Don't Cross This Line

by Michael Anderle

  “Is result, or intent the deciding factor, here?” Maria asked. “Because, I understand our intent was correct. However, the result might have been the subjugation of Earth had we been successful.”

  “Why do you believe this alien, TOM?” Horst asked.

  “Because I have a soft spot for aliens?” She answered, with a smile and chuckle which others joined in. “No, I asked him to allow me to speak with the Yollin Captain, Kael-ven as well. Between the two, they convinced me it is more likely than not.”

  “How does this tie into Barnabas?” Cheryl said.

  “When he was ‘in his evil mind,' others had killed his spouse. He does not remember that time. It was after this event he went and lived as a monk, seeking peace and wisdom away from humanity as much as possible. Asking questions incessantly.”

  “That hasn’t changed,” Horst muttered.

  “No,” Maria answered to the humor of the group. “He still asks a lot of questions, that is true. But, he was wise enough to find out if Bethany Anne could contain the beast he fears is still within himself, should it become uncaged.”

  “What happened?” Cheryl asked.

  “I understand she knocked him out multiple times before he realized he should stop asking questions that pissed her off,” Maria answered dryly.

  “Wow, wish that was possible for me,” Horst admitted as he stared at Maria.

  “Bully,” she replied.

  “Oh, sure, the whole weak woman card,” Horst grinned, “This century seems much more about gender equality, Maria.”

  “Well, I’ll inform Bethany Anne or one of the other women in her group you wish to work out with them, ok?”

  “Let’s not be getting hasty here, those are young women, and I’d hate to have an unfortunate lesson learned.”

  “Ageist,” Maria retorted.

  “I have allergies against black and blue marks,” Horst responded, “They don’t heal very quickly anymore.”

  “Hmmph,” Cheryl told him, “So, you believe that a human can do evil, but without intent, it isn’t the same?”

  Maria nodded, “In this case, yes. But, I want to caution that I feel for those here on Earth and I would try to help our nation, at some level, with our technology.”

  “What does TQB say about it?” Horst asked.

  “They believe it could lead to destabilization between the world powers. However, while TQB is trying to find those that attacked us, they have not at this point. I would provide the technology transfer with some qualifications that should keep the advance down, to a degree anyhow. If the group that attacked us is not found, then our country can catch up to the technology advancement I should hope. Should an alien group, of which we unaware of at this time, attack us, then I presume those in Germany would share the technology so the world could quickly respond.”

  Maria shrugged, “Those that wish to remain, may stay. Those that wish to go with me to another star system, may go with me. Who is voting go?”

  Maria looked around the table and nodded in relief.

  Every hand was raised.

  A dark field outside Brussels, Belgium

  “If you think I am going to go to the trees with you, Abd, you’ve been bitten too many times by a camel,” Paula told the man who was trying to coerce her to go for a walk.

  Just a little one.

  “Abd, stand back,” Abdullah ordered as he joined the two of them. Abd made excuses and went over to the group of twenty men waiting and smoking some ten paces away.

  “If you were wearing proper clothing, this would not happen,” Abdullah told her.

  “You and I both know that is a lousy excuse. I should be able to walk naked like I was brought into this world through here, unmolested.”

  “Perhaps that is how it should be, but it is not how it is,” Abdullah explained. “When one is stronger, the temptations can be quite difficult to subdue.”

  “Then, perhaps it is a good thing I have a pistol to help me with negotiations, right?” Paula asked.

  Abdullah looked down and noticed as she pressed the gun hard enough into her jacket for him to see, “Yes, the cat has claws I see,” he said.

  “No, the cat has nine rounds,” Paula told him, “and multiple mags if necessary to continue the discussion.”

  Abdullah looked up into the night sky, “When is this magical carpet ride going to get here?”

  “He’s already up there,” Paula said, “He’s just waiting for me to let him know to land.”

  Abdullah looked over at her, “Why didn’t you tell him to land already?”

  Paula took a couple of steps forward and spoke over her shoulder, “Because it would have been easier for him to shoot all of the guys out here if someone was going to be stupid with me.”

  Paula told the men to move back, or be flattened. Moments later, one of the larger Majestic-12 ships landed silently just meters from the men. Landing on four legs, the ramp lowered from underneath the ship. Two men, with weapons, came down the craft.

  Tyler went to speak with Abdullah, Antony came over to her. “Trouble?”

  She shrugged, “Nothing I couldn’t handle. This isn’t my first rodeo, but it would have been more trouble to find another twenty willing participants quickly.”

  “Understood,” he told her and leaned a little closer, “Just to be clear, they know everyone is getting off and shooting across in space, right? We aren’t landing anywhere inside.”

