“Marek will take care of all that when he gets here,” Joel was following Jack around the house as he explored.
They had reached the back of the house downstairs and were in a sort of utility room. The difference here was that this room was floor to ceiling along one entire wall with electronics – dead electronics. At least it all seemed switched off from what Joel could see, no lights, no noise, nothing.
“So what’s this room?” Jack turned back towards Joel.
“How the hell should I know?”
“You lived here. So you should know what went on.”
Jack found it odd that on the one hand Joel remembered everything about the house, where his bedroom was, which room Charlie slept in, but he didn’t know what went on here.
“Well I don’t.”
He wondered if he really didn’t know anything about what this place was used for, or if like a load of other stuff, he’d forgotten.
“I don’t understand how you recognised the house as soon as we got inside the front door, but you don’t know shit about what this place is,” Jack told him with some frustration.
“Fuck... that’s how it is. You just have to accept the mystery.”
“Yeah. When does Marek get here?”
“Whenever. I don’t know that either.”
Jack didn’t say anything more, he walked past Joel and out of the room.
□□□□□
“They’ll come looking for the car, you know that?”
Jack was lounging on the huge sofa in the large living room. The rain outside seemed heavier, it was lashing the windows, propelled against the glass by the force of the wind.
“Yeah, but I doubt they’ll be in any hurry. You know how it works. It will just show up as a vehicle off grid, they’ll send a couple of engineers to find it and fix it. It’ll take ages before they do anything.” Joel was at least confident about that. Which meant they were pretty much safe here, and just had to wait until Marek showed up.
“I found this lying around,” Jack held up a folder of papers.
“What’s in it?”
“The title says, - The Neda Project, then it’s got this quote, looks like something about Greek mythology.”
“Very... interesting,” Joel replied somewhat sarcastically.
“Yeah well, you asked.”
He didn’t want to piss Jack off today, he had other plans.
“What’s it say... the quote?”
“Piss off, you’re not interested.”
Jack threw the folder aside, scattering the papers across the sofa, one or two sheets sliding onto the floor. He stood up, turned to leave, gave Joel one of his scowls, and was gone, out the open door towards the kitchen.
Joel gathered up the dropped papers and put them back in the folder, he read the title as he was doing this, and flipped the cover open. The quote on the inside read:
"Lifting her great arm she smote the mountain with her staff; and it was greatly rent in twin for her and poured forth a mighty flood. Therein, O Lord, she cleansed thy body; and swaddled thee, and gave thee to Neda to carry within the Kretan covert, that thou mightst be reared secretly.”
He left the folder on the sofa and followed Jack into the kitchen. Jack was making something to eat.
Coming up behind him, Joel gripped him round the waist, planted a soft kiss on his neck, and looking over his shoulder asked, “What you got there?”
“At least we won’t starve,” Jack told him, pouring a bowl of muesli. “Dried milk powder, muesli, and there’s plenty of other stuff in the cupboards.”
“I always used to eat muesli for breakfast, Charlie hated it, said it was gross and always insisted on Sugar Pops.”
“Well he might have been right, but I didn’t find any Sugar Pops.”
Pouring the milk he’d made up over the bowl of muesli Jack took a mouthful. “It’s okay.”
Joel had moved to stand beside him. “How do you know the quote is Greek?”
“Ha ha, I’m not a complete moron,” Jack grinned at him, sort of pleased with himself for knowing something Joel didn’t.
“Did I ever say you was a moron?”
Jack ignored the question. “Well, did some Greek mythology, Neda is a water goddess. Kind of appropriate for the climate we’re living with.”
Joel moved in closer, stared Jack in the eyes. “You’re full of surprises.”
□□□□□
He was sitting comfortably in one of the armchairs, Jack was sprawled out on the sofa. Much to his glee Jack found the audio system functioned with voice commands. So now they were being entertained by some moody instrumental music by some group or other that he’d never heard of.
The folder Jack found was in his hands and he started to read what was written there.
Dr Ahmed Hassan - National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology, UAE.
We have carried out 12 cloud-seeding operations during the last three days and 58 since the beginning of the year. The heaviest rain was on Sunday, with 24 millimetres falling over Al Faqa on the border of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Long and heavy showers have been reported across the country.
Our goal is now to increase the cloud seeding reaction to promote the 10 to 30 per cent increase in rainfall towards 50 to 60 per cent. We also hope that with the new technology available we can permanently improve operations and stabilise the reaction.
