Yana’s face brightened considerably. “He is almost well enough to leave Medical. Papa has arranged for him to stay in our home. I always wanted a little brother!”
Tina was happy for her friend. “Just wait until he starts acting like a little brother. You’ll look back on this moment and kick yourself for your naiveté!” Maxim and Nestor joined in her amusement.
“It is always good to have a brother, even if he helps himself to your breakfast!” Nestor pulled his tray away from Maxim and stuffed the remainder of his bacon into his mouth. “So, you are going to the mudball without me. Try not to get shot at this time.”
“I will do my best,” Maxim replied fondly. “As you will be careful not to crash any fighters into our home!” He threw an arm around Nestor’s neck and applied his knuckles in the age-old expression of brotherly love.
Nestor squirmed unsuccessfully to get out of the noogie, but his cousin let him go a second later.
Maxim continued, “I have to say, I am concerned about going back down to the mudball.”
“Why’s that, now?” Craig asked, getting up from the Bravo Class table and sitting with them. “You heard Isaac. It’s going to be ‘a jolly old time, chap.’ They love TQB in Wales.”
Ron groaned at Craig’s terrible attempt at a British accent. “Dude, take it from me…don’t do that while we’re down there, okay?”
Maxim reddened, not seeing the funny side of Craig’s shenanigans. “I do not understand why you think this is funny,” he rebuked the other boy. “You do not take anything seriously. We have seen firsthand the dangers of returning to Earth, and they are not to be taken lightly. You are the oldest student in this school, but you act like a little kid. Grow up before you cost someone their life!”
Yana backed Maxim up. “Maxim is right. We had not one, but two armies firing on us, and not just guns. They fired missiles at us, Craig!”
Craig looked around the table for support, but saw only agreement in everyone’s face. His cheer melted away. “If it was that bad we wouldn’t be allowed to go. The UK is our ally.”
Tina nodded. “Did you hear a word of what Ms. Dukes said? They are only our allies because they want our technology, Craig. Every single government on Earth is looking out for itself instead of the future of the human race. Everyone who’s on our side is up here in space already, or is preparing to move up to the Meredith Reynolds.”
Craig looked thoughtful for a moment, then his usual grin reappeared on his face. “You all worry too much. It’s a vacation in a freaking castle, for crying out loud!”
He got up and took his tray to the wash pile. They watched him go with concerned expressions all around.
Yana was first to speak. “Please be careful down there, even if he won’t be.”
“I do not think he will have a choice, Yana. Our class is providing security for Ms. Dukes’ team. John Grimes will accept nothing but our complete focus and dedication to the job.”
Yana was staring off into the distance again. She always wore that look when she daydreamed about John.
“Earth to Yana,” Tina said, waving a hand in front of her friend’s face.
“Huh?” Yana snapped back to reality.
“Your tablet is bleeping.” Tina pointed at the tablet.
Yana gasped. “My schedule!” She slung her bag over her shoulder and grabbed her tablet in one hand and her breakfast muffin in the other, and made a run for it. “Have fun storming the castle!”
“We will,” they answered, and she was gone.
CHAPTER SEVEN
UK Airspace, Bethany Anne’s Pod
The Queen’s Pod swept toward the emerald-green islands below. In front of it were the two passenger Pods carrying Jean and John‘s teams, and to the rear were the two Black Eagles flown by Guardians assigned to John. The Pod had been given more upgrades since their trip to the Great Wall, now it boasted even more weapons—and a cloaking device. Bethany Anne wanted to make sure that the kids weren’t left vulnerable again after the disaster in Mongolia.
They had been joined by four fighter jets provided by the RAF to 'keep them safe from attackers.' The jets had been waiting for them when they’d entered British airspace.
“It was nice of them to send an escort,” Masha said, looking out of the window at the two jets stationed on each side of the small convoy.
John chuckled. “They’re not exactly friendly, Masha. It’s in the RAF’s interest to know where we are.”
