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

by Michael Anderle

  Ted pulled out his phone and started typing on it, “What are you giving him? Is it a medicine that is going to get you in trouble?”

  “Not likely, nothing will show up in his toxicology reports.”

  “More secret stuff?” Ted asked.

  Tabitha stood up and turned around, putting the syringe, with cap back on and vial back inside her jacket. “Ted, I’ve been shot, stabbed and fallen from three story buildings…Well … actually, I jumped, but that’s neither here nor there. I need this product to help me survive in my job. That I helped this loser is a weakness of mine, not a strength. What he got was what coming to him. I helped Thomas who just wanted a friend in life, and I’ve been there when I was younger. Maybe together, the two of them will find the help they need.”

  Tabitha started walking away, “Wait!” Ted called out. His eyes switching between Tabitha and the two toughs. He was trying to decide what he could do, if anything, to keep Tabitha with him.

  “Got to go, Ted, enjoy the view while you can.” She patted her ass, “Sirens are coming this way, you will have friends soon.” She turned around, and walked backward looking at him, “Don’t bother with the hotel, we are already checked out.” She blew him a kiss and then turned back around and walked around the corner, disappearing in the dimness.

  “Shit,” he sighed, his shoulders slumping.

  QBBS Merideth Reynolds

  “Bethany Anne?” Merideth spoke from the speaker, “Barnabas is calling for you.”

  Bethany Anne looked at her tablet and the list of e-documents she needed to review. Even with pushing a lot of work off to ADAM who could give her the necessary facts for a decision, it was still a lot of work.

  She highlighted a third of the documents quickly and pushed them off to her dad. He had too much time on his hands, she was sure.

  “Ok, I’m good, put him on.” She looked up to see Barnabas’s face hovering in the air in front of her. “What’s going on?” She noticed the room he was in, “You in Schwabenland?” He nodded.

  “Yes, home of the free, but frozen,” he replied.

  She nodded, “Oh, tracking someone down?”

  “Yes, I’ve got a lead on the group that keeps attacking us. They might have sent someone here to speak with Maria as part of the American Legation.”

  “Oh? Do you think the U.S. is involved in this, then?”

  “No, I don’t believe so. No one in the team knew this person, and I couldn’t read him,” he admitted.

  “Sorry,” she interrupted, “but did you say you couldn’t read him?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “How often does that occur?” she asked.

  “Rarely. It’s happened before, but the percentages are fairly remote it would happen without this person having help,” he replied.

  “Ok, tell me the rest of the plan, Barnabas.”

  “I’ll jump in my Pod in about thirty minutes and follow them. They have left, and ADAM is tracking the plane for me, if they seem to deviate from the flight plan they provided the military, I’ll know.”

  “Ok, let me know if you need anything, and I appreciate the update…”

  This time, Barnabas interrupted, “My Queen, I have something else.” He gazed into the camera and straight into her eyes.

  Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow, “Uh oh, for you to be so formal this must be good.”

  “Maria Orsitsch has requested permission for the Thule group here in Schwabenland to emigrate to the Etheric Empire.”

  Bethany Anne shrugged, “Ok, that was the expected decision out of all of their options. Why is there a speed-bump?”

  “She is asking to be permitted to provide some technology transfer to the Germans before they come with us.”

  Bethany Anne thought about it a moment, “What technology? We haven’t told them before they couldn’t share technology, so how come she asking about it now, and why is she worried enough to ask you about it?”

  “She wants to provide the core concepts of their version of gravitic drives. Those versions are extremely power hungry and can’t send ships out like ours. However, it is an advancement that could cause problems in the world.”

  Bethany Anne tapped her finger on her lips, “Yes, ADAM did some analysis with Frank and Jeffrey on this. I’ll have Frank call Maria and explain the potential ramifications if she does this. Let’s see what she decides to do after that.” He started to interrupt, but Bethany Anne put up a hand, “I’m not saying their ability to emigrate is denied if they choose to deliver the technology. I’m stating that they need to know and the absence of a ‘yes’ should at least cause her to think long and hard about it.”

  He nodded his understanding.

  “Ok, follow up with me on your tracking. Those assholes have been a major thorn a bunch of times, and if we can find out more about them, I’m game.”

  “And if we find out they are deep in the USA?”

  “Barnabas, what do you do to cancer if it is in your best friend?”

  “Cut it out,” he replied.

  “Yes, we will cut it out with or without permission,” she told him.

