It's Hell To Choose (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 9) (12 page)

“Yeah, I know about that side. Thanks.” He nodded and turned back into the hallway, “So, speaking of ladies, how are the negotiations with Jennifer Tehgen going?” She had turned back to Jakob.

“Well, she is going to be my representative in Washington for now. That way, they can’t ask her anything, and if they do try to question her, she has never been here.”

“I won’t allow someone to grab her.” Bethany Anne started.

Jakob put up a hand to stop her, “She has backup already. Frank Kurns found three close-support personnel to keep up with her.”

“Who?” Bethany Anne was trying to think who he might have hired and how he vetted them.

Jakob leaned forward to grab one of his many yellow pads to flip over three pages. “I see that he has supplied a Rickie Escobar, Matthew Tseng and one of the Guardian Marines, a ‘Scottie’ to the group.”

Bethany Anne wanted to pick up the phone and ask Frank what the hell was he thinking? He had just shipped out two Werewolves and a human who knew way the hell too much.

“They won’t be questioned,” Jakob said.

“What?” Bethany Anne turned to regard the lawyer.

“Your guards, they won’t get questioned besides the standard questions what’s going on because they have completely clean files. Dossiers from a company that shows they are only with her to keep off the uninvited. There is nothing to show they are part of your group.”

“That can’t last forever,” She argued, “Eventually…”

“Eventually, you will be out of range, and it won’t be a question, right?” He interrupted.

For whatever reason, maybe it was his jovial attitude, but Bethany Anne didn’t mind his always interrupting her. They had shared some of the ‘serum’ with him to help him physically. Enough that his insides were at least fifteen years younger and a couple of years on the outside could be waved away as a excellent diet and exercise program.

Now, he would get up before her and finish long after she would have thought prudent.

“Having fun?” She changed the subject.

“The best!” He pursed his lips, “Although I was a little annoyed that I didn’t get to sue Brimer into oblivion.”

“You did get to negotiate the agreement with the group. You allowed them to stay in business.”

“Well, that was enjoyable, but I would have shut them down.”
 

Bethany Anne shrugged, “We still have leverage, take it all away, and there isn’t anything to stop them from focusing all on us.”

“Is that why Brimer stays employed with them?”

“Yes, his partners will constantly be worried about Brimer, so I see it as a win-win for us.”

“Why did you want me to interview Jennifer? She turned out to be a hell of a catch, but how did you know?”

“Michael read her mind.” Bethany Anne quipped.

“I thought it was going to be something like that.” He mused, “He seemed to make up his mind about me pretty quickly.”

“You aren’t bothered by that? A lawyer sitting around someone who can read his mind?”

He pushed his hand out and said, “Nah, I learned decades ago to own everything I did or don’t do it. I’m not hiding anything before…Well, the statute of limitations is now way past on a couple of youthful indiscretions.”

“Ok, what about the other concerns you mentioned…”

Bethany Anne left almost forty-five minutes later, and she was glad Jakob had agreed to work for her. He was a widower for the past fifteen years, and it had taken him about three minutes to decide he wanted to move on base. Kevin McCoullagh had supplied him a team to go back and shut down his house. Now, the team had someone selling it for him.

He would be a very, very busy man for a long, long time.

QBS Polarus, Sailing towards France.

“Exactly how,” Bobcat asked, “are we supposed to deal with making sure no one wishes us harm when they get on the ship?” Bobcat was looking at a message which Bethany Anne had sent the group.

Presently, the team included Jeffrey, Bobcat, William, Markus and Cheryl Lynn, who had grabbed a pod and come over for the meeting. Todd had been working particularly hard trying to learn more about design and engineering of components, so John suggested he come over to speak to William when there was a break.

So, Todd got to go up in a Pod. He did need to talk with William, and John said that a meeting like this should cement their friendship, if Todd would be respectful. Todd agreed he would be and had tried to act like getting a chance to fly over to the Polarus was no big thing. Cheryl Lynn could see from John’s expression Todd was doing a bad job of hiding his excitement.

Presently, Todd was over in the cafeteria section eating.