Ron was practically drooling, his face and hands pressed against the Pod’s window so he could see more clearly. “Those are Eurofighter Typhoons! They’re so good as a multirole fighter they’re used all over the world. The RAF haven’t found anything better to replace them, and I know for a fact that they tried.”
“They’re not very aerodynamic—at least compared to our Black Eagles,” Mischa remarked, pointing at the two Black Eagles flanking the second passenger Pod carrying the rest of John and Jean’s personnel. “See how sleek they are?”
“All I want to know is how long until we get there?” Aleksi was even paler than usual. “I don’t feel so good.”
“You’re looking pretty green around the gills there, buddy.” John’s voice was soothing as he tucked Aleksi under one gigantic arm and guided him back to his seat. “Get yourself strapped in, kid. We’ll be there soon.”
He passed Aleksi a paper bag and a bottle of water. “Do you suffer from motion sickness?”
“No, sir,” Aleksi replied, trying to get the cap off the bottle with shaky fingers.
John held his hand out for the bottle, twisting the cap off with ease. “Are you sick?”
Aleksi shook his head. “No, I’m afraid of flying, sir.”
John placed a hand on Aleksi’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Aleksi. Everybody feels afraid sometimes. Even I’m afraid sometimes.” He nodded, confirming that he wasn’t pulling their legs.
“Not you, surely?” Maxim was incredulous. This man was his hero; one of the men he modeled his own growing sense of masculinity upon in his father’s absence. He had been at the Queen’s side from the very beginning. How could a man such as this fear anything?
John nodded stoically. “Even me. Seeing as it’s the anniversary soon, let me tell you about the time I almost died in a swamp in Florida, back when I was a regular human.”
Jean pulled her headset down and looked at him from where she sat in front of the control panel. “You’d better keep it PG-13, John. Remember your audience.”
“Of course, honey!” He winked at the kids as he said it, grinning as soon as Jean’s back was turned and her headset was back in place. “It was like this: Back then we knew nothing about nanocytes or aliens. When we met Bethany Anne for the first time we believed she was a vampire, and a very scary one, to boot. We picked her up from the airport that day, and every one of us felt our approaching deaths when her plane landed.”
“Did she try to suck your blood?” Everyone groaned at Craig’s question.
“Grow up!” Mischa sneered. “The Queen does not suck people’s blood!”
“She does too!” Craig argued. “I’ve seen the video of her doing it!”
John ignored the bickering, his expression wistful as he revisited the memory of the day his life had changed forever. “She didn’t suck our blood. She made us laugh! We listened to her in the SUV on the way back to the base after picking her up, trying not to crap ourselves. She came out with the crudest things! We laughed so hard and so long we almost crashed! The boss—Dan Bosse, to be exact —thought she’d killed us all and started panicking.”
He laughed loudly. “That’s the secret to banishing fear—there’s a funny side to almost any situation, and if you can find it you can get through anything.”
“So how did you almost die?” Aleksi asked.
John’s face grew serious. “That came later. We were sent on our first mission as a team— four awesome humans and a brand-new vampire none of us knew for sure we could trust. We located the No
sferatu hiding in the swamp, but then we found out there were more headed for the base. The Queen left the four of us—that’s me, Scott, Eric, and Darryl—to take care of the Nosferatu in the swamp while she went back and saved everyone in camp from the group of the ba…asshats who were coming for them.”
“Language, John,” Jean called over her shoulder.
“I’m doing my best, Jean. Shh, you’re spoiling the story!”
All the students including Tina stared up at him wide-eyed, waiting for him to continue. She had heard this story before many times, but she loved hearing it straight from her uncle’s mouth.
“So what happened next, sir?” Maxim asked breathlessly.
John made a show of looking around. “What happened next was, we fought the Nosferatu. It toyed with us. Remember we weren’t enhanced. My arm was broken, and I’d been stabbed in the chest. I was bleeding out with no hope of getting medical attention. I knew that was it for me. Gott Verdammt, I was sh—”
Jean coughed pointedly.
