us move into the future."

"That's a point we'll discuss later, young male," she told him tartly. "You have to convince Vil to either step aside and allow us to get this family back under control, or fulfill her responsibilities as the head of this family and do it herself."

"My, this must be the good cop version of it," Kit mused. "Because what you said to Vil last week was much less friendly. It went something along the lines of one of us will be six feet under before this is over."

"I said no such thing! Vil was overdramatizing things, as usual!"

"So, Boston is big enough for the both of you now?"

There was a short silence. "I was angry, Luke, don't you say things you don't mean when you're angry?"

"Ah, but now that you're losing, you're suddenly feeling much more accommodating," he reasoned lightly. "You realized rather quickly that with me and Terry on the board, Zach and Jake can't touch her, so now you're trying to negotiate when that's what you should have done in the first place. If you and Vil would have just sat down and talked it out rather than getting on your high horse and demanding she do as you say, we could have avoided all this stupidity. It's not to late to do that, Maxine. Vil's not unreasonable. I'm sure if you talked to her, you could work something out. She doesn't like fighting with you any more than… well, I guess that would be a lie," he chuckled. "She enjoyed bashing your heads in. Revenge for you treating her like a child and then trying to push her out of her rightful place. I'm sure after she gets over her period of insufferable smugness, she'll listen."

She sighed. "If only it could be that easy now," she admitted. "But we can't trust her to do what's right. She has failed in her duties to the family, and she must step aside."

"She won't do that."

"She must. A trained sea otter can run the company, Luke, it basically runs itself. But if she will not do what's right for the family, she must surrender the chair."

"To who? Zach? You'll put us all back under the rule of a tyrant, Maxine?" Kit pressed. "I don't relish the idea of putting someone in control of the family whose first action will be to banish me from the family again. Not that I really care about most of you, but I do rather love my sister, and I don't want to have to go back to sneaking around in back alleys to talk to her."

"Stop thinking about yourself, young male, and consider the needs of the family!"

"And who's thinking about herself, Maxine?" he challenged. "Isn't making the whole family miserable just so you keep your reputation being selfish? What is a reputation? Do you really care so much about what others think of you that you're willing to live in misery and pretend that you're happy? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having money, if you use it to make everyone think you're happy when inside you're screaming and screaming and screaming? I was there once, when that bastard father of mine tried to make me do what I didn't want to do, and I said no. I don't care what you think about me, or what others think about me, and guess what, Maxine? I'm happy. I'm broke but I'm happy, and you're rich but you're miserable, yet you pretend to be happy so you don't sully the family name. And you of all Vulpans know what it's like to scream inside, Maxine! Jesus Christ, why are you trying to do to your children what your parents did to you? Do you want Kate to marry a male like her father? Do you really want that?"

"This isn't about me," she flared, but without much conviction.

"It's about reputation, isn't it? Well answer me this, Maxine. How can a family with an impeccable reputation like the Grahams cause you to end up with that asshole you call a husband?"

There was a long silence on the other end.

"At least with Vil running the family, you could leave Robert and not be forced to go back to him the way my father did to you when you walked out on him when I was a kid," he pressed his advantage. "You could throw him out and banish him to your house in Los Angeles and finally be free of that parasite. Because God knows, you deserve a little happiness!"

She hung up on him.

"Think I don't know how to fight back, Auntie?" Kit said with a humorless chuckle as he hung up the phone.

But the phone call was enlightening. Maxine was very smart, very stable, and was actually probably the most dangerous of all the elders because she didn't lose her temper. Years of dealing with that ass of a husband of hers had toughened her in ways her brothers didn't have to endure. She was losing, so she tried calling Kit to state her case and try to get Kit to talk Vil down. She knew that was impossible, but what she was doing was a very coy way of offering a white flag. Maxine wanted to talk it over with Vil, but she was too proud to come out and say it, so she instead tried to be reasonable with Kit. And Kit was impressed. Not once did Maxine harp on him about his wife or the past, she tried to be very civil to him. She got a little short a couple of times, but that was an amazing exercise in self control.

Why she was defending family traditions that screwed up her life was beyond him.


Things were relatively quiet for a few days after Vil's devastating counterattack against the elders. Kit knew from Maxine's call that they had no real answer to it, and they had withdrawn somewhat to mull it over and consider their course of action… which would doubtless be dramatic and extreme. Vil had quite effectively boxed them into a corner, and left them with few options to pursue to try to force Vil out of the chair. About all they had left was blackmail and violence, and both of those would be virtually impossible to pull off. Vil couldn't be blackmailed for threat of her retaliating in kind, and she was now behind the safety of her manor walls, not even driving to work anymore, which made it extremely hard for anyone to reach her.

Kit spent that time actually using the CFI ratings he'd worked so hard to attain in Kansas, for he had two students. Sheila and Allison went out with him every afternoon, and he both helped them retain what they'd learned that day at AAIA and also taught them related material to what they were learning, using his personal plane as the schoolroom. AAIA's trainer planes also used Garmin glass cockpits, though his 400 had a little more functionality and was therefore more complex, but it was similar enough for them to be able to understand what he was teaching. Each day he would have them tell him what they'd learned that day, and he went over it again, then branched out, explaining related material. Then he would take them up and show them what they were learning in action. He would also teach them things AAIA hadn't started yet, such as the procedures for entering and running a holding pattern, and the basics of the ILS approach. He also allowed them to get used to his plane. After teaching them about IFR material, he taught them about the systems in his 400 they'd never encountered before, things like TCAS, the function of mode S transponders, the speed brakes, and the anti-icing systems in the 400, systems that one usually didn't find on a single prop private plane and why the 400 was considered the Rolls Royce of single props. Sheila learned quickly, but Allison learned like a femme possessed, spending almost all her time focusing on her flight training.

