Just like that, Michael’s irritation at Bethany Anne evaporated. “It is mine to clean up. I still owe you, for you having to deal with everything while I was… indisposed.”
Bethany Anne was aware Michael had a problem with admitting how weak he had been while in David’s captivity. He still didn’t like it when he had to refer to his time in the vessel. He never would tell Bethany Anne how he had been trapped. When she cornered Stephen, he hadn’t known either.
“The past is just the past, Michael. What do you think we need to do about the American Pack Council?”
“Kill them all?”
Gott Verdammt! Bethany Anne was ready to give Michael both barrels about how killing everyone wasn’t the only option, when she heard the silent chuckle escape his lips.
She bit back her first words and instead said, “You ass-riding scrotum king!” This time, Michael didn’t try to hold back his laughter. Nor the laughter when she kept calling him names. “You flipping slut-sucking experimental nipple dictator!” She stopped calling him names when she realized he had put his hand over the phone and was howling with glee.
Eric was busy, typing furiously on his phone. John looked over at him. “Duplicate?” Eric pressed the return key, “Hell no, how the… uh, stuff does she come up with so many?”
She waited, and waited, and fucking waited. Mind you, what seemed like forever was probably only fifteen seconds. Michael wasn’t usually comfortable letting loose very much. She could almost imagine him daintily wiping a tear away from his eye.
When he returned to the phone call, he was as much the ever reserved ass-munch he had been when she first met him. “So, if that isn’t an option, what would you suggest?”
She was tempted to tell him ‘kill them all’ as a joke, but he might take that as permission. “Call Gerry and set up a meeting for the council, leave the reason for the meeting vague and show up to find out who the guilty party is. Then keep the punishment to a minimum. I’m not really fond of using death as the only punishment for all crimes. Kind of sucks when minor littering is death, jaywalking is death, running a yellow light is death…”
Michael sniffed. “Perhaps, but it makes the punishment phase very easy.”
“A little lazy, but I understand.” Bethany Anne noticed they were on the South Dixie Highway and she was hungry. She leaned forward and covered the phone, more for appearances than keeping the vampire on the line from hearing anything. “Hey, pause the Bugatti run. I needs me some Joe’s dogs.”
John smiled. Bethany Anne had been buying Joe’s ever since they first met her and she had convinced the proprietor to swing by and feed Dan’s group. If by convince you meant dropping twenty-five large ones on him. His place was on the main road into Miami proper from her house and damn near every time she went near the place she would have them swing through.
Eric knew that once they finished stuffing their faces, Bethany Anne would probably be over the ‘need for speed’ feeling. “So close.” He muttered under his breath.
Michael considered her response. “Ok. Do you want me to come up there for this?”
Bethany Anne returned to her conversation with Michael. “Not sure, I’ll talk with Gerry and Nathan and see what we need to do. If you show up, we’re liable to have people jumping out of the windows.” Michael kept quiet, she could be right.
They said their good-byes as John pulled up. The red food trailer didn’t presently have anyone in line. Before he could come to a complete stop, Bethany Anne was out of the SUV and heading to the window.
Eric looked over at John. “Can’t we get her back on track? Do you know how much a Bugatti costs? We would have made Guard’s Hall of Fame for the sickest ride ever. Those things are a cool million for used.” Eric looked back at his boss who was talking with the guy in the trailer. “Damn. So close.” Eric and John got out of the SUV and walked over to say hi to their friend.
The Queen Bitch’s Ship Ad Aeternitatem
Stephen allowed everyone to chat for a minute. It wasn’t a secret why they were meeting—well, except to Bobcat’s team. They had been sequestered and didn’t have any external T.V. connection. But now, Todd and Pete had brought all three of them up to date.
“It has been said…” Stephen, like most vampires, could layer emotions into the air with his vocal cords. He understood it to be a method of affecting humans, and used it now while he talked. He didn’t employ it often, but he had been affected himself by Michael’s use of it back in Argentina and now considered it a very useful tool. Here he was layering enough ‘danger’ into his voice that everyone immediately stopped talking and quickly tried to find the source.
He quit doing it and repeated himself into the now silent room. “It has been said that for evil to prosper, all it takes is for good men and women to do nothing. I would modify that to say all it takes is for good men and women to not be permitted to do something.”
He had everyone’s attention. He looked over the team that Bethany Anne had entrusted him with. It had been many, many decades since he had more than himself to be concerned with. Even in World War II he had been an independent. Fortunately, the skill of leading people, however many centuries ago it might have been when you first learned it, didn’t just evaporate. “I interrupted two of us discussing the actions of the terrorists in France. One was wishing to have the opportunity to ‘do something’ while the other, perhaps in ignorance, simply asked ‘why can’t we?’
“I asked all of you to come to this meeting to ask if you believe that our mission would be served if we ‘do something.’ Is it worth the risks, the potential loss of lives, your lives, to get involved?”
Captain Thomas spoke up, “Do you believe it’s something that Bethany Anne would want us to get involved in?”
