The ponderous vault door opened. Lance noticed the envelope taped to the door and reached up. “Don’t think we’ll need this anymore.” He pulled the envelope from the door, folded it, and stuck it in one of his pockets. Bethany Anne had dropped off Frank, and he had asked Lance if that was the envelope he had written.
Both Tom Billings and Jeffrey Diamantz had arrived the previous evening. They accompanied Kevin, Lance, Frank and Nathan into the room. Tom was here to stay, but Jeffrey was just in for a short time before he returned to continue at Patriarch Research until everything was safely shut down and his children were finished with their current school year. Frank had brought along his special laptop, which would allow the group to communicate with ADAM and TOM.
There had been some concern whether there would be enough air in the vault for six men to have a long conversation. ADAM had supplied a quick ‘yes.’ A typical human used 388 cubic feet of air in 24 hours. With 16 cubic feet used per person per hour, the six of them would use about one hundred cubic feet per hour. The room had approximately twelve hours of air for six. They would be exiting long before that because there was no climate control and they would be too uncomfortable.
Since their discussion required the most secure location on the base, the vault was it. Buried in a minimum one hundred feet of rock horizontally and several hundred vertically, no signals were going to make it through.
That’s why Tom Billings pointed at Frank’s laptop. “How the hell are you getting a signal in here?”
Frank smiled at Tom. “That, my dear boy, is one of the secrets we’re about to share with you.” Tom wasn’t sure what to make of being called boy. The man across the table from him didn’t look any more than ten years older than he was.
Lance sat at the head of the table, the end furthest away from the door. He rapped and called the meeting to order once the door had shut.
The abrasive noise of the klaxon finally stopped and quiet returned.
“Thank God,” Lance said. “If I don’t have to hear that noise ever again it will be too soon.”
Tom looked around the table. Since he already knew Jeffrey, Lance and Nathan, he reached across the table to the guy who called him boy. “Hi, I’m Tom Billings.”
Frank reached for Tom’s hand. “Frank Kurns, pleased to meet you.”
Lance spoke up, “We’ll go around the table quickly introducing ourselves. I’ll start. My name is Lance Reynolds and I am COO of TQB Enterprises. I’m also the person responsible for the acquisition of this base and I was the former general in charge of running it. What we talk about in this room, gentlemen, is of the highest secrecy. I know this will sound cliché, but speaking about it could mean your death—and I’m not exaggerating. Tom, Jeffrey, you guys are going to be fully involved with our future. You are about to find out secrets you would never have guessed at before. For now, you’ll just have to believe me until I can show physical proof outside of this room.”
Jeffrey looked around at the others. With a statement like that from the COO he was certainly interested. The conversation he had with Bethany Anne before he and Tom moved to Colorado was incredibly intriguing. Now he was going to learn more secrets?
Lance continued, “The purpose of this meeting is to develop the infrastructure for a Command and Control center. The expectation is that all of us, including the two individuals who are with us via chat, are going to be focused on the design of a multiple redundancy support system. It will be run out of this base, but it should be able to be immediately transferred to other locations. Whether those locations are here on Earth, or out in space.”
Jeffrey interrupted, “Does this have to do with the spaceship that Bethany Anne spoke about?”
Lance paused for a second, letting the silence speak for him. Finally he answered the query. “Yes, and then some. The team you’ll be working with is located in another part of the base. I’ll set you up with them soon, but right now I believe you need to be aware of what is actually going on. Let me start with the basics. Aliens exist, they are real and they have been here for at least a thousand years. There are vampires and werewolves, and they are not what folklore makes them out to be. Rather, they are modifications of humans via alien technology. We are working towards ensuring that Earth has adequate defenses should aggressive alien groups come against us.”
Tom asked, “Are you guys connected with the US government? I know that there have been studies related to firing nuclear rockets into outer space from way back in the fifties.”