  Barnabas’s eyebrow went up, and Bethany Anne chuckled, “The answer before you ask, is it’s easier to ask for forgiveness. Maybe ... depends on what they are doing. According to Mason Jaydon, his group was working on the technologies that could handle those flying saucers, but he never found out where the technology originated. According to Maria, the advancements we have seen were not part of her technology and according to TOM, some of the spacecraft’s abilities we have seen are well known to half a dozen alien groups and so could be provided by another alien group. So, I’m not a huge believer in allowing cancer like that to exist while we are off fighting in a different solar system.”

  “Understood, Bethany Anne.”

  They said their good-byes and Bethany Anne looked back down at her tablet after he disappeared. She still had over sixty-two documents to discuss with ADAM and decide which direction to take.

  “Fuck me,” she muttered as she called up the first document.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Now, that’s a mansion,” Tabitha told her Tontos. “No wonder Michael wasn’t that impressed with the house down in South America.”

  The six men and one woman were in the shadows on Gramercy Park South, staring at the house Michael had used before changing Bethany Anne.

  Bethany Anne had been offered seven million dollars for the forty-two room mansion through an intermediary when those responsible for coming in and cleaning it had shared that no one had been in the building for years.

  Bethany Anne quickly fired the cleaning crew for talking and then allowed small groups of her people to visit from time to time. Always staying in the front few rooms with everything else off limits. She had never personally been to the house, preferring to not see anything that reminded her of his absence.

  Tabitha whispered, “Ok guys, pretend you’re ninjas and let’s go stay at the boss’s home, shall we?”

  Six male figures disappeared into the night while Tabitha waited in the darkness, before moving from shadow to shadow herself until she slid a key into a side door, shut off the alarm system and entered the house.

  Chicago, Illinois - USA

  The svelte blonde woman, wearing a long red dress and matching red lipstick with her hair pulled back into a bun, slid into the seat next to David Dennison. He was enjoying his drink and the beginning of his long weekend off.

  David had decided to stay with the outgoing President who had protection for life.

  “Bartender?” She called out, only to be ignored at first.

  David called out louder, “Hey Barry!”

  Barry jerked his head around and noticed David’s hand in the air, pointing down to the lady in the red dress beside him. Barry put up one finger.

  David turned to the attractive woman, “I’m sorry, but Barry is hard of hearing out of his right ear, don’t ding him for that.”

  The woman nodded a
nd gave David a short smile before it disappeared like rain sprinkles on a hot street, “I appreciate that.”

  “You good?” David asked, “I’m not trying to intrude, just grabbing an end of the week drink to unwind and don’t mind talking, or staying quiet.”

  The woman seemed to wage a discussion in her own mind before turning more fully to David and putting her matching clutch on the bar and holding out her right hand, “Hello, my name is Paula, and I’ve just been stood up.”

  “Wow,” David replied, reaching out to shake her hand, “My name’s David, and I can tell you he’s an assho…Ouch!” David’s hand jerked back, and he was shaking it up and down.

  “Oh!” Paula looked at her hand, “Did I shock you? I’m so sorry!” She put her right hand on David’s left arm.

  “No, maybe,” David answered, looking at his hand for blood, but there was nothing wrong with his hand, “Wow, it felt like a sharp edge.” David looked over to Paula, “You aren’t secretly a foreign government spy are you, trying to drug me…drug me…drug me up?” David asked, his face going lax for a moment, then snapping back alert. “Well?”

  “Well, what?” Paula asked, “I’m not sure I got your question the first time.”

  “What will you have, Ma’am?” Barry asked, interrupting the conversation.

  She reached over to grab David’s drink and smelled it, “Is this Glenlivet?” Barry nodded. She continued, “I’ll have one the same way, thank you.” Barry went to get the lady her drink. She turned to David, “I’m sorry, what was the question again?”

  David pursed his mouth and shrugged, “Beats me.”

  Barry returned and slid Paula’s drink to her. She reached inside of her clutch and pulled out three twenties, “This should cover anything for myself and David, yes?” Barry nodded and accepted the bills and then went back towards his conversation at the other end of the bar.

  “Wow, thank you,” David told her, picking up his glass, “I’m sorry for your getting stood up, but I can’t help but think this has been a wonderful night for me, so far.”

  “Well, just think of it as me paying in advance,” she told him, taking a sip from her drink.

  “For what?” David asked, daring to raise his eyebrows, flirting for the first time in a long time.

  “Shall we say, services to be rendered?” Paula told him and raised one eyebrow, holding up her drink for a toast.

  “Damn, that works for me,” he agreed and clinked her glass.

  —

  The next morning, David woke up, trying to remember the night. He looked around his room, and the sheets and the bed were definitely more messed up than usual, but he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary that a night of drinking too much might not have caused.

  His head was not pounding, so thank God for small favors. He got up out of his bed and walked past his dresser. His gun and everything he normally would drop on the dresser was there, nothing missing.

