Under My Heel

by Michael Anderle

  Frankly, it didn’t look like a big deal at first glance. Captain Billings had gone outside the gate and had dropped by unannounced. He had met the two principles, while they were in the middle of setting up some equipment, and their story had checked out when followed up.

  But, when the phrase ‘data bunker’ had been spoken about their location, it set off his senses for some reason. Might be something, might be nothing, but he would figure out why it bugged him.

  Key Biscayne, Fl - USA

  Bethany Anne and Ashur appeared back in the closet. She listened for a moment and confirmed no one was in her room.

  She had successfully played hooky and gotten away with it.

  Her phone buzzed and she just about jumped through the ceiling. She had been so worked up sneaking out and back that she was on edge. She laughed off the adrenaline rush and looked down to see who the caller was.

  Michael was asking for a video call. She looked down at her chest and considered what he would say, but decided not to chance it right then. She hit the voice only button. “Hello Michael, what’s up?”

  “Not me.” Bethany Anne’s mouth dropped open in shock, the man was using double entendre. “I’m sitting behind Anton’s desk.” Her mouth closed again, that old man knew enough to just be oh-so-right while sounding oh-so-wrong.

  Ass.

  She unlocked the closet door and walked into her bedroom and got back into bed. “Ok, other than you sitting at a desk and taking comments way too literally. Here’s a thought, act a few centuries younger. It might do you some good.”

  Score! She knew that would annoy the man.

  She heard a grunt from her phone. “Yes, well when you have as much wisdom as I do, you find that leaving a few centuries behind might make you as brash as a baby sometimes. Prone to running off at the mouth and getting into situations a calmer mind might have seen a way clear of. Perhaps without destroying an 1836 piano.”

  “Are you seriously blaming me for breaking that piano at Anton’s party? I might remind you, I was thrown over that balcony. It wasn’t like you were at the bottom to catch my ass.”

  She could have sworn that she had just barely heard an ‘if only’. Had she? No, he didn’t talk like that. Possibly wishful thinking on her part? Dammit, she had to get old fuss-budgets out of her mind. Why she was even thinking about him as anything but a tactical partner, with skills, was beyond her.

  She had gone out with Ben the previous week. It had been a nice little dinner, but you could see that it was a ‘bucket list’ check for him. He had gotten back on the horse and rode it. He’d voiced his appreciation for her help with getting him and Tabitha out of the Miami operation. He had been pretty sure that they would have been killed, had her team not busted the operation.

  At the end of the dinner it was time to take him to Nathan on the Polarus. They drugged him as they approached their private plane. It took about 10 minutes for the drugs to take effect and then Bethany Anne, John and Eric trans-located with Ben through the Etheric to the Polarus. They took the snoozing guy to Nathan who placed him in his waiting stateroom and promised to make up an appropriate story of how he got on the ship so quickly.

  It wouldn’t matter, if Nathan trusted Ben enough to work with him it wouldn’t be too long before Ben knew too many secrets. At that point he would be able to guess how they had transported him to the middle of the ocean so quickly.

  Michael brought her wandering thoughts back on track. “No, but you couldn’t dodge just a little? That piano was worth a small fortune.”

  “I’ll try to find something a little less expensive to break my fall the next time, you ass. Now, did you call to complain about your piano or do you have a legitimate reason to break into my sleep?

  “Please, you were not sleeping. I heard you unlock a door and walk over to your bed. In fact, I would hazard a guess that you went somewhere without your team.” Michael didn’t personally care if she had or hadn’t gone somewhere with her team, but she wouldn’t want her team to know she had snuck out. That was what made him smile on his side of the phone.

  Damn the man and his vampire hearing. “Whatever. My point is still, you called me. For what?” If at first you don’t succeed, blow off his logic.

  “I am going to need to work with a lot of people and agencies that I am completely unfamiliar with down here. I am going to need to fill Carl’s position. Do you have any suggestions on who I should talk with to accomplish this? Normally, I would call Frank and I suppose that is a choice. However, Nathan might be another good choice to talk to. Just seeking some advice, that’s all.”

  She narrowed her eyes, it was never ‘that’s all’ with Michael. The man could have plans within plans within… Oh, hell. He could be a conniving bastard if he chose to be. A small grin started to form on her face, “You know what Michael? I do happen to have a good suggestion. However, let me talk with Nathan first before we reach out to the contact. I’m not sure what this person’s status is, right now, but they are already familiar with the UnknownWorld so that isn’t an issue. I’ll probably rope Frank into the conversation, to vet this person as well, before they are chosen. If they work out, I’ll have them on a plane and down to you within forty-eight hours.”