“Sure, Jean. I was going to say ‘sure,’ that it was the end for me.” He waved her off. “In that moment, I was more afraid than I had ever been in my life. More than all the times I went into battle against the monsters combined. I didn’t want to die in the middle of a stinking swamp in the ‘Glades at the hands of a Nosferatu. As I lay there bleeding, I realized something.” He paused, the tension filling the seating area as the students hung on his every word.
“What?” Maxim breathed.
He leaned forward. “That it didn’t matter so much that I was going to die. It mattered that I would die fighting for what’s right. Protecting others. That was what made the fear go away.”
“That, and a pick-me-up from Bethany Anne!” Jean joked from the control panel. “Get yourselves ready for landing, kids. We’ll be wheels-down in ten.”
“Wheels-down?” Masha asked.
“Ten what?” Mischa added, having been paying more attention to John's story than Jean’s announcement.
“We’re landing in ten minutes,” Tina told the puzzled Wechselbalg twins.
United Kingdom, North Wales, Conwy
Tina was enthralled by the view as the Pod swept along the coast. She saw wild seas thrashing the cliffs as birds swooped and dived along the waves. Pretty beaches led into picturesque towns, and then to rolling farmland dotted with sheep. On the horizon were hills and mountains in every shade of green and gray.
The Pod slowed and changed course slightly, heading inland over a river as they made their final approach to the castle. The RAF fighters peeled away with a roaring swoosh when the castle walls came into sight, escort duty done.
Jean maneuvered the Pod so she could land in the open courtyard of the castle. She cut the engines and checked that it was safe to exit, dropping the ramp halfway when the EI confirmed that it was.
The passenger Pods landed next, followed by the Black Eagles.
“Who’s meeting us?” John asked Jean.
Jean looked up from the console. “Doctor Laura Llewellyn and her team. Bethany Anne bought the castle and had them moved up here when her first setup was compromised. I’m hoping that the equipment issues are just malfunctions and not sabotage. Either way, you kids keep eyes on each other the whole time we’re down there.” She focused on Tina, Ron, and Aleksi. “You three will be assisting me throughout our time here. If you know something, or you get an idea you think will help expedite the breakdown of the facility, speak up. Our priority is to get everything up to the Meredith Reynolds. Do not wander off or go exploring without supervision. And no poking around, got it?” The kids nodded. “Good. This is a working chemical plant, among other things, and you all have a reputation for being in the place the explosions are going off. There will be none of that while I’m responsible for you all.”
“That goes double for my class,” John said sternly. “You stick to your assigned student no matter what, just like we practiced doing in class. You got me? I will be watching, as will my team, but we cannot be everywhere at once—especially if there’s a saboteur at work. Keep each other safe.”
“You’d think a castle would be harder to infiltrate,” Jean grumbled.
“Not necessarily, Ms. Dukes,” Ron piped up. “A lot of these castles had secret passages built in so the occupants could escape in an emergency. If you had a map, you could get in and out with no problems—unless the tunnel had collapsed, I suppose.”
“There will be no exploring of abandoned tunnels, Ronald Diamantz.” Jean’s tone made it clear there would be no further discussion on the matter. She gestured toward the ramp. “Out you go.”
“I’m first. Wait until I’ve made sure it’s safe out there.” John left the Pod and swept the area with his expert eye, giving the students the same level of protection he gave Bethany Anne.
He waved them out when he was finished, satisfied the open courtyard was secure. “It doesn’t matter if the EI tells you it’s safe,” he told his students. “As the person in charge of security, you still go first and see for yourself. You are responsible.”
A small plump woman wearing a disheveled lab coat came out of the heavily barred doors and hurried toward them.
She looked longingly at the array of Pods in the courtyard. “Bloody Hell, it's like Camelot meets Star Journey. TQB?” She squinted up into John’s face as she put her glasses on. Her squint was replaced by a frown when she saw him clearly. “You’re not who I was expecting. Where’s Jean?”
