Stephen answered, “Yes, that would not be a problem for you to live within Europe. Obviously, this permission is based on you rejecting the Forsaken creed regarding humans. Please be aware,” Stephen turned to look directly at Scott, “that we operate under the authority of Bethany Anne here in Europe. I will brook no disrespect of my Queen. Is this understood?” His eyes didn’t leave Scott’s face.
Claudia wanted to slap Scott. Scott had been the biggest issue for them ever since they left South America. While Juan was Claudia’s brother and had changed to a vampire in order to help her cope many years before, Scott was Juan’s friend who had found a mother figure in Clarita. He was hit particularly hard with her death. Now, she hoped Scott didn’t ruin this opportunity for safety with an outburst due to the emotional pain he was still working through.
Juan spoke up, “Stephen, could you explain to us the role of Bethany Anne in the UnknownWorld? Our experience in South America is not very helpful in understanding what is going on with the bigger picture. In fact, without my mother explaining why she was under attack due to Adrian, we would probably have thought it was an internal political issue with the Forsaken.”
Stephen spent the next three hours explaining the true history of Vampires and how Bethany Anne fit within the new changes coming about. He was circumspect when explaining how Bethany Anne became a vampire; however, he did give them enough of an understanding to realize that their brother Adrian started the whole situation by killing Bethany Anne’s father-figure back in Washington DC.
Claudia and Juan could understand the anger she must have felt. Scott; however, did not want to hear any justifications for killing his mom. Finally, in a fit of disgust, Scott stood up, walked to the front door - opened it and slammed it behind him as he walked out into the night. There was a moment of silence as Claudia and Juan sat on pincushions clearly concerned with Stephen’s reaction.
Stephen looked at the door Scott had just closed. “Well, I suppose that reaction could’ve been handled better. Fortunately, whatever he might have to say about Bethany Anne I won’t hear and need to respond appropriately. I suppose that was the most mature response Scott could come up with.”
Stephen was not like any powerful vampires either of them were accustomed to working around.
They continued talking into the morning, waiting for Scott to make it back. Sometime later, Ivan came and introduced himself. He seemed a little despondent and not his typical cheery self. He wasn’t rude, and had held a good conversion with Claudia and Juan, but particularly Claudia.
Stephen understood a phone call had occurred between Ivan and Gabrielle. He would need to call his daughter and find out what was going on later.
Finally, Ivan went into the kitchen to make himself a late snack which is where he was when the trouble started.
San Jose, Costa Rica
Special Agent Matthew Burnside walked into the San Jose Police headquarters. He was part of the Office of Asian Pacific, Latin American and African Analysis and frankly wasn’t supposed to be talking to anyone right now including - He looked down at his hastily written note - a Super Intendant Rodriguez.
Unfortunately; he got a call early this morning, waking him up in bed by someone with enough pull in the Military Affairs group to drag his ass out of bed to ask the Super Intendant some questions.
He typically dealt with the ongoing political volatility, military security, many varied leadership changes. With all of the unstable economic dynamics that occurred on a regular basis down here he often wondered why he left California. It was rare that he was doing anything more than reading reports and occasionally making a few phone calls. Being called up to run out into the field wasn’t something he did. However, the meeting was going to be about all of the supposedly drug murders which had occurred in the last couple of weeks. He had read the many newspaper reports and understood something was very fishy. He had even read the reports about the Death Angels that had protected the group and the helicopter that flew at night.
Matthew introduced himself to the attractive brunette secretary at the front of the building. She was immune to his blond hair and was told he could wait in the second meeting room down the hall and to the left. He was only there, sitting down smelling the old cigarette smoke, for about five minutes when an attractive, maybe early 40s lady with dark black hair and glasses stepped in and introduced herself.
“Hello, I am Super Intendant Rodriguez of the Costa Rican Police. I am one of the officers in charge of the task force for investigating the missing persons and murders cases. How can I help you this morning Agent Burnside?”
Matthew decided that just asking for what he wanted was the best way to move forward. “Pleased to meet you, Superintendent Rodriguez, I have been asked to get information related to the most recent murder crimes and the paramilitary group using a Black Hawk helicopter. We would like to understand why you worked with them, and where they might be at this time.” It took Matthew approximately five seconds to realize he completely fouled up with the lady. Her busy expression quickly morphed into one he recognized as barely contained anger.
Her voice was clipped, angry, “Just like that? You want information related to our problems without so much as we are sorry for your deaths? Do you know that two of my close friends were killed during the troubles? Now all you want to know about is a paramilitary group operating in my country? This is what you came here to talk to me about? Not other items of note? I don’t recall seeing any American agents at the funerals. Perhaps, you were there and I didn’t recognize you?” Matthew understood really quickly where he had gone wrong.