  “On a plane? You aren’t willing to bring him to me?”

  “What do you think I am, your taxi?” The two of them had tried to teach each other their etheric tricks. But Bethany Anne couldn’t get the hang of turning to myst and Michael wasn’t able to Etherically walk. It bugged Bethany Anne that she couldn’t turn to myst and spy on people. Well, yuck. Not like her dad or anything.

  “No, I think of you as the leader of our team who would recognize the need of one of her partners in desperate need of a resource. A resource he needs, to be able to move forward and accomplish a goal that she had set out for him.”

  “Right, your taxi. Ok, I’ll consider it. Until they get vetted it doesn’t matter.” He had made an excellent point, actually. He did need someone to replace Carl. “Oh, hell. Yes, yes. If they work out, I’ll bring them down.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, is that all? Can I get my beauty sleep now?”

  “Yes, do plan to get a full night’s sleep to help, why don’t you?” She wanted to reach through the phone and slap the shitty grin she heard through the phone right off his face. She should accidentally, on purpose, hit the video button. Show him a strategically placed breast, with just a touch of nipple, to make his eyes come out of his head. Then, she could take a screen-capture of his face before his old heart exploded on him.

  She rolled her eyes, what the hell was wrong with her? Where were all of these thoughts coming from? She was becoming a phone slut? It had to be Gabrielle’s fault. Probably giving her bad ideas with the stories about relationships across the centuries. Damn, damn, damn. Since she was the one who kept prying into Gabrielle’s love life she only had herself to blame. She was going to have to go cold-turkey and cold-showers.

  Wait a second…

  TOM, can you shut off my emotions?

  Not shut off completely. At least not most of the time. I can add to or subtract from your emotions, why do you ask?

  Hold on, I’ve got to get back to Michael.

  Something TOM had just said was trying to make itself known…

  Gott Verdammt TOM, are you screwing with my emotions!

  Aaaahhhh, What?

  I Said...

  “Bethany Anne?”

  I’ll get back to you in a minute.

  “Sorry Michael, your lame effort to annoy me has been duly noted and I will get back to you with an appropriate response in a reasonable time.” There, suck on that persimmon for a minute you bag of bones. Chippendale quality bones but …

  Dammit TOM, what the fuck are you playing with?

  Huh? I’m not playing with… oh. Oh! Oh, my bad. I’m sorry Bethany Anne. Oh, holy crap. This is bad… this is bad. Wait, my bad… Sorry, this is my bad!

  Well, whatever t
he fuck it is, stop doing it for one fucking minute so I can have a decent phone call without making a slutty fan-girl of myself. You’re making me think I want to join MAS for fuck’s sake.

  MAS?

  Yeah, your Michael Adoration Society. You’re the founding, and only, member right now.

  She got silence from TOM. She must have hit some point of truth in that conversation.

  “I’m sure I’ll be sleepless tonight with anticipation. I appreciate you taking the phone call, and will let you get back to your much needed rest. Have a good night, Bethany Anne.”

  “The same to you, Michael.” They hung up.

  Now, back to her little miscreant alien symbiont.

  Her phone rang again and she was about to stab the button and yell at Michael when she realized it was Stephen calling her.

  She put the phone to her ear, “Hello! How is my favorite vampire?”

  Stephen’s smile came through the phone, “I wonder what my daughter would say about that?”

  “Nothing, I tell her all the time that you’re my favorite.”

  “Is that because she won’t tell you her secrets?”

  “Of course! I’m trying hard to wear her down but her stamina is pretty substantial for being a cold-hearted blood sucking fiend.”

  “I did train her well.”

  “Wait! Can I get you to say that again? I didn’t have the recorder on.” Bethany Anne appreciated how easily Stephen could bring a smile to her face.

  Stephen laughed, “Maybe after the rest of our call.”

  “Deal. Ok, what do you have for me?”

  “Have you been paying attention to the situation in France?”

  “Huh? No. I’ve …. not been around a T.V. for a while, what’s going on?

  Stephen took Bethany Anne through the situation that had happened in France within the last few hours. By the time he finished, she was livid.

  “Those senile goat-fucking cum-nut, jizz-swallowing, rectal bastards!” By the time she was at the end of her diatribe, she was practically spitting the words out. Bethany Anne was thinking about what it must have been like to be sitting in a cafe when some twisted dick wanker came walking around spraying bullets, the fear they would have had to be feeling…

  “Pretty much our feelings over here. I’m calling to get your okay to go and do something about it.”

