“Ben, tell me what you know about the hacking activity from China, please.”
For the next hour and a half, Nathan and Ben discussed the particulars of the China hacking situation. It was obvious to Nathan, a world-class hacker himself, that Ben had skills he could use effectively. While Nathan was talking to Ben, he opened a chat message program to discuss how quickly Ben could be moved to Miami. His Texas manager didn’t want to let Ben go, but Nathan pulled the ‘do I have to get the CEO to call you for this?’ card and his manager agreed that the absolute earliest was at the end of the following week, but he would really appreciate at least three weeks.
Nathan told Ben to go ahead and finish out his next week, and to expect to get a call and airline tickets to come to Miami within three weeks on the outside.
Ben wasn’t old in nerd years. Computers and computer code plus a little bit of caffeine from time to time was his existence. It wouldn’t be hard to move him to Miami.
Hanging up with Ben, Nathan called Ecaterina. He had been trying to stay busy, keeping Ecaterina and her situation out of his thoughts. His last conversation on the Polarus with his girl hadn’t gone too well and Nathan got the full brunt of the Romanian woman’s anger. Unfortunately, Nathan knew enough of her language to understand every word she said.
He was happy to not be stuck on a boat in the middle of the ocean with her at the moment. He didn’t care how large the boat was, it wouldn’t have been large enough. While he understood her desire to get involved, his personal desire to keep her safe made him say a couple of stupid things. He knew they were stupid before he said them, unfortunately, he couldn’t stop his mouth in time.
When she suddenly stopped talking to him and made a face that he hoped never to see on her again, he realized his need to keep her safe had created a sudden need to keep himself safe from her. When your woman could, very literally, gut you or shoot you from a distance, being in Miami and allowing her to cool down seemed to be an intelligent move on his part.
Now, work called and he had a need to talk with her. He sure hoped he didn’t get an unreceptive response.
9
Constanta, Romania
Stephen went into the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator. Reaching in he grabbed a packet of blood and pulled it out. He opened the packet, poured the contents into a mug and put the mug in the microwave. A couple of minutes later, he was drinking the blood down without making a face.
The bell on the door rang. This wasn’t just any normal front doorbell, but rather an old-fashioned bell made of iron that Stephen had installed over a hundred years before. Anyone coming to the front door would reach up and grab an old rope and pull; pulleys would then guide the rope to ring the bell deep in the house. Stephen rather liked the sound, it reminded him of the past. He walked out of the kitchen and up to the front door sensing that there were vampires on the other side.
He could hear their murmurs, and their concerns. With one of the voices being female and the other two being male he was pretty sure who he would find on the other side of the door.
He opened the door and smiled to the three individuals on his front stoop. All three anxious and not sure what to do while he stood there looking at them expectantly. Finally, the young lady spoke for the three of them, “Excuse me, is this the house of Stephen?”
“Yes, certainly it is. How can I help you this evening?”
“Would you let Stephen know that Claudia and her brother Juan and friend Scott have arrived? We will be happy to stay out here until he admits us into his home.”
The three of them had been arguing whether or not they should act as if they had an invitation to Stephen’s home, or act subservient as would be expected of a Forsaken relationship. Stephen opened his front door wide and stepped back. “Please, make your way to the front room and be seated.”
The three of them walked through the front door to the sitting area on the left. Claudia and Juan took a couch, and Scott took the chair that was sitting across from them. Stephen closed the door and followed them. “Would any of you care for a drink? Do any of you need blood?”
Claudia looked a little relieved. “Yes, we would all appreciate at least a little blood. We have been concerned on whether or not it was permitted to drink in Stephen’s lands.”
“I understand. Please understand that the blood I will be giving you will be reheated from packets.” Stephen noticed a small look of distaste flash across Scott’s face.
“I’m sure that that would be more than adequate, and thank you very much.” Claudia glared at Scott. Stephen tried to hide a smile as he went back to the kitchen and made three more mugs of blood and brought them back to his guests. After they finished their drinks, he collected the mugs and returned them to the kitchen.
He walked back into the sitting room and took another one of the chairs, all three of them looking at him expectantly.
“Now that you have had refreshments, what is it that I can do for you?” Juan was the first one to understand they were speaking to Stephen himself.
It took only seconds for the other two to catch up. Claudia’s face reddened with embarrassment. “Forgive me, Stephen! I did not understand you were the one answering the door. We would never have presumed to request you service us as you have!”
Stephen just laughed. “Please, understand that I don’t operate here in Europe as you are used to with the Forsaken in South America.”
All three of the vampires sat back in the seats, a little more at ease. Claudia continued the conversation, “When I spoke with Ecaterina from Bethany Anne’s retinue, she said you might be able to provide safety for us here in Europe within your house’s protection?” Stephen noted Scott had a visceral reaction to Bethany Anne’s name. Stephen was trying to be polite, but Scott was starting to get on his nerves. He realized that Bethany Anne wouldn’t have a problem with Scott’s reaction, especially if Scott was close to Clarita. But Stephen was from another age and he could be counted on to have reactions to facial expressions if they continued for too long.
