Don't Cross This Line (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 14)

by Michael Anderle

  They pushed the door open and inside the room, the walls, and 10-foot ceiling painted white, stood Ztopik.

  Eva pushed down her anxiety and smiled cordially, even if Ztopik’s pink eyes always caused her confusion. She thought bunny rabbits, with piranha teeth, whenever they had to come down and have their quarterlies with him or his delegate. He had no teeth that she had ever been able to discern in the small slit mouth that graced his face.

  “Welcome, Patrick, Overseer and Eva, Lead Scientist,” he spoke. At over seven feet tall, his thin body barely had enough shoulders to drape the silvery robe over without it sliding down his body.

  “Hello Ztopik, how do the studies go?” Patrick asked as he and Eva took two chairs around a six-foot diameter white table, leaving the modified seat for Ztopik to use when he chose to sit down.

  “As always, effectively if more slowly than I would prefer.” His voice, a little musical, admitted. Ztopik waited for the two to finish sitting before he pulled out the last chair and sat as well, adjusting his robe underneath himself. He looked back at the two humans, his eyes never blinking. “I come to understand that there are happenings up on the surface?”

  Oh shit, Patrick thought. He had hoped to keep everything about TQB out of Ztopik’s knowledge. There had been a critical incident in 1979 in these two-levels with hundreds of people killed. Killed easily, in fact. Patrick’s goal was a delicate balance of allowing necessary evil to occur to acquire the technologies needed from Ztopik and his people down here in these levels.

  “There are always happenings, but which one are you asking about?” Eva interrupted, her voice cracking. Ztopik ignored her vocal issues, he was amused at how much she feared these meetings. Fear is the ultimate indication you are a slave, not a master.

  Ztopik feared nothing on this planet.

  “I understand that the humans who have expressed they were in communications with aliens almost a hundred of your years ago have been communicating now with outside emissaries?” The hairless white face turned back and forth between the two humans.

  “Yessss,” Patrick agreed, drawing out his answer to give himself time to think where Ztopik was going with this.”

  “I want one of your people in the meeting,” the alien finished.

  “Why? Isn’t that dangerous?” Eva asked, her curiosity driving her fear to the side.

  Ztopik turned and stared at Eva for a moment, drawing out the silence. The little power play irritated Patrick, but he and Eva had already argued about her fear for years, and it got him nowhere with her. Ztopik liked to tweak Eva.

  Maybe it gave him an alien version of a hard-on. Who could say?

  Eva mumbled something unintelligible, and Ztopik turned his head slightly before answering, “No, we have the ability to block Dr. Abesimmons memory of this location, and give him a proper cover story, so long as we have the time to do this.”

  “You want Abesimmons to go?” Patrick blurt out. Of all the members of the human team, Abesimmons was the least likely to want to do this.

  “Of course,” Ztopik answered Patrick, “he has a good cover, correct?”

  “Well, yes,” Patrick admitted. Hell, they all had good covers with the government.

  “So, my people will protect his mind, and provide instructions on what we wish to know from those who provided the technology. We shall find out if there is anyone here in this world providing the information she had, or not.”

  “What people?” Patrick was confused. As far as he knew, Ztopik was a singular leader. He wasn’t aware of other aliens such as Ztopik on Earth. Patrick wasn’t even sure if Ztopik was a proper emissary, or if he was his race’s version of a splinter group. If there were more of his kind and their efforts here on Earth, that might be a problem.

  “That is not known at this moment, Overseer Patrick.”

  Ahhhh, shit. Ztopik was using his title now. That was equivalent to a parent saying a child’s full name when they called.

  “Ok. How can we help?” Patrick responded.

  “I thought this was obvious?” Ztopik answered, “I wish Dr. Abesimmons to come down here, and then go on this trip with the American Government to Schwabenland to speak with Maria Orsitsch. He will ask certain questions, and depending on how she replies, I will know if we have a problem.”

  “What problem?” Eva blurted out.

  Patrick raised an eyebrow, what’s got her on edge?

  “A name that will mean nothing to you, Dr. Eva Hocks.”

  “Perhaps, perhaps not,” Patrick temporized, trying to get Ztopik’s attention away from Eva. Her interruptions were annoying him. Like a cat that was disgusted with a mouse trying to fight, instead of fleeing.

  “Go on, Overseer Patrick.”

  “We hear a bunch in all sorts of circles and efforts. Perhaps if we know this name, we will either recognize it or make sure to tell our people and our contacts to listen for it?”

  Ztopik considered the statement then slightly lowered his head on his fragile looking neck, “You make a good point, Patrick. The name you and your team should be listening, or looking for…” Ztopik’s eyes, generally never an indication of any emotion, seemed to flash red. Like a super-fast wave crossed them and then cleared back to his usual pink.

  “Is Kurtherian.”

