Marcus looked down at the piece of paper Bobcat had just written on. “I feel like I just found the end of the rainbow and dug up the pot of gold. My man, we are going to design, build, and make history!”
Bobcat glanced back down where Marcus was looking. “True. Unfortunately no one is going to know about it for a while.”
“Yes, but they’ll know about it in the future and I hope to still be alive and able shove it down their throats.” Both men laughed.
Bobcat looked up at Marcus, a glint in his eye. “Want to see a real alien spaceship?”
The Queen Bitch's Ship Polarus
Ecaterina knocked on Bethany Anne’s door, and then walked in when Bethany Anne called out to her. Her boss was reading on her laptop in bed, getting a better understanding of some of the businesses her father was reviewing, specifically those which were related to blood disorders. She looked up. “What’s up?”
Ecaterina sat down on a chair. “I just had a conversation with the San Jose Police Department contact. It seems we have a potential issue with our reporter down there.” Bethany Anne closed her laptop and gave Ecaterina her undivided attention. “Some agents from the United States are looking into our efforts to clean up the city a few weeks ago.”
Bethany Anne frowned. “Well, that’s a real pain in the ass. I wonder how Michael’s team dealt with this? Never mind, Frank always did it and we’ve been trying to keep Frank off the radar. It looks like we need to get him involved again with this.”
“Yes, I talked with Frank. He informs me that the situation has already gone too far for him to do anything in the short term.”
Bethany Anne put her elbow on the laptop, resting her chin in her hand. “Why is it I get the impression I haven’t heard the rest of the appeal?”
Ecaterina said, “Our police contact has requested our help in trying to extract the reporter. That is what you call it, extract, correct? Anyway, she wants us to help get her out of the city and away from the American agents.”
Bethany Anne pondered this for a minute. While she had no direct connection with the reporter, she did like her spunk and the articles she wrote helped calm the city down. “Okay, we don’t forsake our own, and while she doesn’t know much about us, she has been helpful. Let’s get Gabrielle and the team together and send some people with Bobcat and Shelly to San Jose and pick her up. Who knows, maybe she can be helpful to us at the same time.”
Ecaterina went to the door, opened it and called out to Darryl who was on station and requested he grab the rest of the team for a quick meeting.
Five minutes later Dan, Gabrielle and the team were in the meeting room with Ecaterina and Bethany Anne. It seemed like it should be a simple decision to fly to San Jose, grab the reporter, and fly back.
But once the team understood they would be working against, who they presumed were the CIA, it caused a few concerns on the part of Darryl and Scott. Gabrielle had no issues with it at all, as one might suspect. She looked over at her two team members, and asked them what their concerns were.
Darryl looked at her. “We’re talking about operating against American interests. I recognize that we might have some bad people from time to time, but how can we be sure this team is bad?”
Gabrielle replied, “Why would a simple snatch cause a problem?”
Scott said, “It isn’t just grabbing her and bringing her to the Polarus that’s the problem. The problem occurs if we have to get into an altercation, or a firefight.”
Ecaterina put her phone down on the table, the noise catching everyone’s attention. She hit the play button and everyone was able to listen to the voice of the contact from the San Jose Police Department. It was obvious she was emotionally disturbed after her meeting with the American. It was hard not to feel empathy for the person behind the voice.
Gabrielle spoke into the silence, “In my country, not too many decades ago, we had a government that was only successful by hiding the truth. Reporters, both those that are highly valued and those who seek truth make some governments unhappy. These reporters are just as valuable to a people as other agents who might be working for the government in a foreign country. Remember, this is her country, and the United States has no right to hurt a reporter who, may I remind you, told stories about what we did. I am not suggesting the United States is trying to harm her. But something is going on that causes her to be concerned for her life. All we will be doing is going to pick her up and bring her here, if no one shoots at us, we obviously won’t be shooting at anyone else. But might I ask what you would be willing to do if someone is shooting at us?”
The look that came over Darryl and Scott’s face told Gabrielle all she needed to know. Darryl spoke for both of them, “If someone is shooting at us for a simple taxi ride? I doubt they have our best interests at heart and unfortunately, whether they know it or not, they would not have the world’s best interests at heart. I would, we would, have to defend ourselves.” Scott agreed.
Up until now, Bethany Anne had stayed quiet. She rapped her knuckles against the table to get everyone’s attention. “Let’s get this out in the open right now. My focus, our focus, is to protect the world. Without the world, it won’t matter if you’re from the United States, Germany, Romania, Costa Rica, Russia, China… you get the idea. Unfortunately, we will ruffle feathers. When you ruffle the feathers of really powerful people? They come after you. We will have issues with some people in the United States. What we will never have is issues with the people of the United States. I don’t believe that every person in the United States government, or any government across the world, can be said to focus on their peoples’ best interest. Some will, some won’t. However, we are focused on saving the earth. Up till now, your fights have been easy. The Forsaken and the people associated with them have just been in a different country. Realize we will have enemies who have no clue about the UnknownWorld. They will want what we have, they will want TOM’s ship, they will want our technology, they will want me, they will want Frank, they will want my dad, they will want you. Some of those who choose to fight us will believe right is on their side. Unfortunately, I can’t agree with that. There will be people, possibly the President of United States and others, who may decide they are better prepared or possibly consider themselves or their role better positioned to accomplish the effort of saving the world.”