Stephen answered, “Yes. It would not be a problem for you to live in Europe. Obviously, this permission is predicated on you rejecting the Forsaken creed regarding humans. Please be aware,” Stephen turned to look directly at Scott, “that we in Europe operate under the authority of Bethany Anne. I will brook no disrespect of my Queen. Is this understood?” His eyes didn’t leave Scott’s face.
Claudia wanted to slap Scott. Scott had been their biggest problem ever since they left South America. While Juan was Claudia’s brother and had changed to a vampire in order to help her cope many years before, Scott was Juan’s friend who had found a mother figure in Clarita. He was hit particularly hard by her death. Now, she hoped Scott didn’t ruin this opportunity for safety with an outburst caused by the emotional pain he was still working through.
Juan spoke up, “Stephen, could you explain to us the role of Bethany Anne in the UnknownWorld? Our experience in South America is not very helpful in understanding what is going on. In fact, without my mother explaining that she was under attack because of Adrian, we would probably have thought it was an internal political issue with the Forsaken.”
Stephen spent the next three hours explaining the true history of vampires and how Bethany Anne fit into the new changes coming about. He was circumspect when explaining how Bethany Anne became a vampire, but he did give them enough of an understanding to realize that their brother Adrian started the whole situation by killing Bethany Anne’s mentor back in Washington DC.
Claudia and Juan could understand the anger she must have felt. Scott, however, did not want to hear any justification for killing his mother. Finally, in a fit of disgust, Scott stood up, walked to the front door, opened it and slammed it behind him as he walked out into the night. There was a moment of silence as Claudia and Juan sat on pins, clearly concerned about Stephen’s reaction.
Stephen looked at the door Scott had just closed. “Well, I suppose that reaction could’ve been
handled better. Fortunately, whatever he might have to say about Bethany Anne I won’t hear and need to respond to. I suppose that was the most mature response Scott could come up with.”
Stephen was not like any powerful vampires either of them were accustomed to working around.
They continued talking into the morning, waiting for Scott to come back. Sometime later, Ivan came and introduced himself. He was a little despondent and not his typical cheery self, but seemed to enjoy a good conversation with Claudia and Juan. Particularly Claudia.
Stephen knew a phone call had occurred between Ivan and Gabrielle. He would need to call his daughter and find out what was going on later.
Finally, Ivan went into the kitchen to make himself a late snack, which is where he was when the trouble started.
San Jose, Costa Rica
Special Agent Matthew Burnside walked into the San Jose Police headquarters. He was part of the Office of Asian Pacific, Latin American and African Analysis and frankly wasn’t supposed to be talking to anyone right now including—he looked down at his hastily written note—a Superintendent Rodriguez.
Unfortunately, he got a call early this morning from someone with enough pull in the Military Affairs group to drag his ass out of bed to ask the superintendent some questions.
He typically dealt with ongoing political volatility, military security, and the many varied leadership changes. With all of the unstable economic dynamics that occurred on a regular basis down here he often wondered why he left California. It was rare that he was doing anything more than reading reports and occasionally making a few phone calls. Being called up to run out into the field wasn’t something he did. But this meeting was going to be about all of the supposed drug murders that had occurred in the last couple of weeks. He had read the many newspaper reports and understood something was very fishy. He had even read the reports about the Death Angels that had protected the city and the helicopter that flew at night.
Matthew introduced himself to the attractive brunette secretary at the front of the building. She was immune to his blond hair and told him he could wait in the second meeting room down the hall and to the left. He was only there sitting down smelling the old cigarette smoke for about five minutes when an attractive, maybe early forties lady with black hair and glasses stepped in and introduced herself.
“Hello, I am Superintendent Rodriguez of the Costa Rica Police. I am one of the officers in charge of the task force for investigating the missing persons and murders cases. How can I help you this morning, Agent Burnside?”
Matthew decided that just asking for what he wanted was the best way to move forward. “Pleased to meet you, Superintendent Rodriguez. I have been asked to get information related to the most recent murder crimes and the paramilitary group using a Black Hawk helicopter. We would like to understand why you worked with them, and where they might be at this time.” It took Matthew approximately five seconds to realize he completely fouled up with the lady. Her pleasant expression quickly morphed into one he recognized as barely contained anger.
Her voice was clipped and angry. “Just like that? You want information related to our problems without so much as ‘we are sorry for your deaths?’ Do you know that two of my close friends were killed during the troubles? Now all you want to know about is a paramilitary group operating in my country? This is what you came here to talk to me about? No other items of note? I don’t recall seeing any American agents at the funerals. Perhaps you were there and I didn’t recognize you?” Matthew understood really quickly where he had gone wrong.
