“Patricia.”
Lance was caught unprepared. He was expecting to have to play twenty questions. He never would have thought Patricia was the one person he would offend. He never would have wanted to do that. “How? When?”
“For the last umpteen years.”
“Then why did she come work for me?” Lance was puzzled, he thought Patricia was happy. At least, she always seemed happy.
“Dad.” Bethany Anne made sure she had his attention. “She loves you. You treat her like a secretary in the Army, friendly but untouchable.”
Lance was shocked. His world just got twisted on its ear.
Bethany Anne reached over and snapped her fingers to get him to focus. “Stay with me, Dad. You aren’t in the Army anymore, you’re private. You can have a relationship or not have a relationship. But what you can’t do is not let Patricia know if you’re available for a relationship. You can’t continue to ignore the love she has for you.”
Patricia was available? Patricia loved him?
Bethany Anne looked over again and noticed he wasn’t tracking. She smiled and let him think about it for a couple of minutes.
“You said she loves me?”
The gruff Army general wasn’t in the vehicle at the moment. Her dad was, and Bethany Anne couldn’t be happier. “Yes, she certainly believes she does. But unless you’re willing to return her affections and see if the relationship can go anywhere, she is going to love this ideal of you until the day she dies.”
“Dies? Bethany Anne, can’t you help like you did for Frank and me?”
“Certainly, but will she want that? Not everyone wants to take the oath to do whatever it takes to save the world. The benefits are great but the price is steep, Dad.”
He nodded. He had a lot to think about. This wasn’t the lunch conversation he had expected to have today. Or, frankly, ever.
The Queen Bitch’s Ship Ad Aeternitatem
William got up early. He figured that the other two, after their quiet deliberation and a couple of beers last night, would follow him later.
He was surprised to find Marcus already in the garage, typing on the new laptop, communicating with TOM.
“What’re you talking with TOM about, Doc?”
Marcus looked up and smiled. “Life the Universe and Everything.” When he got no response from William, he continued, “Not a Douglas Adams fan?”
“Who? Is he another rocket scientist? Because I have to admit that you’re my first, Doc. I’ve popped my cherry on you, my friend.”
A laugh erupted from Marcus. “I’m your first rocket scientist, William? You guys have some of the most puerile humor. I love it.” He looked back at the laptop.
“Puerile, Doc? Don’t make me beat you senseless to find out it was something nice.”
Marcus answered without looking up. “It means immature. I find the effort you and Bobcat make to keep your teenage humor alive enjoyable. As a scientist, too many of us spend our early years trying to be taken seriously. By the time we’re old enough to wear serious correctly, we’ve lost the ability to enjoy the youth we left behind.”
“That fucking sucks, Doc.”
“That it does, William. That it does.” Marcus was typing furiously.
William looked over the whiteboard. There wasn’t anything new on it. He got out a fresh pad and pen, pulled a chair out across from the doc and started doodling.
William was perplexed. They had an original design for three people and after the big meeting with Stephen and the captains, the team had talked with Pete and Todd. They had decided that their fire teams were going to be limited to three, and a shitload of equipment.
That meant four per ship when you included the pilot.
“Damned shame that we have to put a pilot in these things.”
“Hmmm?”
William hadn’t been talking to Marcus, as Marcus was so absorbed in his communication with TOM. “I said, it’s a bit of a shame that we have to have four people on the ships. When you include the three from the fire team, plus a pilot and all of the gear we might as well design an SUV for these guys.”
Marcus looked up from his typing, his eyes losing the glazed over look of someone who is just now starting to pay attention to you. “SUV? What is that, a Support Utility Vehicle?”
Smiling, William replied, “No, Sport Utility Vehicle, like a truck?”
Marcus grimaced. “I’m sorry, William. My head was nodding but no one was listening. What were you asking?”
“I said, it’s a shame that we have to have four people plus all of their gear. Shoving all of these requirements into a rocket design is limiting. What happens when they land? If we assume they’re all standing up when the fins touch the ground, then they step off. If we try to land sideways, then that’s all good, but taking off…”
William realized that their whole discussion from the previous evening had made their first designs a moot point.
“Doc, can you ask TOM what he would design for four people and a crap-ton of equipment as the most logical design for flight and for manufacturing?”
“Certainly.” Marcus got to typing.
The door opened and Bobcat called out a good morning. William raised a hand. Bobcat wouldn’t have a hangover. The man was too professional for that. But he’d be a little easier to talk with after a cup of the brown nectar.
Bobcat came over to the table and pulled out a chair next to William, setting his coffee down. “What’s Doc up to?”
“Talking with TOM, asking him what the best design for four people and gear would be.”
“Good idea, you come up with that?”
William grunted.
“Seriously?”
William grunted again.
“No way.”
“Way.”
Bobcat took another careful sip of his coffee, that shit was hot. “Good fucking idea. Five bucks says he comes back with a circle or sphere.”
William looked over at the project lead. “Why?”