  Bethany Anne brought her mind back on track. “Wait, what? You want to go after them?”

  “Well, actually both ship’s crews are spitting mad and they want to get a little of their own back.”

  Bethany Anne pursed her lips. She didn’t have an issue with this. “Come clean with me Stephen. What are your feelings on this situation?”

  “My Queen, they did this in my land. I’m paraphrasing a little, but the best quote I’ve got is ‘that evil will prosper if good men and women aren’t permitted to do something about this’. What is the use of protecting the Earth from aliens if the terrorists have already destroyed the people here?”

  There was a pause. Bethany Anne replied after a few seconds, “The priority is the safety of TOM’s ship. So long as that is taken care of, then you have my full support and will have my team on call if you need us. Have Frank and Nathan find those fuckers for your team. They think they know terror? They can’t imagine real terror.”

  She thought more about all the useless killing these assholes had done. The brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers that weren’t coming home, ever again. Her voice turned dark, angry and violent. Her eyes turned to blood, her fangs started to grow.

  “Stephen, tell those on your ships Bethany Anne releases the Dogs of War.”

  The Queen Bitch’s Ship Polarus

  Frank was in his stateroom on the Polarus, starting work on his book on Bethany Anne in his off time. With Nathan working to get ungodly amounts of connectivity options on the ship, he was in the middle of the action and could easily keep his ear to the… well, ground wasn’t the right word.

  For the last few hours he had been reading the reports coming out of France. Most of them were diplomatic communications for the people back in D.C., but he would occasionally get a military update in the bunch.

  He had requested two monitors and now he had the same setup that he’d enjoyed back in the subterranean office in D.C., just without the cold.

  He noticed his dashboard had a red file flagged. Interesting, he thought. He clicked on the file and started to read the information.

  Turkey was having a problem in one of their small towns near their border with Syria and had sent in some men.

  Those men had died. So, Turkey had reached out to their partners in NATO for assistance. Most of Turkey’s present resources were deployed to be the ‘bully boys’ for the other European countries. They were to interdict the flow of refugees from coming into Europe proper. Due to these efforts, Turkey didn’t have enough additional resources to send another group into the town.

  The U.S. had dropped a couple of fire teams to see what was going on. The team’s reported a silent town and dead bodies everywhere. They found a lot of tracks going up into the mountains that surrounded the town and followed the tracks into a large cave.

  Two fire teams, eight men, went into the cave. Two men staggered out and one of them died of his wounds in the small town below. The last man had found a working cell phone and had called in the report.

  He claimed, there were zombies in the caves. Dead townspeople who had come back to life.

  Nightfall had arrived shortly after the first report. They had not heard from the soldier since the first call.

  This wasn’t a zombie infestation, Frank thought. This was a Nosferatu attack. Frank and Dan had talked together a couple of times wondering what David would do. Well, now they had the answer.

  David was creating Nosferatu in a remote location. Perhaps hoping the infestation would get large enough to be self-replicating.

  Frank wasn’t sure why David would do that. Without a true vampire, the Nosferatu were rarely able to create additional Nosferatu.

  What was David’s plan, here?

  There was a knock on his door. Frank called out, “Come in.”

  Nathan stuck his head in through the doorway, “Hey. Stephen and Dan are requesting our services to locate these asshole terrorists. Got a minute?”

  Frank started unplugging his external monitors. Frank’s mind was abuzz, his gut told him he was missing some pieces. But, until he got more information, he would just have to push his way through for the short term.

  “Yes, I’ve got time. Hey, did you hear about the Nosferatu attack in Turkey?”

  “What? Nosferatu in Turkey? Dammit, when it rains, it pours.” Nathan pulled out of the doorway so Frank could exit his room.

  Frank closed his door and the two men walked towards the smaller meeting room. “Yes. I haven’t received any official request for help yet, but I imagine I will get a call sometime soon. The U.S. just lost eight guys near the border with Syria. I think it is probably David starting something. I just can’t figure out what his strategy is, yet. Maybe he thinks Michael will come take care of the problem? Try to keep Michael busy while he works somewhere else?”

  Nathan shrugged. His life had been significantly less busy before he had met Bethany Anne. With his almost nine decades, he had learned how to handle bad news and not freak out. “I’m sure we will find out. I’ll get Ben to start tracking more information out of that area of Turkey. I’ve got him back-tracking the attacks, combing through all of the server logs. We are losing a lot of connections in or near Russia, they’re just disappearing. Weird shit.”