“So, tell me more about what you’re doing. I have to tell you, between you calling me from Las Vegas, D.C., and now here in Miami it seems like you’re into a lot. I thought you were leaving to settle down?”
Lance grabbed another beer and a Sprite next to it for Patricia. She wasn’t a big drinker. He handed her the Sprite and he popped the top on his beer. “No, where did you get that idea?”
She looked at the can of Sprite and back at Lance. “Perhaps a glass, and a little ice?” She smiled at him.
“Sorry!” Lance reached for a glass and turned to the refrigerator to fill it with ice. “Basically it’s just us guys here right now, I’ve slipped into complete bachelor habits.” He handed the glass to her with a napkin and a straw.
Patricia was trying to process his question about why she thought he would settle down. She had watched Lance spiral into a depression after his daughter disappeared. Having opened that can of worms, she now had to admit that she had assumed he was checking out of life, in a way. Lance was waiting for her to answer, not making it easy on her at all. “Lance, we’ve worked together for a long time. I watched as you withdrew more and more into yourself last year after your daughter left. I guess I just thought that you wanted to go off and be by yourself once you quit.”
Lance took a sip of his beer and thought about what she said. “That’s a fair assessment, if you don’t know the rest of the story. I guess I had withdrawn into myself after Bethany Anne left.”
“What’s the rest of the story?”
Lance set his beer down. “Before I answer that, let me ask you a quick question, Patricia. What is it you fought for when you were part of the military? Was it the flag? Was it Congress? Was it the country? Was it the rest of us near you?”
Patricia took a couple of the chips and nibbled on them to give herself time to consider his question. “I actually entered the service because I needed a job and a way to get an education. I would have to admit that it wasn’t for the ideals that so many people espouse. At the end, I was there because of those who were around me, you and the others. Of course, I needed the job, but it really wasn’t for the ideals, and certainly not Congress!” Patricia laughed at that.
This was just about what Lance had expected. While they had telling conversations over the years, Lance knew she didn’t have a super strong nationalistic focus. Patricia was more of a live and let live sort of person. How could he get her involved and prove to Bethany Anne she was a legitimate prospect for the team?
He tried another approach, hoping to find a reason that would prove to Bethany Anne what his gut was telling him was true. “Patricia, who is it that you love? Who is it that you would be willing to fight and die for? Friends, family, loved ones, maybe the dog down the street?” Lance smiled when mentioning that option. Patricia did have a soft spot for animals.
She poured the Sprite into the glass. Patricia had to answer the question, but she wasn’t willing to tell him the truth. “I have one or two people that I would be willing to fight and die for, or at least die beside. But I don’t have any family left so that isn’t going to work. Why do you ask?”
Lance sighed, one part agitated and two parts frustrated. “Because what I’m involved in is literally life-and-death for not only our nation but also the world. For you to be a part of this with me would give you access to secrets that could be harmful.”
Patricia bristled. “Lance! You know I have top security clearances. Why would you think I couldn’t be trusted with anything less on the outside?”
He turned the beer in his hand, trying to figure the best way to say this. “Patricia, I’m not worried about you sharing secrets with others. I am worried about you having secrets that would cause others to want to harm you.”
That surprised her. She hadn’t expected that she might be in danger if she worked outside of the military. “Why would I be in harm’s way?”
“I would like to say that I’m involved in the dog-eat-dog corporate world, but the truth is the other team doesn’t mind getting their hands bloodied in this competition. I’m not willing to get you involved if you don’t understand the danger.”
“How are you going to tell me what the danger is, without letting me know more than I should know?”
“Well, that’s part of the problem, isn’t it? I have to let you know enough to understand that being a part of whatever I am a part of is dangerous. You have some protection just being part of the group, but if you leave the group with this knowledge the other team might come after you for information you don’t even have. We aren’t only going up against corporate interests, but potentially political and… other… interests. Any of them or all of them might come after you for completely different reasons, believing you have the key piece of info they need.”
Patricia sat back in her chair, playing with nonexistent lint to give herself time to think this through. “Lance, what are you involved in?” She looked at him, with seriousness in her eyes. It wasn’t often that she dropped the facade of being a secretary and spoke to him directly as a concerned friend.
Lance wiped his face with his hand, looked back at Patricia and smiled. “Patricia, I am more alive today than I have been for the last ten years. I would love to have you as part of my team to move this forward. In fact, I will even admit I need you terribly. I am completely overwhelmed and the job isn’t going to get any smaller in the future.”
Lance had no idea that he had just said the three words Patricia was waiting to hear, ‘I need you.’
They continued talking for another half an hour. Patricia was already sold. She was just waiting to make sure that Lance felt he had pitched her well enough. She finally put up a hand to stop Lance from continuing. “What’s the next step?”
Lance stopped with his mouth open, closed it, and pulled out his phone. He started texting a message, looked up at Patricia and said, “I asked the CEO to interview you now.”
“What? Just like that? She’s going to drop in to talk with your potential new secretary?”