He felt bad as he told her, “No Super Intendant, I was not there.” What a cluster fuck, Matthew thought, no wonder that dick didn’t want to take this meeting himself. If no one from the agency even sent condolences on their loss, how were the two groups supposed to continue working well in the future?
Superintendent Rodriguez stood up, “Then you will understand if it takes me some time to finish with my personal grieving before I spend any effort related to tracking down a paramilitary group responsible for saving many more of our lives. Once I get finished with my grieving, feel free to reach out and contact me again to see if we can help you. Good day, agent.”
The superintendent left the office barely stopping herself from slamming the door in Matthew’s face. Matthew thought about it for a moment and opened the door quickly, “Super Intendant?” Rodriguez turned around, “would you happen to know the name of the reporter who was helped that first night?”
“Giannini Oviedo.” Rodriguez turned back around and continued walking, obviously not willing to answer any more of Matthew’s questions. It wasn’t until Rodriguez reached her office and was able to think clearly again that she realized she had just given away an important name and the American agent would follow up with it.
Shit, she thought, she needed to get Giannini on the phone quickly.
The Queen Bitch’s Ship Ad Aeternitatem
Bethany Anne was on TOM’s ship, looking into the pod-doc, down at the dog she had decided to name Ashur, not quite believing her eyes.
TOM, He’s Big.
He really is a very beautiful dog.
And big.
That too.
So, what are the readouts telling you?
They are telling me we are going to have an interesting canine.
TOM, define ‘interesting’.
Well, something that is out of the ordinary? Something that was unexpected? Something that…
TOM, quit your bullshitting and tell me what is going on!
Okay, just trying to bring a little levity to the news.
Duly noted and you failed miserably.
Wow, tough crowd. Okay, all kidding aside we have a super-dog.
TOM, super-dog isn’t very helpful, give me something to work with.
Well, as you might expect he has increased speed, strength, his bones are tougher, his skin is tougher, obviously he’s bigger all
the way around, and of course he’s white. Not exactly going to be a good color for hiding at night.
True, any chance we can change that hair to black?
Are you kidding?
Um, Maybe?
Well then, answering from a scientific point-of-view, we certainly can change it. The nanocytes can create changes in the pigment-producing cells; however, it would probably take a few weeks for the color to completely envelop him as the hair grows. The pod-doc had to deal with some genetic abnormalities and select some recessive genes. In the process we got white hair.
Well, good to know. No need to do it right now; however, if he goes down again remind me that we had this conversation. I’m sensing that you left something unspoken, spit it out.
Well, this time it isn’t actually anything bad. There are two particular nuances I hadn’t expected. The first is a substantial ability to act as a conduit for the Etheric. The second is his modified mind.
Tom? What do you mean by ‘modified mind’? I don’t want to release a huge, vicious animal with mental instability.
No, no I don’t think he has mental instability. Actually, from the research you and I did previously dogs have an intelligence that equates to maybe a 2 to 3 year old human child. I’m guessing this dog’s intelligence might be a touch higher than that estimate.
Bethany Anne was getting frustrated with TOM’s insufficient answers.
How much higher ‘than that’.
I can’t really say at this time, it might only be one or two more years, or we might have something that increases over time. It’s not like I have a lot of research to work with here.
Bethany Anne continued to look down, the dog was certainly beautiful; all white hair and she was curious what his eye color would end up. She turned right and slipped through the etheric back to her room on the Polarus. They would be pulling Ashur out of the pod-doc pretty soon.
God only knows what she would find when they did that.
Bethany Anne walked out of her suite into the conference room following a knocking noise. She found Bobcat slowly banging his forehead against the wall. She stopped and stared at him, he continued to hit his head for thirty seconds straight before she interrupted him, “Bobcat, why are you damaging my wall?”
Startled, Bobcat turned around to notice Bethany Anne staring at him. His forehead was red, a flush started up his as his embarrassment started to show.
Bobcat sighed, “I left William up in Miami to keep an eye on all of the assets up there. Over the holidays, he hooked up with a lady and had requested a three-day leave to go out with her. His three-day leave ended two days ago. I need his help down here on the project, so I called Miami and did not receive a response from him. However, 10 minutes ago, I was called by an unknown number and I answered the phone.” Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow at that; he should not have answered an unknown phone call for security reasons. However, it looked like she needed to get to the bottom of this first problem before she introduced and reprimanded him for the second. “The nice gentleman on the other side was actually a sheriff. It seems William got left high and dry two nights ago at a bar by this woman. He then proceeded to get himself drunk in his pain. I don’t remember if I shared this with you but William can’t hold his booze.”
Bethany Anne nodded; she had heard the stories about William and drinking. For such a large man, he didn’t necessarily do very well in bar brawls. However, since he was so large he was a natural target to take down first. She winced, thinking about what must have happened.