Lance shook his head. “No, the technologies that we have available are so far in advance of anything any government has that it would upset the balance of power on Earth as it currently exists. The fear is that if we shared our tech with a superpower there would probably be no reason for aliens to invade since it would touch off world war three. I’m ex-Army, Kevin next to me is ex-Army, Nathan is…” Lance looked over at Nathan.
Nathan grinned. “Punting are we?” Nathan turned to the three men who didn't know him. “I was in the military a long time ago. If you’re on Bethany Anne’s team, then she trusts you implicitly, so I won’t hide too much. Until recently, I had my own internet security firm and ran through the dark web under a few different aliases.”
Tom jumped in. “Would you share a couple of those identifiers?”
Frank said, “If he doesn't, come see me afterwards.” Nathan glared at the unrepentant man. Frank just shrugged. “You said you weren’t going to hide much.”
Nathan sighed. “Ok, old habits and all that.” Nathan turned to Tom. “This stays here, understand?”
Tom wasn’t sure why Nathan was so adamant since it looked like he wasn’t involved in hacking anymore. “Sure.”
“That goes for all of you, this hasn’t even been shared with my mate yet.” Nathan looked over at Lance. “Just hasn’t come up.” Lance shrugged. “Two of my more well-known aliases were tom.e.gunn and Canonical.”
Tom’s face was awestruck. “No way!” He jumped up and reached over the table. “Oh my god, I have to shake your hand!”
Jeffrey popped his friend in the ribs. “Hey, why don’t you clue the rest of us in on why you’re going all fangirl now?”
Nathan seemed a little embarrassed at Tom’s outburst. “Ten years ago there was a big crackdown on some hackers that had been trying to show the government that their security sucked. But instead of working with the group—I think there were ten of them—the government arrested them all. Then, Canonical came along and threatened that if the government didn’t let them go he would take some totally black documents he had that were super serious and post them on the internet. The Feds went apeshit, but no one could figure out what he had. So he dropped fifteen file names and the first sentence from each one and the ten hackers were released. Canonical said that he wouldn’t release the documents if the government left the hackers alone. He also published an open statement that told the hackers if they attacked the government he would rescind his protection. Four of the hackers got caught for other crimes and Canonical agreed with the government’s actions. The other six have stayed out of jail.”
Frank peered over at his friend. “That was you?” Nathan smiled. “Good work on that. I tried tracking you myself just to see how you did it and I lost you on the fourth…” Frank paused for a moment, thinking back. “Or maybe it was the fifth bounce off the Russian satellites.”
Lance interrupted the geek-idol-worshipping. “Ok, you guys can trade hacker war stories later. Nathan has extensive experience with computers and he has significant experience with HUMINT.”
Jeffrey asked, “Excuse me, ‘HUMINT?’”
Lance answered, “Human Intelligence. Basically it’s any intelligence that you gather from human sources as opposed to, for example, digital sources.”
Jeffrey said, “So, spy stuff?”
Nathan replied, “That would be more in the clandestine HUMINT, but yes, I have those abilities as well.”
Jeffrey looked at him sharply.
“When did you start training for this, age four?”
Nathan looked over at Lance who shrugged his shoulders and answered Nathan’s unasked question. “You can if you want. Now is the time to find out if Bethany Anne’s judgment is sound.”
Nathan turned to Frank. “You want to give a background on this?”
Everyone looked at Frank. “I might as well, since I’m actually the oldest one here, you young pup.” Frank shared a smile with Nathan. “Let me get out my journal just in case I need to jot down any notes.” He looked over at Nathan. “You’re the only UnknownWorlder here, you mind giving a demo?”
“Which form?” Nathan asked.
Frank smiled like a kid getting candy. “Oh, if I get to choose, I want to see your Pricolici form!”
Nathan sighed. “Of course you do. All right, but no pictures!”
By now, everyone was riveted.
