Without speaking, they kept on walking to Dominica’s Arctic Silver, Porsche Carrera. The woman said, “Give me car keys and phone.” Dominica faltered, realizing these two were foreigners, and then acquiesce. That didn’t matter, she was growing madder by the second. She watched as the stocky woman opened her car door, threw her phone and keys onto the driver’s seat. “Hey,” she protested! “Someone might come along and steal my car.” She reached for the car door trying to stall thinking about an escape move. She thought about running towards the basketball court down the street where young men were playing their morning pickup game.
As she was about to make a move, the muscular man pushed Dominica towards a dark, Ford SUV park across the street from the Porsche. A short skinny, pale man in his thirties opened the SUV’s back door. Dominica vacillated. The muscular man shoved her into the door’s opening. “Get in,” he commanded.
The woman stuck the gun on Dominica's side again. “Move,” she demanded. Dominica stepped into the SUV. The skinny man produced plastic zip ties and a black hood. He tied Dominica’s hands behind her and covered her head. “Relax,” he said as their vehicle pulled away from the side of the road. “Our orders are not to hurt you, if possible.” He emphasized the ‘if possible’.
They pulled away from the curb. Within a few minutes and after several turns she felt like they were cruising down a highway. Dominica wriggled and twisted to free herself. “Relax missy,” the skinny man said. “We have a long ride ahead of us.”
Through her hood she yelled at her abductors. “Do you know who I am? - I am Dominica Bianca!”
Chapter 2
Juan Oneca, a youthful Tampa attorney, looked up from his desk. He took off his glasses and began cleaning them. Right then Nancy, his petite paralegal secretary, opened his office door and announced two potential clients. Lucy McCann and Sean Jackson stood behind her. Juan observed the two casually dressed young adults in their early 30’s behind Nancy.
Juan noticed that Nancy balanced herself on her four-inch, pointed-toed pumps. Juan smiled asking Nancy, “New shoes?” Nancy worked hard on her new legal image.
Nancy was cloning herself into ‘Donna’ from the TV program ‘Suits’. Nancy’s blushing, pinkish face complimented her black slit-sleeve dress. She was making the adjustment from dressing down in jeans and sneakers to looking like a professional legal secretary. She answered, “Yes. Do you like the makeover?”
Juan nodded, grinned and welcomed Lucy and Sean. He shook their hands and walked them to the leather coach in the glass-walled corner of his office. The corner view overlooked a waterway lined with trails for bikers, joggers and dog walkers. This time of day the sun reflected off the river and danced as sparkling diamonds. Juan fought switching mental priorities from wedding preparations to being friendly and understanding towards his potential new clients.
His private cell phone’s ringtone sang Madonna’s ‘Material Girl’. He recognized the caller immediately as Carol. Juan excused himself saying, “Possible Foundation matter, sorry! Hopefully, this will only take a minute.” Lucy and Sean eye’s grinned at each other. They knew of Juan’s association with the ‘1 Law 4 All Foundation’. In fact, that was their reason for seeking his services.
Nancy set a silver tray on the glass coffee table supported by a family of bronze dolphins. The ice water pitcher and glasses dripped with condensation. Lucy said, “Thanks” and reached for the glass closest to her and a napkin for wiping the drips off the glass. She calmly sipped the water while Juan took Carol’s call.
Carol, one of Juan’s ‘1 Law 4 All’ partners bubbled through the phone. “How are the wedding plans coming? Kitiona and I can’t wait to get there. We have brainstormed the ball room’s ‘country love’ theme. Tell Dominica that every place setting will include silver bells with your pictures! We’ve been calling her all morning to tell her, but she’s not answering her phone.”
Juan looked at his watch. “She’s probably taking her ‘vortex’ beach walk about now. Try her again this afternoon. We’re planning a dessert tasting session later today.”
Carol laughed. “Remember, I’m a chocoholic. May I suggest a chocolate and white dessert theme? I can imagine…..”
Juan cut her off. “Sorry miss chocolate freak, I have clients. You and Kitiona can have chocolate dreams on your own time. We’ll talk later.”
Kitiona was a beautiful Samoan young lady with a part Japanese, Euro-Asian background. Only in her mid-twenties, she founded the ‘1 Law 4 All' Foundation. Her settlement from the pockets of a wealthy, treacherous U.S. Senator led to the Foundation’s financial start-up. She lost her family in a fire that consumed her American Samoa home and killed her entire immediate family. The longtime senator Bonni Giardina of San Francisco ordered the arson. Only the inking of Kitiona’s full back tattoo saved her from being home the night of the fire.
Kitiona noticed Carol’s dazed look. Carol said, “He hung up.” Shaking her head she exclaimed that Juan was always the serious type. “I guess he’s actually working. We’ll call back this afternoon after their dessert sampling.” Kitiona chuckled along with Carol.
Juan apologized and sat across the coffee table from Lucy and Sean. Impulsive by nature, Lucy started questioning Juan without any prompting. “Are you aware of the voter fraud controversy in the last presidential election?”
Juan switched thoughts of desserts to answering Lucy’s question. “Yes, it made front page news. Apparently, some media people believe Russia or China influenced the election’s outcome.”
Lucy approved and proclaimed “We’re part of an organization of young people known as the ‘Fair and Free Foundation (F&F)’. We’re mostly Millennials. We’re tired of the Globalists with their ‘the end justifies the means’ attitude sitting on huge bank accounts controlling our politicians, politics and ultimately our lives. These same people are turning our country into a socialized European State boarding on Marxism.
“These politicians are being fraudulently elected and re-elected to support the socialization of the United States of America.” Lucy paused for effect then continued. “That includes the media. These elected politicians assist the media in controlling Political Correctness in the public arena. We know they don’t reflect our beliefs and probably don’t consider the majority’s thoughts and beliefs. Through Political Correctness they are imposing a ‘Greater Good’ philosophy on society unawares.”
Sean stepped in when Lucy stopped to catch her breath. “I head up F&F’s, ‘gray hat’ hackers division. If you and your Foundation take us on as clients, we’ll show you the abuse vulnerabilities within social media and ultimately our election technology. Would you like a sneak preview of what they are?”
Lucy impatiently sat squirming, rapidly pumping her shapely, crossed right leg. She alleged “These PC politicians get elected through targeted voter fraud. We have the proof!”
During the short conversation pause that followed, Juan couldn’t help thinking of Ben, the elder, retired member of the ‘1 Law for All Foundation’. Ben was a hippie in his day and claimed similar thoughts as Lucy and Sean. Juan said, “That’s a lot to think about. Your group is tackling an entirely new technological paradigm and an age old problem of voter fraud. What’s your approach?”
Lucy thought over Juan’s response and answered, “We have about 275 F&F members nationally. We’ve compartmentalized areas into specialties. Technology is the common thread even though it’s not an exact science. In fact, it is such an inexact science that it lends itself to abuse by tech savvy people. The wheeler, dealer money people are tech clueless. They hire the best programming minds with insane amounts of money to do their bidding.”
Lucy cut to the reason for them being in Juan’s office.