Bethany Anne turned to Cheryl Lynn, “Would you please begin before I start sacrificing a few of these people as an object lesson for the others?”
Cheryl Lynn nodded her agreement while she listened to the chuckles die down. “Ok, we have looked at different options including telling others about the launch in advance, telling them after the launch or waiting until someone finds out what we’re doing and starts telling people about us.”
“Kind of my preference,” Bethany Anne interjected.
“Duly noted.” Cheryl Lynn agreed. “However, there are a lot of good reasons for other options. Including the one I’m presenting as our best option, which is to go live during the event.”
“Really?” Marcus interrupted. “You want to tell people about the stuff as we do it?”
“Yes, and here are my thoughts. First, let me go with my reasons to ‘not’ do it the other ways. Telling others up front, we run the risk of too much interference during the operation. Which is the same justification for not doing it during the actual start of the operation. For not telling them after the event, we would suffer too many issues with people assuming complete fabrication of the video. If we wait until someone figures out that we are up there we are going to suffer from people wondering why we are being so secretive? What are we hiding? We will have a hard PR slog to get through that mess and it will take a lot of time. Finally, the ‘why do it during the event’ pros. First, as long as we start the live coverage after the beginning of the event we won’t get stopped as no one can tell us to bring it back. Second, if our materials are on the way to the moon, we will have a substantial number of astronomers who can see the shipping containers in space and those who will want to say it was a fabrication will have to fight them as well.”
She paused, “Any questions so far?”
Getting none she continued, “So, if we schedule the trip to take long enough, we can get worldwide coverage and get everyone involved in cheering for our scruffy little group doing something even the big bad nations of the world couldn’t. We get public sentiment behind us to help overcome the pressure from certain nations that we expect to receive. Further, we are going to need people.”
She stopped to look around the table to help emphasize her point. “Lots and lots of people are needed for the next stages of our efforts, and we can’t keep finding and hiring people on the sly. There is no way to hire thousands quietly, so we should go public to build a large database of excited people and I’m sure,” Cheryl Lynn grinned, “that Bethany Anne will appreciate not having to go on dates with Michael every night for all of the trips that would require.”
The group laughed when Bethany Anne stuck her tongue out at Cheryl Lynn. “So, notwithstanding our boss’s rather juvenile response, I propose this idea will generate the most positive reaction for PR purposes moving forward.”
“Unless,” Bobcat replied, “We pancake into the Moon and everyone dies on television for all to see.”
“Then I suggest you damn well don’t kill people on the moon.” Cheryl Lynn bit back, “Not only for PR issues, but the people in those containers would really appreciate living longer, I’m sure.”
“Yeah, there is that,” Bobcat agreed.
“Ok, let’s make this simple to start.” Bethany Anne started, “Does anyone want to vote for ‘tell them upfront’?” She got no hands raised, “How about when we start? Ok, nothing for that one.” She put up her hand, “How about for ‘let’s wait for the last minute?” Bethany Anne and Bobcat were the only ones with their hands up. “Ok, who is for telling them while we are doing it?” The rest of the hands went up. She turned to Cheryl Lynn, “Well done, you have now officially gone to the dark side, PR Vader.”
A few chuckles occurred before Cheryl Lynn pulled a small daintily wrapped bag and put it on the table, “Come to the dark side with me, Bethany Anne, we have milk and cookies!” Bethany Anne had to laugh when the rest of the table produced the same pretty little bags. Most of the men had already opened their bags. Bobcat snagged a small round chocolate chip cookie from his and munched it.
He looked around at the people staring at him, “What? I’m willing to listen, but it takes more than cookies to sway me to the dark side.”
“Like beer,” Marcus supplied.
“Now that’s a hell of a start.” Bobcat nodded in agreement.
“Word,” William said smiling.
Bobcat looked disgusted as he rolled his eyes.
“Ok,” Bethany Anne interrupted the two before they could get on a roll, “If we are going to go live during the trip to the moon, we really need to make sure we can’t be stopped. What are we going to do for a home base for those in command?”
“True,” Lance agreed, “it would be best not to be on base for the actual lift off unless they can’t figure out anything is happening from here?” He looked towards Team BMW.
Jeffrey answered, “All communications are Etheric. Provided no one spots the lift off from the base we have a shot. However, all it would take is one person to blab and someone puts two and two together with all of our missing containers and the boxes up in space.”
“Unlikely we keep it quiet once it is on the news.” Cheryl Lynn agreed, “What is the legality of building on the moon?”
“We are almost ok on that at the moment.” Jeffrey said. “We have our final papers for incorporation in a country that is not part of the outer space agreement so we are good on that side. Hell, we have two companies already in that country so we can put the focus on them if we want.”
“No, don’t do that.” Bethany Anne ordered, “They have nothing to do with this, so the people don’t know anything and we don’t need to send stupid reporters to follow them.”
