Ztopik considered that then slightly lowered his head on his fragile looking neck. “You make a good point, Patrick. The name you and your team should be listening, or looking for…” Ztopik’s eyes, that generally never gave indication of any emotion, seemed to flash red. Like a super-fast wave crossed them and then cleared back to his usual pink.
“Is Kurtherian.”
New York City, NY, USA
Tabitha hunched her shoulders down in her coat. She didn’t need it for warmth, but rather to cover the weapons and Bat-shit she had hidden around her body.
She could just kill Bobcat and William. Those motherfuckers stole into the Tontos’ rooms and drank beer and watched Batman starring Michael Keaton. Then they followed it up with the Christian Bale version and got to talking about all of the wonderful toys Batman had.
Then, they damn near whispered how Tabitha’s little toys and Batman’s toys were kind of the same, weren’t they? So now, Tabitha had Bat-toys. Even Jean Dukes would ask her about her toys when she went to ask about another weapon or weapon idea.
She was so going to grab them by the balls and lift them into the air as they sang like the sopranos they needed to be. Didn’t they realize this Bat-toy shit was going to last for decades?
God, vampires didn’t forget anything. It’s like they savored every little fucking joke FOREVER.
Her watch thumped against her wrist, and Tabitha took a left down a narrow street that looked like it cut across to the hotel she and the team were staying in. It was getting dark sooner now, and the chill autumn winds were cutting through the street.
If Bethany Anne didn’t need Bobcat and William so bad, she would…
“Ay mamí tù tan caliente!” a man called from in front of her followed by a couple of hoots. Tabitha focused ahead instead of on her feet, fuming at those two irritants and could see five guys coming at her from the intersection ahead. She rolled her eyes. She didn’t have time for this shit but felt a need to do it anyway. She looked around and smiled. Across the street was a dark, dank and smelly alley.
Perfect!
She couldn’t do anything to Bobcat and William at the moment (whether they had intended to cause her trouble or not) but these assholes seemed like a pleasant diversion.
“Kiss my sweet ass, you gringo pieces of shit!” she yelled and hurriedly crossed the street, making sure to look like she was trying to get away from the guys. She smiled when she heard the muttering and exclamations from behind her and their quick footsteps in her direction. She didn’t hide her accent, which only made them angrier.
Sometimes, being a Queen’s Ranger with the duties it entailed was a real pleasure.
Schwabenland, Antarctica
Dr. Abesemmins shivered despite his long johns and coat. Having to ride on a conventional airplane down to Antarctica was a price he was willing to endure if he got a chance to speak with Maria Orsitsch.
It had taken him more than a week and a half to think how to persuade both Eva and Patrick that they needed to take this chance to learn more from the Thule group, once they had resurfaced again from history. The Thule group had been mostly silent when speaking with the world at large and now the chance to see if they knew more than they had divulged so far was a golden opportunity.
A golden opportunity they needed to take advantage of.
Abesemmins was shocked when both Eva and Patrick accepted his argument the first time. He wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth and try to figure out why as he hurried to go pack his bags before they changed their minds.
Abesemmins looked out the window as the plane turned to start their landing. There were four of those damned TQB one-person patrol planes stationed in the air that he could see. One country made the mistake of believing TQB wouldn’t fire on unexpected guests and learned they were right.
But, the Thule group had no compunctions about shooting down the craft, and they did. Seven people on that plane died and the message coming out of Schwabenland was, ‘When we say no, we mean no.’
Message received.
Now, a few invitations had gone out to a few countries, offering to speak with their representatives to see if Schwabenland would like to form an alliance with them.
This, of course, caused an uproar in the UN. That circus was getting worse and worse. Even Patrick had to admit Schwabenland joining another country was probably going to cause a major problem in the UN.
Not his problem.
The plane hit the ice with only a little swaying back and forth as the pilot got it under control. Abesemmins could feel the landing was going to be safe and he let out his breath.
The tension he had felt in the pit of his stomach let up, just a little.
Abesemmins was one of twelve delegates from the United States. No one on the plane knew him, so all on the plane figured he had been secluded away in some government program or another and they were right, to a point.
He was here to see if he could find the information that those he worked for were seeking.
New York City, NY, USA
Tabitha’s escape ended up in a small enclave where three buildings came together, giving her about a twenty by thirty-foot area to play. All of the back doors had rusted metal bars over them, and there was one that had an old light that was trying its damnedest to shine through the grime covering it.
