Under My Heel

by Michael Anderle

  Bethany Anne hugged her back, “We might be closer than you think. Ok?”

  Mary mumbled agreement, not really sure what the lady meant. Bethany Anne handed her the rose that Mary had brought to the gravesite. She and Bethany Anne each laid a rose down. Then, to her surprise, each of the team members produced a rose. That day, Martin’s grave had eight roses on it.

  They said their goodbyes and Mary walked back to her car, the weight of her emotions lifted off of her shoulders for the first time since Martin had been killed. When she got back to her car, she pulled off her coat and opened her door to toss it in. She noticed a legal sized envelope addressed to her in the driver’s seat. She grabbed the envelope, tossed in her coat and got in. She started the car and turned the heat on.

  It took her a few minutes to figure out the contents.

  Her surprise complete, she had been deeded a house in Key Biscayne, Florida.

  A personal note was inside. “Please accept this gift, it is the least I can do. Trust that I want you to know that Martin’s promises, the dreams he shared with me, that you and your husband spoke about were never in vain. This home is paid for, furnished, and all the taxes and fees paid for until you die or sell the house. I would feel honored if you accept this and come live near me. All my love, Bethany Anne.”

  Tears fell one more time from Mary Brennan’s face, the ink on the personal note smearing, just a little.

  Key Biscayne, Fl. – USA

  Scott was walking along the edge of the water, thinking about the trip to Martin’s gravesite. He had been involved with the takedown of Adrian, the vampire responsible for killing Martin. He’d also been involved, at least in the action plan, with the effort to get Clarita. He would have been involved with the fight for the Polarus, but Jean Dukes and her team had made very short work of the boat attacking them that night.

  He was standing, looking at the evening sunset over the water when Darrell caught up to him. Scott had heard him and waited until his partner stood beside him, sharing the view when he nodded. “Beautiful, isn’t it.”

  Darrell nodded, it wasn’t so much a question between the two men who had fought together, bled together and made it out the other side together, as it was a simple ‘hello’.

  They stood in companionable silence for a couple of minutes, Darrell letting his partner take his time.

  Scott finally broke the silence, “Are we going to be enough, Darrell?”

  “Enough for what?”

  “Enough to see her to the other side of all this?” Scott threw his hand out to the horizon. “Enough to protect her from what is coming?”

  Darrell considered his response. Scott was the odd guy out in the Queen’s guard. He came to them from the New York Police department. He wasn’t ex-military like himself and most of the others. Scott had been involved in a bad interaction with a Nosferatu in an apartment building and Dan had somehow pulled strings to let the man join their team. He had been a solid part of the four, for a while now.

  “Brother, what do you think is coming up?” To Darrell, every one of his team was his brother. He had never known three guys, now four if you counted Gabrielle, who he knew would never leave him behind even if the brass had other ideas. Hell, his ‘brass’ was Bethany Anne. That lady would chance dying in a foreign dimension to try to save one of her own.

  “You know the score. We have to get this Forsaken bullshit behind us. Team BMW is going to get those rockets working. I don’t think it will take much time before they’re working in atmosphere and then working out of atmosphere. After that it won’t be too much longer before we really will be able to move into low earth orbit. That is going to piss off some really powerful people.”

  Darrell nodded his agreement. “Scott, we are going to have to be enough. She’s a tough woman, don’t get me wrong, but she can’t be looking everywhere at the same time.”

  Scott snorted, “Remember San Jose?”

  Darrell grinned, remembering the fight in the park, “We got her through that.”

  Scott turned his head to look up at his partner, “Who was trying to get whom through that? We were a unit. The absolute best I’ve ever been a part of and she left us in her dust. We have to up our game or we are going to be holding her back.”

  It was Darrell’s turn to be quiet and think about what Scott had just said. The guys had heard about the fight on the Ad Aeternitatem. Pete’s team coupled with Todd’s marines had a short and bloody fight of their own. But the big news was Pete himself turning into the first standing Werewolf in centuries as he and his team had fought for Bethany Anne. Perhaps John could take Pete in a fight, but John had been maxed out by … “You want to go John’s route, don’t you?”

  Like before, while phrased as a question, it was more a statement from one person who knew the other all too well.