  He continued into the bathroom and stopped.

  His bathroom was done up in white. White marble countertop, white wood siding painted and white tile set at a forty-five-degree angle with gray grout in between.

  He took a couple of steps and reached down. The red panties were easy to spot against the white. He picked up the folded piece of paper. Apparently, the dream was real.

  “Hello David,

  Thank you for a fantastic dinner and even more wonderful night. I hope another girl gets as lucky as I did when they get stood up.

  Because ‘Up’ should be your middle name.”

  David smirked and continued reading,

  “I hope my payment in advance was sufficient, I look forward to your payback.

  All my best,

  Paula.”

  He turned over the note a couple of times, she hadn’t left a phone number, so how were they supposed to get together for payback?

  QBBS Merideth Reynolds

  Darryl and Scott milled around the crowd standing in the large cavern. In the future, this cavern was probably going to be used for shipbuilding, refurbishment or disassembly. However, for now, it was a good place to host thousands of people who had emigrated to the Etheric Empire.

  This was a smaller group, maybe three thousand. Although it had been over a year since the last jihadist had tried to join and assassinate Bethany Anne, the two guys mingled in the audience to see if they could get a read on anything bad before it happened.

  Presently, there was a ten-foot-tall stage which was built on one side of the room. It was kept clear except for these events when Bethany Anne, John, and Eric would arrive.

  Bethany Anne had delivered thirty-two of these speeches so far, and she understood each might be the final speech for the new people joining them, and always delivered her best effort. Each month more impediments for people to emigrate was put in front of people on Earth.

  In the end, those that were joining had the possibility of giving up their lives, and they needed to be provided her best effort to help them decide which way they wanted to jump. With her, or back to Earth.

  Scott nodded and smiled to a young family. The dad seemed hesitant to interrupt him, perhaps he was an introvert. Scott looked around to confirm nothing seemed amiss and then stepped closer to the group.

  “How are you?” He asked the parents as he fist bumped their young, dark haired boy who smiled at him.

  “Excited!” The mom admitted, her green eyes lit up, “This is it, right?”

  “Depends,” Scott answered, playing with the boy’s hair who twisted out from under his hands. Scott looked back to the parents, “if you mean is this the meeting where you join with us? Then yes. This is it. You have the option to say no, and we will return you back to Earth fairly soon. Or, you can say yes, and you release all of your ties to Earth’s countries and join the Etheric Empire.”

  “Why do we have to release our ties?” The dad asked.

  Scott looked at him and shrugged, “That was more an Earth condition than us. However, if you are from Australia, you don’t. There are about seven other countries who also don’t care. For us, those of us in the Etheric Empire, we tend to think humanity first. So, we don’t mind if our countries get their panties in a twist. The world is a big place and countries are your people, your kind. It’s natural for a human to join and want, no need, to be a part of a group. Well,” Scott waved his hand towards the crowd, “this is that family now. We are tied together by a desire to move ahead, and protect the world whether they all deserve it, or not.” He put his hand down, “further, we are going to make our own way out there. We aren’t sure we will ever see the Earth again, so this base station, or another planet might be your home. We don’t know. However,” Scott nodded to the podium, “the Queen is about to appear so catch me later if you have questions, ok?”

  The man agreed as his wife gushed excitement and the boy was tugging on his dad’s shirt to be held so he could see better. The dad said ok, and Scott grabbed the little guy and easily lifted him to sit on his dad’s shoulder and then continued his walk through the crowd.

  The cavern was lit by the same portable arti-sun technology used in the large cavern, just much smaller and built with small gravitic support which allowed E.I. Merideth to move them around as she needed since this cavern wasn’t in use all of the time. They were about six-feet-wide, and ten-feet long. There were translucent panels in place to try and diffuse the brightness. However, eyes had been damaged by looking directly at them. The effect was no different than looking at the sun while on Earth.

  “Your Attention Please,” the speakers attached to the walls boomed out. “This is E.I. Merideth, please focus your attention on the stage and reduce your talking.” There was a pause, ‘Yes, that means you too, Mr. Killsbury.”

  Some chuckles were coming from Scott’s left. Merideth always found one or two boisterous people in the group and called them out by name. It was a small reminder that she could hear, and see, just about everything on the base. With Operations being her a
rea of responsibility, she considered the emigration acceptance event to be a high priority.

  The light above dimmed a little, and the light on the stage area increased. There was about a five to seven second wait before John, Eric, Bethany Anne and Ashur appeared, and the crowd went wild as Bethany Anne smiled at those in the audience and waved.

  It was always something unique when people appeared out of nowhere.