For the moment there are inhibiting factors that prevent all types of clouds from being seeded, and it is only working with the ones that are ready to generate rain. We use hygroscopic salt to level up the amount of moisture to generate more rain. The best season for seeding is between June and August.
Cloud seeding is not an exact science and uncertainty about whether rain can be produced on demand remains. Despite more than 60 years of research, there is a lot to be understood about rain and clouds because of their differing properties.
Joel flicked through the pages, there were reports, loads of figures, tables and graphs. Then he got to the next interesting note. It was Dr Hassan again.
We are now using planes fitted with seeding flares, NCMS pilots fire salt crystals into clouds to improve condensation and form droplets that could fall as rain. We have filed a patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office for a cloud-seeding technique that involves coating a pure salt crystal with titanium dioxide to improve the condensation process.
Looking at some of the other reports and papers in this folder Joel saw that all this stuff was ancient history. It seemed like this Neda Project took place more than a hundred and fifty years ago. The last note he read, which was hand written by the good doctor himself, he could tell, because he’d seen his annotations on some of the tables, was dated February 17, 2017. It was the most cryptic, but referred back even further, to the beginning of the last century.
Dr Hassan had written:
A certain Charles Hatfield, an American, is credited as being the first person to make it rain on demand using science in 1915, using US$10,000 donated by the city of San Diego, California, to end a severe drought.
Using a secret formula he reportedly produced so much rain that valleys in southern California flooded. Hatfield never shared his secret formula.
“Why are you reading all that stuff?” Jack was staring across the room from the sofa.
“It got me hooked, there’s some interesting things in here.”
“There’s some interesting things here too,” Jack was definitely smirking.
“I know that look,” Joel smiled.
“I bet you do, but you better check this out.” Jack’s hand was covering his crotch suggestively.
Joel was out of the armchair, across the room, and standing looking down at him. Jack stretched out his arm, reached up to Joel, and pulled him down on top of him.
□□□□□
“Wow that’s one of those houses like in the movies,” Charlie said excitedly.
At that same instant the front door opened and Joel appeared. “Charlie, my man?” He called out, and Charlie was off running towards him. Up the wooden steps and onto the veranda, he rushed into Joel’s outstretched arms.
Joel wrapped him in a hug and lifted the little boy off his feet, swinging him around full circle.
“Joel, Joel, it’s super... wow!”
“Well I guess it is kinda different.”
“Kinda... no kidding... it’s, it’s... like in a movie.”
Joel lowered him back to the ground and smiled as his mother came up the steps to join them.
“Hi, mom!
“Joel, I’m glad you made it here. I was worried about you,” she told him.
“No it was okay mom, Madison took care of everything,” Joel kissed his mother on the cheek, squashing Charlie between the two of them. “Let’s go inside.”
“Is he here with you?” his mother asked as they entered the house.
“Yes they both are. The mad uncle and his sidekick”
“Do we share a room Joel,” Charlie interrupted.
“Nope. You’ve got a room all to yourself.”
“Uncle Madison and Joseph are either in his office or in the control room,” Joel told his mother. “Do you want me to take your there?”
“Joel, Joel, take me to see my room,” Charlie pleaded.
“Hold on a minute Charlie.”
“Mom, let Joel show me my room... please... pretty please,” Charlie looked at his mother with his best wide eyed angelic look.
“Yes, alright then, your uncle is no doubt busy.”
His mother agreed, and now Charlie was tugging at Joel’s sleeve, urging him to move towards the magnificent dark wood staircase.
“Why do you call Uncle Madison the mad uncle?” Charlie asked as they started up the stairs. Then before Joel could reply he added, “And what’s the control room?”
“The control room is where Uncle Madison works. It’s full of all his equipment.”
They’d reached the top of the stairs now, and Joel turned to lead Charlie along the corridor.
“And... I call Uncle Madison, the mad uncle, because... Uncle Mad... get it? Mad, Madison.”
“Oh yeah. Which is my room?” Charlie appeared to have lost interest in the answer. He was just too eager to discover his room.
Joel swung the door open. “This one,” he said, and waved Charlie in through the door.
It would not be anytime soon that Marek got here, at least that’s what Joel was thinking. They would have tonight alone, maybe longer, they might have to wait a few days. Nothing specific had been arranged, just that they should get to the house and, well, wait.
It wasn’t clear why they should come here, or why they had to leave at all. Something was hinted at, that they were being looked for. No rephrase the they, it wasn’t plural, it was him they were looking for, Jack was just along for the ride!