Bobcat shrugged. “It’s in all of our stories, so there must be something to it. Best use of space for traveling through outer space? Couldn’t tell you.”
William was in. “I’ll see your five and raise you five.”
“Ok, deal. But why?”
“His design isn’t a standard round orb. I think those are made when you don’t have a clue what you need to fly through. Since he knows our atmosphere, he’ll adapt.”
“Ok, that works.”
The two friends sat in silence while Marcus typed furiously.
Finally, Marcus sat back. “I’ll be fucked.”
Bobcat took a sip. “Why? Is it round?”
“Nope.”
William smiled. “That’s ten for me.”
Bobcat reached for his wallet to pay up. “What design did the little alien genius come up with?”
Marcus scratched the back of his head, “You might not believe this, but he said ‘buy something.’”
Bobcat said, “What?” William snatched the ten before Bobcat could recant the bet. Bobcat never noticed the ten leaving his fingers.
Marcus explained, “Yes. He said there are multiple problems with manufacturing something specific for this design in the time frame that Bethany Anne wants. If we want our first version flying soon, then we can buy an airplane or a helicopter and update the engines. That way, unless we foul up too badly it won’t look like anything out of the ordinary.”
“Genius.” Bobcat smiled. “I want one for Shelly!”
William jumped up, his chair sliding backwards. “Hell yeah! That bird will be the baddest ass of badass helicopters in the world!” He started to do a dance to music only he could hear.
Bobcat’s smile turned to a frown. “Wait, how is that going to work at speed? Shelly isn’t aerodynamic for shit.”
Marcus shrugged. “The aerodynamics help, but you can tune the engine to facilitate creating a shield that pushes the air out of the way, for the most part. We can’t hit the hig
hest speeds, but if the shield sphere is large enough, it would allow us to get somewhere quickly and then switch to regular mode to land.”
William stopped his dancing. “So, we could build a huge metal box and that would fly?”
Marcus started typing. “Yes, it would in a pinch but no one would believe a flying box, you know?”
William started looking around the room, “Yeah, but think about all of the space here on the Ad Aeternitatem. How many boxes or… well, coffins do you think we could manufacture and fit on here?”
Bobcat looked around. “You’re thinking single person craft?”
William nodded. “Yup.”
“What about pilots?”
“We make sure everyone knows how to pilot?”
Marcus was busy typing. “TOM says that we can have AI controlled craft.”
Bobcat asked. “AI? Like the stuff that Bethany Anne is working with?”
Marcus was reading, his eyes scanning text as it scrolled across his screen. “No, more like KI controlled.”
“K?” William looked over at Bobcat who shrugged his response.
“Kurtherian. He says he can run all operations through his ship and a powerful computer that he has access to. It wouldn’t take too much direction directly through the Etheric. Impossible to block and instantaneous.”
Marcus looked up at them. “Would the men be ok with that? An alien driving?”
Bobcat answered, “You mean piloting? Shit, they’re trusting his engines to work. It should only be a short step sideways for them to believe that the alien is the best pilot. Unless, we have a pilot, in which case all pilots have an itchy problem with others piloting.” He paused, thinking. “But I still want to put one in Shelly.”
William grabbed his pen and started drawing. “What about something where they’re sitting down? I can’t believe that anyone wants to fly on their back, or their stomach. We can build the front to open…”
“You mean like Urkel’s car?”
“Yeah! The BMW Isetta.”
Bobcat smiled. The Isetta. “Guys, new project name, the IZTA.”
Marcus looked up from his typing. “What does that stand for?”
Bobcat shrugged. “Beats the fuck out of me, but give me time and I’ll think of something.”
William was busy pulling up old pictures of the Isetta to see if he could grab any of their engineering ideas for his own craft.
They had a plan.
9
Buenos Aries, Argentina
It had taken two days for Michael to outfit Tabitha. In those two days, he had gotten to know this young human female better than he had known any human in the last two centuries.
Tabitha had shared how Anton’s people had found her on the dark web. How they learned enough about her to threaten those she loved. She had been so afraid of anyone finding out that she was alive, she hadn’t even tried to reach out to her family.
Bethany Anne and Gabrielle had shared with her the destruction of Anton’s group. And that Tabitha could reach out to her family again.
Tabitha had considered reaching out. But after a couple of hours back in Miami, she had decided not to do it. Her parents were divorced, she had lived with her mother and had been in and out of the home for most of her teenage life. Right now, she was ok. Her mother might have worried about her. Having been gone longer this time without coming back. But letting her know that she was alive wasn’t going to provide her any comfort.
When Bethany Anne had asked Tabitha about what she knew of the UnknownWorld, she had held most of her cards close to her chest. She had acted the tough girl. One with a chip on her shoulder and a smartass attitude. It was her protection. Protection from guys who wanted more than she was willing to even think about giving. From adults who had wanted to ‘protect’ her when she was younger. She survived by learning and planning.