“Hello, Laura,” Jean interjected, holding a hand out to the woman. “Nice to finally meet you in person. This is John, my personal security. I also brought three of my brightest and best to lend a hand.”
Tina and the others waved from the top of the ramp. Panic flashed over her face for a brief second. “Kids? This isn’t really the place for kids, Jean. They could get hurt.”
Jean smiled knowingly. “They’re not ordinary kids, Laura. They’re the cream of the crop, and my ‘future replacements,’ if I may quote the Academy administrators directly. You’ll be glad of their input before we’re done—you’ll see.” She steered the doctor toward the castle door.
Tina was warmed to her core by the praise from Jean. She knew her future lay in science, and all science came down to engineering in the end. She grabbed her bag and followed the adults into the imposing castle.
Doctor Llewellyn was still talking to Jean when Tina entered the refurbished interior. John escorted the students up a spiraling stone staircase, which opened onto an oddly familiar-looking hallway.
Tina walked slowly around the circular hallway, touching the thick tapestries that were interspaced with elaborate wall sconces along the walls. She took in the painstaking detail on the rug that graced the smooth stone floor, which depicted a mountain scene. She looked at the three doors leading off from the windowless hall. The space where the fourth would have been was taken up by a carved stone fireplace. It was the details that caught her eye—the colors of the fabrics, and the items atop of the chunky mantelpiece.
John caught her attention and pointed to the closest door. “This way, Teeny.”
“Ugh, don’t call me that!” She laughed and stuck her tongue out as she flounced past him into the dorm room. Her suspicions were confirmed when she saw the comfortable living arrangements within. There was a seating area, a kitchenette, and a door to what Tina presumed was a bathroom, as well as five bunk beds in a partitioned area at the back of the room, with soft bedding folded neatly on the end of each one.
She turned to John, who still stood in the doorway. “Bethany Anne had this made, didn’t she? I recognize the color scheme we used to have at the Colorado base.”
John nodded. “It had to be almost completely refurbished. This place was almost a ruin when Bethany Anne bought it and had it repurposed for Doctor Llewellyn’s work.”
“I love how stylish it all is,” Halli said, ruffling the crushed velvet curtains as she entered the dormitory. “It’s like medieval times without all the s
tink!”
John laughed at that. “I’m going to leave you kids to get settled in. I’ll be in the suite next door if you need me for anything. Remember, no wandering around! I’ll be back to get you in an hour for dinner.”
United Kingdom, North Wales, Undisclosed Location
“Well, man? Did they take the bait? Spit it out, now.”
Broadbent winced at the sharpness of the voice coming through the telephone speaker. He swallowed and adjusted the old Bakelite handset against his ear.
“It appears so, sir, but not in the way we had hoped. The Dukes woman has been drawn in by the sabotage as planned, but she has brought that muscle-bound brute, John Grimes, with her.”
“Which one is that, now?” the voice demanded.
Broadbent sighed. He’d already given the higher-ups a full brief on every known member of TQB Enterprises. Not that they’d bothered reading it. “John Grimes, sir. The head of security himself. Look, sir. May I speak freely for a moment?”
Silence on the line. Then a short grunt which Broadbent took as assent.
“Sir, if we go up against him, we die. If he doesn’t kill us all, then She will. I know they have been an absolute pain in the rear when it comes to Wales, but intelligence is telling us they are preparing to leave.”
The voice was cold. “That is why you are going to get that armor for us, Broadbent. If they leave and we get nothing from it then why have we been so accommodating? We are being hounded out of the UN for our continued relationship with TQB. If they will not share their advantages it is up to us to take them for ourselves!”
“And by us, you mean me.”
The voice sounded surprised that Broadbent was even asking. “Of course I do, you imbecile. Otherwise what’s the point of keeping you around? Black-ops aren’t cheap to run, you know. Now go and get me the Project Gauntlet armor, whatever it takes. The weaponry alone will put us light years ahead of anyone else, do not stop until you secure it!”
Alpha Class - Discovery: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (The Etheric Academy Book 3) Page 4