‘You’ll get it eventually,’ he told himself, and that was looking more and more possible, despite his memory lapses. He had recognised the house almost immediately, as soon as they got inside the front door.
Then there was Charlie, he still wasn’t sure who Charlie was, but he had blurted out to Jack when he’d found all the food in the kitchen that ‘I always used to eat muesli for breakfast, Charlie hated it, said it was gross and always insisted on Sugar Pops.’ Charlie was a kid younger than himself, Joel was certain. Maybe more stuff would come back to fill the holes in his memory. And this Neda Project thing, he was wondering what that was all about, somehow he thought it’s all got to be connected.
“Hey... uh Joel, you dreaming or what?” Jack was lying there beside him, in bed.
When these things happened to him it really pissed him off, because he couldn’t remember getting from the living room sofa to the bedroom – a blank. Joel hated when he had a blackout like that. The only positive thing was that they were not happening so much and didn’t seem to last very long.
“I kinda drifted there a bit,” Joel smiled at the cute youngster who was naked except for his underpants.
“You said...” Jack was leaning half across him. “You said you’d take care of this.” Jack’s hand cupped the bulge tenting his underwear.
Joel shifted down the bed, sort of slithering under Jack, until his head was under Jack’s crotch. Jack supported himself now with both arms outstretched and his body hovering over Joel.
“You know what?” Joel asked in a sexy voice.
“What?” Jack’s cock was really straining against the material. He had only one idea in his head. He didn’t want a conversation, he wanted to shove his cock down Joel’s throat, or at least push it into his mouth. His warm, moist, sucking mouth. God he was horny right now!
Joel loved to tease the youngster, to make him wait, wind him right up.
“I’m just gonna slide these underpants off that delicious bum of yours. Then...”
As he was talking, he gripped both sides of the material firmly and started to slide Jack’s final item of covering down over his buttocks. He had to stop halfway, to move one hand to the front so as to flip the material up and release Jack’s raging cock.
Once it was free and quivering in the space between them, Joel stuck his tongue out and ever so lightly brushed the tip of that leaking cock head.
□□□□□
“Are we gonna like stay here forever now?” Charlie asked his mother.
“For a while Charlie, for a while,” she replied. Then turning to Joel she told him. “I think you should take me to see Clement now. If he’s busy, well we’ll just have to interrupt.”
Clement Madison, uncle and mad scientist. He was an expert in his field and had been working with other scientists around the world on the Weatherman Project. That’s about as much as both Joel and his mother knew, the name and that it had something to do with addressing the incessant rain, perhaps saving the planet.
Thinking about it, they both had the same opinion, things had gone too far to return to what his mother barely remembered the world was like when she was an infant, and what he only knew from archive videos and history lessons.
“Can I come?” Charlie bounced up off the bed, his new bed, in their new house.
“I think you should stay here and put some of your things away. That would help mommy. And we won’t be very long.”
“Yeah okay then.” Charlie said with a hint of disappointment.
“I’ll show you around, afterwards,” Joel looked over at him and smiled. “We can do the house tour together.”
“Promise?”
“Hand on heart, but you have to unpack like mom’s asked.”
They exited the bedroom leaving Charlie to settle in to his new room.
“I doubt he’ll unpack half,” Joel’s mom chuckled as they walked back downstairs to find her brother.
“Yeah I know, but half is better than nothing and he’s out of our hair for now. Madison has been pretty busy ever since I arrived. Haven’t seen hardly anything of him.”
She took hold of Joel’s arm and swung it gently between them as they walked. “I’m so pleased you got here safely.”
“But is it really safe?”
“I hope so. For now, anyway.”
□□□□□
“I’m sending you to the country. You can’t stay here any longer.” Kado was as usual issuing orders, and the three of them were listening, but it was Joel he was addressing.
“What place in the country? There is no country, It’s a wasteland between the cities. What the fuck are you talking about?”
Joel looked from Jack to Grif, but neither of them said anything.
“Your safety. It’s not safe for you here now.” Kado was not at all intimidated by Joel’s aggressive attitude.
Joel hesitated a moment, not sure how to respond. There was almost too much to take in. He wanted to send him to some place safe in the middle of nowhere. Well it would be safe, he guessed, but how do you get there and how do you live there?
“I can’t get my head round this?” Joel was telling Kado the truth, it was difficult to imagine what he was talking about.
“There is not a lot of time. Not enough time to explain everything, and you might not get it anyway, you will eventually. Marek has fixed up a car for you. Programed, the works. That will get you most of the way. Then you need to find the house. Shouldn’t be too difficult.” Kado smiled.