Frank said, “Damn! That close.” He had been asking either Pete or Nathan for pictures but both had refused him to date. His voice took on a lecturing tone. “Kevin, I understand Bethany Anne gave you a short peek into the UnknownWorld?” Kevin’s face turned a little red as he nodded yes in response to Frank’s question. “Ok. Tom and Jeffrey, I could give you the long history, but we don’t have enough air in here, as it goes back over a thousand years. The short story is that we have been visited by aliens in the past. One of those aliens was looking for a world that had intelligent life that it could modify through genetic manipulation, and be allies in an ongoing interstellar war.
“That alien crash landed a little over a thousand years ago. His ship was damaged and had landed in an out of the way valley in the Carpathian Mountains of present day Romania. A human happened upon it and the alien was able use their technology to change him. Since this was the alien’s first attempt, and since the human wasn’t a willing participant, the change was incomplete.
“The problem, at least from the alien’s point of view, is that the human left the craft during this transformation. This meant there was a human with alien technology changing his body, out in the world and clueless as to what was going on.
“Fast forward a thousand years and you have a small but powerful group of modified humans living in the shadows because most of them can’t go into the sunlight because of mutations in the alien modified DNA. There’s more to this, but this is the actual story of what our folklore has termed ‘vampires.’”
Tom interrupted Frank, “No shit?”
Kevin turned to Tom. “Trust me, no shit!”
Tom asked, “You’ve seen one?”
Kevin nodded. “As close as you are to me.”
“Scary?”
Kevin answered without considering his audience. “Scary hot! She’s a knockout.”
Tom nodded. “I’m so going to geek out when I meet her.”
Lance interrupted, “I understand you already have.”
Jeffrey put the clues together. “Bethany Anne, right?”
Kevin rolled his eyes, realizing he had just spoken about Bethany Anne right in front of Lance… again. Nathan could hear him mumble under his breath, “Fuck me and my traitorous dumbass mouth!”
Nathan tried to hide his smile. If he hadn’t known Bethany Anne was a vampire, he might have been attracted to her as well. Knowing what he did, her attractiveness had been overshadowed by his knowledge she could be a heartless cold-blooded killer. Fortunately for everyone, it turned out she did have a heart.
Frank answered Jeffrey’s question. “Yes, Bethany Anne is what would be called a vampire by folklore but the reality is, she’s a highly advanced and modified human.”
Tom asked, “So, scary beautiful advanced human? Does she have a boyfriend?”
Lance cleared his throat. “Unless you were unaware, we ARE talking about my daughter here!”
Tom looked over at Lance. “And well done, I might add.” Jeffrey elbowed Tom sharply in the ribs. Tom turned to look at his former boss, who was rolling his eyes at him.
Tom had the occasional misfortune of suffering the same trouble as a lot of guys in his profession. There was no filter between his mind and his mouth. Tom said, “My apologies.” Lance rolled his eyes.
Frank said, “If we can continue? There is a second group of modified humans called the Wechselbalg, or changelings. This is where we get the stories about werewolves and other humans who change forms.”
Tom interrupted again. “You can turn into a Werewolf too? Damn dude! I’m signing up to be in your fan club!”
Nathan wanted to put his face in his hands. This was not what he was used to. He had no desire to have a fan the likes of which Tom seemed to be quickly turning into. This shit needed to stop.
Then he had an idea. He asked Frank, “Now a good enough time for a show?”
Frank nodded while he pulled out his journal and opened it up. “As good a time as any.”
Nathan stood up and went to Lance’s end of the table. Lance pushed his chair back to the wall to give him more room.
Nathan started by taking off his shirt and t-shirt. “Sorry, but I really don’t want to ruin this shirt. My mate bought it for me as a gift and this is the first time I’ve worn it. Trust me, your own wife or girlfriend might have a temper but there is no way she is as dangerous a woman to piss off as my mate.” He finished putting his shirts and watch on the table and then took a moment to think back. Back to the moment when he turned around and saw Stephen holding Ecaterina, blood covering her body, flesh ripped out of her neck.