  Scott just nodded. “I’ve thought about it a lot since we helped the reporter in San Jose.” Scott scanned the horizon, “When those douchebags shot at us and Gabrielle, I stopped thinking in terms of us, them, nations whatever. It became my team, my team members, my mission. We have one goal. We have to save the world.” Scott looked back over to Darrell, “If I need to take a bullet to make sure Bethany Anne crosses the finish line? I won’t hesitate. But, if I could shrug it back off so I’m not out of the game? Well, bring it on mother-fuckers, bring it on.” Scott turned back to viewing the horizon.

  “That was a little plebian.” Darrell smirked.

  Scott smiled at his comment, “Yeah, let’s just hope she isn’t listening or I’ll have to drop and give her fifty. Wait!” Scott turned back to Darrell, “No one has used just ‘mother-fucker’ that I can think of in at least four or five months. That should check out ok I’m thinking.”

  Darrell shook his head, “You want to try that on her?”

  “Fuck no.”

  “What do you think is our next step?”

  “Eric, then John and finally Gabrielle.”

  Scott hadn’t really asked Darrell if he wanted to go this route. These guys had been ‘human’ the whole time. John wasn’t, not really. No one was exactly sure what he was, but if he was still human he had to damn near be a perfect specimen.

  But, they had all been saved in one form or another by Bethany Anne. Now, Scott wanted to make sure he had the capabilities to truly be the asset she needed when the chips were down.

  His brother, from another mother, didn’t need to voice his agreement. He already had.

  It was time the Queen’s Guards upped their game.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The Queen Bitch’s Ship Ad Aeternitatem En Route to the Mediterranean

  Three men were sitting at a table in the area the boat’s crew was kind enough to call “Team BMW’s Garage”. Until the team was able to get a working craft, they were going to suffer from the kidding. Bobcat took it in stride and Marcus was bemused by the whole experience. While Marcus was familiar with getting the short stick with other scientists, he considered the fun loving antics just that, fun loving.

  William didn’t have the same opinion. Perhaps, due to the gravestone he had been presented with. The crew had created it after their initial effort plummeted through the first barge. The rocket sank so fast into the depths of the ocean that it took the bubbles at least half a minute to make it to the surface. Perhaps it was because he had been accustomed to being the ‘supreme mechanic’ no matter what the military had him work on.

  Bethany Anne threw a damn spaceship at William, and then told his boss and a rocket scientist to make her a personal attack craft.

  So he would. First, he would do it because winning the battle with machines is what he did. The second reason was because he wanted to know he had been a part of the team which built the first ship out of alien technology.

  The third, and perhaps the most important reason, is that he wouldn’t let Bethany Anne down again. He had screwed up back in Miami and he would do whatever it took to make sure he didn’t let her down again.

 
Including not drinking alcohol until they were successful.

  That same prohibition wasn’t something his boss and his team mate ascribed to. There was a bucket of ‘mental lubrication medicine’ between the two of them. Bobcat and Marcus had just popped the tops off of their second long necks, when the world’s deadliest woman sauntered in with her, large as hell, white German Shepherd. Gabrielle followed Bethany Anne into the room. She wore tactical clothing and made it look like she was walking on a fashion runway.

  Damn vampires could make anything look sexy. William lifted his Coke in their direction, he could drink to that.

  So he did.

  “William! How is my favorite mechanic this evening?” Bethany Anne pulled a chair out and turned it around, sitting in it backwards, crossing her arms on the back, and looking at the three of them. Gabrielle took up a position a few feet behind her and Ashur laid down right behind Bethany Anne’s chair.

  William noticed that both Bobcat and Marcus had lowered their bottles, neither one knowing why their boss had arrived unannounced. He smiled, “Doing fine, thank you very much. We are unsuccessfully trying to figure out how to handle a couple of these issues with the new engine.” He scratched at his chin, he had a little stubble going again. “The …” He stopped when she put up her hand.

  “You are about to start speaking the language of numbers, forces, metals or stresses. None of which I speak.”

  I DO

  No shit, Sherlock. That’s why we’re here.

  Oh? Do tell.

  Well then listen the fuck in, why don’t you? Stop interrupting and we can all learn at the same time.

  Bully for you.

  I swear to God, if the kitchen team are listening to something you are picking up, I will have them swim behind the Polarus for a few miles while I chum the water.

  Tom was silent. That pretty much sealed the guilty verdict right there. She continued her conversation with the guys.

  “However, I know someone who DOES speak those things and has a clue…” She was interrupted by Marcus.