She paused and looked at each of them. “I won’t begin to question how well-meaning they might be. The same way I wouldn’t question how well-meaning China might be, or Russia might be, or Great Britain might be.” As each foreign country was mentioned, the men at the table realized they had introduced their sense of nationalism into the meeting. If the United States held all of the cards, there was no way that Russia or China would play along. The only chance to accomplish the goals quickly meant being as neutral as possible. The fact that Bethany Anne, and most of her team, were Americans was already a potential problem for the future.
John spoke into the quiet, “As for me, Ad Aeternitatem.”
Eric spoke next. “Ad Aeternitatem.”
Darryl looked over at Gabrielle. “Sorry.” He looked at Bethany Anne. “Ad Aeternitatem.”
It was Scott’s turn, he looked over Gabrielle. “I apologize, Ad Aeternitatem.”
Dan nodded at Bethany Anne, they had already had this conversation a while back on the tarmac of a small airport in Miami.
Dan chose to send Gabrielle, Darryl and Scott with Bobcat. Two hours later, after the extended tanks were filled, the team left to fly to San Jose. Ecaterina called the contact to let her know the approximate ETA.
Constanta, Romania
Scott was walking off his anger. He had been walking for the last hour and a half; he had a lot of anger. While he wanted to blame this Bethany Anne for Clarita’s death, being honest with himself he realized it was both Clarita’s fault as well as that bastard Adrian. Adrian for killing someone, and Clarita’s for trusting that sick bastard in the first place.
It was jus
t easier to blame Bethany Anne than put the blame on a woman who had pulled him out of the depression he had been in for most of his life. He stopped a couple of hundred yards from the house, standing, looking up at the stars trying to make the world right again. He stood there, silent, still working out his issues when he heard the crunching of steps on pebbles, of people walking down a small trail coming in his direction. He turned slightly and crouched down, in case he was outlined against the night sky.
His hearing was superb. Unfortunately, what he heard was plans to rush Stephen’s home to attack and kill everyone inside. There was a small argument about just ‘blowing the fucking thing apart’ and a scathing retort asking how the original talker would confirm Stephen’s death? What if he was underground? Would the ‘blow it up and let God sort out the remains’ guy like to try and remove all of the rubble to find a door, only to figure out Stephen had left by another route days before?
Scott had heard enough. He started moving back towards the house, staying in a crouch. He managed to get halfway back when he moved around a bush and stepped squarely on a branch making a resounding crack. That did it. He was screwed on the sneaking part. He decided that speed was the best choice and took off running for the front door.
He heard a commotion behind him, some yelling. Well, if nothing else he and his siblings would be able to mount a defense inside the house instead of being caught unawares. Maybe Stephen had a good place to run to and then escape in the house. He was only twenty feet from the door when he heard a rocket go off behind him.
Stephen could hear someone approaching the house rapidly. He stood up and paid attention to the door. Alerted by Stephen’s actions, Claudia and Juan turned to look in the same direction. While Scott should be back sometime soon, they hadn’t expected him to be running for the front door.
Scott yelled out, certain they could hear him inside, “We are under att…” The rocket propelled grenade hit him square in the back, driving him into the front door before exploding, ending his life.
13
Stephen covered his face as the front door was blown into his house. Chunks of debris rained down from the ceiling above. Claudia screamed.
Stephen became calm, as cold as ice. No one in the UnknownWorld would be attacking him except one of his brothers. Anton would be his first guess, but he wouldn’t rule out any of them until he got a name and he would, by God, have a name very soon.
Ivan came running from the kitchen. Stephen reached over and grabbed Claudia by the arm, pulling her up off of the chair and out of her stupor, and he pushed her to Ivan. “Ivan, please, take Claudia and go down to my bedroom. Take her through the door. You know the one I’m talking about, yes?” Ivan nodded. “Good. You two step inside and lock it from the inside. You will be safe there until I take care of this.”
Ivan grabbed Claudia’s hand and gently pulled her in the direction of the stairs going down. She finally caught on to what was happening and became an active participant, quickly leaving the first floor for safety.
Juan and Stephen looked around, seeing Scott’s body, in pieces, in the foyer. Both of them heard rapid steps coming at them. Stephen spoke, “Come with me, we can defend much easier from the kitchen.” When they arrived in the kitchen, Stephen reached under one of the cabinets and flipped a lock mechanism, then reached down to open a cabinet door and retrieved a pistol, tossing it to Juan. “These are loaded with silver, and will deliver quite a painful lesson not to intrude. Are you good using that?”
Juan agreed, “I am good using this, and most things you can provide me.” Stephen pulled out two short swords tossing one to Juan.
“That’s all I have up here. I wasn’t as prepared for a frontal attack as maybe I should have been. When we finish with these asshats, I will make sure to rectify that immediately.”