She turned around as the five guys entered the alley entrance and waited for them.
They showed up at the mouth of the alley and instead of running right at her, they slowed down and took their sweet damn time approaching.
How typical. Slow down and enhance the terror for the woman so they could feed on it.
There was a dumpster on her right by a door that smelled of Chinese food. She eyed the men and walked towards the dumpster. With the screech of metal on concrete, she pulled the dumpster away from the wall. This would ensure the lid, as she flipped it up, would stay open.
She walked back towards the center and lifted an eyebrow. A couple of the young toughs seemed to be looking sideways at their friends, but no one wanted to admit the little display of strength startled them.
“Gentleman,” Tabitha started as they fanned out where the alley opened up into the courtyard, “and by gentlemen, I mean assholes...” she was interrupted.
“Now, that isn’t the proper way to respect the men around you,” the middle tough spat on the ground. He was wearing a jean jacket with black sweatshirt underneath. His accent sounded maybe first or second generation American to her.
Tabitha, hand on hip, nodded towards his clothes. “What isn’t proper is that outfit! Didn’t your mother teach you how to dress?” Her face made obvious what she thought of his looks.
A couple of the guys with him started grumbling, and the guy in the center put his hands out, pushing down as if he was calming those with him. “Now, that isn’t a way to get out of this situation safely,” head dickhead replied. “Neither is talking about my mother.”
“I didn’t talk about her. I asked her son if she taught you how to dress. If she did, and this is what you’re dressing in, then you either ignored her, or you are as dumb as a rock. No one,” Tabitha acted like she was looking down at him, “wears a white t-shirt with a black sweatshirt and an old jean jacket. Shit, didn’t those things go out of style last century?”
“Not where it matters, muffin,” he replied, raising an eyebrow at her.
“You got nothing to make a muffin rise, asshat. Jean jackets are appropriate in the South…and maybe still with metalheads. You’re here in New York in the fucking winter cold. I doubt one girl gives you a second look,” Tabitha said and looked up the walls on both sides.
“You are about to give me a second and third look with a little… what are you doing?” He looked up the walls, both sides, before looking back at her, smiling. “Oh, now you figure it out? Now you figure out you have nowhere to run?”
Tabitha turned around and continued looking at the two windows she found behind her, confirmi
ng that no one was at either one. She spoke, and the guys could hear her just fine as she turned back around to them. “I’m just making sure we don’t have any witnesses, Ace.” Tabitha said as she looked at him. “The ass kicking I’m going to give you five is only going to give me a few hours of satisfaction. But, it’s the best I have on offer at the moment so, what’s it going to be? Are you all mouth and no solution?” She punctuated her comment with a pelvic thrust. “Hmm?”
“Johnnie,” the guy on her left whispered, “C’mon, this isn’t right.”
“Don’t be a pushover, Sebastian,” Johnnie retorted. “She’s as much as dared us to kick her ass. Trust me,” he took a couple of steps forward and made smooching noises at Tabitha. “When I get done with her ass, she won’t be able to sit down for a week.”
As he finished his statement, he popped his pelvis out towards Tabitha to the catcalls from the guys behind him as they started following him forward.
Sebastian sighed heavily. His cousin was impetuous and foolhardy. His momma said one day he was going to get Sebastian in trouble.
He prayed it wasn’t this evening as he started following the other four, noticing something that concerned him.
Did her eyes just flash red?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Schwabenland Base, Antarctica
Maria Orsitsch nodded to her two guards. Both Hans and Horst returned her nod as she stepped between them to enter the meeting room. Their base, once they brought the heaters online, was a very comfortable seventy-four degrees. All of her people were older but in great shape.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have the technology to make her people young again as the young Queen did.
Horst grinned. “Dresses again, Maria?”
She stopped in front of him. “If I knew that a punch would hurt you, I would hit you. A slap against that granite you have for a head would only hurt my hand, Horst.” He smiled at her as she continued speaking. “You know I’m not fond of the pants women wear today. Dresses are for ladies, thank you very much.”
“Yes,” Horst replied as she stepped between the two men to go into the room. “But the pants allow us to see the woman’s weapons so much easier than dresses, Maria.” The men smiled as they closed the door behind her.
Men, Maria thought, freeze them and thaw them out and they still only think of sex, sex, sex.
Maria set her yellow notepad and pencils down. She preferred to write her notes. Her personal shorthand was completely unique, no one would be able to decipher it.