The two of them were also looking at planes. As Kit suggested, they were looking at both new and used, and also looking at both single engine and multi-engine. Kit had promised to train them for their multi ratings if they bought a twin prop. They had agreed to go in on a plane together, which was more or less a necessity for Allison, since she didn't have enough money to buy a good plane that would make the trip to New Orleans fast and comfortable. Trying a flight like that in a 172 would be a three hour slog in a cramped plane where a femme would have fun trying to use a urinal. If they spent just a little more money, they could get a faster plane with more room that would make the trip much more comfortable. They'd need a plane capable of at least 150 knots cruising speed, which cut out most cheaper small single engine planes. They'd need at least a Cessna 182, but a twin engine would be more comfortable and give them more space. In the downturning aircraft market, they could pick up a deal if they kept their eyes open and buy a very nice plane, like a used King Air, Piper Seneca, or Cessna 310.

Vil had carried through on their contracts. She'd direct deposited to their regular checking account Kit's $20,000 bonus and also Jessie's first weekly paycheck, which was $1,407.25 after taxes, her salary for being an "employee" of the shipyard. That $1,407.25 would be a weekly occurrence, deposited into their account every Thursday morning at midnight. Jessie was now making a heck of a lot more than him, her officially salary for "having to put up with a male like you," as she had so teasingly put it when they got the money. Kit didn't like the idea of it too much, but it was Jessie's money, Jessie didn't seem to mind, and that was that. What Jessie wanted, Jessie got. But then again, she also didn't let it go to her head. She promptly arranged it with the bank that a thousand dollars of her weekly deposit would be placed in their money market account automatically. The money in their money market account was off limits to daily expenses, that was their investment money, so Jessie was making a clear statement that she considered that money to be their children's money rather than theirs.

Kit was honestly fearing next year's taxes. They were going to be in the "mugged in the alley" tax bracket.

"Oh, this one's nice," Sheila said from the back seat of the plane as Kit let Allison fly. Sheila had her laptop out and was using the internet connection in the plane to surf plane listings. "A Beech King Air for a quarter mil."

"How old is it?" Kit asked. "Ally, we're VFR. Why aren't you checking for traffic before making your turn?" he chided.

"Sorry," she laughed. "But I looked already!"

"You never already looked when it comes to VFR, silly femme," he teased. "I don't want some little Skyhawk to come along and cut me in half because the pilot's too busy gawking at a cloud. So check for traffic."

"Yes, Master," she giggled, looking upwind before making a planned turn.

"It's a 1983 King Air," she said.

"Too old," Kit said. "You want a C ninety minimum, so look for one built after 1997. The only old twin you should consider is a Piper Seneca, because they're very rugged and age well. Anything else you want as new as possible."

"I still think I should just buy a four hundred," Sheila protested.

"You can, but you're looking at a half million, and the insurance will be very ouch," he warned. "You could pick up a Skyline or Stationair much cheaper that'll do the job, or find a good used twin that'll give you plenty of room."

"I'm not used to buying anything used," she laughed.

"I'm just giving you advice, girls. What you decide to do is up to you. Okay, what's the first step of making an ILS approach, Ally?"

Kit allowed Allison to land them at Bergstrom, which she did smoothly. She'd had a few days behind the controls of his plane, and after a day practicing touch and gos over at Lakeview, he felt comfortable allowing her to land. Kit turned his phone back on, and it rang almost immediately. "Yeah, hello?" he called as Allison unbuckled herself from the left seat.

"Kit!" Jessie said urgently. "Vil's chopper crashed!"

"What?" he gasped.

"It crashed taking off from her work!" she said hurriedly. "She's okay, but she broke her leg and they have her in the hospital right now. They showed it on the news, a camera caught it! Oh, Kit, it rose up and then the tail rotor stopped, and it spun in circles crashed back onto the landing pad!"

"Oh my God," he said. "Is she okay?"

"Kit, she's okay," she said. "She broke her leg and the fur on her arm got singed off when the chopper caught fire, and Stav broke his arm, but nobody else got hurt. Stav and Marcus carried her out of the chopper."

Kit swore sulfurously, fear going through him. They really did it! They tried to kill his sister, he'd bet money on it! There is no way that was an accident! Damn Maxine, calling him and trying to be reasonable, and then turning around and trying to kill Vil!

A fury unlike anything he'd ever felt raged through him. His eyes narrowed dangerously as Allison and Sheila looked at him. "Jess. Make up a suitcase for me and ship it next day air to Stonebrook," he said in a low, dangerous tone. "And for God's sake, stay safe. I want Nick in the house with you. Do you hear me?"

"I, I hear you, Kit," she said uncertainly. "You're going up there?"

"Yes, I'm going up there," he growled.

"Kit? What the hell is going on?" Sheila asked.

