It's Hell To Choose (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 9) (33 page)

No one noticed the black, sleek stubby craft come out of the sky over Sean’s BMW 750. As he went to turn right, Sean was shocked when his car didn’t respond. Then he started to hyperventilate as his vehicle was effortlessly pulled high into the night sky. Soaring over the forest of mixed aspen, poplar and willow trees, the muted moonlight through the clouds and its reflection from the lake directly below made a beautiful picture that was impossible to enjoy. He pushed hard on his door, but it wouldn’t budge.

Sean Truitt,
a female voice forced its way into his head.

“Who is this?” he demanded, back on a more solid footing with someone to attack.

I’m the one who is holding you three hundred feet up in the air, over a lake that is three hundred feet deep.

He glanced down to the water far below. Maybe right now wasn’t the time to be too demanding, “What do you want?”

I want the names of the other members of the cabal here in America, those who attacked TQB Enterprises.

Sean looked out the window again and swallowed. Giving up those names was a fast way to commit suicide. Either literally or financially.

I’d appreciate the names, Mr. Truitt.

“What? I didn’t provide any names to you!” He looked around, wondering if there was a listening device in his car. “I didn’t say anything about names or any cabal.”

Oh, Mr. Truitt, you don’t need to worry about being recorded. In fact, I’m really happy no one is going to see this, anyway.

He could feel a change in elevation. They were going down.

You know the interesting thing about ships that can go into outer space, Mr. Truitt?
She waited a moment to see if he would respond. When he didn’t, she continued,
It’s that they are capable of going underwater, as well. Well, certain ones can. Imagine what a company could do that has gravitic drives that create bubbles of protection around them?

As his car got close to the surface of the lake, he pushed harder on his door and then started beating on the glass of his vehicle, trying to bust it open but without any effect.

Ah, that’s right. I see you have already figured out some of the different ways this potential technology can be exploited, Mr. Truitt. Pity, I wish I had that information when I tried your case in court.

“Court? What court?!” He yelled as a small amount of water started seeping up from the floorboard.

Well, ours, of course! Don’t worry, the fucking Vampire that was chosen to judge your case is a known Neutral. But even Barnabas admitted the evidence ADAM found on how you helped mercenaries get into America to attack a busload of children was sufficient. That support was enough to give you the death sentence from a tree-hugging Vampire. You FUCKING SHIT EATING COCK THISTLE!

Sean grabbed his head, her scream at the end threatening to break open his skull.

Her voice came back, normal again.
But what got you this little trip from hell was the proof that the backpack nuclear bomb was smuggled through the use of one of your personal jets. That evidence made even the neutral judge’s eyes go red with rage. And for once, I’m talking literally. Because, as much of a pain as Barnabas is, Michael was special to him. To all of us…

The deadly voice froze him,
But especially to me.

Sean’s eye kept looking around as his car dropped deeper into the water, surprised that no additional water was entering his vehicle. Whatever was above him was extending water protection for him too. However, the speaker’s mental laughter was unnerving the hell out of him.

“You want names? I’ll tell you!” he cried, desperately.

Too late, you should have thought about that when greed ate your heart. Now, I’m consigning your black heart, and this BMW 750, to the deep.

Sean screamed, desperate to get out of this situation, “WHAT DO YOU WANT?”

I WANT MY LOVE, BACK!
Bethany Anne screamed mentally.
 

TOM, release the bubble, we are leaving.

Sean’s screams faded as his vehicle slipped into the dark depths of Cle Elum Lake.

Unnoticed, a small, black craft gently broke the lake's surface and swiftly disappeared into the night sky.

Somewhere on the Dark Web

>>MyNam3isADAM - I am here.

>>luckyu11 - Hello, was that mass killing of the terrorists we saw on the news your team?

>>MyNam3isADAM - And if it was?

>>luckyu11 - Well, I guess I wanted to know, or we all wanted to know, if what we found was right?

>>ki55mia55 - Dude, we had no idea you had people who could do that.

>>Ih8tuGeorge - Was it real?

>>MyNam3isADAM - Was what real?

>>Ih8tuGeorge - The terrorist hit, were they really going after children?

>>MyNam3isADAM - Yes, they intended to attack a school of more than three hundred young children to grab the world’s attention to get the yoke of Russian oppression off of their shoulders.

>>luckyu11 - Three hundred?

>>MyNam3isADAM - Yes.

>>ki55mia55 - The police say that everyone was killed with swords and that the tracks just disappear. Since no one can just disappear, so they must have been picked up by helicopters. But, people say that wasn’t possible, the dirt was not blown around.

>>luckyu11 - Going after children isn’t right. There has to be a different way.

>>MyNam3isADAM - They believe it is acceptable due to atrocities forced on their people more than seventy years ago.

>>ki55mia55 - You aren’t worried about the bounty on your head, are you?

>>MyNam3isADAM - No, I’m very safe. No one is getting me without going through some of the most dangerous people in the world.

>>Ih8tuGeorge - Are you the boss?

>>MyNam3isADAM - No.

>>MyNam3isADAM - But I have close access to the boss.

>>Ih8tuGeorge - He listened to you when we brought the evidence.

>>ki55mia55 - He sent those fighters after the terrorists, didn’t he!

>>luckyu11 - So, we are both guilty of killing the terrorists and saving the children?