Stephen smiled. “Do you mean, would Bethany Anne see all of the innocents killed, maimed and injured and feel a righteous anger and a desire to right the wrongs done against them?”
Captain Thomas shook his head quickly. No one believed Bethany Anne wouldn’t have a burning desire to help those who suffered, and put paid to those responsible for the heinous acts. “No, we all know that answer. I’m asking would Bethany Anne consider the effort to get involved worth the risk. Both to the people and to the Ad Aeternitatem?”
Stephen pursed his lips. “When I first met Bethany Anne, she changed my future. She asked me, after I drank from her, to be her eyes and ears in Europe. I took responsibility for the UnknownWorld in Europe. Now, Europe is my protectorate. You are charged with helping me. Our mission, in the end, is to save the Earth. We are going to cause many changes in the near future. If, through the changes we bring about, we create more fear these… people… will use it and we will have hurt those we are trying to help. I have seen atrocities that make what has happened in France seem like a family squabble. I am not the right person to judge if what has happened warrants our involvement.”
He looked around at all of those in the room with him. He could hear the breathing of the many crew standing outside the door. “Our Queen was willing to gamble the fate of the world’s future on her ability to come and rescue one person… me.” He stopped looking at people and remembered how he had lain on the floor, pain racking his body, as Reginald stood over him. He could see her as she exited his hallway, two pistols in her hands and mouthing the words that sealed the doom of both Terence and Reginald.
Stephen stood up. “But, if you ask me, I’ll tell you that I believe those cock-tip sucking, fudge-loving, fucking retarded clusterfuck, shit-faced ass jackers need to be sent to whatever heaven they believe in, sooner, rather than later. They don’t represent their faith, they represent hate and hate will kill the world just as quickly as any aliens might.”
Shouts of agreement reverberated throughout the ships. It seemed Captain Thomas had left his communications gear that kept him in contact with the Polarus on and sending.
The details needed to be ironed out, but the Queen Bitch’s Navy would be going to war.
5
Las Vegas, NV USA
Tom and Jeffrey were finished with the data upload that ADAM had requested. They had shot the forty-three requests over to Nathan and Bethany Anne. She only asked to leave off anything with recent history and they got busy pulling the rest of the data. Unfortunately, it meant a lot of data cleaning to keep the information as close to the requested subjects as possible.
They failed on one of the books and ADAM was quick to ask for more about, of all things possible, Bugs Bunny cartoons. One of the books had used Bugs Bunny cartoons as examples to discuss different physics problems.
After some back and forth, it was decided to ignore that request. They could imagine Bugs Bunny progressing to Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Marvin the Martian and many other characters, which would open up the requests to too many variables.
They had no idea that their decision to leave out uploading those cartoons would play a role in ADAM’s future.
ADAM’s communication skills were getting better although it still required a fair amount of typing on Tom’s part. Jeffrey was a poor typist and Tom had hundreds of thousands of lines of code under his belt. His typing speed was pretty high.
After some conversation, they decided that they would stick with typed commands instead of trying to interface voice communications. The main concern was mistranslation issues from the humans back into the computer for ADAM. The secondary concern was if something happened to be said while the system was on, but the communication hadn’t been meant for ADAM. Jeffrey figured that the last problem he wanted to deal with was ADAM wanting to know what ‘go fuck yourself’ meant should Tom mouth off to him.
Just a few miles away, inside the grounds of Nellis Air Force Base there was a party given to the outgoing cyber-security and intelligence officer. Their new officer had arrived that afternoon from Hurlburt Field, Florida.
As Captain Benjamin G. Stockton got settled into his new post, he overheard two of the enlisted personnel discuss the massive amount of downloads happening at the bunkers outside the fence.
Data Bunkers? That sounded ominous. He wrote down a note to follow up on that comment later in the week.
Turkey
David was in the back seat of the Mercedes-Benz SUV. All of the back windows had been blacked out, in case his driver could not locate an appropriate stopping point before sunrise. They had landed in Istanbul, and had driven from there. They should hit Konya before morning.
David was looking for just the right location. A town with enough people that he had a chance to procure enough fresh blood without causing too much confusion right away. Yet it had to be small enough and far enough from supporting towns that a trap could be set.
Preferably it would be in a location that his contacts in the PKK would be able to get approval for a focused attack, to help their own effort against the Turkish government.
For his plan to have the best chance of success, he wanted one near the Syrian border. That would cause the U.S. forces in the region to jump at the chance, if a neutral military partner was selected as the group to liberate the small town.
Small town, small force. They would be weakened by his Nosferatu and then finished by the PKK.
Key Biscayne, FL USA
Bethany Anne was resting on the bed in her suite. She wasn’t tired, thanks to the large consumption of Coke an hour ago.
She was feeling anxious. Something was bothering her and she couldn’t tell what it was. Something subconscious…
Tom?
Yes.
Are you doing anything that would cause me to feel anxious?
No, I’m not doing anything that should affect your emotions. I am working with the computer, but that hasn’t caused you any problems recently. Not that I am aware of.