"Our elders tried to kill Vil," he said gratingly in reply, which made both Allison and Sheila gasp. "Her chopper crashed on takeoff and she broke her leg, and there's no way that was an accident. I want both of you in the complex," he told them. "I want you all together where Nick can watch over you. So go get what you need and go to the complex, Ally. I don't care if you stay with Sheila or Jess, but you're staying close to us."

"You're welcome with me, Ally," Sheila told her.

"Handsome fox, how are you getting up there?"

"I'm going to find a jet that'll take me right now," he said.

"Do you have your wallet with you?"

"Of course I do."

"Do you want anything specific shipped up?"

"My birth certificate," he answered. "I'm going to need it. I… I may be up there a while, pretty kitty."

"That's fine, we'll deal with it, love," she assured him. "I'll pack you an overnight and your laptop right now and have Lupe run it down to Avia. If he can catch you before you leave, you can take it with you. I'll next-day you a box of clothes. I'll send them to Clancy, okay?"

"Alright," Kit said seriously. "I'm going to tie down the plane and send my keys home with Sheila, alright?"

"Alright. I'll call Rick and tell him what happened."

"Alright. I'll call when I have more information, love. Try to get in touch with Vil and have her call me as soon as she can."

"I will, I promise. Kit, please, be careful," she said fearfully.

"I will," he said.

Moving with dreadful urgency, Kit climbed out of the plane and was helped by Sheila and Allison in fearful silence as they tied it down. When he tugged on the securing lines and nodded, he dug his keys out of his pocket and gave them to Sheila. "Take my truck home and give my keys to Jess," he told her. "Do not burn out my clutch," he added, which made Allison giggle helplessly. He was a little startled when Sheila gave him a crushing embrace, digging her claws into his back.

"I hope she's okay," she said in his damaged ear. "Go up there and kick their asses, cousin!"

"I intend to," he promised.

Allison gave him a hug as well, patting him on the back. "Keep us up to speed, Kit," she said. "And we'll keep ourselves safe for you."

"Thanks, Ally," he said, patting her on the back.

He waved to them as he backed up, then he turned and literally ran into Avia's hangar. Mike, who was elbows deep into the engine housing of a CJ2, nodded to him as he rushed in. "Mike, is Alice still here?" he called.

"Afraid not, Kit, she went home two hours ago."

"Damn," he growled as he realized that both the CJ1 and the Lear 450 were not in the hangar, which meant that they were hired out. "Are the jets due back anytime soon?"

"What, what's wrong?"

"I need to get to Boston, Mike, like yesterday. It's an emergency!"

"Aww, damn, male, I'm sorry to hear that," he said, taking his paw out of the housing and scratching his chin. "I'm afraid both jets are due back tomorrow," he told him. "And this one's in no shape to fly right now, I have it in about fifteen pieces."

"Mike, can you run me up to that new place, AV?" he asked.

"Dude, I didn't drive today, my wife is gonna pick me up. Sorry."

"I heard that!" Sheila said as she came in behind him. "We'll drive you up there. Ally, call Jessie and tell her to tell Lupe to take Kit's overnight up there instead."

"On it," she nodded, taking her phone out of her purse as she came into the hangar behind him.

AV Charters was in a relatively small hangar, but it was newly remodeled, the exterior of their hangar painted red and with flowing white script. The doors were open, and there was a rather cute femme badger sitting behind the reception desk, wearing a red polo shirt with AV embroidered on the left breast. "May I help you sir?" she asked in a pleasant voice.

"Yes, I need to charter a jet to Boston. Right now."

"Uh, now? Well, let me call the manager so you can discuss it." She picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Yes sir, I have a gentlemale here who wishes to charter an immediate flight to Boston," she said in the phone. "Your name, sir?"

"Kit Vulpan," he said.

Her eyes widened slightly, and her voice quavered just a bit. "Uh, Kit Vulpan, sir," she said in the phone. "Yes sir," she said, putting the phone down. "He'll be out in just a second." She looked closely at him, at his eyes, and Kit had to chuckle despite everything.

"Yes, I'm one of those Vulpans," he told her.

"I'm so sorry to stare," she said, her cheeks ruffling slightly.

"Happens all the time," he assured her, crossing his arms.

The manager was a gray fox who was slender and a little short, his fur a smoky color and his eyes a piercing green. "Lou Billings, Mister Vulpan," he said as he offered his paw. Kit noticed that his fingers were all tipped with large curved claws, like a cat's claws, and they looked sharp. Kit shook it firmly. "You need to charter a flight to Boston?"

"Yes, and I need it right now. It's an emergency."

"I only have one jet in, sir, and it's not exactly conducive to a long flight. It's a Cessna Citation CJ one. I could charter it for you, but it won't make the flight in one leg."

"I'm a pilot, sir, so I know all about that," Kit told him. "I'll take it. It'll still get me up there faster than anything else."

"I, uh, don't have pilots here at the moment, sir. I'll have to call them in."

"They'd better get here fast," he said.

"Sandy, call Tom and Jack in please," he said to the badger, "while I take Mister Vulpan here back to my office and we arrange the charter."

"Oh, a Chihuahua is going to bring me an overnight bag here," he told the receptionist. "He should be here any minute."

"I'll take it for you, sir, and let you know when it gets here."