One moment Nathan Lowell stood before the men, seconds later a Pricolici roared its defiance in the small room. Chairs made a racket as everyone but Frank jumped up and tried to get to the opposite side of the room from the massive werewolf hybrid in front of them.
Frank spoke up, “Gentlemen, Nathan isn’t going to hurt you. Well I hope not. If he does it will be damned disappointing, I can assure you.”
Lance, who had moved with more decorum than the rest, looked over at Frank. “That’s all you have to say, ‘damned disappointing?’”
Frank rolled his eyes. He stood up and took one step towards the Pricolici. “Nathan, you need to remember that Ecaterina is waiting for you back at the house. She isn’t going to be happy if you eat any of Bethany Anne’s people.” Frank watched as the Pricolici’s eyes turned to stare at him. Frank swallowed, his throat constricting. This had seemed a fun experiment when he pushed Nathan to choose this form. With a seven-and-a-half-foot tall monster staring at him like he might be lunch, it became all too damned real. “Or, I might add, eat me.” He paused and added, “She’ll be especially unhappy if you eat me.”
The beast shook his head and then changed within the span of a few heartbeats back into Nathan Lowell. Nathan rolled his head around on his shoulders and gazed at the men in the room. “Any questions?”
By this time, Lance had almost made it back to his chair. Nathan was happy to see that Tom was speechless. Maybe that would give him pause. Nathan got dressed. His pants would need to be replaced, but he hadn’t wanted to undress totally and he hadn’t thought about his legs growing.
As they sat down to finish their conversation, Tom leaned towards Nathan and said in a loud whisper, “Dude, I think I just peed in my pants. Can I get a video of you? I swear to God I’ll claim it was all special effects!”
Nathan’s lips pursed as he looked at Frank, who stared back at him with unconcealed mirth.
14
5th level, TQB Base, CO, USA
After Nathan’s big reveal, Tom and Jeffrey found they were able to accept just about anything the other guys told them. Suddenly, alien spaceships, vampires and intergalactic wars are believable when you’re confronted with a seven-and-a-half-foot monster in a sealed metal room. Nathan acted as if nothing was different, but he felt the change in how the new guys treated him. Tom had finally been able to focus and his competence started to show.
Nathan had to admit that Tom’s logic skills and ability to take complex coding tasks and block them down
into subroutines efficiently was damned impressive.
The second half of their discussion focused on the computer server set ups and interconnectivity to support the command and control options Lance and Kevin felt were warranted. Further discussion went into Earth to space communication options.
Frank used his laptop to open a chat connection with TOM. He typed ‘Ready for questions?’ into the chat window and immediately received an affirmative.
Then, he got a rather large surprise. A voice chat window opened on his computer. He hadn’t installed that program on this laptop.
A somewhat robotic voice came from his speakers, “Greetings everyone. My compatriot felt that this would be a more efficient method to communicate with you. We apologize Frank, for installing a program without your permission.”
Frank looked down at his laptop, eyeing it like it had betrayed him. “Who am I speaking with?”
“This is TOM, Frank. I am utilizing a voice that ADAM found on your laptop since we don’t have the ability to speak right now.”
Nathan interjected, “You guys are switching your text to speech?”
TOM answered, “Yes we are. Well, in this case ADAM implemented the coding, so I should say he is doing it.”
Kevin said, “TOM, are you the same TOM Bethany Anne spoke of as her pilot?”
“If you are asking if I am the alien she called her pilot at that moment then, yes.”
Lance took control of the conversation. “TOM this is Lance Reynolds. Let’s introduce everyone here so you know who is on the call and you can try to associate a voice to a name. Why don’t you go first?”
“I would appreciate the opportunity to know you better. My true name is actually the answer to a complex mathematical equation. When Bethany Anne and I met she told me in no uncertain terms she wouldn’t try to call me by that name.”
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 139