Joel was not reassured by his jovial demeanour, it wasn’t him going out into the middle of nowhere. And to look for some house!
“Jack can go with you. Grif needs to stay here.”
“Why do I need to stay here?”
“Because I’m saying so, and because Henry will be dropping by.”
“Fuck Henry!”
“Calm down. You’ll catch them up later. I can’t have everybody going, can I? Not all at once.”
“So I’m going to this house place with Joel?” Jack asked.
“That’s what I just said, isn’t it?” Kado found the kid annoying and the conversation going round in circles.
He turned his attention back to Joel. “You wait at the house until Marek shows up. He’ll be following.”
Then he turned to walk away, leaving the three of them together, but just before disappearing down the corridor he turned and added. “You’ve got ten minutes. The car’s outside now. Get going!”
Henry was a very nice guy. Rich, powerful, influential, and yes, overweight. It was mean to nick name him the fat man, but Grif had a nick name for everyone. Over the last few months he’d performed in front of Henry quite a few times. The thing about this guy was he liked to watch, Henry was the epitome of the voyeur, even more than Grif knew.
The side of things he saw was only when Henry asked for Grif’s company, a request which he had no right to refuse. I guess you could say that was the price for working at the BB Club, and everybody who stayed there, worked.
Actually Grif considered Henry to be an easy night’s work. He wanted sex, but not to actually take part, only to watch on a kind of do it yourself basis, another of Grif’s euphemisms, telling them it was his DIY night.
Often Grif had performed a strip tease ending with him jerking off in front of Henry. It would have been nice, he’d thought, if the old guy had given him a blow job, but the closest contact he ever got was Henry running his hands over Grif’s body, never touching his cock though.
Things had changed over time as they became more used to each other, and now Henry wanted to watch Grif having sex with another young guy. Actually, there was a whole lot more to what he wanted than just watching two young guys making out, but Grif, being Grif, hadn’t told the rest of it to Joel.
□□□□□
Henry stood up and came over to Grif, he leaned in close to quietly give his instructions. Joel was naked, standing in the corner of the dark little room. If he’d known what was about to happen he would never have agreed, but to be fair Grif didn’t know everything himself.
“He wants you tied up across the table and...” Grif could tell by Joel’s reaction that he wasn’t taking this very well.
“I agreed to sex with you,” Joel whispered. “Not some kinky bondage thing.”
“It’s nothing, just a little fun,” Grif’s attempt at being reassuring was anything but.
“You’re not the one being tied up,” Joel hissed, but somehow he felt resigned to going through with it.
Grif glanced over at Henry, who smiled, but appeared distinctly impatient.
“Come on,” Grif had a pleading tone in his request.
Joel moved across to the table and positioned himself over it, arms out in front, legs apart.
□□□□□
“I’m never fucking doing that again, never,” Joel was angry with Grif.
“Yeah, alright, alright, calm down,” Grif tried to cool the tension.
“Fuck! You should have told me about that stuff. BEFORE!”
“I thought you enjoyed having me suck your cock,” Grif attempted to inject a little humour.
Joel just glared at him. There was silence, neither one spoke, but you could have cut the air with a knife.
“Sorry, okay?” Grif said finally breaking the silence.
Joel didn’t reply, he just turned and stormed out of the room. In some way Grif was relieved that he’d gone, he never quite knew how Joel would react.
□□□□□
“What happened?” Jack asked being curious about what might have gone on with Henry and the two of them.
“That ain’t none of your business,” Grif told him, pointing a finger.
“Aw, don’t be nasty, just asking,” Jack smiled, trying to get Grif to spill the beans. He knew something different had happened. He knew that by Joel’s storming off, and it was kind of interesting, exciting!
Grif moved in close to Jack and grabbed a fist full of his T-shirt, scrunching up the material around his neck, and pulling him forwards.
“I’ll show you. You might enjoy it.”
Jack wasn’t sure if Grif was playing with him, or if he meant it. Grif let go his grip on the boy’s t-shirt, moved his hands to the front of Jack’s jeans.
“What are you doing?” Jack asked hesitantly.
“Shut the fuck up!” Grif pulled at the front of his jeans, flipped the stud, and his hand went to the zipper. Jack stood there, silent, his heart pounding in his chest.
Grif pulled the zip down, then with both hands took a firm hold on the jeans and slid them down Jack’s legs to the floor. He could see the bulge in the Jack’s underpants, obviously the kid was enjoying this.