>>ki55mia55 - How are we guilty? We didn’t cut them up.

>>Ih8tuGeorge - No, but we helped figure out it was happening and told someone who sent them.

>>MyNam3isADAM - A political leader in the USA once said - the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. This time, it was tyrants.

>>MyNam3isADAM - Do you wish to withdraw your support from ADAM’s Revolution?

>>ki55mia55 - No.

>>Ih8tuGeorge - Hell no.

>>MyNam3isADAM - luckyu11.

>>MyNam3isADAM - luckyu11?

>> luckyu11 - Sorry, I pulled up the pictures from the terrorists that were killed and looked at the severed heads, the stabbed and mutilated bodies and the blood. It was a message, wasn’t it?

>>MyNam3isADAM - Yes.

>> luckyu11 - I’ve also pulled up a picture of a school of children and considered what those bastards were planning to do to the kids for sins committed before any of us were even born. I believe hatred can be covered with love, but sometimes, it isn’t hate. It’s a rotting disease eating them from the inside that can never be cured and must be burned out.

>> luckyu11 - So yes, we are all in, until the end.

>>Ih8tuGeorge - til the end.

>>ki55mia55 - til the end.

>>Ih8tuGeorge - Ih8tuGeorge has disconnected.

>>ki55mia55 - ki55mia55 has disconnected.

>>MyNam3isADAM - luckyu11?

>> luckyu11 - Yes?

 
>>MyNam3isADAM - In our group, for ‘Until the end’ we say AD AETERNITATEM.

>> luckyu11 - Oh My God… YES! YES! YES!

>> luckyu11 - AD AETERNITATEM, ADAM

>>MyNam3isADAM - AD AETERNITATEM, luckyu11.

TQB Land, Australian Outback

Bethany Anne stepped out of her Pod and looked around the land. The ground was rust-colored bleeding off into the distance, matching the hues in the evening sky as the sun sunk lower on the horizon. The fiery orb’s rays danced around clouds and highlighted the mountain peaks to the north.

She turned to look at the massive three hundred-meter-wide hole one of their ten-pound Puck devices had made. The bitching and yelling about that explosion on their land had taken a few days to settle down. They now owned or rented all of the lands she could see in any direction.

That quiet filled the air now, she let that seep into her bones. Hoping it would last was unrealistic since, in all probability, it would break when someone realized the company doing all of this digging was the same one putting people into outer space.

She gathered herself together and turned towards the group. John was beside her, and Bethany Anne nodded to her people. She walked among the caskets, pausing at each one to place her hand on the surface and say a small prayer before stepping to the next one. She stopped a total of seven times before coming to the final casket.

All done in black with the name ‘Michael’ etched in gold filigree at the top. She lingered there for a few moments.

TOM, hold my emotions for God’s sake! I’m about to fall apart here!

TOM clenched a little tighter, walking a tightrope between holding them too much, and failing to allow her grief a chance to release.

I’ll cry later, I promise, old friend. I know you are worried. After this, we will go up with ADAM and Ashur for our moment of silence… and by silence, I mean crying my head off. Ok?

TOM tightened down on her emotions, hard.

Thank you.

Bethany Anne continued forward and approached the podium that had been built so she could be seen by everyone.

The friends, the co-workers, the parents and family of those fallen. No matter where they had come from, Bethany Anne had invited them all to arrive by Pod in the dark of the night. Her team stood resolute, wearing faces of granite. Peter, Todd, and all of their teams stood to the side. Captains Thomas and Wagner, Jean Dukes and many from the Polarus and the Ad Aeternitatem were in front of her. Team BMW and all of those who were now part of her team stood among the audience. A still weak Jennifer Ericson trembled erect, tears streaming down her face.

Nathan, Ecaterina, Gerry and many pack Alphas who had known Michael over the years stood in the audience.

Stephen, Barnabas, Frank and Barb. Her father with Patricia holding him and Stephanie beside them. Kevin and Jakob together were manning the base in Colorado as government authorities went through it, hoping to find something, anything, incriminating.

Fat chance, they had stripped the base of everything they didn’t want the government to have, even the railguns.

She stepped up, a tear making its way down her cheek, but her voice was firm and carried over the distance to the many people crowded around.

“We have lost many this week,” Bethany Anne stared into eyes, glancing to those crying, seeking to provide solace to those she could, “We are here now to honor our dead.”

Her voice was steady, resolute, “This is not the first time we have lost loved ones while battling evil, whether that taint was focused on pushing a dictatorship across the earth, or the greed and insidious rot that permeates those who have power. Their desire for that which is not theirs knows no bounds, nor does it consider right or wrong, including the sanctity of life, as it seeks what it desires above all else.” She paused a moment, “Nor, will it be the last time that we must say goodbye to those that have sacrificed.”

She looked at the eight coffins. “These fallen heroes are but the down payment on a future to allow humanity to stay free, free from the shackles of forced slavery from those within our culture and, more importantly, from those outside our world.”

“These are the souls who go before us as we make our way to the stars to prepare. Their sacrifice can not and will not be forgotten.” Bethany Anne turned to Peter, Nathan and Ecaterina and nodded. The three of them formed a line in front of her. She nodded to Stephen, Barnabas, and Gabrielle, who walked up and turned to face the crowd. She nodded to Todd, Bobcat, and William, who came up and stood in the same line as the others.