WE WILL BUILD

by Michael Anderle

  “Oh!” Her voice became noticeably quieter, “how pissed?” Barb knew what this group was capable of. “She won’t ice you for not following protocol, will she?”

  Frank laughed, “No, but her tongue lashings can be a bitch to take sometimes. Even when she doesn’t yell.” He sighed, “You just go to the restroom and get cleaned up. As soon as you are safe, I’m sure my boss is going to come in here and the two of us will be fine.”

  “Ok. You’re sure?”

  “About her coming in here, or being fine?”

  Barb twitched her eyes to the other two guys as best she could, “With those two.”

  Frank snorted, “Barb, I’ve never been so sure of anything in decades.”

  “Ok.” She put a hand up to Frank’s face, startling him. He acted like he didn’t know what to do with a woman touching him. “I’ll be going to the restroom now, you be good.” She blew him a kiss, then turned towards the tiny hallway lined with soda pop cases. It led to the two bathrooms that were conveniently located by the back door.

  Frank continued with the table when the waitress came with a clean tablecloth and for the next minute she helped transfer all of the plates to the new setting.

  When he sat down, his phone buzzed and he read the message. “Incoming!”

  Frank sighed. Barb was safe, which was good. Then Bethany Anne came through the front door. Frank noticed the two guys check her out, but they didn’t seem to recognize her.

  Bethany Anne put out a hand to stop the hostess from helping her. She was damn near stomping in her high heels as she headed straight up to him and spoke to him in a loud voice which got others to watch the spectacle. “I can’t believe you! I thought you said you had stopped doing this last year?”

  Frank looked up at her for a second, confused as she went on, “But no! I find out you’re still meeting other women behind my back, you two-timing dick!” Even the women in the place felt a small amount of sympathy for him for a second. Bethany Anne’s slap across his face as she said ‘dick’ damn near reverberated off the walls. “Pay this check and then your ass is coming home, not too sure about the rest of you however!”

  Frank stood and pulled out his wallet. He tossed three twenties on the table and grabbed his phone before Bethany Anne reached up and grabbed him by the ear, “Come with me, Romeo!” Frank didn’t have to act at all. The pain from his ear was sufficient as he helplessly followed Bethany Anne out the door. Frank even heard a small smattering of claps as the two of them exited the restaurant.

  Once outside, Bethany Anne switched to holding him by the arm and guiding him to the left. It wasn’t twenty feet before they ducked into an alley and Frank could see John and two Pods. As they came up to the pods, Frank heard a person running up behind them. He turned and the dim light in the alleyway allowed him to see Eric approaching.

  Eric jumped into a Pod and John slid in next to him. John smiled at Frank and said, “Sorry, this Pod is full; but the chew-out Pod still has a seat!”

  Frank stepped to the second Pod, “Where’s Barb?”

  Bethany Anne growled from beside the Pod, “With my dad. Now get in!”

  Frank quickly got into the second Pod and was buckling in when he heard the air ‘whoosh’ and the first Pod leave. Bethany Anne was next to him and then buckled in before he could finish. A second later, the door was shut and then they too were gone.

  Damn, he thought, this flight is so going to suck.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Sydney, Australia

  “I’m telling you, a pirate-hat wearing prostitute is someone you have to talk to at least once in your life,” Scott argued.

  He and Darryl had gone back to Maxwell’s Cafe for a late night snack. While walking to the coffee shop, Scott had been propositioned by a ‘lady of the evening’ who had introduced herself as Jordan. Scott had fallen back to how he handled the ladies while walking the beat. Getting to know them and seeing what was happening that he should know about. He never took in a lady unless he caught her in the act. He might have told them to move along, but that was it. Soon he was in a fun conversation with the woman, while Darryl cooled his heels waiting for Scott’s latest friend to get bored with him.

  Unfortunately, Scott continued the conversation by asking how walking the streets was different here in Sydney compared to other places.

  Jordan, who admitted to having a restless spirit, had turned tricks both in Amsterdam, and in a house of ill repute outside of Amsterdam called the 13th Hex...a place that had such a reputation Scott had heard about it all the way back in the U.S.

  This caused another five-minute discussion about the ‘specials’ the house offered. Scott was actually able to remember two of them from the story he had been told. One called The Hexbreaker which Jordan agreed was correct and a Merry Go Round which was incorrect. Laughing, “It was the Carousel,” she corrected him. “It was a three-room trip for the evening.” She winked saucily, “I was room number 2 and always considered it a challenge to make sure they couldn’t reach room number 3.” It was hard not to appreciate a person so obviously skilled in their profession.

  Scott noticed how irritated Darryl had become and offered to treat Jordan to a late coffee and sandwich, or something, at Maxwell’s. Jordan refused, saying she was on the clock. She scribbled her name and phone number on a card and Scott looked up and asked, “Really? J. L. Hawk?”