No, me neither. Bethany Anne stared at her ceiling. What are you running?
I’m trying to determine how to best communicate with Marcus without you getting involved. It does get a bit lonely in here from time to time and I will admit that I am looking forward to working on the math involved with the engineering for the ships.
Bethany Anne considered that for a minute. Tom had never admitted to being lonely, at least not that she could remember. Now, he was getting involved in helping design the ships with Team BMW, and she was the limiting factor.
All because she had a fear of getting into the pod-doc again. She studied that feeling and tried to figure out why she felt that way.
No control, plain and simple.
Bethany Anne was a control freak about her body now. She had a large amount to be thankful for from the changes that TOM, and by extension the Kurtherians, had made. But she didn’t like that she didn’t know exactly what was going to happen. The first time she woke up, she had an alien tag-along.
TOM, what is the absolute best way to make this communication with Marcus happen as seamlessly as possible?
With or without going into the pod-doc?
The absolute best way.
There is a way to add a micro-miniature communication device that can operate through the Etheric, using very little energy, and communicate with anything here on your world. Most of the time, we would use a repeater that has a connection to your Internet.
How do we make sure nothing can attack the computer in my head?
Seriously? Didn’t I make this argument when we watched Independence Day?
Humor me, it isn’t like you have anywhere to go. Bethany Anne sighed. I’m sorry, TOM. That was uncalled for.
What are you talking about? I can’t go anywhere because I chose to ‘hitch a ride,’ as you call it, without permission. I’ve at least got to accept that responsibility.
Bethany Anne sat up in bed and used her palms to rub her eyes. It’s not that, TOM. She looked around her suite, everything in place and yet still cold. She thought back to her earlier plan of buying a Bugatti and racing around Miami.
She was running. Running from the responsibility of moving forward with the connectivity. It was the best solution to get the little ships going quickly and she was being a big fat…
I’m scared, TOM.
Of?
Losing control. Not knowing and approving everything that goes on when I go in the pod-doc.
Bethany Anne, I’m sorry for failing to get your permission to…
Stop, just stop. This isn’t about that. At least, not anymore. I understand why you did what you did. I’ve got to own up that I’ve been treating you as a second class citizen. I’ve been using ‘you hitching a ride’ as a bludgeon to beat you back into a safe box. No more, it ends right now. We are either partners who will make it to the end together or we fail together. I refuse to treat you as any less than my closest friend. That’s figurative, you’re already my closest friend literally.
She smiled at that thought. Not even a lover could be any closer than TOM.
She sat up, and Ashur’s big head poked itself above the end of her bed, watching her. She smiled at the dog, and whispered, “We’re going to sneak out, make sure no one is in the hall.”
Ashur turned around and went over to the suite door and stuck a nose to the floorboard, and then cocked his head to get an ear by it. When Ashur looked back at her he gave her a soft ‘woof.’
She pointed to the closet and Ashur padded silently over to the room and went in.
She followed and closed the door gently behind her and locked it.
Bethany Anne? What are you doing?
We. What are we doing.
TOM was silent for a moment. He knew something momentous had just occurred, but he wasn’t sure what it meant for his future.
Ok, what are we doing?
We’re sneaking over to the Ad Aeternitatem and jumping in the pod-doc before anyone knows we’re gone and then sneaking back. This won’t take long, right?
No, probably a couple of hours.
Bethany Anne thought about that. She should be good for three, maybe four, hours before anyone had a reason to bother her.
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What about taking the phone?
Fuck me. Yeah, if anyone calls and it just rings someone will eventually come looking. She gently opened the door and went over to her nightstand and picked up her phone. She didn’t bother putting any clothes on as she would just be taking them off in the ship.
Besides, no one was supposed to see her.
She closed the door again and locked it. Reaching over she snagged Ashur by his neck and they disappeared.
Anton’s former residence Buenos Aires Argentina
Michael was tapping his chin as he studied the banking information he had set aside earlier. Anton had been into a lot of businesses. He actually had quite a stake in a lot of Michael’s own companies.
If he read Anton’s notes correctly, he had made a killing in local oil companies over the decades and had stolen a large percentage of a country’s GDP.
Michael was trying to figure out how to get a significant portion of the money back to the people to whom it truly belonged.
In years past, he would have added it to his own holdings and figured that being under his management was better than what had happened previously.
But that wasn’t Bethany Anne’s way of doing things and annoyingly enough, it mattered to Michael what she might think. So he considered how to mitigate Anton’s dealings here in South America. The latest Argentinian government had dropped capital controls. Now a bunch of people were selling the peso and purchasing dollars. This action was causing the devaluation of the peso at an alarming rate.
Maybe it was time he used the massive amount of funds from Anton’s reserves to see if he could first help support Argentina and, from a good base here, the rest of South America.
Michael smiled. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he had the beginnings of a plan and damned if he didn’t feel good about doing it as well.
Not a chance he would mention that fact to Bethany Anne should it ever come up.
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 110