Except, perhaps, the Kurtherian. She had asked Bethany Anne, twice now, to speak with TOM and the most she was allowed was communication through one of their phone devices.
“Maria?” Hans called out sometime later. The knocking on the door took her attention away from the notes she had made during the meeting with the Germans the day before. The history of her country was dramatic, to say the least. Broken apart after the war and brought back together in October of 1990, there was a lot of good and bad about the reformed country. It wasn’t the Germany she remembered.
Truthfully, none of the countries were anything like she remembered or cared about. Her last meeting was with the United States of America and then she would have to deliver her decision to her people... those who chose to continue following her.
Wherever that led.
“Yes?” she replied, looking up from her notes.
“I have Barnabas out here, from Bethany Anne. He is asking permission to speak with you a moment.”
“That’s fine, please let him in.” She put down her pencil and stood up.
Barnabas walked in and nodded to Maria, who nodded back. Barnabas was a very peaceful person, at least to Maria.
“Wie Gehts?” he asked the door closed behind him.
“Gut und Dir?” she replied as she took a seat. Barnabas never tried to shake her hand or hug her in any way. He was always formal in their meetings. Of those who followed Bethany Anne, she found him the most comfortable.
“I’m very well, thank you,” he finished in English and pulled out one of the chairs. “Are you ready for this last meeting?”
“As ready as I hope to be. It seems, to me at least, that speaking with aliens is a more straightforward exercise than talking with anyone from the future, or at least my future, in this world.”
“Have you made contact then?” He followed up but then put up a hand, a small smile on his lips. “My apologies. My curiosity knows no bounds, as Frank Kurns will attest.”
“Yes, another whose curiosity knows no bounds, you two should be brothers,” she replied.
Barnabas nodded. “It was strange, our first meeting. When he and I first got to know one another, I had information he wanted, and he was a spring of information I needed.”
“Really?” she looked down at her pad and realized it was the wrong one for her notes about Frank and looked back up at Barnabas. “I thought I remembered him saying you didn’t ask as many questions as he?”
“If we must talk about Frank behind his back,” Barnabas started, then winked, “then the truth is no one can ask as many questions as that man. Nor,” he nodded to Maria’s notepads, “does he fail to also make all sorts of notes, in his books, about the answers.”
Her eyebrows drew together in concentration. “I don’t remember him writing much,” she replied.
“Mmmm,” Barnabas put his hands on the table. “Then I would suggest that he was recording the meeting, to jot down notes later, so he could get more questions in.” Barnabas could see Maria weighing that answer. “Or he was so captivated with the answers, he dared not slow down, and he expected to write his notes down later.”
“More likely the former than the latter,” Maria said. “He did place his tablet on the table when we spoke.”
“Mystery most likely solved. I doubt he would trust his memory, as good as it is, without a backup.”
“Is it true he is from my time?” she asked.
“Frank? Yes. He was in the Second World War and has been through a medical procedure to reduce his age.”
“That is fascinating. I wish my contact would have provided that information,” she said. “I can’t say I enjoy sitting with Bethany Anne considering how attractive she is.” She reached up to grab her hair, which was getting longer but not nearly as long as she had it in the stasis chamber.
“Bethany Anne was attractive before she was healed, you were both attractive in your youth and still are, I believe. However, that is not why I am here to speak with you.”
“Yes, I know Barnabas.” Maria picked up a pencil and tapped it on the table. “But you are the only one I feel I can share some of my thoughts with. You seem to be the only one who just tells me like it is, and isn’t trying to control the situation and my decision.”
Barnabas raised an eyebrow. “You don’t suspect that I am a vicious plant by my Queen to influence your decision?”
Maria laughed. “No! God no. If Bethany Anne wanted me to do something, I imagine she would have Captain Kael-ven tell me. I’m a sucker for an alien, and she’s the only one that seems to have plenty of aliens hanging around her.”
“Yes, she does appear to acquire aliens without trying. It is a singularly unique trait,” Barnabas said dryly.
She asked, “So, if you’re not here to influence me, Barnabas, to what do I owe the honor of your presence?” She smiled, wishing she was fifty years younger. She would have had a chance to turn his head and make it go in a complete circle if she still had her youthful looks. There was a reason the Vrilerinnen were called the beautiful young ladies of the Vril Gesellschaft.
The Kurtherian Gambit Omnibus 05 - The Fans Version: My Ride is a Bitch - Don't Cross This Line - Never Submit Page 28