  New York City, NY - USA

  Tabitha scrunched her shoulders down in her coat. She didn’t need it for warmth, but rather to cover up the weapons and Bat-shit she had hidden around her body.

  She could just kill Bobcat and William. Those mother-fuckers stole into the Tonto’s rooms and drank beer and watched Batman starring Michael Keaton. Then they followed it up with the Christian Bale version and got to talking about all of the wonderful toys Batman had.

  Then, they damn near whispered how Tabitha’s little toys and Batman’s toys were kind of the same, weren’t they? So now, Tabitha had Bat-toys. Even Jean Dukes would ask her about her toys when she went to ask about another weapon or weapon idea.

  She was so going to grab them by the balls and lift them into the air as they sang like the sopranos they needed to be. Didn’t they realize this Bat-toy shit was going to last for decades?

  God, Vampires didn’t forget anything. It’s like they savored every little fucking joke FOREVER.

  Her watch thumped against her wrist, so Tabitha took a left down a small street that looked like it cut across to the hotel she and the team were staying. It was getting dark sooner now, and the chill autumn winds were cutting through the street.

  If Bethany Anne didn’t need Bobcat and William so bad, she would…

  “Ay mamí tù tan caliente!” a man called from in front of her followed by a couple of hoots. Tabitha focused ahead instead of on her feet, fuming at those two malcontents and could see five guys coming at her from the street’s intersection ahead. She rolled her eyes. She didn’t have time for this shit but felt a need to do it anyway. She looked around and smiled. Across the street was a dark, dank and smelly alley.

  Perfect!

  She couldn’t do anything to Bobcat and William at the moment (whether they had intended to cause her trouble or not) but these assholes seemed like a pleasant diversion.

  “Kiss my sweet ass, you gringo pieces of shit!” She called out and hurriedly crossed the street, making sure to look like she was trying to get away from the guys. She smiled when she heard the mutterings and exclamations from behind her and their quick footsteps in her direction. She didn’t hide her accent, which only made them angrier.

  Sometimes, being a Queen’s Ranger, with the duties it entailed, was a real pleasure.

  Schwabenland, Antarctica

  Dr. Abesimmons shivered despite his long johns and coat. Having to ride on a conventional airplane down to Antarctica was a price he was willing to endure if he got a chance to speak with Maria Orsitsch.

  It had taken him more than a week and a half to think how to persuade both Eva and Patrick that they needed to take this chance to learn more from the Thule group
. Once they had resurfaced again from history. The Thule group had been mostly silent when speaking with the world at large and now the opportunity to see if they knew more than they had divulged so far was a golden chance.

  A golden chance they needed to take advantage of.

  Abesimmons was shocked when both Eva and Patrick accepted his argument the first time. He wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth and try to figure out why as he hurried to go pack his bags before they changed their minds.

  Abesimmons looked out the window as the plane turned to start their landing. There were four of those damned TQB one-person patrol planes stationed in the air that he could see. One country made the mistake of believing TQB wouldn’t fire on unexpected guests and learned they were right.

  But, the Thule group had no compunctions about shooting down the craft, and they did. Seven people died on that plane and the message coming out of Schwabenland was ‘When we say no, we mean no.’

  Message received.

  Now, a few invitations had gone out to a few countries, offering to speak with their representatives to see if Schwabenland would like to join with any of those countries.

  This, of course, caused an uproar in the UN. That circus was getting worse and worse. Even Patrick had to admit Schwabenland joining another country was probably going to cause a major problem in the UN.

  Not his problem.

  The plane hit the ice with only a little swaying back and forth as the pilot got the plane under control. Abesimmons could feel the landing was going to be safe and he let out his breath.

  The tension he had felt in the pit of his stomach let up, just a little.

  Abesimmons was one of twelve delegates from the United States. None on the plane knew him, so all on the plane figured he had been secluded away in some government program or another and they were right, to a point.

  He was here to see if he could find the information that those he worked for were seeking.

  New York City, NY - USA

  Tabitha’s escape ended up in a smaller enclave where three buildings came together, giving her about a twenty by thirty-foot area to play. All of the back doors had rusted metal bars over them, and there was one which had an old light that was trying its damnedest to shine through the pollution covering it.

  She turned around as the five guys entered the alley entrance and waited for her attackers.

  They showed up at the mouth of the alley and instead of running right at her, they slowed down and took their sweet damned time approaching.

  How typical. Slow down and enhance the terror for the woman so they could feed on it.

  There was a trash dumpster on her right by a door that smelled of Chinese food. She eyed the men and walked towards the dumpster. With the screech of metal on concrete, she pulled the dumpster away from the wall. This would ensure the lid, as she flipped it up, would stay open.

  She walked back towards the center and lifted an eyebrow. A couple of the young toughs seemed to be looking sideways at their friends, but no one wanted to admit the little display of strength startled them.