Bobcat was about half an hour outside of Costa Rica when he received a call from the ship. Gabrielle heard him say “Roger” before he turned around to get her attention. “We have the coordinates of her building. It seems she is concerned about them coming back right now. Additional agents have met up with someone she saw earlier so she’s going up to the roof and we’ll grab her from there. We have a rope ladder in the back, have the guys set it up in case we need it.”
Gabrielle passed along the instructions to Darryl and Scott who got busy. Fifteen minutes later, Bobcat turned around to get Gabrielle’s attention again. “I just got word we got pinged, they’re going to know we’re on our way so this might be a hot landing.” Gabrielle nodded in acknowledgment.
She got Darryl and Scott’s attention. “We’ll have to pick up our contact off the roof so I don’t want either of you firing any shots at all. I understand you both are fully on the team, but there is no need to push your feelings on this matter right now. I will handle the situation, understand?” Both men nodded in understanding.
Gabrielle unhooked her sword belt from behind her back and set it aside. If she had to move quickly, she doubted the sword was going to be beneficial. Fortunately, she didn’t expect to have to behead any Forsaken this time.
Bobcat saw they were attracting attention from those on the street and in buildings below. He hated not knowing how high up their permission for this operation went. If they didn’t have some high level authority to be flying over San Jose, this operation might get pretty dicey, pretty quick.
Matthew Burnside was frustrated with his job. He and three other agents had been detailed go back to talk with Giannini Oviedo at her apartment and ‘respectfully request’ that she come with them for additional questioning. He wasn’t sure how he could respectfully request anything. When four foreign agents showed up at her door, it could be nothing less than intimidating to the woman.
Five minutes from her apartment building, he received a phone call from the CIA agent in charge. “Burnside here,” he listened intently to the man on the other end of the line. “What do you mean there’s a Black Hawk coming in at us? Who the hell is sending a Black Hawk… you mean the group from the other week is back?”
Matthew could feel the eyes of the other agents in the car staring at him as he listened. “Look, we aren’t black operatives here, our job is research and support of information which we then move up the chain. The fact that you’re asking us to do field operations is outside of our normal purview. What the hell do you want me to do against a paramilitary group? Hell no, I will not grab or snatch a woman illegally. Look, you do your job and I’ll do mine. We’ll make it work, fine, we’re almost there and we will ask her gently to come with us. Yes, I will tell her the other group is coming after her, but that’s all I’ll fucking do. We aren’t going to commit a felony just because you have your panties in a twist about talking to this woman. Yeah, well, bite me.” Matthew stabbed the cancel button on his phone. “Fucking prick.”
He turned around to the guys in the back of the car. “I’m sure you heard that, but we have the paramilitary group, or who we suspect is them, coming after our contact. We need to rush upstairs and persuade her to come with us.” One of the agents in the back asked a question. “What? No, this is not a snatch and grab. I’m not committing any felonies for some dick over in operations. You know as well as I do that if something goes wrong, he would disappear and we would be left holding the bag. So, we do this politely, and we do this legally.” He pointed at a building a block and a half down and on the left. “That’s her building. Park in the first spot you can find and let’s go.”
They were able to find a place to park a half a block away. As they got out, Matthew spotted two more agents coming from the other direction that met them at the front door of the building. He stared at them. “Who the hell are you?”
“Backup.” Matthew looked at both of them, neither one offered him any more explanation.
Matthew shrugged. “Fine, we’ll go get the lady you guys can stay out here.” Matthew’s group went into the building, with the two agents tagging along at the end. He couldn’t force them to stay behind, so h
e just ignored them and kept going up to her door.
When he approached the door, he turned around and looked at his team, including the two new guys. “Hey, she’s a little bit sensitive about strange men and her apartment, why don’t all of you back off about fifteen feet?” The two new agents took a few steps back. It was the most he could hope for so he ignored the rest and turned around and knocked on her door.
He got no response. He knocked a little louder this time and waited. Nothing. One of the two agents came up beside him. “Is this the right place?”
Matthew looked at him with annoyance. “I was just here this morning. Yes, this is the right place.”
The agent took one step back. “Good to know.” He pivoted on his left leg using his right to kick the door on the doorjamb, the door slamming open.
“What the hell?” But there was no one there to yell at, the agent had already entered her apartment. Matthew was pushed aside by the second agent. By the time he and his team got in, the other two agents were walking back from what must’ve been her bedroom.
“She isn’t here, are you sure she didn’t leave the building?” Matthew at first thought the question was directed at him before the other agent answered.
“We didn’t see her leaving through the front door, and we have her car staked out as well. So unless she decided to leave by the back door and walk, she’s still in the building somewhere.”
Matthew was watching this byplay when he realized a new noise was coming from outside. He stepped closer to the window and pushed aside the drapes when he recognized the sound. “Guys, we’ve just run out of time, I hear the helicopter approaching.” The two strange agents stared at each other for a few seconds as if they were communing telepathically.
The first one looked at the second one. “Roof?”
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 94