"Thanks," he said as the gray fox led Kit back into the hangar.

In the office, Kit wasted no time accepting the terms of the charter. It was $2,000 an hour, which included fuel and refreshments, and Kit would leave immediately upon the arrival of the pilots. Kit signed the charter agreement, then sat through a safety briefing which was required by the Transportation Security Administration. The badger opened the door and came in, offering Kit his black canvas overnight bag. "Your bag, sir," she said, and he took it with a nod. "Tom should be here in about ten minutes, and Jack twenty. They're preparing the jet for departure now. Is there anything specific you'd like stocked in the refreshment center, sir?"

"I don't really care," he answered.

They took him to a very nicely appointed waiting room complete with a TV and a coffee maker, which included a hot water tap and teabags. Kit made himself a cup of tea while he waited, and his phone rang just as he finished getting his tea to his liking. He saw it was Vil on his phone, and he almost dropped the teacup opening his phone to answer it. "Vil! Vil?"

"Hey bro," she said in a very weak voice.

"Thank God!" he cried. "Are you alright?"

"I feel nauseous and dizzy," she answered. "I just got out of surgery not long ago. They had to put the bone back in my leg," she explained. "Outside of a broken right leg, a singed left arm and one hell of a headache, I'm alright."

"What happened?"

"My chopper crashed trying to take off," she told him. "It happened so fast, bro. We'd just lifted up off the ground and then suddenly I hear this bang, and then I was flying all over the place. I felt like a rag doll in a dryer. Next thing I know, Stav is pushing me into Marcus' arms out of the chopper and the sleeve of my blazer is on fire. Stav broke his arm and the pilot has a concussion, but thankfully there's no permanent damage."

"Sis, I'm on my way up," he told her. "I'm waiting for the pilots of my charter to get here and I'll be on my way up."

"I'll be happy to see you, bro. They have me at General."

There was a pause, and then the deep voice of Marcus was on the phone. "I'm afraid Miss Vil needs to rest, Mister Vulpan," he said. "It's not easy to focus after surgery. I'll let her call you back after she takes a nap and shakes off the anesthetic."

"Alright. How is Stav?"

"Broken forearm, but otherwise just fine. Thanks for asking. Are you coming up?"

"I am," he said grimly.

"Call back on Vil's phone when you're an hour from landing. I'll have a car and a guard waiting for you."

"Alright. Keep her safe for me, Marcus."

"That is a promise, Kit," he answered earnestly.

He waited about ten more minutes before they came and got him. They brought him out into the main hangar, which was larger than he expected, and was also empty. The jet was sitting out on the tarmac just outside the doors, the hatch open and a tall lynx in a similar red polo conducting a walk-around of the jet. The lynx stepped up and offered his paw to Kit. "Tom Rivers, Mister Vulpan, I'll be your pilot for this flight. We'll be leaving as soon as my co-pilot arrives. The flight plan is filed, and if you'd board, I'll get us ready to taxi out as soon as Jack arrives."

"Thanks for being quick," he said honestly.

"I heard about the crash, it was on the news. Is your sister alright?"

"I just talked to her. She's going to be okay, but I still want to be up there as fast as possible."

"We'll get you there as fast as we can, that's a promise."

"I appreciate that. Where did you decide to stop for fuel?"

"Lexington. They have a very fast turnaround fueling system there."

"I've stopped there myself," Kit agreed. "We landed, fueled, and took off in a half hour."

"That's exactly why we're stopping there," the lynx nodded, motioning with his paw for Kit to mount the steps and board the jet. "Luckily, since we're only carrying you and no baggage, we'll be taking off with max fuel. That'll let us get there with only one stop for fuel."

"Do you have a wireless router on this plane?"

"Just installed yesterday," he chuckled. "I'll let you know when it's on."

"Thanks."

The interior of the jet was what he expected. The club configuration was the most popular seating arrangement because it allowed the most seats and still gave the passengers the most room, and this jet used it. There were two seats facing backwards just behind the entry hatch and two seats facing forward at the back of the cabin, with the lavatory's door behind and between them. The interior of the cabin was in fake wood with red trim and indirect LED tract lighting, the seats were light tan leather just like the seats in his 400, and the refreshment center was across from the entry hatch. Kit saw that they had a coffee dispenser in the refreshment center. "Is there coffee or tea in that?" he asked.

"It's empty. Shall I make tea for it while we're waiting for Jack?"

"I'll do it, I'm not afraid to work," he said curtly. "Just get us ready so we can literally taxi out when your copilot arrives."

"I can do that," he chuckled.

They did exactly as they promised. Kit made tea and poured himself a cup, and the captain finished all the preflight up to starting the engines. Kit sat in one of the rear-facing chairs and pulled out his laptop, then pulled out the folding table and set it on top of it as a short weasel rushed into the plane. "I'm sorry, traffic was a mess!" he said. "Tom, where are we?"

"Waiting for you!" he answered from the cockpit. "Close the hatch, Jack, we're leaving!"

The weasel hurried up into the cockpit, and a moment later the captain called over the intercom. "The router is up and ready, Mister Vulpan, and you'll find a satellite phone along the bulkhead to your right. We'll be taking off in just a moment. It's about two hours to Lexington, we make a fuel stop, and another two and a half hours to Boston. Barring any unforeseen delays, we'll land at Logan Airport at about twelve fifteen Eastern time."

