David, keeping a watch around the area answered, “Not too much, sir. I have to admit it was a weird feeling meeting the Yollins up on the ArchAngel.”
“Yes, the Yollins. It helps, a little, to know they also fear the Kurtherians.” He looked over at David. “At least TQB is not fighting figments of their imaginations.”
David shrugged. “Not always sure I agree with their methodology, sir. Those decisions are above my pay grade.”
“I get it, David,” he answered and looked back up to the sky himself. He might be out of office, but one doesn’t just leave behind the feeling of responsibility as easily as taking off a coat.
David reached up to his ear. “We have incoming.”
“Where?”
David turned and pointed to the south. “That direction. TQB informed me and traffic control who happen to be bitching they can’t see them.”
Soon, there was the tiniest amount of thrum one felt but couldn’t hear and the TQB Executive Pod came swooping in, doing a tight circle before coming to rest near the limousine. David watched as the door opened and John Grimes stepped out and checked the area before he allowed Bethany Anne and finally one more woman out as well.
The doors closed, and the Pod lifted back off into the night sky and disappeared.
The President watched it go as they walked up to him. “Where are they going?”
“Back up to the ArchAngel,” Bethany Anne said. “Good to see you again.”
The ex-President turned and greeted her with a smile and a hug. “Thank you for this.”
“Yeah, you owe me,” she said and they separated. “I’m dreading this like a trip to the dentist.”
“You don’t need to go to a dentist,” he observed as John opened the door to the limousine.
“Nor do I need to do this, either,” she retorted. “Before we go, let me introduce Anna Elizabeth Hauser to you guys. She works in negotiations for her company and has worked for me in the past.”
The ex-President put out his hand. “Pleased to meet you, Ms. Hauser.” He shook her hand before waving the ladies into the car. “Ladies first.”
“Thank you,” Anna replied and ducked her head to enter the car. Bethany Anne followed.
He slid in next, allowing the two security guards to get in last. David with them, John up front. The ex-President looked at Bethany Anne. “So, you really are going to give this a shot?”
“You mean because I dragged Anna along on this?” she asked. “Yeah, I’m not going to waste my time on the infinitesimally small chance it would work without at least giving it the old college try.”
“Really, what college?” he asked and grinned at her. They felt the car pull out.
“Damn, you people never quit, do you?” she asked him, laughing. “Or is it the bounty?”
“Oh, the bounty of course,” he replied. “It’s what, up to fifteen million now?”
>>Twenty-two and a half million.<< ADAM supplied.
“It’s over twenty million, now,” she corrected him.
David whistled but didn’t say anything as he looked out the window.
“We can split the money,” he told her. “I mean, ten million just to whisper a name to me?” His smile grew wider, “Imagine the…”
“Bullshit that would happen to anyone who used to know me?” She looked at him, this time with a frank expression. “I’ve had to move a person I knew from my past twice already before she finally decided to just take me up on my offer to immigrate.”
“That is true,” his smile faded away. “They would chase anyone that knew you.”
“More than that,” she said. “Depending on the country, interrogate is the proper term.”
“Unfortunately, too true,” he agreed. “By the way, China wasn’t invited to this, seeing how you still have frosty relations with them.”
“Those bastards are lucky I haven’t flattened their leadership and had a new set put in place.”
“There has been some wondering why that hasn’t occurred yet.”
“Because the computer calculations of the potential social issues brought about by a decapitation of the Chinese government isn’t worth the enjoyment I would derive from it.”
“So, sleeping at night wouldn’t bother you?” he asked.
Bethany Anne looked at him. “When you had to send men into battle on foreign soil, did you worry about the wives of those soldiers they killed?”
“Some, I’ll admit,” he shrugged. “But they chose to pick up arms against us.”
“Same thing,” she said. “Just because they don’t have a gun, their political games and what they allow in the name of their country is on the heads of the politicians. The buck, or yuan, stops there.”
He nodded his understanding.
—
The hotel was over three hundred years old. With the spires lit up against the night sky and a golden angel statue at one corner, the hotel looked like a small, five story castle. The car was stopped at the gated entrance and then they were allowed into the inner courtyard and stopped a few feet from the front doors. The back passenger side door was opened and David got out. John exited from the front seat next to the driver and then knocked on the roof of the car.