“So, how bad is it?”
“Well, he should only be nursing a headache about now, but the fact that he did it in the first place causes me some serious concerns. I think it might have been a poor decision to leave him alone up there, he doesn’t have a focus now that the SUV’s are complete.”
Bethany Anne thought about this for a minute, “I can see that; he is driven by challenges, and we haven’t given him any new challenges. He hasn’t been down here with us either. Ask Ecaterina to get legal representation that can get him out of the clink, and get his ass on a plane down here as soon as possible. Make sure he understands he is going to work off this fuck-up.”
Bobcat’s shoulders slumped a little, some of the tension draining from them. Bethany Anne spoke again, “Mind you, he is your teammate, so you are going to work off this fuck up as well.” Bobcat nodded his head; he understood it always went uphill as well as downhill within Bethany Anne’s group.
She turned around and left him to deal with getting William down there.
CHAPTER TEN
San Andreas Island, East of Nicaragua
Both the Polarus and Ad Aeternitatem had arrived near the San Andreas Island during the evening. William had been flown down to the island the previous night and was waiting to be pick up. Personnel on both ships were looking forward to a little R&R and enjoying themselves over the next couple of days. Ecaterina had made sure that both ships would be properly protected while personnel got a chance to go play in the sun and the surf.
Both ships made quite a splash with the locals, often having some of the smaller yachts come out and wave as they took their time checking the sleek lines of the ships. A couple of the ships personnel had to ignore the requests from the boat bunnies who were trying to get on board. Although they smiled, they explained to the attractive ladies the owner of the ship would not permit anyone on board, and that they were very, very sorry about that. One particularly attractive woman broke a couple of hearts with her pout.
Ecaterina talked with Nathan the previous night. Both of them had something to say about how they had acted. Nathan admitted to Ecaterina that he had gotten a little bit too protective and had to rein in his efforts in that regard. Ecaterina admitted she would try to understand Nathan’s protectiveness, and that it came from a good heart. They agreed to make up for their missed time the next chance they got in. Both finished the phone call with smiles on their faces and anticipation in their hearts.
Bethany Anne, Ecaterina, and Bobcat were planning on taking one of the boats over to the pier, in order to go pick up William. John and Eric would go with them for the protective detail. Bethany Anne wasn’t so happy that her father had escaped from his protection detail; however, she understood that all four of the Queen Bitches guards needed to be on ship when the Wechselbalg had arrived. She would get even with that old man as soon as she could.
It didn’t take too long to get to the pier, tie up and locate a taxi. Ten minutes after their arrival, Bethany Anne got a phone call from Gabrielle. She asked if it was okay to bring the boat back and start ferrying those that had shore leave due them. Bethany Anne didn’t mind, if she got stuck here on the island they would just go to a restaurant for a while and relax.
When they caught up to William, he had the good graces to be embarrassed as Bethany Anne dressed him down. She let him know, in no uncertain terms, that the next time that he failed and got drunk he not only wouldn’t remember doing the drinking he would probably not remember the previous year of his life. William understood the security breach he had caused. Yes, he had been lonely and having the woman shaft him so publicly at the club had been embarrassing; however, he agreed the proper response should have been to go home. Bethany Anne sent William and Bobcat off to find the machines William would need to help fabricate Bobcats design. The two ladies then went to find outdoor spaces Ecaterina would enjoy exploring. John and Eric had to keep up with the two women as best they could.
By the time Bethany Anne’s party made it back to the pier, their boat was back and available. They met Chief Engineer John Rodriguez, Gunnery Officer Jean Dukes, Todd Jenkins from the Ad Aeternitatem and two others from the Polarus. The five of them were dressed as any tourist might be. Bethany Anne waved to the group as they passed and the four of them proceeded to go back to the Polarus.
—
“I’m not really feeling good about those guys over in the corner...” Todd mentioned to Jean Dukes under his breath. She
looked around the room, acting as if she was looking for ship mates she spied the men Todd was talking about. She turned around,” Why, because they are Middle Eastern?”
The three of them had split off from the other two crewmen from the Polarus and found a bar.
Todd smiled, “Well, while that certainly could be an issue. It’s not my main issue. My main issue is that they keep looking over here at us pointedly, as if they were trying to pick a fight.”
Jean started to turn back but was able to stop her natural confrontational response. Fortunately, she never went anywhere without packing heat. She hoped Bethany Anne was as good as her word from the original introduction. She might have some explaining to do pretty soon.
The Chief Engineer arrived back at his chair and sat down smiling, bringing two beers with him. He sat one of them in front of Jean, “Come on Jean, we are off the boat, let your hair down a little bit.” He raised his beer to Todd at the same time, and then took a swallow as if to show them how it was done. John looked over her shoulder and Jean turned back around to follow his eyes.
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