"Thank you, Captain," Kit called, and he just barely heard the copilot's voice over the engines as the first one started.

"Vulpan? We have a Vulpan on board?" he asked quietly, but not quietly enough. Kit didn't hear the reply, but he was fairly sure what it was.

Kit spent almost the entire first leg of the flight on the satellite phone and on the internet. He kept in contact with Jessie and the furs at home, and also called Terry several times. Terry was already in Boston, for it had been nearly two hours since the crash before Kit heard about it, where Terry was informed almost immediately. Terry was at the hospital, and he gave Kit constant updates as to Vil's condition. She was sleeping, sleeping off the anesthetic, and from Terry heard the doctor's assessment. His sister had a compound fracture of her lower leg, almost what they would call a "ski boot" break, probably caused when her leg got caught on something and the rest of her body kept going. She had first degree burns on her left arm, which was basically just being singed, for her jacket sleeve had caught fire as the panthers got her out of the chopper. Stav had a broken arm and some burns on his back and tail, and Marcus had a few minor cuts and bruises. The pilot of the chopper had suffered a mild concussion and a broken finger. From the internet, Kit saw the crash via a video on CNN. It was caught on a security camera that always pointed at the landing pad, which was beside the Vulpan Shipyards headquarters building. The chopper took off normally, then the tail shuddered and the tail rotor seized up in a sudden gout of sparks and smoke when it was about fifteen feet off the ground. The pilot quickly tried to bring the chopper back down, but without the tail rotor, there was nothing to prevent an effect called autorotation. The chopper blades spun in one direction, and simple physics meant that while the chopper was in the air and wasn't braced, the rest of the chopper's body would want to spin in the opposite direction, the equal and opposite reaction. The tail rotor prevented that reverse rotation, and without it, the chopper quickly began to spin. It got out of control of the pilot, wobbled in the air, and crashed back to the landing pad tail first, snapping the tail clean off the body of the chopper. It hit the pad, turned sideways, then fell the rest of the way in a spray of shattered rotor blades, dust, and chunks of concrete and aluminum. A fire started near the shattered tail almost immediately, and within seconds of the wreck coming to a stop, Marcus appeared, punching the mangled side door of the chopper open, which came to rest on its side, scrambled out, and then reached down into the chopper as the fire quickly spread. He hauled Vil out of the chopper with a paw gripping the back of her blazer, almost by the scruff of her neck, then reached down and pulled Stav out, whose lower arm was at an odd angle and was most definitely broken. Vil's leg was also twisted unnaturally, which became very clear when Marcus flinched away from the rapidly spreading fire, slung Vil over his shoulder, then jumped off the wreck. Stav slid off after him, and the pilot appeared, wobbling on his feet, around the back side of the wreck, staggering away. Marcus carried Vil away, her sleeve still on fire, and they disappeared from the angle of the camera.

At least the captain understood Kit's haste. When he came to look into the cockpit, he saw that they were flying at the maximum cruising speed of the CJ1 at 40,000 feet, close to the operating ceiling of the jet, and were burning a whole lot of extra fuel pushing it.

They landed at Lexington in a light drizzle but no wind, and the jet immediately moved to the same area where Kit had taken the CJ3, where a fueler truck was literally sitting there waiting for them. It took a while to refuel the jet, however, since the captain had burned quite a bit of fuel getting them there nearly fifteen minutes faster than expected, but they were back in the air about thirty minutes after they landed.

When they crossed into Pennsylvania, Kit called Vil's phone, and Marcus answered. "We're about ninety minutes out," Kit told him. "The captain said we're landing at Logan and they're dropping me off at Signature. He said we should land around twelve fifteen."

"Very well, Mister Vulpan, I'll have a car waiting there for you, as well as an escort. He'll be a rather burly brown bear named Will."

"Alright. Are you bringing me to the hospital?"

"Yes. The staff won't try to stop you from seeing Miss Vil."

"Is she awake?"

"Not yet. The doctors assured me that it's natural, she has strong vital signs."

"That's a relief," he sighed. "Has anyone else come to see her?"

"Terry, Suzy, and Clancy have, but no one else. I think they're honestly afraid to," he said.

Kit chuckled. "I wonder why," he said dryly. "I'm going to call Jessie and give her an update. I'll see you in about two hours."

"I'll be here."

Kit made quite a few phone calls over that ninety minutes. He called Jessie, Rick, Terry, and then called Clancy to keep him up to date, and those calls made the time fly by. When he got off the phone with Clancy, Tom the lynx was telling him that they were making their descent to Logan, and that it might be a little bumpy because it was raining and a little windy in Boston. They had him put his table away and buckle up, and Kit felt a little turbulence as they landed at Logan.

Boston. He was back in Boston. But this time, instead of feeling fear or the ghosts of his past, he felt anger. He did not come this time like a thief, sneaking in to do what he came to do and then sneak out, oh no. This time he was here with a fanfare of trumpets, and he was too mad to feel the familiar old ghosts try to lodge themselves in the back of his mind. Just about the only thing that could make him come back to Boston for anything other than a brief visit had happened, and that was that Vil needed him. His love for his sister was ten times more powerful than his fear, and now that she needed him, he would be there for her. After years of her taking care of him, now he would take care of her.