“Speaking of reporters,” Cheryl Lynn broke in, “When can I speak with our Costa Rican contact?”
“I think Tabitha said she would reach out and get you a time. When do you want to meet with her?” Bethany Anne asked.
“Mmmmm, tomorrow too soon?” Cheryl Lynn proposed, “And how am I getting there?”
“How about commercial air?” Jeffrey suggested, “We are going to be backtracked on our movements and if your reporter mentions a talk in her country with you and you don’t have a way to be tracked getting there?”
“Good point…dammit.” Cheryl Lynn made a face of annoyance, “I was looking forward to Air BMW.”
“That name is probably already trademarked, so we can’t use it.” Bobcat suggested.
“Guys... and lady,” Bethany Anne interrupted, “I … Have ... A ... Date!” She demanded, “Now focus!”
The rest of the discussion went well and by the end, they had confirmed a time for Cheryl Lynn to talk with Giannini the following day and hopefully persuade her to come back and start getting content for the project. Patricia was going to help watch Todd and Tina until she made it back home late that night.
Plans were laid, and Bethany Anne left to have dinner thousands of miles away.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Sydney, Australia
It had taken only four minutes for Darryl to help Scott into a Pod and Gabrielle to retrieve Jordan’s body. Darryl noticed Gabrielle being gentle with the body. She was offering her respect for someone whom she didn’t know but had shown such courage toward her team. Gabrielle was adamant they would find out more about this young woman who had helped her men and they would provide her a proper funeral.
Gabrielle had told Pip her team would be by very soon to clean up, and she shouldn’t expect the police for about forty-five minutes or so. By that time, all of the blood would be cleaned up and sweeping up the sidewalk would be completed.
The gunfire had produced interested observers milling around and Pip wasn’t sure how anything would get cleaned up. Then the rectangular white truck with a band of blue and white squares across the sides and the back with the words ‘Coroner' rolled up. Two men, dressed in white coveralls with official looking badges quickly stepped out of the vehicle, leaving the lights
flashing.
One took a cart out of the back and came over to Pip, “Are you the owner?” He asked and Pip nodded. “May we come in and clean the blood up? Gabrielle sent us.”
“Yes, yes of course,” Pip answered. She turned to walk into her cafe and pointed to the locations where Jordan had died and Scott had lain bleeding.
“Are these the only bloody areas?” He asked.
“Up by the front door are some splatters and on the tables.”
The man looked around and finally nodded his head, “Ok. My partner will have official documents for you. When the police arrive, give them the paperwork and you shouldn’t have too many problems. We will have a crew here in a few hours to clean-up and repair most of the damage.” He looked over to Pip, “I’ll understand if you need to sleep. The group will have a foreman…”
Pip’s countenance went from concerned to annoyed, “I’ll not have someone put my place back together without me supervising!” The man quickly put up his hands.
“Say no more, it was only to give you the option.” She quieted down and he continued, “The team will be here within a couple of hours as I said. My partner and I will have the blood and some of the other mess cleaned up and out of here before then. Just provide the documentation to the police. The person cleaning up and working to get you back in business will also issue you a check. This will help offset any reduction in business for the next three months.” He looked around, “Do you think that will be sufficient?”
Pip kept her mouth shut to see if he would offer anything else. His eyes came back to her, “Someone will be back in ninety days to review the status of your business. If there is a problem, we can talk again. Trust me, there will be no better offer. Normally, there isn’t even this offer.”
Pip, never able to keep quiet when she was curious asked, “Why? What is the normal deal?”
The man smiled down at her and this time she noticed the slightly pointed canine teeth, “Normally we would simply erase the memories of you and anyone else involved. There would be no money, no help and no answers for the police.”
“Why is this time different?” She continued, little ventured little gained she figured.
The man’s shoulders straightened up a little. “Because ... there is a new Queen involved and she operates in a different way. Also, she sent someone who can be a real bitch to deal with.”
“Who?” Pip asked.
He looked at the business owner, “She sent an old friend.” The man started walking over to the first area he was going to clean up while mumbling, “And two scary as fuck guards…”
Richard’s Home – Sydney, Australia
“I’m telling you, if you don’t get that bullet out a little faster, it’s going to come out on it’s own in a bad way!” Scott was grunting while stretched across Richard’s kitchen table. Darryl had a knife out, but was hesitant to cut deeper into Scott, when Gabrielle walked in.
“What the hell is going on with you two?” Gabrielle had brought two more tiny vials of Bethany Anne’s blood with her, she was running out.
Darryl turned to Gabrielle, “Scott has two more bullets in him that haven’t been pushed out. I’m trying to figure out how to cut into him to grab them.”
“Really?” Gabrielle walked over to stand next to Scott as he laid on the long table. Fortunately, Richard had a darker stone floor and the blood would be easy to get off of that. However, the nice white table might not make it. “Where are you feeling them?” She asked Scott. He put a pinky on a spot a little to the right of his navel and then his thumb up by the bottom rib.
