He was the last American, the one that Frank had presumed dead.
He looked at the rescuers. “Thank god! I thought we were all written off as lost.” Todd stepped up and held out his hand to shake. “Todd Jenkins. Formerly with the Marines, now part of…” He smiled, his group didn’t have an identifier. Stephen stepped up. “My name is Stephen. Your military asked for our help, you might consider us contractors.”
The soldier reached over to shake Stephen’s hand. “Arthur DeTongass, don’t ask me who I’m with, and I won’t tell you any lies.” The handshake was firm and the smile was genuine. Stephen liked this man.
“Very well, Mr. DeTongass.”
Arthur interrupted Stephen, “No, just call me ‘Art’, my dad was Mr. DeTongass.”
“Very well, Art. Can you tell us what the situation is?”
Arthur looked at the people around him. Only four were looking at him, but he knew they were all listening. They had good fieldcraft. “You know what happened here?”
Stephen nodded. “Yes. You came in after a team from Turkey was lost. You had two teams of four, you are the last survivor, but have been presumed dead.”
“All true. We were supposed to find out more and report back. If there were no survivors, then command would get orders out and our boys would carpet bomb the place. Frankly, I’ve been surprised they haven’t done so already.”
“They know about the survivors from satellite and infrared. It is believed by some on our side that if the survivors hiding behind that door are killed, then the GDFMs hiding up in the caves will then leave the area.”
“GDFMs?” Art looked perplexed.
Stephen smiled. “We have a computer specialist who calls them god-dammed freaky monsters, and the name has stuck.”
Ecaterina spoke up, “Why do I hear children’s voices?”
Art turned to her. “Because we have four local children and twenty-two that were kidnapped and brought here.”
Ecaterina’s eyes narrowed. “There are children in there?” She pointed at the door.
“Yes ma’am. Twenty-six children, four adults including myself, and four chickens. I don’t recommend playing with the chickens, they scratch.”
Ecaterina nodded. Everyone knew that, didn’t they?
Stephen considered the situation. “We need to get the children out of here. We will be enough to keep the GDFMs in place. I’ll talk with Chris and we will fly them out on Shelly. It will be a tight fit, but if we send one adult to help them, it should work.
Nathan noticed Ecaterina staring daggers at him; he put his hands up slightly and mouthed ‘not you.’ He turned back around to scan the area.
Art said, “We have two women in the cave. Either or both would work well. We also have one minister in there who has been hurt pretty badly.”
Pete spoke up, never taking his eyes off of the surrounding area. “We have medical supplies, food and water. Where do you want them, Stephen?”
Stephen looked at Art. “Do we pass the test, Art? Will you allow us to help those inside?”
Art nodded and turned back to the door, rapping on it. Three sharp knocks, and then two sharp knocks.
“It’s me, Diane!” The door opened on a whipcord thin woman with red hair.
“Art?”
“It’s me, these guys have been sent by my country to help.”
Ecaterina stepped closer. “We have food and water for the children, plus first aid for your minister.”
The door opened wider. “You have supplies? Oh thank God!”
Stephen pointed at Todd. “Keep the group on track, I’m going to speak to Chris about how many of these people we can evac on Shelly. Get ahold of Dan and locate a safe place to land the children. Chris won’t need to go all the way back to the ships.”
Stephen turned around and quick-walked back to Shelly. Chris and Tim had stacked the remaining supplies and armament forty feet away from the helicopter. The huge Wechselbalg nodded at Stephen. Chris said, “Damn! It’s good to stretch a little but making the pilot hump this shit should be against the Geneva Convention.”
Stephen answered his playful comment, “Chris, I never signed the Geneva documents, nor did Bethany Anne as she was not even alive at the time.” Then, Stephen turned his head lightning fast and focused up the valley towards the mountains on the left. “Fuck David in this life and the next.” He yelled out to the group back at the cave, “INCOMING!” Stephen ran to Chris, slowing down just enough so he didn’t hurt him too much and then ran into Tim who was starting to react. Stephen grabbed him around his waist and pushed him forward. “Get your lazy Wechselbalg ass moving!” They had almost made the safety of a large building made of cinderblocks when a rocket screamed into Shelly. Stephen threw Tim forward, he could heal. Then he put Chris in front of him so that Chris would be protected by his body when the missile tore their ride out of the valley apart.