And the first thing he would do was kick the asses of the Vulpans who tried to kill her.

There was a car waiting when they pulled up, a small limo; bigger than a car, but not big enough to really be called a stretch. A very large, very wide grizzly bear stood by the back door of the car, waiting patiently for him, a newspaper under one arm and an umbrella in his other paw. He advanced once the jet came to a stop and its engines powered down, and Kit saw him when the copilot opened the hatch for him. "Mister Vulpan!" he called, stepping up to the bottom step and holding the umbrella out so Kit would stay dry. "I'm Will, sir. I'm going take you to the hospital, sir!"

"Any word on Vil while I was landing?" he asked as he came down under the umbrella, and the bear took his overnight.

"Not that I've heard, sir," he answered as he helped Kit down to the tarmac.

"Thanks a ton, guys, and thanks for getting me here as fast as you could!" Kit called back up towards the plane.

"Any time, sir!" Jack answered with a wave, and Tom appeared and waved as well. "I hope your sister is going to be okay."

"Last I heard, she'll be just fine, and thanks for your concern," he said as Will hurried him towards the limo, where, he saw, a driver was already behind the wheel and waiting to drive away. Will opened the door of the limo for him and helped him in, then he rounded the car quickly and got in the front seat passenger side. Kit settled himself into the seat, and Will handed his overnight back to him once he was inside. "Let's go, guys, let's go!" he said urgently.

The driver took them through Boston speedily, but not recklessly, getting them on Interstate and sending them down into the heart of the city. The Vulpan headquarters was on the back bay, a large ten story office building surrounded by grassy lawn and with a landing pad beside it, not far from Boston General, so that was naturally where they'd take the injured from the accident. Kit tapped his foot impatiently as the limo weaved through slower traffic on I-95, then exited the interstate and rushed down the streets of downtown Boston, along streets Kit knew intimately, streets where he had lived as a homeless fox for nearly four months as he tried to get himself back on his feet. He passed by an intersection where there was an alley a half a block down where he'd been beat up by a trio of street toughs, and over there was a day labor center where Kit had stood out among other indigents and illegal immigrants, trying to find work… work at which he'd been awful, since he had no real job skills. But fortunately, Kit was in decent shape despite being rich, and carrying something didn't take much skill, so he'd spent most of those months working as a manual laborer at construction sites, and had even worked on a section of the Big Dig. He'd been doing menial labor mostly, but one day he got to wear a vest and be a flagmale to wave traffic away from the work site. That wasn't that bad, actually. They passed the homeless shelter where the police had dropped him off after taking him to the hospital the night of his 16th birthday, the night he left the family, and the night he very nearly froze to death trying to walk from Stonebrook to Boston with no coat, no shoes, just a shirt and a pair of thin slacks.

In Boston, it was still very much winter in late March. Spring didn't come to Boston until early May.

Finally, the hospital came into view. The limo pulled under a covered loading area in front of the hospital, and Kit didn't wait for Will to open the door for him, something nearly any other Vulpan would not have done. There were several reporters outside the front door, and as a result several cameras flashed in his face as Will met him by the limo, and the bear instructed the driver to wait nearby and be ready to come at a moment's notice. Will escorted Kit in through the double doors, shielding him from the reporters as best he could. "She's on the third floor, sir, in a private room," he said, motioning Kit to go ahead of him. There were several reporters in the main lobby as well, but Will intercepted them and slowed them down as Kit hurried past the main desk and towards the elevator. Will ran up behind him as he pressed the button to call a car, and when the nearest doors opened at the button, Will escorted him into the car with a huge paw lightly on his back and shoulders.

Familiar faces met him at the elevator. Suzy buried him in a fierce hug before he fully stepped out, and he guided her back to let him out. "Oh Kit, I was so worried!" she said in his neck, holding him almost painfully tight.

"It's alright, Suzy, it's alright," he said soothingly. "Is she awake yet?"

"Yes, she's awake now," she answered, kissing him on the muzzle. "Clancy, Corey, and Terry are in the room with her, and Kendall just called, he just landed at Logan and should be here in just a few minutes. She's a little out of it, they have her on some strong pain meds."

"Good. Let's go see her, Zee."

She laughed. "I haven't heard you call me that in forever!"

Vil was surrounded by friends and family, in a hospital bed that was of the mobile variety, the type that would allow them to just wheel her out in her own bed. She was sitting up thanks to the head of the bed being elevated, and Clancy was helping her drink a sip of water. Her right arm was wrapped in bandages from her wrist to her elbow, and she had her left leg in a sling elevated at the foot of the bed, the leg wrapped in bandages but not put in a cast. A single sheet covered her from knees to breast, and he could see that she was wearing a hospital gown. An IV was strapped to her right arm, the needle entering into her arm just above her wrist, held in place with tape wrapped around her entire forearm. Corey was sitting against the table near the window, Terry was sitting at the chair by her bed, and Marcus stood opposite Clancy at the head of her bed. "Kit!" Corey said in a hushed yet excited voice as Suzy led him into the room by the paw, and Will took up a place by the door in the hall. Kit shook paws with Corey and Terry and hugged Clancy, then sat down in the chair and pulled his sister into his arms as she hugged him as strongly as she could. "You're a wreck, sis," he chided, digging his claws into her back as his arms started to tremble.