He felt bad as he told her, “No, Superintendent, I was not there.” What a clusterfuck, Matthew thought, no wonder that dick didn’t want to take this meeting himself. If no one from the agency even sent condolences on their losses, how were the two groups supposed to continue working well in the future?
Superintendent Rodriguez stood up. “Then you will understand if it takes me some time to finish with my personal grieving before I spend any effort tracking down a paramilitary group responsible for saving many more of our lives. Once I get finished with my grieving, feel free to reach out and contact me again to see if we can help you. Good day, agent.”
The superintendent left the office, barely stopping herself from slamming the door in Matthew’s face. Matthew thought about it for a moment and opened the door quickly, “Superintendent?” Rodriguez turned around. “Would you happen to know the name of the reporter who was helped that first night?”
“Giannini Oviedo.” Rodriguez turned back around and continued walking, obviously not willing to answer any more of Matthew’s questions. It wasn’t until Rodriguez reached her office and was able to think clearly again that she realized she had just given away an important name and the American agent would follow up with it.
Shit, she thought, she needed to get Giannini on the phone quickly.
The Queen Bitch’s Ship Ad Aeternitatem
Bethany Anne was on TOM’s ship, looking into the pod-doc, down at the dog she had decided to name Ashur, not quite believing her eyes.
TOM, he’s big.
He really is a very beautiful dog.
And big.
That too.
So, what are the readouts telling you?
They are telling me we are going to have an interesting canine.
Define interesting.
Well, something that is out of the ordinary? Something that was unexpected? Something that…
TOM, quit your bullshitting and tell me what’s going on!
Okay, just trying to bring a little levity to the news.
Duly noted and you failed miserably.
Wow, tough crowd. Okay, all kidding aside we have a superdog.
TOM, superdog isn’t very helpful, give me something to work with.
Well, as you might expect, he has increased speed and strength, his bones are tougher, his skin is tougher, obviously he’s bigger all the way around, and of course he’s white. Not exactly going to be a good color for hiding at night.
True, any chance we can change that hair to black?
Are you kidding?
Um, maybe?
Well then, answering from a scientific point of view, we certainly can change it. The nanocytes can alter the pigment-producing cells but it would probably take a few weeks for the color to completely change as the hair grows. The pod-doc had to deal with some genetic abnormalities and select some recessive genes. In the process we got white hair.
Well, good to know. No need to do it right now, but if he goes down again remind me that we had this conversation. I’m sensing that you left something out, give.
Well, this time it isn’t actually anything bad. There are two particular nuances I hadn’t expected. The first is a substantial ability to act as a conduit for the Etheric. The second is his modified mind.
What do you mean by modified mind? I don’t want to release a huge, vicious animal with mental instability.
No, no. I don’t think he has mental instability. Actually, from the research you and I did previously dogs have an intelligence that equates to maybe a two to three year old human child. I’m guessing this dog’s intelligence might be a touch higher than that estimate.
Bethany Anne was getting frustrated with TOM’s insufficient answers.
How much higher than that?
I can’t really say at this time, it might only be one or two more years, or we might have something that increases over time. It’s not like I have a lot of research to work with here.
Bethany Anne continued to look down. The dog was certainly beautiful, all white hair and she was curious what his eye color would end up. She turned right and slipped through the Etheric back to her room on the Polarus. They would be pulling Ashur out of the pod-doc pretty soon.
God only knows what they would find when they did that.
Bethany Anne walked out of her suite into the conference room following a knocking noise. She found Bobcat slowly banging his forehead against the wal
l. She stopped and stared at him— he continued to hit his head for thirty seconds straight before she interrupted him, “Bobcat, why are you damaging my wall?”
Startled, Bobcat turned around to see Bethany Anne staring at him. His forehead was red, and he flushed with embarrassment.
Bobcat sighed. “I left William up in Miami to keep an eye on the assets up there. Over the holidays, he hooked up with a lady and requested a three-day leave to go out with her. His three-day leave ended two days ago. I need his help down here on the project, so I called Miami and got no response. Ten minutes ago, I got a call from an unknown number and I answered the phone.” Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow at that; he should not have answered an unknown phone call for security reasons. But it looked like she needed to get to the bottom of this first problem before she introduced and reprimanded him for the second. “The nice gentleman on the other side was actually a sheriff. It seems William got left high and dry two nights ago at a bar by this woman. He then proceeded to drink away his pain. I don’t remember if I shared this with you, but William can’t hold his booze.”
Bethany Anne nodded, she had heard the stories about William and drinking. For such a large man, he didn’t do very well in bar brawls. But since he was so large he was a natural target. She winced, thinking about what must have happened.
“So, how bad is it?”
“Well, he should only be nursing a headache by now, but the fact that he did it in the first place causes me some serious concerns. I think it might have been a poor decision to leave him alone up there, he doesn’t have a focus now that the SUVs are done.”
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 91