The explosion rocked the small town as the noise reverberated off of the valley walls. Stephen checked Chris’s pulse. He was unconscious, but he seemed to be ok. Tim got up, pushing away a piece of timber that had been thrown on top of him.
Stephen turned towards the burning helicopter. He heard Tim come up beside him. “Bobcat is going to be pissed.”
Stephen smiled, it seemed it took more than an exploding helicopter and a close brush with death to affect Tim. “That he is. But it was Bethany Anne’s helicopter. I hope her insurance is paid up.”
Nathan, Pete and Matthew all came running. Nathan called out, “Everyone ok?”
Stephen motioned to Chris. “He’s knocked out, but otherwise ok. Take him up to the cave.”
Matthew and Pete easily picked Chris up and took him back. Nathan joined the other two watching Shelly burn. “Well,” Nathan said, “I guess we just figured out part of David’s plan.”
“Indeed.”
Nathan mused, “Bobcat is going to be pissed.”
Tim grunted, “That’s what I said.”
Stephen said, “Fuck!” and moved into Vamp speed. The guys realized he had gone after the supplies and rushed to help him.
It took them three minutes to move the supplies to a better location. The heat had started to damage the boxes.
When the last box was stacked, Stephen told Nathan, “If those rounds had gone off, that would have been annoying.”
Nathan kept his mouth shut. Stephen was the most easygoing vampire that he had ever been around, but he did have a very dry sense of humor.
Nathan looked back towards the cave. “Now what?”
Stephen followed his gaze. “Now we dig in, Nathan. Those children might have been the bait in David’s trap, but I can assure you my Queen would never forsake them. It is not their fault that they got pulled into our disagreement. We do not leave our own, Nathan. Ever. Let’s get all of our supplies up there. Someone needs to make sure there isn’t a back way into the cave. It would be just like David to set up a back door. We all rest, for tonight we shall kill until the moon runs red.”
Stephen started walking back towards the cave.
A minute later, Stephen found out the second part of David’s plan. Their communications gear was actively being jammed.
Stephen looked up at the position of the sun and then back at his team. “Do we have enough blood?”
Nathan nodded. “Plenty, on ice at the moment. Why?”
Stephen reached out to Todd, who had the satellite phone. “Let me have the phone, I will travel as quickly as I can until I either get a signal or until I run out of time to get back here before dark. Get with Art, find out how many they’ve heard at night. You can bet we will have many more than that tonight.”
With that, he turned and ran faster than he had since the last great war he had been involved in.
Except this time, he wasn’t a lone wolf, but a leader.
20
Turkish Coast
William looked at his ten first generation IZTAs. “They are an ugly bunch, aren’t they?”
Bob
cat answered, “Hell yes, but they’ll work. We’ve pulled this off, now we need to get them to the ship.”
William shrugged. “Why not bring the engines to us?
Bobcat was silent for a moment. “Good idea, I’ll call the ship and ask them to have the engines ready, I’ll fly over and bring them back.”
While Bobcat flew back to the Ad Aeternitatem, some of the crew moved the little metal cubes up to the landing area and were ready to help load them as soon as he put down. Marcus was waiting for him.
No sooner than Bobcat had hit the pad, Marcus jumped in.
Bobcat looked over at him. “You’re acting like a first time mother! Everything’s going to be fine. Sit up front so they have enough room back there.”
Marcus moved up to the front seat alongside Bobcat, strapped in and put the headphones on his ears. “It was amazing!”
Bobcat was watching the loading. “One sec, Doc.” He opened his door and called out, “Make sure the weight is distributed evenly! Yes, use the leather seats, I’d rather risk a torn seat than one of these tipping over. Huh? Of course I believe the scientist, but my momma’s boy is still here because he was always careful. Sure, use the seatbelts but hurry the fuck up, it’s getting dark soon!”