  Paula turned towards the twenty men and nodded, whispering, “Everyone understands this will put them in the history books as the first suicide bombers in space, for the glory of God.”

  Antony straightened up, “Well, they will be that much closer to heaven when they explode. They don’t have bombs on them now, right?”

  Paula chuckled, “No, I explained their stuff wasn’t going to work well in outer space.”

  She turned back to Antony and said, “I told you our bombs are much better.”

  New Mexico - USA

  One week, which was how long it took Barnabas to track Abesimmons to D.C. then others in the group to follow him back to a location in New Mexico before they lost him when he flew into an area and disappeared underground.

  It made sense, actually. Barnabas and others had figured out that the most likely location for the group they were searching for, was underground. That said, the site also needed to be in a relatively unpopulated area. However, when you have dozens, if not hundreds of ways to leave from over two thousand square miles? It boggled the mind pinpointing where they were really located.

  So, Team BMW came up with a solution using a mix of existing technology for drones out of Japan and adding additional technologies, including self-destructing abilities that would go into effect if the system ever was out of contact with it’s primary for more than thirty seconds.

  It was time.

  The Dropship Pod, unseen above the clouds dropped three small, dark gray parent orbs into the night.

  They fell the three miles before slowing their mad rush to finally hover just inches above the ground. Alone in the forest night, no humans saw the first orb open a hole and disgorged twelve flying insects.

  Made of metal.

  Receiving instructions, the insects fluttered away, each to a location that allowed them entrance into the underground caves system below.

  The second and third orbs moved silently in the night. The first stopping five miles south of the first location releasing twelve of its own drones.

  The third was three miles to the west, doing the same thing.

  Each insect drone flew into the cave and then continued on, mapping the insides with 3d laser technology and uploading the information directly to their parent.

  The controlling drone then sent the information to the dropship pod which sent the information Etherically to ArchAngel.

  Before too long, thirty-six little drones were mapping the caverns in the Dulce Lakes area. Occasionally, one would have to stop and backtrack back out. Five times, t
he little drones had to leave the cavern they were searching and seek another surface entrance to go back into the underground areas and continue their effort.

  The cavern system, ArchAngel figured out, was huge.

  Every fifteen hours, the little drones would return to the main pod for a recharge. Then, go back into the system again. Occasionally, they would have different orders depending on what ArchAngel was piecing together.

  ADAM was watching the results with interest. If ever an A.I. could be said to feel emotion, then it was happening now.

  ADAM was feeling pleasure.

  Boston, Ma - USA

  Charles nodded to the security officer, then drove past the gate into the large country estate. He didn’t recognize this security person, but then again he didn’t pay too much attention to the security guards, anyway.

  The only reason he noticed this time, he figured, was the guard looked Japanese. A strange occurrence, to be sure, but not out of the realm of possibility.

  Charles pulled into his front spot marked with a large, Cyrillic ‘C’ on the ground for him. The next two spots were labeled with the letters ‘F’ and ‘D’ respectively.

  Charles got out of his Range Rover and grabbed his briefcase. The effort in the Senate to pass electrical power legislation was doing well so far and should help their oil efforts. The United Nations was moving forward, as well. Closing his door, he walked towards the entrance of the mansion and pressed his hand against the security panel. The door lock clicked, and he stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

  Their security people were responsible for areas outside of these walls. The whole purpose of this mansion was to keep secrets. Secrets he, David and Fred spoke about openly within the walls of this building. They had cleaners come in, and then security swept the house for anything the cleaners might have left behind.

  Since the three of them weren’t living here, this happened once a month.

  He walked through the entryway into the bar, set his briefcase down and quickly made himself a rum and Coke. Hanging his coat on the rack, he grabbed his drink and case and continued down the carpeted hallway into the main library and meeting room.

  He stopped at the chessboard and raised an eyebrow. Fred had moved, but it was a strange move. Charles’s eyebrows drew together as he studied the board with more focus, trying to fathom the reason for the move. If he didn’t know better, he would swear Fred paid a ringer to play for him.

  Charles put down his briefcase and took a sip of his drink, thinking through all of the different moves and countermoves. He must have stood there five minutes before he realized the trap.

  He might be in trouble.

  Charles frowned. This was too subtle for Fred. He either did pay someone to help him with this move, or he got lucky and had no idea that twelve steps in the future, Charles would be in trouble. He took another sip and moved his Queen to Bishop’s three before bending down and picking up his briefcase and walked further into the room. He had almost made it to his chair when he stopped.

  Drink halfway up to his mouth, he stared at the dusky-skinned beauty sitting in David’s chair. It happened to be facing away from the chess board, the back too high for him to see that someone was occupying it.

  Someone that shouldn’t be here.

  “Who are you?” he asked her.