"I'm alright, little brother, I'm alright," she told him, patting him on the back. "The docs have already cleared me to go home tomorrow afternoon, as soon as they put a cast on my leg and they make sure I won't get an infection. They didn't have to do much but set my leg and sew up my skin when they did the surgery. They said the breaks of the bones in my shin were clean and set without any help, they didn't even need to put pins in my leg. It looked much worse than it really is, they found that out when they got me here and took some X-rays. So I'll be fine."

He placed her gently back in bed and held her paw, gazing at her with worried yet relieved eyes. "I made Jess stay at home," he told her. "I didn't want her to be up here."

"I can agree with that, Kit," Vil nodded wearily, leaning her head back on the pillow. "God, I feel like I drank a whole barrel of scotch. It's that damn medicine they gave me."

"Who did it?" he asked after a second.

"We don't know yet. The FAA is still going over the wreckage," Terry answered.

"Well, I'll be here until we find out," Kit declared. "Someone tried to kill my sister, and I'm all kinds of pissed off at the moment. Heads will roll," he growled angrily.

"That's good," Vil laughed weakly. "You can do me a favor, bro."

"Anything."

"I want you and Terry at the board meeting tomorrow at eleven," she told him. "I don't want Jake to think that he'll have a whole day to jam the gears at the company, because you know I can't vote while I'm in the hospital. And I made the same mistake he did, I don't have a proxy agreement to allow anyone to vote in my place."

"We can do that, cousin," Terry assured her. "Just oppose anything he brings up?"

"Yeah. Oppose anything he introduces, vote to reschedule the issues that were on the schedule for the meeting, and move to adjourn the meeting every chance you get. Eventually he'll give in and won't object. I'll be back the day after tomorrow, so you only have to run interference for me tomorrow."

"I'll be there," Kit promised with an angry voice. "Right now I'm too angry to care what it is I'm doing, as long as it helps."

"You'll be helping, bro, trust me."

Kit listened as he got another version of what happened from Vil and the others, this time including her being tended at the scene by paramedics. "I was laying there looking at my own bone sticking out of my leg," she chuckled weakly. "I felt like Rick, but at least I didn't break mine falling off the roof. Something a little more spectacular had to happen."

"They showed a video of the crash," Kit told her. "I saw it on the internet on the way up."

"Yeah, they showed it to me. God, that looked awful," she said ruefully.

The door opened, and Kendall rushed into the room. The usual lightness and joviality that normally graced his features was gone, leaving behind a very worried, very serious looking young fox. He rushed over and gave her a fierce hug, then kissed her several times on the face and muzzle. "Dear God, Vil, you scared me to death!" he declared. "Are you alright, love?"

"I'm alright," she assured him. "They're sending me home tomorrow afternoon. You're not getting out of marrying me, boy," she said with a weak smile. "I'll be on crutches for our ceremony, but it is going to happen."

"I wouldn't dream of anything different," he said frankly, kissing her again, then taking her paw and kissing it tenderly. "Oh no!" he gasped, looking at her bandaged arm. "Oh, Vil, you've lost your ring! I'll run right out and get you another one, an even better one!"

"It's fine, it's fine," she smiled. "Marcus has it, and it came through the crash without a scratch. But that's touching, Ken, that you'd go get me another one."

"You're my bride to be, Vil, you can't very well go around without a nice and fancy ring to show off to your friends," he told her, getting back a little bit of his playfulness, probably because he was relieved to see that she was indeed going to be alright. "Why, I'd be laughed out of Britain if my fiancée didn't have an engagement ring!"

"They can laugh you out of Britain, because you're coming to America," she teased with a tired smile.

"Only you could drag me out of England, love," he told her, kissing the back of her paw again. "And I won't be going back. I'll be right here with you, my love, to help you, until you're right as rain and dancing the tango again. My old male is going to finish up my preparations to move to America for me. I don't want to be anywhere but right here."

"Well, you're going to have to share the bedrail with my family," she smiled at him.

"I do get the best spot at the rail," he said airily.

She laughed weakly. "I'll let you and Kit fight about that. But now that I've seen everyone that matters, and they've seen me, I think I'd like to get some sleep. I'm really tired, and this medicine they have me on is like someone is stuffing my head with wool."

"Of course," Kit told her. "I know what that feels like, sis. Just get some sleep and let us take care of you for a change."

"I've never felt safer," she said, holding her bandaged paw out to him. He took it, then leaned over her bed and kissed and hugged her, and she nuzzled his neck. "I'm so glad you came home, Kit," she whispered in his ear.

"I love you so much, Vil," he breathed to her.

"I love you too, brother mine, I love you too. Now let me get some sleep, but don't waste your time sitting around here waiting for me."

He nodded in understanding. "I'll be in that boardroom at eleven tomorrow," he promised. "And I'll be back here when they release you."

"I'll call you when I wake up," she promised.

"I'll have news for you when you do."

Kit left Vil to hug the others goodbye, hugging Suzy and Clancy and shaking the paws of Corey and Clancy, then he stalked out of the room. Will started and hurried to catch up with him as he hurried towards the elevator. "Mister Vulpan? Are you done?"