“I don’t know.” Cheryl Lynn admitted. “I was hoping it was some sort of hat they put on or something like a metal detector they walk through.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Jeffrey started.

“Which one?” Bobcat asked, “The aluminum foil hat or the doorway of shame?”

“Why would they be ashamed?” Cheryl Lynn asked.

“Imagine everything a transportation security officer see’s when your luggage goes through the metal detector at the airport,” Bobcat said.

“And that’s just what’s in luggage.” William agreed.

“So, we have to figure out a way to green light or red light them without seeing their inner thoughts?” She asked.

Jeffrey considered that question, “There could be a place in the brain where we focus our intentions. Michael has to be seeking something when he does his mind voodoo.” Markus smiled at that comment, “We need a way to…”
 

Markus interrupted him, “TOM says that the Kurtherians had messed with that for at least seven generations before he left on his ship. So, the relevant information is stored there. ADAM probably has access if he helps TOM. However, we are going to need a translation algorithm.” Markus said, and then started typing furiously. “Ah, he says the bigger doorway idea is just fine, and it would work for intent, but not for specific details, that takes focus.” Markus started typing furiously.

Jeffrey looked over to Cheryl Lynn, “You’re the PR person, what do you think?”

Cheryl Lynn stopped and considered. She had finally grown accustomed to the experience that although role dictated your minimum responsibilities - anything could and would be dumped in your lap, especially if you suggested a ‘good idea.'

“I think I would prefer that we build a door that everyone who enters the ship arrives through. Have them photographed and ID’s flagged somehow at that point. We will need to give everyone an ID anyway. A few people will have support people with them, so ‘everyone’ in the party will be flagged at that point, you never know if someone else is just skilled enough to get by us. Put the troublemakers into one area and see if we can get a vamp to come and check them out at that point.” She stopped and considered, “Yeah, that is a good start.”

Markus was still typing, but the rest of the men considered her comment, “Good suggestion.” Jeffrey admitted and then continued, “Our new ship is being retrofitted at Alstom Chantiers de l'Atlantique in St. Nazaire-Penhot, France. The previous owners had been retrofitting it but with the economies tanking the last year and a half, were very pleased to get an offer that allowed them to get their money back out of it.”

Jeffrey handed out a few folders to each person at the table, “Stephen has us turned West and is taking us over to that side of France. Between here and there, we are going to need to …”

“Holy Shit!” William exclaimed and looked over to Cheryl Lynn, “You really want to do this?” William fist-bumped Bobcat as he whistled.

“Not only do this to the new ship, but we need to retrofit the Polarus and the Ad Aeternitatem as well.” She admitted.

William looked over to Jeffrey, “Bethany Anne ok this?”

Jeffrey glanced to Cheryl Lynn, “It seems, this time, Cheryl Lynn received ‘Cart Blanche’ from Bethany Anne, and I’ve had Stephen confirm this in a roundabout way. It’s valid.”

“Ooohhhh,” Bobcat smiled, “You have just risen up in my estimation, young PR person.” Bobcat looked back down into the folder, “We are going to have to figure out the stresses this is going to cause.” He looked over to Markus, “Hey, Dr. Miraculous.” Markus kept typing so Bobcat rapped his knuckles on the table that popped him out of his focus, “Hey. Dr. Deaf,” He lifted up the folder, “Do you know what is in this?”

Markus looked down at the blue folder and picked it up. He opened it and then closed it to turn it over and open it again. Everyone watched as he started reading at the top and then his eyes opened in alarm and pulled the folder down. “Are you shitting me?” Markus asked Jeffrey.

“No, not at all.” Jeffrey eyed Markus. “From our other conversations, this seems entirely doable. What’s the issue?”

Markus stopped and looked up, “Except for the part where the stresses are going to go in the completely opposite direction? None.” He shrugged his shoulders

“Why?” asked William, “Couldn’t we just use opposing gravitic engines to help keep the stress the same?”

Markus seemed to be nodded his head in agreement.

“Ok gentleman.” Everyone turned back to Jeffrey, “And lady. We have until we arrive off the coast of France to be prepared to prep the new mid-size ocean liner and these two ships.”