  “If I didn’t want you to know, I would have told you ‘Williams’!” With a turn and a hip pop, she looked over her shoulder and winked at Scott as she went back to work.

  The two men laughed at her antics as they continued down the street to Maxwell’s.

  Darryl and Scott were enjoying their late night snack while speaking with the owner, Pip. Pip was explaining her Pop-Art painting on the table of a woman crying as she was trying to make a coffee choice from all of the coffee options.

  As they were about to leave, Jordan came in. She looked around quickly, spied the two men and made a beeline towards them.

  She never made it.

  The door flew open as she tried to tell Scott, “They are looking…” Before she could finish, she was hit from behind so hard, she fairly flew into Scott's arms, a large dagger protruding from her back. She looked into his eyes as she coughed up blood, “I tried…” Her eyes closed as more blood escaped her lips.

  Darryl looked up to see a Vampire standing in the door smiling as if he had just been introduced by a chamberlain. “Now that I have your attention…” He started before being interrupted by Darryl.

  “Motherfucker! A ‘hello’ would have been sufficient.” Darryl fumed, “But nooo, you had to come in acting like you want to be Vlad the Destroyer.”

  “Look cretin!” The vampire spat, “Your life is forfeit unless you give up Gabrielle.”

  Scott had lain Jordan gently on the ground, pulling the dagger out of her back. “Asshole!” he began as he turned around and faced the newcomer, “Your life is forfeit for killing my friend.” With that Scott blurred into action and returned the dagger, throwing it with all the vehemence he felt. It penetrated the Vampire’s skull and still had enough energy to drive his body back through the glass door to land on the sidewalk amongst shards of glass.

  Darryl looked at his partner and shrugged his shoulders, he guessed they weren’t going to get to interrogate the asshole before they killed him. Darryl followed the determined steps of Scott as Scott stepped through the broken glass instead of opening the door.

  Right into an ambush.

  The gunshots filled the night and Scott was driven back through the door into Darryl’s arms who grabbed him and quickly dove backwards into the coffee shop. “Heads down back there!” Darryl yelled as bullets slammed into the overturned tables and square columns.

  “Bastards!” Darryl heard Pip yell from the back, “I spent a huge fucking amount of time on that table painting you asses!”

  Darryl pulled his pistol and quickly rolled to the side seeing two more Vampires firing Uzi su
bmachine guns. Darryl quickly shot one in the chest and turned to blow a hole through the second’s head, dropping him where he stood. More shots came into the Coffeehouse and Darryl quickly moved to another location.

  Then, it was all over but for figuring out the damage. Scott was moaning in pain and Jordan’s body was lying on the floor to the right.

  “Those ass-wipes better pay for this!” Pip demanded from the back somewhere.

  Darryl grinned; that was one spunky Coffeehouse proprietor. Darryl pulled out his phone out and dialed Gabrielle who answered on the first ring, “Yes?”

  “We need cleanup down at Maxwells. We were ambushed.”

  “Anyone hurt?”

  Darryl looked at Scott who was conscious, but not looking his best at the moment. “Yeah, we lost a civilian who came to warn us and Scott’s pretty bad off, but is alive and conscious. He has lost a lot of blood and certainly is not healing well at the moment. I count six hits minimum, two are center of mass. We are going to need to get him help.” Darryl looked around, “And somehow we are going to need to keep this quiet really, really fast. I can hear sirens already.”

  “Understood.” Gabrielle replied.

  There was a pause before Darryl continued, “They wanted you, Gabrielle.” He checked around outside, but the only thing there was glass, shell casings and blood. Darryl could hear Pip in the background bitching up a storm. She then hurried over to help Scott, letting out a small 'oh my god!" when she noticed Jordan

  Darryl came back inside and went to his partner as Gabrielle said, “Yeah? Well they are going to get me. I’ll be there shortly with two Pods. Do what you can for the proprietor and let’s get clear. I’ll call Dan on my way.”

  “Gotcha.” Darryl hung up.

  On the other side of the disconnected line, Gabrielle was tossing on her clothes and laying out her weapons. She made sure the authorities were being handled then she phoned Dan.

  “Dan here,” he answered his phone.

  “It’s Gabrielle. We’ve had an ambush from the pretty flower. Scott’s been hurt bad according to Darryl but will survive. I want John and Eric and a location… now.”

  There was a pause on the other end of the line. “This is the second time we have had a man down.”

  Gabrielle thought about that and nodded her head, if only to herself, “I’ll not fuck-up again. I should have handled the other situation better, but no one - and I mean no one Dan - hits the Queen’s Own and lives.”

  “Understood, Gabrielle, understood. I’ll get you what you need. Give me twenty-four hours and I’ll have everything sent to our contact’s house there in Australia.” Dan paused, then continued, “And Gabrielle?”

  “Yes?”

  “There had better not be a root of that tree left.” He commanded. “I don’t care if you knew them in the past or not.”

  “Understood.”