Bobcat turned back to Marcus. “What was amazing? Did you lose your virginity in TOM’s ship?”
Marcus sniffed. “No need to be crass.” Then he smiled, “Hell yes! I’ve been able to watch technology from another galaxy, Bobcat. I don’t know how it works yet, but I hypothesize TOM’s ship works on the same principle that Bethany Anne uses to move through the Etheric. Somehow, the pilot plots a course and then calculates the distance it needs to travel. From there the ship pulls in enough energy to ‘step’ from one place to another. Whatever actual momentum it possessed when it stepped, it has when it arrives. I spoke to TOM. They would always stop before ‘stepping.’”
Bobcat mused, “Makes sense, if you don’t know exactly where you are going. You wouldn’t want to end up in an asteroid field.”
Marcus explained, “Well, if you’re in an asteroid field, most likely they are moving too, so you would have to immediately concern yourself with the asteroids hitting you…” Marcus stopped when he finally noticed Bobcat’s hand.
“I got the idea, now isn’t the time for a lesson in astronavigation, Doc.”
Marcus took a moment to try and calm himself but it was damn difficult. He had engineered, with an alien, anti-gravity devices that were about to be used.
Yes, he considered, they were his babies and he was a proud, proud papa.
Moments later the helicopter doors slammed shut and with one look around Bobcat gently lifted off the Ad Aeternitatem, turned and headed towards the coast.
Marcus’s stomach felt a little funny during the takeoff, as gentle as Bobcat was claiming it was, and was wishing he was forty years younger.
The Queen Bitch’s Ship Ad Aeternitatem
Frank Kurns was busy pulling as much information as he possibly could. He had Ben, who was in the other office, trying to see if he could get any COMINT from cell towers in the area. Their team had gone dark.
Everything had been fine, the landing went well. He even had a request to see where the team could offload a bunch of children safely out of the area.
Then it all went to hell.
He reached over and hit the intercom. “This is Dan,” came from his speaker.
“Dan, I can’t get anyone. Ben is trying to piece together COMINT if the other side is using cellphones.”
Frank could hear Dan’s sigh. “Yeah. Good idea, but doubtful. I’m told most of the fighters are wise to that now.”
“Could be, you never know. Unless you say otherwise, I’m going to reach out to Bethany Anne.”
“Why are you going to reach out to me?” Bethany Anne was right behind him, startling him.
He turned back to the intercom. “I’ve got Bethany Anne scaring the shit out of me in here. You want to meet in the conference room?”
Dan agreed and shut off the connection.
Frank picked up his laptop and started towards the door. “I take it you know something’s up?”
Bethany Anne followed him. “No, we just got back. I’m looking for an update. What’s going on?”
Frank briefed Bethany Anne on the way to the conference room.
The three took seats, Bethany Anne started, “So, David has sprung a trap. They can’t get out without the children until tomorrow. We don’t have anything that can grab the children and we have to keep live bait in the town or the Nosferatu are going to leave. Does that about sum it up?”
Frank considered her summation and added, “Well, the fact that we can’t talk to them to confirm anything and that they requested a location to ferry the children using Shelly. That about sums it up.”
She asked them, “Do we have a place to put the children?”
Dan looked to Frank who answered, “Not yet. I’ve reached out to the new lead on this operation, damn strange that, and I’ve been told they’re looking into it.”
Dan raised an eyebrow. “What’s damn strange?”
Frank replied, “We have a new lead. Someone a little up the chain. Usually, we don’t get people butting their noses into something like this. Either way, our request for air support has been denied. They either don’t have the resources, this isn’t a priority, or…”
Bethany Anne answered, “Or David has his hooks into someone, right?”
Frank just nodded.
Bethany Anne sat back in her chair. No one had expected this to be easy, but after the South American operations had gone pretty flawlessly, maybe they were suffering from a little hubris.