Lance put away his phone. “Patricia, I’m not hiring a new secretary. I am hiring my right hand man, or woman in this case, for my team. There won’t be a person I rely on more to help me accomplish everything I need to do. Therefore, you had better believe that the CEO is anxious to make sure you are the right hire.”
Patricia was a little taken aback. A woman who owned two expensive houses, one yacht somewhere near South America, and who knew what else was just going to drop whatever she was doing and come talk to her? She had always thought she wanted to feel important, now she wasn’t so sure it was a good feeling.
A yippy-dog sound came from Lance’s phone. He picked it up and looked at the incoming text. “Well, it looks like the CEO is available, and will be here probably in the next five hours or so.” He looked over at Patricia. “Care to have dinner now?”
Patricia closed the chip bag. “Oh sure, feed me cheap chips before you take me to an expensive seafood place. You just want a cheap date, you bastard!” They laughed. She handed him the chip bag. “Why do you have the CEO’s text sound set to a yipping dog?”
Setting down the bag, Lance looked down and started texting again, “Her executive assistant isn’t happy about something done to her involving a frozen drink. So, she’s trying different ways to get back at the CEO. The CEO hasn’t heard it yet, so I’m leaving it on my phone to figure out a way to help the carefully laid revenge happen. There, I asked her to make sure she wouldn’t arrive sooner than five hours. That should give you at least an hour or so to get your appetite back, depending on how far away you want to go.” He looked up at her. “So, how hungry are you, and how much of a view do you want?”
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, USA
Marcus Cambridge looked down at his phone, staring at it in disbelief. He had just hung up from a conversation where he had been asked if he was available to meet in just a little over an hour, for an interview. The man, a Mr. Frank Kurns, had explained that he had trie
d to reach him earlier in the day, but had been unable to so had hopped on an airplane and flown across the country from Miami. Just to see him.
Marcus didn’t know what to do, or even what to feel. He had been out of a job for the last three months, ever since Space-X had fired him. Oh, sure, he had some friends back at NASA and Space-X that felt he could get hired if he would only stop talking about aliens and UFOs. But he was getting too old to not express his beliefs. It didn’t make any sense to him why everyone wanted to ignore the possibilities and not discuss them in public.
Unfortunately, he separated from his latest wife after the Space-X debacle. She hadn’t wanted to be with a man where she had to worry every day that he’d start talking about aliens again and get fired from yet another job.
She had enjoyed the little dinners around Orange County until she realized people were whispering about him, and therefore her, behind her back. She could not stand the idea that she was the butt of jokes because of his beliefs.
He sighed, and wasn’t really sure what to make of Frank Kurns, but he had invited the man to his house. It was the only appropriate thing to do. Wasn’t it?
He usually relied on his wife to answer these types of questions for him. At 6’2” tall and only 190 pounds, he was your typical tall, beanpole thin, bookish scientist who often forgot where he left his glasses even though they were on top of his head.
He would take a shower first, that was it! At least he could remember to be clean for the interview.
Miami, Fl, USA
Patricia and Lance came back from a seafood place that had been located on top of one of the buildings on Miami Beach. The view had been fantastic, and the seafood was actually pretty good. Lance knew that they could have found better seats in other restaurants, ones that didn’t rely on the view to acquire patrons.
But Patricia was looking forward to seeing the sights. And Lance enjoyed being able to provide the view for her. He had even put this dinner on his own credit card, though Lance knew Bethany Anne wouldn’t mind him charging it to the company.
This dinner became more than a simple recruitment effort. By the time it was finished, he wanted to be the one to have paid for it and so he did.
They found themselves back in the kitchen as they had been when she first got there. They hadn’t been there two minutes when they heard a noise upstairs. Patricia looked up towards the ceiling. “Did we miss someone coming home?”
Lance looked up and considered the location. “Well, I think the CEO must have been closer than I thought. It looks like your interview is about to happen.” Lance hoped Patricia would be able to remember the dinner after her talk with Bethany Anne.
7
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, USA
Marcus was sitting down on the couch in the living room, staring at his reflection in the dark screen of the TV.
He stood up and went to the door, his shirt a little wrinkled. He couldn’t find where the iron or ironing board were stored. Another one of the little things his wife used to do for him. He opened the door.
A middle, maybe late thirties gentleman stood in his doorway. He opened the door a little wider and stuck his hand out. “Frank Kurns?”
The man shook his hand. “Yes, I’m Frank. You are Marcus, correct?”
“Yes, I am. Here, I’m sorry, won’t you come inside?” Marcus stepped back, giving Frank a little more room to come inside and closed the door behind him. “We can step into the living room here and talk, does that work for you?”
Frank looked around the house. While he wouldn’t say it was terribly dirty, it was certainly in disarray. On every flat surface he could see there were books. Books on metallurgy, chemistry, mathematics, space, a rare biology or two interspersed between them, and others he didn’t recognize stacked everywhere. “Certainly, that would be fine.”