When she was in Anton’s group, she had learned enough to start searching for the truth about vampires. And with what she had found she also learned that there were Weres. Not just stories, but in reality.
She had done it by hacking banks and financial institutions. From there, she tracked names and aliases through various companies. She knew she would need a place to start. She decided that there was one item she might be able to track… age. The people had to be old enough, she thought, to leave a trail and then she figured that they would be rich, rich, rich.
She had kept her notes on paper. She wasn’t going to have her own files hacked as she had done to others. She wrapped her notes up in little hearts and fake stories. Her list of Michael and his children were under the heading, ‘boyfriend name ideas.’
She had written scripts that would search the databases. Then they would leave the data, at drop points, in encrypted files on the dark web. She was careful when she picked up her data, always running through multiple cutouts to keep her tracks out of any server logs.
It had almost worked. When Michael was right in front of her, the proof of all of her hard work was staring at her. She had shrieked like a fangirl meeting her boy band idol. And she threw her information right out in front of Bethany Anne and Michael. It wasn’t until after Bethany Anne left that Tabitha realized she could have been in deep trouble. What if they had been worried about her hacking and data gathering?
“Michael?”
“Hmm?” He was reading through notes he had pulled from Anton’s files. He seemed constantly focused and working to understand the notes.
“Why didn’t you or Bethany Anne get upset when I showed you my notes on your children?”
Michael looked up from his folder. Tabitha hadn’t been bad so far, but he did find that she tried his patience from time to time. He thought about her question. “I didn’t bother because you are with me. You are about to learn more about my life than you ever could have by hacking into databases across the world. I imagine that Bethany Anne didn’t bother because it would be the same as punishing a bear for eating a deer.”
Tabitha thought about that. “So, she didn’t concern herself with a hacker, hacking?”
“It is what you are, Tabitha. You are inquisitive by nature and you have found it a security blanket, to try and control the world around you. Did you have any plans for what you would do with the information that you had acquired?”
“No. I just knew that if Anton were to come after me or my family I needed to have more information about him. Once I knew about vampires I got curious, and wanted to know the bigger picture. Bethany Anne scared the crap out of me in Miami. She came into the helicopter after they took us from the bank job and I would swear she had red eyes and fangs but maybe my memory was hazy. Then Nathan got us new names and jobs with his company…”
She trailed off as she realized the import of his question. “If I had talked, someone would have found me and killed me, right?”
“That was the rule, yes.” He continued to regard her.
She made a face. “Kind of a douchebag rule if you ask me. Who wrote it, you?” The smile dropped off of Tabitha’s face as she realized that Michael wasn’t smiling along with her. How was she always sticking her foot in her mouth?
She gave him a small smile. “Um, sorry?”
Michael returned the barest hint of a smile. “No apologies necessary, this time. I’ve had a while to think about some of my rules in the last year. Don’t pass this on to Bethany Anne, but it was a rather douchebag rule.”
“Yeah! What is it with her? I mean, don’t get me wrong but she doesn’t act all that bloodthirsty and evil dead for being a wicked vampire.” She pursed her lips, “Well, except that first time meeting her.”
Michael closed his folder, keeping his finger between the papers he was reading. “Believe it or not, we aren’t ‘wicked vampires.’ Anton and his brother David notwithstanding.”
“I don’t know, rules to kill humans if they know too much seems kinda wicked to me.”
“Really? Pray tell what would you do if four billion humans went on a monster hunt
looking to kill all of your kind if they learned the truth? Go on Oprah to talk about it?”
“So, you think the death of the one is worth it to protect the many?”
“Let’s take you as an example. What if you should hack into a system? An act which by definition is illegal, and bypasses security measures that are meant to keep you out, and then you learn something that is life threatening to those who are trying to keep to themselves. Have you not argued for your own punishment?”
Tabitha kept her mouth shut for a minute. She wanted to argue, but she did understand. “You’re saying I walked across the line that said, ‘No trespassing, death to all who enter?’ And now I don’t want to accept my own responsibility?”
“More like culpability, but yes you have the salient points.” Michael thought about it a few seconds. “Tabitha, you’re playing for keeps here. Carl wasn’t the first technician that has been killed because he worked for me. That being said, it’s been a long time between the last person to lose their life and him being murdered. Carl is a reminder that your position is dangerous.”
“What happens if I want to quit?”
“Do you want my answer, or Bethany Anne’s?”
“What is the difference?”
“Probably not a lot in the end. My method, you would probably die without knowing why. With Bethany Anne’s, you would at least know why and maybe make a couple of decisions to hide better.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I would take your memories of us, away. Then I would set you up with enough money for you to live your life decently, so long as you don’t gamble it all away. Bethany Anne would let you keep your memory, knowing that you would be hunted. There are a lot of other groups who are always on the lookout for people who are outside of our protection. It won’t matter to them if you know anything or not. They will grab you once they find you. Then they will do anything it takes to pull anything you know out of you.”
“So, I’m in a virtual prison of my own making?”
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 114