Jack stepped out of his jeans, and as if he could hide what was happening, he turned away. Grif half took hold, half pushed, and brought Jack down with him onto the edge of the large bed. Grif had shifted so he was sitting, Jack had ended up face down across his lap, just where he wanted him.
Grif’s hands went to the boy’s underpants and pulled them half off, exposing the taut skin of the kid’s arse. He pressed his left hand firmly into Jack’s back, and before he could do anything, Grif brought his right hand, palm open, firmly down and with a loud echoing smack landing it squarely across his buttocks.
Jack bucked and made a noise, but Grif held him firmly over his knees. In quick succession he landed more smacks across Jack’s arse. His white skin showed the results of Grif’s spanking, turning a rosy pink.
“You wanted to know,” Grif was amused. He thought the kid would get up and walk out after he released his hold.
Jack pushed himself up and stood in front of Grif, his eyes did not make contact, but his exposed cock was hard as a nail, bobbing up and down in the air. Oh wow, Grif thought, he liked it, just as Joel had.
The boy shifted from one foot to the other. Grif was enjoying watching him, and playing. He knew he’d got him, Jack was there for the taking. God that was exciting, the boy wanted it, Grif’s cock was now straining to escape the confines of it’s prison. He stripped off his clothes, throwing them aside. Took hold of Jack’s t-shirt and pulled it off over his head. There were no objections from the kid, who simply raised his arms.
Grif then stopped an instant. Standing behind Jack his eyes took in the scene, coming to rest admiring the rounded form of that cute little arse. An arse that was now rosy pink from Grif smacking it. His cock jumped. He moved in close behind the boy, wrapped both arms around his small chest.
“You liked that,” Grif spoke just behind him. Jack could feel the warmth of his breath behind his ear. He was so turned on he thought he might just shoot there and then.
He half turned his head, tilted upwards, trying to look at Grif. A hand glided down his ribs, slowly. It touched his hips, sliding on towards... It ever so lightly touched the base of Jack’s hard cock, then came underneath him to cup his two tight little balls.
Juice seeped from the tip of Jack's cock which twitched and swayed longing for attention. But the hand, after fondling his balls, ignored his hard cock and came back to rest on his hot arse, squeezing his buttocks.
Jack’s mind was instantly brought back to the spanking he had just received. His cock dribbled more sticky juice, and bounced around in the air. His arms went back to Grif, to feel his skin. Grif brought his hand back around to the boy’s mouth, touched his lips, which parted and allowed the finger inside, sucking on it.
Grif shifted closer behind the boy, moving his other hand over the soft skin, but not touching that hard cock. He was really enjoying Jack squirming. Grif withdrew his finger, brought his arm down behind Jack and slid the now wet finger into the crack between those rosy hot buttocks. Sliding and pushing, gently seeking the secret entrance.
Jack sighed, leaned forward, he thought he would fall onto the bed, but Grif’s arm was around his waist, holding him. The finger entered Jack and he breathed out gasping, this was too much.
“Take me, I’m yours,” Jack managed to whisper.
Grif pushed the boy’s shoulders down, Jack spread his arms out supporting his weight on the bed. Grif took hold of his cock and positioned it, he needed no lubrication, it was copiously moist. He pushed his hips forward, felt the tightness, both hands went to grip the kid’s hips. He pushed his cock into the boy. Stopped. Jack spread his legs further apart, sucked in a breath, trying to accommodate Grif’s super hard penis.
Grif felt a slight relaxing, he pushed forward, his cock slid right into the boy and he almost lifted him off the floor as his balls bounced on the kid’s arse cheeks, his cock buried to the hilt. Neither of them would last very long. Grif knew it, so did Jack.
“Fuck me! fuck me!” Jack pleaded, an urgency in his voice.
Those words brought Grif almost to the edge. He pounded his cock into the boy, in just a few thrusts he felt the contraction. Jack dug his nails into Grif’s skin. Grif cupped his hand under Jack’s balls just as his cock shot his juice across the bed. Grif pulled almost out and ploughed his cock into the kid like a spear, gripped tight, his balls bouncing against Jack’s arse, he exploded, his warm semen filling the boy.
They stayed, frozen together, Grif gripping Jack, arms around his thin waist, his cock still buried inside. Then slowly, as they recovered, Grif pulled out and they collapsed together, side by side on the bed, all sweaty and exhausted.
“I think I’ll have to spank you more often,” Grif told him, brushing a hand over his cheek and then moving it to rest lightly on his arse.
Jack smiled, a sort of coy, boyish grin. They both knew, without speaking.