“Put a reminder in to track that question down. If someone was paid to mess with us, I want to know. No one messes with my people without paying a price.” She considered what might be next. “Dan, what is the status of Team BMW?”
Dan looked at the clock on the wall. “They should be back with the IZTAs and loaded within the next four hours.”
“So, it’ll be dark?”
Dan nodded.
Frank’s phone went off, he looked down. “It’s the satellite phone.” Frank picked up the phone and hit the accept button. “Hello? Hold on for a second, I’ve got Dan and Bethany Anne in here, I’ll put you on speaker.”
Frank punched the speaker. “Stephen? You got everybody.”
“I have to be quick, David set a very good trap. We’ve lost Shelly to an RPG. Chris is hurt, but should survive. We have twenty-six children with us, and no way to communicate once I go back into the valley. You can bet we’re going to get hit hard tonight. Do we have a status for air support?
Dan replied, “We have a response, but you’re not going like it. The military says no way. We think it might be due to David’s influence with someone up the chain of command.”
A long stream of foreign language came from Stephen. “I swear on all that is holy if I get a chance I’m ripping that ass’ head clean off his body.”
Bethany Anne chimed in, “You’ll have to get in line behind Michael and me.”
Stephen came back, frustrated. “Fuck it, we can almost kill him and then give him some blood to heal, right?”
Bethany Anne smiled, Stephen was definitely riled up. “You’re going to have to hold tight as long as you can, we have ships that should be able to get us there sometime before…” she looked over at Dan.
“Ten o’clock tonight?” Dan got out his cell phone and started dialing.
Bethany Anne was frustrated, without knowing where she was going to go, she couldn’t take her team there through the Etheric.
TOM, can we call the ship back down and use it?
TOM calculated where the ship was at this moment. I’ll start it back down here. Not sure if it will arrive in time.
Dan set his phone on the table. “Bobcat, tell everyone what you just told me.”
Bobcat’s voice came from the little tinny speakerphone. “We have the engi
nes on the floor with the IZTAs. It won’t take us but maybe twenty minutes to load them up. The problem is going to be light. It won’t get dark for another hour and ten big black metal boxes suddenly flying through the air are gonna raise some questions.”
Bethany Anne spoke up, “How fast can I have some of them here?” She could hear Bobcat turn around and ask Marcus the question.
You could just ask me, you know.
Right, sorry, what’s the answer?
With everything going correctly, twelve minutes.
What could go wrong?
They don’t work, they explode, we have to deal with bad or shoddy workmanship. I could go on.
You’re not making me feel very good about the quality of these engines.
The engines are fine, you merely asked for a list of items that could go wrong, not what I expected to go wrong.
Fine, what do you expect to go wrong?
Nothing. In fact we should be able to lift them off as soon as we hit dusk. We won’t be able to fly as quickly, but the engines can warp light around them to somewhat hide themselves.
Like what your ship does?
Not even close, but they should be traveling so fast no one will be able to see them unless they’re looking directly at them.
Good enough for me.
“Guys, never mind asking Marcus. TOM tells me that they should be here in approximately twelve minutes. We’re going to take them out as soon as it’s dusk.”
Dan spoke up, “How many did you say you had going?”
Bobcat answered, “Ten.”
Stephen said, “Did you say ten? I thought I had ordered eight.”
Bobcat asked, “Was that Stephen? Tell him it’s for the Calvary.”
Stephen came back on. “I’ve got to go, I’m pushing it as far as I can. We will see you when we see you, but sooner would be better than later.” He disconnected the call.
Bethany Anne considered the situation. “We bring the ships here, we load everything we need, we go there. We kill maim and destroy as best we can. We load the kids up and take them, where?” She looked at the two men.
Dan shrugged. “I don’t think we have a choice, we’ll have to bring them to the Polarus. We have ten of these ships, I’m sure we can stick three children into a space where two adults are supposed to be able to fit.” He scratched his forehead. “But our team won’t be able to evac right away.”
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 123