The ex-President exited next and then Bethany Anne. Anna came out last and all three were swept inside quickly. Walking through the inside to a ballroom in the back of the hotel, Bethany Anne was surprised to see a very modern interior compared to the outside of the building.
They even had a bar with purple and green bar furniture. Not at all what she was expecting.
Soon, they passed through the more public area and their rush slowed to a more normal walk. Anna Elizabeth started cataloging who she saw, and who looked like they had the right intensity for the evening.
Bethany Anne took a look sideways and noticed Anna had already had her game on and was analyzing the people in the room as they were announced.
Damn, this woman might make the evening interesting, after all.
—
“Wow, she brings a woman with her to this event?” Sophia whispered to her friend Emma. Both ladies, wives of business leaders, often met and gossiped in the corner as each new person arrived at these meetings.
“Yeah, but do you see her security guard?” Emma asked, her eyes going up and down the tall man’s body. “Makes you wonder why she’s here tonight.”
“Because she is the woman of the evening, Emma!” Sophia hissed back, only slightly surprised Emma didn’t know what the TQB CEO looked like.
Emma was in her own little world.
The operative word, Sophia thought, was little. She swore to her husband that Emma’s intelligence could fit inside a tennis ball and have room for nine more identical sisters. But at events like this, she could be depended on to provide the evening’s entertainment.
Like right now.
Emma kept whispering, “I swear, I would be down on him like a stripper on a pole. No, down like ice cream at a Weight Watchers party. Hmm, maybe down like a case of beer at a frat party,” she kept trying new phrases to see which one fit the best.
Sophia looked at her friend, curious. “When was the last time you were at a frat party?”
“What?” Emma looked at her friend, trying to catch up with her question. “Oh, last fall. Took a wrong turn right into a hell of a night. Let me tell you,” Emma winked at her, “when they yell cougar, it’s a good thing.” Sophia snorted.
The two women went back to watching the new arrivals.
—
“Bethany Anne?” John whispered.
“Ummhmmm,” she answered, just as quietly.
“Promise me you won’t pass what those two were saying on to Jean?” he asked, while he searched the room for any problems.
“Quid pro quo, Mr. Grimes.”
Dammit. He pressed his lips together, she was going to negotiate this with him. Fortunately, the first two men joined Bethany Anne and the ex-President and drew them into a conversation. For now
, John knew, that meant she would stay quiet until they concluded the negotiations.
Before too long, Anna stepped into the conversation, asking the business leaders questions about their own companies and within two minutes, she had them whimpering, begging to leave the conversation. It took little time before it was obvious these two were puffed up men whose businesses were hopelessly left behind.
As they left, Anna whispered to Bethany Anne they probably had pulled strings to get into this event. All of the old hands allowed those two to go first. It was going to set the mood for the rest of the evening.
Anna had asked relevant questions, instead of Bethany Anne just biting their heads off. She said she saw more men taking their last sips before heading in their direction.
—
John looked at his watch. It had been over an hour of boring conversations and another two hours to go. Anna had been superb and Bethany Anne was actually enjoying herself. When those she was negotiating with left, Anna would give Bethany Anne an update on her thoughts and the two would start betting on who would approach next.
Occasionally David and John would exchange comments and a few people would come up and speak with the ex-President, but he was really being dragged along in the wake of these two women tonight.
The ex-President found he was enjoying his evening, as well.
A couple of times, he wanted to tell individuals to go away, as he was trying to listen to the women speaking to someone else.
Then, the dim but unmistakable staccato firing of weapons could be heard and John, David and Bethany Anne all turned towards the entrance of the ballroom. Women started screaming and more than a couple of men started yelling.
Four men from inside the room started running towards the door, two stopping and two continuing on past.
David looked around. “Sir, we need you back in the corner, there are windows in here!”
Bethany Anne’s lips pressed together and John put an arm around her and Anna, pulling them towards the wall as people freaked all around them.
“Gott Verdammt,” Bethany Anne’s voice came out of John’s chest. He had picked her up and held her close, her face planted in his jacket.