  She hung up and left the house they were renting, fairly slamming the door in her anger.

  TQB Base, Colorado - USA

  Jeffrey was sitting in his office, a nicely furnished room with his desk and two chairs plus an area with a table and six chairs and a whiteboard for discussions. Presently, the whiteboard had six columns listing different areas of concern he had related to the moonbase project. Then the names of people he felt would be good candidates to run a specific group were listed under each column.

  There was a sharp rap on his door and he barely had enough time to look up from his laptop when his door opened and Bethany Anne entered, followed by her huge German Shepherd.

  “Hey boss,” Jeffrey said to her and noticed Eric poking his head in and then retreating back outside.

  “Hey, yourself.” She said, “What did you want to talk about?”

  “Them.” He said, pointing behind Bethany Anne who turned around and studied his board.

  “This is your short list?”

  “Yes.” he said, getting up and walking around the table and putting his hands on it. He studied the names one more time. “People from all over as you requested. vetted by ADAM and almost all by Frank…”

  “Why not all by Frank?” she interrupted.

  “He hasn’t gotten back to me in the last twelve hours, I figured he was sleeping.” Jeffrey answered.

  “No, he was off playing spy in DC,” she retorted. “He found someone we needed to talk to and felt she needed to be rescued so he decided to do it by himself.” She continued wryly, “He got in a little over his head so we did an extraction and the two of them are back on the Polarus where Dan can have a talk with Frank’s new best friend.”

  Bethany Anne seemed more bemused than upset, so Jeffrey asked, “I take it Frank is in the dog house?”

  “Nah, well, not much.” She replied, “I’m thinking the rejuvenation has affected him and he felt all young and spry. You know how that makes men?”

  “Dumb?” He answered.

  “Pretty much, even if they are one-hundred years old, it seems that hormones can ruin a positively normal guy in all other ways. He admitted he might have been wanting to become the guy that he didn’t get a chance to be back in World War II.”

  “Go and rescue the damsel?”

  She cocked her head, “That’s exactly what he told ADAM, what is it with you guys and damsels?”

  “Hell, we are brought up on it! Rescue the pretty damsel and they fall in love with you and shower you with kisses.”

  “You would think they would create new stories for this generation.” Bethany Anne considered.

  “Not everyone wants to see complete equality. Many ladies still want to feel ‘saved’ and special. It’s romantic,” he responded.

  “It seems at such cross purposes with ‘I am woman, hear me roar’.”

  “Eh,” Jeffrey shrugged, “There is equality in work and at the workplace and then there’s what happens in relationships during courtship. Not always the same thing.”

  “Ok, I can see that. Stupid fucking hormones can screw up everything.”

  “Well, hormones aren’t here to make society perfect, they’re to get a male and female together and have children.”

  “Yeah,” Bethany Anne quieted down as if in contemplation, “that is true.” A moment later, she changed the subject back to the board, “So, who do we have?”

  “Starting in Hydroponics, we have…” Jeffrey began and for the next hour he went through the people he thought best for each major section of the base.

  When they finished Bethany Anne told him, “Get with Michael about your trips and see if he is willing to go along. We need him to make sure these people are one hundred percent trustworthy. Anyone he says ‘no’ to, it’s no - understood?” Jeffrey nodded so she continued as she got up and started for the door, “How is the family?”

  “Good,” He replied, “excited to see their new place and the amenities. My wife is happy to know that the base cafeteria is available in case she doesn’t want to cook and she’s looking into what she wants to do while the children are in school. She’s decided the base school is better than any off base.”

  “Should be,” Bethany Anne commented, “considering the caliber of the teachers and the guest lecturers they pull from our R&D groups to come chat. Not many Universities have this caliber of participation.” She pursed her lips, “Besides, didn’t I promise you a great school?”

  “That you did,” He quickly concurred, “But, in everything school related, I defer to my wife.”

  Bethany Anne winked at him, “Smart man.” Then she and Ashur stepped out of his office.

  The Pit, TQB Base, Colorado - USA

  The table had most of the participants from Cheryl Lynn’s last meeting, with the exception of the two ship Captains. She was a little more prepared, but only slightly less nervous than last time.

  Last time, she didn’t have any time to worry about the meeting before it started. Now she’d had a couple of days to worry about it. “Ok, let’s get started,” Bethany Anne rapped on the table, “I’ve got a hot date to
night so let’s move it, people!” She smiled at the catcalls coming from the table. Jeffrey’s ‘here here!’ was the loudest so Bethany Anne pointed to him, “Hey, I’m doing this so Michael will work with you to vet those people!”

  Jeffrey replied wryly, “I would like to personally tell you, I appreciate you sacrificing your body for the good of the team.” That was followed by more catcalls and this time Bethany Anne just rolled her eyes.

  Patricia spoke up, “I don’t think you are fooling anyone, dear.” Patricia’s knowing smile caused Bethany Anne to blush.

  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?”