"For here, for now," he answered as he pressed the button to call the elevator car. "Vil told me to do something, so we're going to go do it."

"What is that?"

"Clean house," he said as the elevator door opened.

Kit ignored the reporters that tried to stop him outside the hospital as he waited for the limo to come around, called by Will when they were in the elevator. Several more pictures of him were taken, but then hospital security rushed out of the doors and started pushing them off hospital grounds. The limo pulled up, and Will just barely managed to grab the handle before he did. He climbed into the car as Will shut the door behind him, and then the bear got into the front seat. "Where to, sir?" the driver asked.

"Stonebrook," he answered, his voice grating like claws on a chalkboard.

"Y-yes, sir!" he said, putting the car in gear.

The fear didn't come. It didn't have a chance. Nothing but the image of his sister laying in that hospital bed was in his mind and memory as they left Boston and then exited the interstate, going down familiar roads that Kit could walk with a blindfold, roads that, long ago and in a different life, were the roads down which he used to ride his bicycle. They turned onto Stonebrook Drive, and there was no fear, there were no ghosts. They came up to the gates of the manor, where a uniformed guard stepped out of the small house to challenge them, but he never had the chance. The limo driver had a remote to the gate, and when the gates started swinging open, bisecting the Vulpan family crest, the guard still held up his paw to stop them. "I've been instructed to call in any visitor to the manor," he said apologetically.

Kit rolled down the window and stared him in the eyes. "You will not call ahead," Kit stated adamantly. The guard started, then stepped back and waved them through without another word.

The house was lit and abuzz with activity. The limo pulled around the house and into the garage, and a young fox hurried in, wearing a tee shirt and a pair of flannel night pants. Kit identified him as Weathers, Jim Weathers, the son of Carrie Weathers, one of the cooks. He was a second generation servant, who worked in the garage as a driver and mechanic when he wasn't working out on the grounds as a groundskeeper. The limo pulled to a stop and Kit opened the door before Jim or Will could reach it, and he stepped out. Jim gasped and almost took a step back, then laughed. "Master Kit!" he said brightly. "Welcome! Nobody told us you were coming, sir!"

"They didn't know," he said. "Get Stanley out of bed and—"

"He's still up, sir, I think everyone is. We're all worried sick about Miss Vil."

"Call him and tell him to meet me in the foyer," Kit ordered as he took his overnight out of the limo, and he marched off as Jim used his cell phone to do just that.

The ghosts were afraid of him, now. He stalked through the halls of Stonebrook, and he could feel them out there. The ghost of his father, the spectre of his family, the shade of a life he had once despised. They were all lurking in the shadows, behind the walls, but they would not come out. Kit was too angry to be easy prey for them, and so they kept their distance. The halls of Stonebrook didn't seem foreboding right now, they only seemed empty. The ghosts were still here, oh yes they were, but right now they wanted nothing to do with Kitstrom Lucas Vulpan.

Stanley wasn't the only one that met him in the foyer. Several Stonebrook servants scurried in as he came in from the garage hall, and on the second floor balcony to the west wing, Kitstrom Zachary Vulpan hurried out of the hallway leading to the wing where he lived, wearing a pair of dark slacks and a polo shirt, stomping along the elegant balcony with its burnished marble and cherrywood banister, then padded quickly down the marble staircase covered with red carpeting. Kit turned and pointed at him before he even got halfway down the stairs.

"Get out of MY HOUSE!" he screamed at Zach, then he clenched a fist and shook it at him. "I want you out by sunrise, you and your entire scummy family, Zach! I am moving back in, effective right now!"

"Lucas—"

Stanley was the only thing that stopped Kit from charging up those stairs at hearing that most hated of all names. "DO NOT CALL ME BY HIS NAME!" he shrieked so loudly that Zach nearly fell down trying to back up, as Stanley and Jim physically restrained him from going up there and beating his uncle to death with his bare paws. "You tried to kill my sister!" he screamed, foam flying from his mouth as a look of absolute rage invaded his features. "You will never set foot in Stonebrook again, not you, not your bitch wife, not your brat kids, not your entire diseased line! Get out! Get out! GET OUT, you bastard!"

He didn't say another word. He couldn't. Abject terror crept into his face as he saw Kit in such a state of rage that he'd never seen anything like it before, and he knew in that moment that if Kit wasn't being held back, Kit would kill him. Zach did the only thing he could do in that situation, and that was turn and literally run back up the stairs, run back to the hallway and quickly out of sight.

"Let it go, Master Kit, let it go, let it go," Stanley said calmly, soothingly, even as he kept a very tight hold around Kit's chest and middle. "Marge, bring a glass of wine and a glass of tea to the parlor," he ordered as Kit stopped struggling against Stanley, then wilted to his knees and covered his face with his paws, his shoulders shaking, as the rage exploded into fear and grief at nearly losing his sister, drowning him in a tidal wave of uncontrollable emotion. "Dee," Stanley called, and a matronly vixen, Dee the head maid, hurried over and knelt by Kit, wrapping him in her arms.

"There there, dear, it's all over," she said gently, patting him on the back and pressing her cheek and muzzle against his damaged ear as he clutched at her, sobbing uncontrollably. "It's all over, it's all over, and you've come home, my young Master Kit. You're home now, and everything will be just fine."

Chapter 33