She turned to Nathan, “I don’t want you in America while dealing with Chinese, or who we think are Chinese, network attacks. Plus, if ADAM comes online.”
This time Michael interrupted, “Adam?” She put up a hand to ‘shush’ him. He was both surprised at her rudeness and humored that he didn’t cause her to shiver in her boots. He had thought a long time in that device under David’s castle and it had caused him to rethink a lot of his previous attitudes. Being a little less quick to take offense had been one of his choices.
She continued, “If ADAM comes online, I don’t want him in the United States. I’m not sure how we are going to move him around yet, but I would rather he be somewhere outside of a major world power I think.”
She stopped herself, “Oh! That gives me an idea, hold on folks.” She walked back over to Ecaterina and put her hand out, retrieving her phone. She typed into the messages app for just a second and then put it away in her pocket.
“Ok, consider what I just said.” She turned to Michael, “ADAM is a potential Artificial Intelligence my team, well used to be your team, in Las Vegas, is working on.”
Michael asked, “How much have you accomplished since I was taken?”
She looked at all of the people in this room alone, thinking about how many dozens of others she had spread out across the World. “A fair bit. However, let’s focus on killing Anton at the moment and I’ll bring you up to speed on the rest, ok?”
He nodded his agreement. Bethany Anne was beginning to like Michael 2.0. She didn’t know Michael 1.0 for very long, but he had been a ranting scrotum lord. Well, thinking back, she hadn’t been the easiest person to deal with either, but hey, she was the one who could freeze easier than Michael. At least, that was the excuse she gave herself.
Wait until she explained the Wechselbalg, then let’s see just how changed the man had become.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Congressman Pepper hadn’t been too hard to convince. He was invited on a private jet with Ecaterina as his hostess, then Chris flew them both onto the Polarus in the Sikorsky. They hid Shelly over on the Ad Aeternitatem and kept the ship far enough away that he couldn’t see it when on deck.
The crews of both ships had been ready to move. While some down time was appreciated, the crews on both had become adrenaline junkies in one form or another.
Bethany Anne had trans-located Michael, Stephen and Nathan through the etheric. John and Eric were to stay in Miami. John didn’t like it, but he had to admit that with Michael, Stephen and Gabriel, she should be adequately protected. She wanted to ask him, ‘what about my mad skills? Don’t they count for anything?’ but just grabbed his ears and pulled his tall-ass head down so she could kiss his forehead. The whole time the beast of a man was yelling, “Ow, Ow OOWW!” Eric smiled and ducked his head down, he was no fool. She kissed his head too and then took the group in two trips.
Michael, being fully awake for this trip was amazed. He had memories of the trip from Romania, but he had still been mentally unfit to remember too much. He looked around her closet on the Polarus. Ashur left, probably to get snacks or hit up some someone for handouts in the galley.
Michael looked around the closet, “Shoes. You really, really like…” A finger was suddenly two inches in front of his face, followed closely by Bethany Anne’s eyes squinting.
She looked up at him, speaking in a decidedly abrupt tone. “Don’t. Say. One. Fucking. Word. You deal with your stress your way; I deal with mine my way. My psychiatrists are named Christian Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, an occasional meeting with Blahnik and a couple of others. Leave off and if you so much as mention Imelda Marcos I will send you to your maker early, got me buster?”
He was calm on the outside and shook his head in agreement, on the inside he was smiling. He had another hot button to push; she was deliciously full of fun. This was the first time in ten centuries a woman could stand up to him and he could understand what Stephen saw in her. Now, if he could just understand this ‘Chippendale’ name he had caught a glimpse of earlier before she stopped thinking about it hard enough for him to mentally eavesdrop, he would be golden. He might ask Stephen about it, or maybe Gabrielle, she seemed fun loving.
He followed her out of the closet and closed the door behind him.
The ship’s crew kept Pepper happy until Bethany Anne was ready to meet him. She despised him immediately as being slimy and pretentious in the extreme. However, he was an easy ticket to the party, so she put up with the man.
She had taken Ecaterina and Killian over to the Ad Aeternitatem. Those two plus a couple of others took off in Shelly and went to Buenos Aries early. She assumed to get good hides before the party, she really didn’t know. She trusted Dan to have her team ready when it was time.
On the day of the event, Pepper and Bethany Anne were to be ferried to a landing area just a hundred yards from the party location. The team couldn’t have any vampires on board, as Anton might be able to spot them by their scents. That was the same reason she couldn’t have any of Pete’s team, either.
She had worried about a lack of decent armament and Michael had noticed her down mood the previous evening. She finally confessed to him she hated not going in with her pistols or her sword. She would have a knife down the small of her back, under her hair but that wasn’t as comfortable a feeling. She had refused to go in a dress, so she would secret a small pistol on herself, but it would only be enough to shoot a human. Basically, not much good for anything as she didn’t want to be killing humans.