“Here and here, I’m pretty sure.” He was able say through gritted teeth.
“Hmmm,” Gabrielle murmured. She walked over to the sink, washed her hands and returned. Darryl’s eyes opened perceptibly when he noticed that her fingers were growing short, sharp claws. “You don’t want me just rooting around in there! You need to be very sure. Are you?” She asked. Scott grunted that he was.
“Ok, good to know. Now ... hold still.” She lifted her hand up slightly then stabbed into Scott’s abdomen. Darryl watched as Scott’s expression widened in shock as Gabrielle pulled one bullet out, held between two claws, and dropped it onto the table. “Ok, that’s the easy one.”
Panting between his clenched teeth Scott squeaked, “Easy one?” He raised his head in time to see Gabrielle’s bloody clawed hand start stabbing into him again. This time she aimed just beneath his right ribs. He grunted and ground his teeth together. He wasn’t going to make any more whining comments than what he had already. Fuck that! If Gabrielle wasn’t going to wuss out about getting the bullets out of him, he wasn’t going to be a wuss by bitching about it.
A few pain laden breaths later, she pulled the second bullet from him and dropped it on the table. “That’s the second. Darryl, please give him the two vials to drink.” She walked over to Richard’s kitchen sink and started washing her hands once more. She considered what needed to happen next. Apparently, Kamiko Kana felt that the best defense was an exceptionally aggressive offense and Gabrielle’s team locality had been compromised.
Richard had admitted that he had been talking with a friend over in Western Australia about old friends. He had let slip that he had seen Gabrielle in town, but that was the sum total of his comment. Unfortunately, that friend hadn’t picked up the phone when Richard tried to do a three-way call with Gabrielle to diffuse her nasty thoughts a few minutes before.
Explaining the situation further to Gabrielle, he informed her that Samuel and he had been discussing Kamiko Kana’s efforts to take over the vampires the night she had found them.
Richard was saddened but wasn’t terribly surprised to learn weaker vampires might have already tossed their hats into the ring with Kamiko Kana.
Gabrielle had forced Richard to undergo a mind read by her. He had been surprised to find out, not only could she do it, but it hadn’t taken her very long to get past his defenses. He had never realized how powerful she truly was compared to himself and Samuel. That had caused him to reconsider how powerful her ‘Queen’ must be to have someone such as Gabrielle in her service.
When Gabrielle admitted that her father had sworn allegiance to Bethany Anne and that her Queen was dating Michael? Well ... he found his own form of religion.
Richard and Samuel preferred to leave politics out of their life, but Gabrielle frankly told them their lives were officially hers. She wasn’t happy about the ‘joke’ played a couple of centuries ago and while Samuel was guilty, Richard would be there to nag him the whole time about their situation.
Richard had asked how long they would be in service and Gabrielle had just eyed him and said, “Until I feel forgiving.” She turned around, heading back into the house, and called over her shoulder, “Or ... two decades ... whichever comes first.”
Now, she had the two of them cleaning up the mess at Maxwell’s and dealing with the local politicians. When the cleanup was done, the two of them were going to the Colorado base as the first vampire volunteers. She planned to let them out of their punishment after twenty-four months. She might even admit that to them, when she snagged them by their ears and threw them into a Pod for their trip to Colorado.
She would make sure they had martial arts training scheduled into their days. Then, she would visit from time to time … she could kick their asses during practice, especially Samuel’s! His ass would be kicked often.
Very often, she thought.
Finished with cleaning her hands, she dried them on a towel and checked that Scott was looking better. “Why didn’t you two have on your vests?”
“Not to put too fine a point on it,” Darryl responded, “None of us did then or do now.”
Gabrielle nodded. “Let’s not make that mistake again. Would you grab them?” Darryl nodded and walked out of the kitchen. “Ok, tell me why you made such a rookie mistake?” She asked Scott.
“Really?” Scott asked, “Can’t we say that the gunshots were an object lesson a
nd call it good?” He smiled, weakly, over at Gabrielle who shook her head. “Well, I tried.” He sighed.
Scott answered, “Jordan reminded me of a girl on the streets in New York. I’d talk with her every once in awhile on my beat. It was a little like talking to someone at home again.” Scott made a little shrug with his shoulders, “By the time we finished talking, she was a friend. I guess I moved my older feelings over to Jordan during the conversation.”
“Really? What happened to this other woman?”
“Killed.”
“Helping you?”
“No.” Scott admitted. “She was killed by her pimp. A real world-class asshole that I had been able to keep behind bars for only two weeks before she was murdered. He got out due to a weak-ass Junior D.A. that was going after a higher level criminal. So her pimp was allowed to bargain for a lesser charge and basically got off with a wrist-slap.”
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