John set the two women down and turned around, Bethany Anne and Anna both arranging their clothes as he turned towards the entrance.
Someone outside yelled they were losing the front door.
“Go, John!” Bethany Anne called and pointed towards the doors. “We have Pods getting prepped to drop!”
John pulled a pistol and offered it to her. She ignored it. “I’m armed!” she yelled and then pushed him. “Now fucking go already!”
He nodded and turned to David. “You got them both?” David nodded sharply and John ran full tilt, most people not believing what they saw as he headed towards the front of the hotel.
Bethany Anne looked at the stained glass windows and frowned. She could leave, but where would that leave most of the others?
“Terrorists,” John’s voice came over her implanted ear receiver.
Well, that settled it. When was she going to get a chance like this again?
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
John raced into the hallway, the doors slamming open as he rushed through, hoping no one was on the other side.
Except… Son-of-a-bitch! Fucking terrorists. He clicked his microphone, “Terrorists.” Pulling his other Dukes special, he set the power down to four. He didn’t want to worry about who was on the other side of the person he shot.
These pistols were slightly different than her earlier versions. These had larger rods that allowed for mushrooming, like hollow points, when they hit, causing those he shot to feel the concussive damage at lower velocities.
Like right now.
As he came out of the doors, bullets were stitching the carpet heading in his direction. He twisted, throwing himself to the left, looking hard over his right shoulder. His arms helped speed up the twist, getting him out of the way of the bullets that tracked past him and then into the frame of the doors behind him.
John kept his eyes on the three men down the hallway as he twisted. Aiming both pistols, he fired.
He hit the far right shooter in his shoulder, splattering the man behind him with blood. Not that he cared. John’s third shot went through that guy’s nose and took half his cranium out. The guy on the far left took two to the chest, thrown backwards as the slug’s momentum carried him along when they ripped into him like a freight train.
John’s body slammed into the left wall, arresting his movement. He bounced off and landed in a crouch. Firing slowed for a moment, and John ran towards the front of the building.
—
The beautiful stained glass window on the far left side of the room, away from where they stood, shattered as bullets pelted the ceiling inside. Women screamed and men turned towards the new threat.
David turned to look, seeing Bethany Anne turn in that direction, the direction of the front door again.
“Stay here, Anna!” Bethany Anne told her and kicked off her heels. Damn! Where were her boots when she needed them?
A female’s voice echoed in David’s mind. If it looks like she’s going to leave, shoot her…
“What?” Anna yelled, “Why can’t I go with you?”
If it looks like she is going to leave, shoot her…
“Because you aren’t me,” Bethany Anne said. “I’ve got what it…”
That’s when excruciating pain slammed into Bethany Anne’s back.
—
Five Black Eagles screamed down from the ArchAngel, itself descending lower into the stratosphere.
“Black Eagle One, one minute from touchdown…”
“We got fire, we got fire!” Black Eagle two shouted over the intercom.
“Sum-bitch! They’re coming right at us, guys. Break, break, break. Somebody has been studying and we got unfriendlies.” Black Eagle One called, “Take your course, lose our friends and come back. ArchAngel, need a little support here!”
All five Black Eagles turned and raced in separate directions as twelve surface-to-air missiles streaked up from the city below.
Down on the ground, there shouts of glee as those who had the shoulder mounted rocket launchers laughed and high fived their buddies when the SAMs took off in separate directions, obviously following the five Pods that were retreating.
—
John raced toward the entrance. He heard the rush of men coming through the front door and raised the power of his Dukes to six.
He didn’t think there was anyone behind those coming in his direction he would have to worry about.
John, his speed ramped up, shot into the lobby and started laying waste to the men heading in his direction.
Those that would be guards were all on the floor, bodies bleeding out what remained of their lives on the tiled floors that others had walked on for hundreds of years.
The man closest to John’s head exploded when John’s first shot hit him between the eyes. Before any of the other terrorists could react, John shot two others in their chests, spraying those behind with blood and gore.
The Kurtherian Gambit Omnibus 05 - The Fans Version: My Ride is a Bitch - Don't Cross This Line - Never Submit Page 44