Michael took her aside and provided the nicest gift, other than an extended life, he could have given her. He taught her the method to creating cutting surfaces with his hands. She could almost kiss him for that alone. With TOM’s help, what took Michael a significant amount of time to perfect, she was able to make useable within the first two hours.
It seemed that Michael figured out a way to pull energy from the Etheric and have it run along his hands and forearms. Studying the blades Michael formed closely in this world, she then went into the Etheric, telling Michael not to move a centimeter; she was able to figure out what was going on from that side as she felt the energy flow. She appeared back in the room and started concentrating, mentally thinking about a small hole of energy releasing power - running along her forearm and up the side of her hand and then to her pinky finger. It didn’t look like much, but she could feel the energy. She walked over to a metal serving tray the crew used to bring her food. She wasn’t particularly fond of the design and had complained a couple of times it was gaudy. She picked it up with her left hand and swiped at it. She produced about a quarter inch cut before her hand hit it and the cutting stopped.
Michael came over, “You have to think harder, like you are pushing more energy into it when cutting.”
She pulled the tray back up, “Like it takes more energy once you’re cutting?” He nodded.
She tried again and made it all of the way through. She noticed the drag of energy as she had pulled more from the etheric. She looked around the room, trying to find another object to test. Nothing caught her attention that she would want to replace, so she turned the tray on its side and swiped it again. This time, the cut was quick and clean. The second piece dropping to the floor. She studied the cuts, amazed at the cleanliness of the cut.
She said in a whisper, “This is seriously bad-ass.” He smiled.
Now, they were landing. If they caught her little pistol it was fine with her. Pepper had been talking about himself the whole damn trip. She had been tempted to put him to sleep. If she knew how to do that correctly, she would have tried. Since she didn’t, she suffered, and suffered, and fucking suffered some more. She had no one to blame but herself for accepting this little part of the assignment. No wonder Frank had been smiling at her the whole time she laid out the plan.
The land around Buenos Aires is relatively flat, no mountains close enough to block the sun so the party was scheduled later in the evening. Sunset was around 8:00 PM, the party wasn’t
scheduled to officially begin until 9:00 PM but the invite suggested those arriving via helicopter arrive early. They chose to arrive at 8:30 PM.
Chris landed them nice and clean. He had been taking lessons from Bobcat. Bethany Anne surmised Bobcat was doing something in Shelly tonight. If everything worked out, she would come in, meet Anton, Anton would die and then trans-locate through the etheric back to the boat. Wham, bam, kill a man and leave.
There was a nice group of people gathered and she let Pepper take the lead. He seemed to know a couple of those there and having an American congressman was a nice front, most considered her window dressing for the man. She wanted to kick a couple of ladies who looked down at her pantsuit from their beautiful dresses and sparkling jewelry. That most of the men ignored those ladies and were captivated by Bethany Anne only irritated the sparkly women more.
If the women had understood Bethany Anne had no makeup on, their heads might have exploded.
Pepper was using the opportunity to meet and greet, not realizing his sudden popularity and inclusion had little to do with himself or his name.
The walking around and talking lasted about one hour, when the buzz in the crowd decidedly changed. Bethany Anne inhaled and tasted the scents.
Vampires had arrived.
Anton walked through the underground tunnel between his arrival location and the location of the party. He bought the house decades before and used it for most of his lavish affairs. He had two hulking Nosferatu walking behind him.
He was inordinately proud of these two creations. Out of the fifty-two subjects, these two had survived. Unfortunately, the previous two subjects had been able to break out of the straps and had killed three of the research support staff and put one of his scientists in a coma. He had been close enough to provide a little of his blood to the man, so he would heal and be able to work for him soon enough.
These two hulks were not as easily commanded as the subjects who had been injected with the Japanese serum. He had to be there to tell them what to do, and the massive musculature was abnormal for most humans, so he couldn’t use them in crowds without causing a minor panic.
However, for tonight they would be very beneficial. His contacts had told him the Polarus had left, heading South. Further, he found Pepper had decided to join him after all. Imagine his surprise to find out Pepper was going to be arriving on the Polarus itself.
Stupid bitch, who did she think she was messing with?
He had enough information to know she could walk in the sun, so she was either Michael’s or Stephen’s. Since Stephen seemed to work for her, then she was one of Michael’s. Anton was aware Michael was free, somewhere, but David was supposed to clean up that mess. He made it, he needed to fix it.
Or at least die trying.
Anton had his top three children with him. They would move through the crowd and bring those Anton needed to speak with. It was a shame Clarita died, she used to do it so nicely. A smile, a word in the ear and they would be practically running to have a word with him.
Another annoyance Bethany Anne needed to answer for. He had toyed, no matter what he told David, with considering how to turn her mind towards what the world needed with the Forsaken as leaders, but realized she would be too much of a handful. He had been lucky with Clarita; she was a pretty subservient woman and hadn’t been too much trouble afterwards. He understood Stephen had decades if not centuries of pestering from his daughter.