The two men seated themselves, Marcus on the couch and Frank on a loveseat. Frank started the conversation. “Mr. Cambridge, I represent a company that is looking to do research on very difficult to understand metals and propulsion systems that will eventually relate to both atmospheric and above atmosphere craft. I have been asked by the project manager responsible for small, three-man trans-atmospheric craft to acquire, and I quote, a ‘rocket scientist’ for his project team. After due diligence, I have decided that you might be the individual that he needs.”
“Mr. Kurns, or may I call you Frank?” Frank nodded his agreement. “Okay Frank. Before we go too far I have to tell that I am getting a little set in my ways and I don’t need to go through this process if all you, or the team, are going to do is ask me to leave when I start talking about aliens. I’m not sure if you’ve done much research into my last two positions? I ended up getting tossed off of both of them because I have certain beliefs that are not universally held as truth and it embarrasses those I work for. Usually enough so that whatever benefit I bring to the team isn’t enough to overcome the embarrassment, and they toss me.”
Frank thought for a minute about how to answer his question. “Marcus, I’m aware of why you were fired at Space-X and NASA. In fact, I took some advice from a general I work with in regard to your situation and the comments about your ‘tinfoil’ beliefs. I can assure you that if you are hired, you will not be fired for those beliefs. But I will have to ask some questions related to them to get a better handle on why you think this and how it may, or may not, affect your responsibilities based on what our research already knows.”
Marcus sat back on his couch, a little relieved to get this part out in the open. Ever since his last wife, Martha, had left him he had been feeling a little adrift. He had even, for a few days, wondered if he should just let go of his belief that there were others out in the universe. That this man had flown all the way across the United States to come talk to him, even after knowing this about him, left him feeling a little vindicated. At least for his professional capabilities if they were willing to overlook his personal observations. “Of course, that only makes sense. What is it you would like to know?”
Frank opened up with the obvious question, “Why is it that you believe in aliens? Do you have any proof of their existence?”
Marcus smiled. This was an easy response although not one that usually provided any sort of answer to that question. “The absence of proof doesn’t prove the absence of truth. I have never seen an alien, I have never seen an alien UFO, I have never been visited in the middle of the night or had any aliens stick their finger up my butt.” They both grinned at that, actually Frank was a little relieved to find Marcus had a sense of humor.
Frank continued his questions, “How can you believe so firmly, without proof, in something that has ruined two jobs, one of them with arguably the leading space company in America, and if I understand my research, your last wife left you over this same set of beliefs?”
Marcus shook his head. “She didn’t exactly leave me over that, truth be told I think she holds some of the same beliefs herself. But she wouldn’t acknowledge them out in public where people could ridicule her. Unfortunately, I was willing to do so and the ridicule directed at me splashed over her. She couldn’t handle it and decided to go seek other pastures. Note, I didn’t say greener pastures, merely other pastures.”
“Okay, that explains your wife but what about your contemporaries? What about the other scientists?”
“Those bastards? They wouldn’t believe something unless a committee had already blessed it and it had two articles peer-reviewed in a professional journal. Finally, someone would have to replicate the results in a third world country with subpar capabilities before they would believe it.”
Wow, Frank thought, this guy was still a little hot under the collar about the situation.
He wondered how Marcus would take his next couple of questions?
Patricia turned around in the chair, hearing footsteps, obviously from a woman, in the entryway. The woman coming through the door with a smile on her face was the last person she ever expected to see.
>
“Bethany Anne?” Patricia was confused. The woman before her certainly looked like Bethany Anne, but wasn’t she dead? “You’re the CEO?” She looked over at Lance who was smiling. She turned back, confusion etched on her face.
Bethany Anne came up to Patricia and hugged her. “Yes, but I can’t run the whole operation so I had to shanghai my dad to help run and organize the business side. Now he tells me he can’t get along without your help. So here I am to make sure we get you on board and keep him happy. Why don’t you come with me upstairs, and we can talk about it without old fuss-bucket getting involved?”
Patricia turned towards Lance, a questioning look on her face. “Lance?” He smiled and waved her toward Bethany Anne.
“I’ll be fine right here, Patricia. I’m not going anywhere. Besides, if you girls don’t take too long we still have time to go out for drinks afterwards.” That helped settle Patricia’s feelings and concerns, that he would be here for her when this was all done. She hopped off the stool and went with Bethany Anne.
Patricia followed Bethany Anne through the suite’s doors and Bethany Anne closed them behind her. Patricia looked around in amazement. “This has to be one of the most beautiful rooms I have ever been in. You have simply got to tell me who your decorator is!”
“Decorator?” Bethany Anne looked around the room. “The lady who helped me do the whole house is named Ecaterina, from Romania?”
Patricia’s eyes narrowed. “Ecaterina? I have that name right, correct?” Bethany Anne was quick to pick up on Patricia’s annoyance.
“Yes. She’s helping me with a lot of different jobs around the company. Sort of like what you will do for my dad. Why, do you know her?” Bethany Anne was sure Patricia had never met Ecaterina, but it was obvious she was familiar with her name.
Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set One: Books 1-7, Death Becomes Her, Queen Bitch, Love Lost, Bite This, Never Forsaken, Under My Heel, Kneel or Die (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets) Page 89