  “Tabitha. Why don’t you sit down Charles? Fred and David have just arrived and will be joining us, shortly.”

  Charles didn’t move but pointed at Tabitha using the hand with the drink, anger coloring his voice, “You are not supposed to be here, this is private property.” He looked around the room, to see if anyone else might be hiding.

  “When did rules mean anything to you, Charles?” Tabitha asked, standing gracefully, her hand trailing along the back of the leather chair as she walked around it. She was dressed in a black pantsuit, sleeves slit down the length of the fabric, her tanned arms peeking in and out of view.

  Charles could hear his two partners coming down, talking to each other when David abruptly changed tone and spoke, his voice louder, “Guard, you are not supposed to be inside this house! I will call and inform your company they will be docked for failure to…Good God, stop pointing that pistol at me!”

  “What’s the meaning of this?” Fred called out, and Charles turned to see his partners practically pushed into the room by another Asian security guard who was aiming a pistol at the two men.

  “Seriously Jun?” Tabitha asked him.

  “It was part of the outfit, Kimosabe, and it was easier than listening to their complaints.”

  Tabitha spoke to the three older men, pointing to their chairs, “Take a seat gentleman, you are going to be here a little while.”

  “Why?” David burst out, “You will be arrested and charged with…”

  She interrupted, “I’m not one of the three people on trial here, dickwad!” Tabitha told him.

  Fred, his mind trying to parse the coarse language coming from the woman in front of him, turned to Charles, stupefied.

  “Well Fred, seeing how we don’t have the pistol, why don’t we humor the woman?” Charles said as he took the two steps necessary to get in front of his chair and sat down.

  The other two men less graciously made it to their own chairs and sat down. Tabitha walked over to the men and put out her hand, “Briefcases please,” the men looked at each other in question. Jun cleared his throat, and the three looked disgusted but turned over their briefcases to Tabitha.

  Taking all three of them, she walked back to the table on the side and set them down. She reached over to her right and picked up a small diary that was laying there, “Why don’t we start with what you guys have written in this book, shall we?”

  “That’s personal!” Fred burst out, “Don’t you know a diary when you see one?”

  “With a lock, no less,” David added.

  Tabitha didn’t turn around, she just read a couple of notes, “Ten thousand for a bet from C to D re: Jailing TQB CEO.”

  “So, we happen to like to wager amongst ourselves, that is hardly a crime, young woman,” Charles remarked.

  Tabitha nodded, “That’s true, it isn’t. At least, it isn’t something I particularly care about.” Tabitha turned to another page in the book and faced the three men. “Here is one wager I think relevant, and it says you won, David. ‘C & F bet D $10k TQB CEO doesn’t fight’.” Tabitha touched the page a couple of times, “It says here you won that David due to lack of evidence over two years ago.” She looked at the man, “Unfortunately, you won on a technicality, as you three are going to find out.”

  “What are you talking about?” Charles asked, suddenly realizing who she worked for.

  “Why you already know Charles,” Tabitha told him, “or at least you have a good idea.”

  “Do you, Charles?” David asked him.

  “I have a good guess,” Charles admitted.

  “So, out with it,” Fred told him.

  Charles nodded towards Tabitha, “She works for TQB.”

  The two others looked back at Tabitha. Finally, Charles’s eyes grew wider, “You’re her!”

  Tabitha flicked a stray hair back over her shoulder, “Her who?”

  Charles pointed, “You’re the one who was in the security footage.”

  “Not possible, that lady was butch,” Fred grumped.

  Jun snorted, and Tabitha shot him a scathing look promising payback later. “Probably, but you must have horrible cameras to make me look butch.”

  “What do you want?” David interrupted, “We can double, triple, hell we can set you up with your own small country. Just name your price.”

  Tabitha looked to David with sympathy, “Oh dear, David, I’ve already drained your bank accounts. By now, the money is hitting over fifty different shell corporations, banks in overseas areas, and moved into precious metals and other investments that aren’t liquid.”

  “Like what?” Fred asked.

  “Like food,” Tabitha a
nswered, “It’s so nice of you to be buying food for those who just got hit by the the tsunami. Well, them and those who are leaving Earth to fight for our precious blue ball.”

  “We’ll do no such thing!” Fred argued.

  “We’ve already done it, haven’t we?” Charles asked, his shoulders slumping.

  Tabitha pointed to Charles, “Bingo! You are the prize kid in this class, Charles.”

  “How much?” Fred asked.

  “How much what? How much of your money did I find?” Tabitha asked, “Gentlemen, I’ve been looking for you for years. I’ve acquired so much information that was,” she put up her fingers, “this close to nailing your asses before. Now, with the final pieces in place, I’ve probably tracked over ninety-two percent of your total assets. Well, not including the money and other instruments in your two safes.”