  “You’re going to let us talk with Thales aren’t you!”

  Bethany Anne stared at the man until he corrected himself, “Fine, TOM it is. I still don’t understand why you have this issue with calling him by his full name.”

  She could imagine Marcus kicking an imaginary rock as he said this. “Consider it my prerogative to keep his name short. I refuse to walk around calling him ‘Thales of Miletus’ or even ‘Thales’. TOM he started and TOM he will be called.”

  She reached over to the bucket and grabbed a beer. Bobcat reached into his pocket to pull out his knife so she could use the bottle top tool. As he got it out of his pocket she placed her thumb under the top, flicked it off and took a swig. Bobcat put the knife back in his pocket. He considered her ability, to just pop a bottle top off like that, had to be useful as hell.

  She made a face of disgust and placed the bottle back on the table. “Oh hell, that is horrible!” She turned the bottle around and looked over at Bobcat, “Believe it or not, I think vampire taste buds don’t like this.”

  Bobcat shook his head, “Sorry, then count me out if it ever comes time to offer me a chance at changing. If I can’t enjoy nature’s brew, life just isn’t worth living.” He punctuated that comment by drinking a significant amount of beer.

  She shoved the bottle back. “Marcus, you asked a few weeks ago to talk with TOM. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to accomplish this and we might have a solution.” Marcus had moved his bottle aside and picked up his pen and paper. “You know how this stuff,” she waved around the room at the different small engines and different pieces of technology they had strewn about, “works based on the etheric dimension?” He nodded his agreement, “Well, we should be able to move communications through the etheric to a computer which is secure. When I see your questions, I’ll be able to type the responses.”

  “So, kind of like a chat channel?”

  “Yes, occasionally you will have to wait for a time to get the responses depending on how busy I am, but it will be better than waiting until I get a chance to drop by here.”

  Why don’t we just connect the computer I have right here through the etheric directly to a laptop like we have done for Frank?

  Because the last time we talked about that, you mentioned it would require another trip to the pod-doc.

  Well, yes. But it would be a very small surgery to facilitate your ability to connect.

  I’m not plugging a wire into my head.

  It won’t be a wire. It will be a micro… really, really micro… analog and digital transceiver.

  So, I can be fried or hacked by an external group? No thanks.

  Please, like there would be any ability to ‘hack’ an alien computer system. This isn’t Hollywood you know.

  Bethany Anne had watched Independence Day with TOM. She had to stop the movie when the two heroes plugged their computer straight into the spaceships computer system and sent a worm into the alien’s computer. TOM wouldn’t shut the hell up explaining all the myriad different ways why that wouldn’t work.

  Marcus sat back in his chair, obviously less enthused over the solution than he might have been. Of course, Marcus wanted to speak directly to TOM if he could and Bethany Anne wasn’t willing to open that can of worms.

  They got busy figuring out how to set up two laptops to work through the etheric. With TOM’s help, they had it covered in fifteen minutes.

  Bethany Anne stood up and turned the chair back around. “Get with either Ecaterina or Patricia to order the laptops. Have them delivered to the Florida house and I’ll bring them with me on another trip.”

  They said their goodbyes and stepped back out of the room, closing the door behind them.

  William spoke to no one in particular, “Don’t say anything. You’ve had a little beer and they can still hear you. We know they are attractive and God forbid you say something you will regret in the morning.”

  Bobcat just tipped his bottle in appreciation. He knew the warning wasn’t for him. It was Marcus that couldn’t hold his booze for shit.

  Marcus just closed his mouth, not so far gone he couldn’t recognize sage advice.

  Dining Room / Ad Aeternitatem

  Todd Jenkins was having trouble with his anger. The three marines sitting with him at the table were having the same problem.

  Todd, Chet Nichols, Kevin Russel and Paul Stephens were watching the aftermath of a terrorist attack in France.

  It was pissing them off.

  When one is in the military, you have to follow the commands of those above you. Those then follow the commands of those above them until, eventually, you end up at the top person who is usually an elected commander in chief. Sometimes the person holding the position is respected, sometimes they are not. Hopefully, the position is respected or you end up with societies which can change at the whim of those who have the most charisma and the biggest guns.

  That doesn’t mean that the people in the trenches and those who support them don’t wish they could be released to cause mayhem and screw the ‘political realities’.