Oh well, he would take care of Michael’s mistake. Michael could thank him later.
He came into his office from the back stairs, hidden from view. When he entered the room, he opened the drapes and looked out over the back yard. It was an acre of carefully cultivated bushes and trees with tasteful decorative lighting throughout. It had two large fountains, lighted from within the water and one stony brook between them. It was very tranquil and occasionally he would have the groundskeepers light it up and he would come here to contemplate the future. The efforts he had taken to help create a centralized, one world government and what to do next. He turned around and stood in front of his desk, the dark wood practically gleaming in the lights from the walls. He touched it with his finger. It was too oily.
Reaching into the second drawer, he pulled out a towel. He had learned long ago that killing the maid only created more problems. He would find out if she was good in other areas and not let her oil his desk again.
If she wasn’t good in anything else, well, he needed to drink from time to time.
He sat down, told the two hulking guys to stand, each in one corner. He tested their abilities to understand his commands back at the research facility. Including ‘attack’, ‘kill’ and ‘subdue’. Mind you, he did it in the opposite order. They subdued, then attacked, then killed. It was beautiful to watch. He got a little ahead of himself with his excitement and got too close to the action. He had to change clothes when a bloody arm hit him in the chest, having been recently ripped off of the test subject. The test subject, a research scientist who had a bout of conscience after witnessing the fruits of their labors had asked to speak with him. Anton had nodded and kept asking the scientist to just ‘let his heart out, tell him what he felt’ until the man was finished, happy to finally let his conscience speak its mind.
So, he became the test subject, his obvious keen intellect and curiosity not enough to drive him forward any longer.
Finished wiping down his desk, he sat down.
It hadn’t taken long for George to come up and bring the first person, a local constable who hadn’t been introduced to Anton yet. George nodded yes when Anton asked if the prime guest had arrived.
Anton listened to the man for a couple of minutes; it allowed a connection, the control to slowly insinuate between the two of them. Once Anton felt the connection grow, he slowly turned around the conversation from what the Constable though about his area, to what Anton needed the constable to be on the lookout for and where he wanted the Constable to ignore. By the end of the short ten-minute conversation, the Constable shook his hand, believing fully that Anton was his biggest supporter and he had agreed to take care of a couple of inconsequential issues for his biggest supporter.
When George opened the door to let the man out, Anton spoke, “Why don’t we get the main attraction up here? I don’t want to be on pins and needles all night. These two brutes can then go back down to the tunnels and make sure they keep the blood off of my floor when they take her away.” George had almost walked out of the door before Anton spoke again, “George!” George stopped and looked back, “Get someone up here to take these chairs out. They’re antiques.” George nodded and seconds later a couple of men in tuxes came in to take the loose furniture out.
Satisfied he had done enough to try and keep the destruction down, he sat down.
Five minutes later, George entered and a very beautiful woman came in, her black hair radiant in his wall light. She wasn’t wearing a dress, and didn’t smell like a vampire. He looked at George, “Are you sure this is the right lady?”
She spoke up, “If you mean, am I Bethany Anne? The answer is yes. What; is the fact I smell human throwing you off?”
Anton waived George back, “Where is Pepper? I’m going to want to talk with him later.”
Bethany Anne spoke, “He has gone back to the ship, I just wanted a personal conversation with you.”
Anton flipped his hand, “No matter, we will grab him there. What? I see a small flinch there. Did you think I didn’t know all about your ships? Those two beautiful boats will be changing owners, much like they did when you took them over, yes? Got rid of the original owner somewhere out at sea and purchased them on the cheap?”
Anton was enjoying himself, he had noticed a slight movement, a tightening around her eyes. He was getting to the woman. She wasn’t human, he was now sure of that but he wasn’t sure how she was hiding her scent.
That was when his men attacked her ships.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The Que
en Bitch's Ship Polarus
It was a good time, not a very trying time, but a good time.
Both the Polarus and Ad Aeternitatem had moved out beyond the twelve nautical mile limit of Argentina, so they weren’t near the city when the two speed boats came racing at them.
Captain Thomas called his Gunnery Officer and told her it was ‘weapons free’ but to fire a warning shot.
Jean complied, asking Darrell and his crew to place a few ranged shots as the boat sped towards the ship. Nothing seemed to bug the speed boat, so Darrell put a couple into their glass. The boat turned sharply to the right, but then got back up to speed, heading in their direction.
Darrell was near Jean and was able to overhear her, “Good, I was hoping they wouldn’t pussy out.”
Jean had a command headset on, “Team 1, please uncover and finish preparations to fire on my mark.”
One of the above board emplacements shed its metallic cover. It was ripped away, in fact. It had looked like it belonged on the boat and held safety equipment. Now, two gun barrels rolled down, pointing over the side and tracked the boat.
Never Forsaken (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 5) Page 22