  “Gentleman,” Tabitha stated as they fanned out where the alley opened up into the courtyard, “and by gentlemen, I mean assholes ...” she was interrupted from additional comments.

  “Now, that isn’t the proper way to respect the men around you,” the middle tough spat on the ground. He was wearing a jean jacket with black sweatshirt underneath. His accent sounded maybe first or second generation American to her.

  Tabitha, hand on hip nodded towards his clothes. “What isn’t proper is that outfit! Didn’t your mother teach you how to dress?” Her face made obvious what she thought of his looks.

  A couple of the guys with him started grumbling, and the main guy in the center put his hands out, pushing down as if he was calming those with him. “Now, that isn’t a way to get out of this situation safely.” Head dickhead replied, “Nor is talking about my mother.”

  “I didn’t talk about her. I asked her son if she taught you how to dress. If she did, and this is what you are dressing in, then you either ignored her, or you are as dumb as a rock. No one,” Tabitha acted like she was looking down at him, “Wears a white t-shirt with a black sweatshirt and an old jean jacket. Shit, didn’t those things go out of style last century?”

  “Not where it matters, muffin,” he replied, raising an eyebrow to her.

  “You got nothing to make a muffin rise, asshat. Jean jackets are appropriate in the South…and maybe still with metal heads. You are here in New York in the fucking winter cold. I doubt one girl gives you a second look,” Tabitha replied and looked up the walls on both sides.

  “You are about to give me a second and third look with a little …what are you doing?” He looked up the walls, both sides, before coming back to rest on her, smiling, “Oh, now you figure it out? Now you figure out you have nowhere to run?”

  Tabitha turned around and continued looking at the two windows she found behind her, confirming that no one was at either one. She spoke, but the guys could hear her just fine as she turned back around to them. “I’m just making sure we don’t have any witnesses, Ace.” Tabitha replied as she looked at him, “The ass kicking I’m going to give you five is only going to give me a few hours of satisfaction. But, it’s the best I have on offer at the moment so, what’s it going to be? Are you all lips and no solution?” She punctuated her comment with a pelvic thrust, “Hmm?”

  “Johnnie,” the guy on her left whispered, “C’mon, this isn’t right.”

  “Don’t be a pushover, Sebastian,” Johnnie retorted, “she’s as much as dared us to kick her ass. Trust me,” he took a couple of steps forward and made smooching noises towards Tabitha, “When I get done with her ass, she won’t be able to sit down for a week.”

  As he finished his statement, he popped his pelvis out towards Tabitha to the catcalls from the guys behind him as they started following him forward.

  Sebastian sighed heavily. His cousin was impetuous and foolhardy. His momma said one day he was going to get Sebastian in trouble.

  He prayed it wasn’t this evening as he started following the other four, noticing something that concerned him.

  Did her eyes just flash red?

  CHAPTER TWO

  Inside Schwabenland Base, Antarctica

  Maria Orsitsch nodded to her two guards. Both Hans and Horst returned her nod back as she stepped between them to enter the meeting room. Their base, once they brought the heaters online, was a very comfortable seventy-four degrees. All of her people were older but in great shape.

  Unfortunately, she didn’t have the technology to make her people young again as the young Queen did.

  Horst grinned, “Dresses again, Maria?”

  She stopped in front of him, “If I knew that a punch would hurt you, I would hit you. A slap against that granite you have for a head would only hurt my hand, Horst.” He smiled at her as she continued speaking, “You know I’m not fond of the pants women wear today. Dresses are for ladies, thank you very much.”

  “Yes,” Horst replied as she stepped between the two men to go into the meeting room, “But the pants allow us to see the woman’s weapons so much easier than dresses, Maria.” The two men chuckled as they closed the door to the room behind her.

  Men, Maria thought, freeze them and thaw them out and they still only think of sex, sex, sex.

  Maria set her yellow notepad and pencils down. She preferred to write her notes. Her notes language was completely unique, no one would be able to decipher it.

  Except, perhaps, the Kurtherian. She had asked Bethany Anne, twice now, to speak with TOM and the best she was allowed was communication through one of their phone devices.

  “Maria?” Hans called out sometime later. The knocking on the door took her attention away from the notes she had made during the meeting with the Germans the day before. The history of her country was dramatic, to say the least. Broken apart after the war and brought back together in October of 1
990, there was a lot of good and bad with the reformed country. Either way, it wasn’t the Germany she remembered.

  Truthfully, none of the countries were anything like she remembered or cared about. Her last meeting was with the United States of America and then she would have to deliver her decision to her people ... those who chose to continue following her.

  Wherever that lead.

  “Yes?” she replied, looking up from her notes.

  “I have Barnabas out here, from Bethany Anne’s group. He is asking permission to speak with you a moment.”

  “That is ok, please let him in.” She put down her pencil and stood up.

  Barnabas walked in and nodded to Maria, who nodded back. Barnabas was a very peaceful person, at least to Maria.