“This is seriously going to make some geeks wet their pants,” Bobcat said.

“I’m telling you.” Jennifer said, “That this is a bitch no matter how in shape you are!”
 

The new recruits, well the Wechselbalg anyway, were running through the mountain areas around the camp each day both morning and night.

At first, it was just a ‘gripe session’ on feet. That was until the third day when all hell broke loose. They had four groups of twenty-five running different paths in and around the area and even with their superior senses, they never heard, saw or smelled Peter’s group and their attacks. Personally, Jennifer thought the massive stink bombs was going a little too far. The smell wouldn’t come out of her nose for a damned hour.

Those that weren’t incapacitated with the smell or the damned sound grenades were taken down by whichever Guardian from Peter’s group was assigned to take them.

At first, it only required sound grenades, stink bombs, and one Guardian to ravage a group of twenty-five newbies. When each of the teams got together to concoct field expedient protective devices, it started to get a little more interesting. The second attack, her team had three able to fight back. They went down, but Joseph Greggs was looking a little beat up by the end.

They were on high alert for the next run, but nothing happened. It was the third run, right at the end when the base was ‘right over the next ridge’ and they started to relax when they were hit again, hard.

They were tired, they were pissed, and frankly they lost their mind to aggravation and anger. Eight of the twenty-five went straight to their larger Wolf form while the other seven left with enough focus to attack took out their wooden batons and charged in the direction that the grenades came from.
 

Which is to say right over the ridge into an ambush.

The compressed air rounds painted those coming over the hill with darts and ink. The darts had enough nanocyte-infused sleeping product to overcome the Werewolves’ ability to fight it.
 

Jennifer had seen the group going over the top and was forcing herself to get up and started running. She wasn’t going to be left behind when her teammates were up there getting into God knew what.

She found out a minute later as she came up to the top, gaining momentum, and crashed into a person in a ghillie suit. She was shot three times with a pistol before she understood her error. Once in her neck, and twice he peppered her torso. She reached up and grabbed the feathered dart, yanking it out and then the two others. She started towards him, “Mother fucker! That shit stings…” and then collapsed into the dirt.

What felt like moments later, but was at least a little while from what she could tell of the sun moving, she felt a shake on her shoulder, “Wake up!” She looked up into … Timmons? Shit, she couldn’t remember.

“What the hell?” She slurred out.

“We got ambushed, again.” Timmons' face look resigned. “We reacted just the way we were warned against. We aren’t thinking, at all.”

Jennifer turned over to look up into the sky, “Hey, we got a bunch of us over the ridge!”
 

Timmons smiled, “Yeah, and we fucking ran right into an ambush. Poor Williams-Jones over there got hit with twelve darts. He can’t remember if he is a boy or a girl, yet.” Timmons looked up to the ridge, “Get your ass up and help someone else wake up. We all walk into the base, or we carry who those that cannot make it on their own.” With that said, Timmons stood up and moved away.

The team learned later that the ink was there to annoy the ever-loving shit out of them as those who were dirty scrubbed like hell to get it off. No one was allowed to find an ‘easier’ method.

The learning, they were told, would happen with each moment they scrubbed.

Each time they went out, they learned. First, they put out scouts to trip any ambushes. Unfortunately, it took another ambush to realize that they needed line-of-sight on their scouts or quiet takedowns reduced their effectiveness.

They had requested better armor and received it. Their team learned from another group that they could ask for anything they could think of that might help. ‘This isn’t the military where everything is handed to you, improvise, adapt!’ was the phrase that came back to them.

Now, they all had been told to go hit the showers, eat and to reconvene at 14:00 in the number one hanger that had been set up with chairs.

She had heard the murmurs before she hit the doors to get in the room. When she got inside, she was just as surprised as everyone else who was waiting for them.

Vampires.

Dressed in camouflage and in the same dress they were in. These were the same group that had originally been in the first meeting. Jennifer went to her spot and sat down.

Dan Bosse was talking with Kevin McCoullagh up on the stage when Dan reached up to his shoulder to push something, and she could read his lips - ‘say again?’ He nodded and then cut off his conversation with Kevin, who stepped to the back of the stage.