Under My Heel

by Michael Anderle

  He turned away from the bar, carrying both of their drinks, a smile on his face and a glint in his eye. Was this man hoping he was going to get lucky? God, she hoped so!

  He sat her drink in front of her, on the small table, and then sat down beside her. “Cheers!” She picked up her drink and touched his glass, looking into his eyes as they clinked together. Taking a sip, she set it down.

  He asked her, “How is your drink?”

  She looked down at her drink. She didn’t remember tasting it. She picked it up, smiling, and tried it again. “Well, the first one failed to make a mark, the second time it was very nice.” She sat it back down. “And yours?”

  “Not as nice as the company, but delicious never the less.”

  She might shoot herself later, but she couldn’t hold in the question that had been on her mind, “Lance, why now?”

  She watched as he raised an eyebrow. Not, going to work, tonight Mr. Man...

  When his eyebrow trick didn’t get a follow-up, he sighed. “I’m going to have to work harder. Patricia, I’m kinda old here, if you hadn’t noticed.” Lance realized that Patricia was checking him out, pursing her lips, “What am I, a T-bone?”

  “Maybe a filet, have to see how, hard you are.” She smiled but grabbed her drink. She needed to hide her blushing cheeks.

  Lance lost his train of thought for a moment. “Inspect me like that all you want and I’ll only sit here forever.” He tried to remember the conversation, “Where was I?”

  Patricia got her trouble-causing tongue back under control, “You’re old and why are you asking me for a date now?”

  Lance jumped on the easy way out, “Because I’m old! You just said it yourself, not too many years left in this… this…” By now, even Lance realized he wasn’t going to sell this excuse. “Ok, the hard answer is I’ve got a skull as thick as a cement bunker and I’ve been as obtuse as a triangle. Bethany Anne hit me so hard it made my ears ring.”

  “Ohhhh! She had better not have hit you. I’ll give that girl a piece of my mind. Next time little miss prissy boots…”

  Lance just stared at the fiery woman, finally interrupting her tirade. “Patricia, she didn’t hit me.”

  “I’ll… What?” Patricia eyed Lance.

  “I said, she didn’t really hit me.” Lance’s lip started to curl ever so slightly.

  Patricia’s face heated up, “I’m sorry, it’s just that she hits those guards of hers all of the time. I guess I got carried away thinking that she hit her own father, too.”

  “That’s just when they’re working out. I don’t remember her hitting her guards at any other time.”

  “Well, she talks about it enough.”

  “They’re joking, Patricia. When have you seen her hit any of her guards, outside of practice, hard enough that it seriously hurt them?”

  “Well, I can’t. But she is so violent sometimes.”

  “Do you mean physically, or verbally.”

  “Oh! Don’t get me started on her ‘potty’ mouth. I blame you for that, completely.”

  Lance smiled, “I’ll own up to that. Never suggested that I was able to be both her mom and her dad. So, between the two choices I chose ‘dad’.”

  Patricia sighed and played with her drink, turning it in a circle. “I’m sorry, Lance. I’m scared to know your answer, so I’m babbling. I love your daughter, even, if I think that she needs a little bit more lace and a little less leather in her life.”

  Lance shrugged, “Did what I did. What I do know is that, if she hadn’t been ready and tough, Michael wouldn’t have selected her as a candidate. And if that had been the case she would be in the grave right now. So, I’ll take my lumps and I am proud of her.” Patricia took her left hand off of her drink and placed it on Lance’s. He smiled at her, “What I meant, before I set you off, is that Bethany Anne pointed out that I wasn’t aware of the opportunity right in front of my blind eyes. I wasn’t thinking like a civilian. You were still part of my group. We were having fun, but I still lived by the ‘Army’ code of regulations. So, the two of us had a very polite and gentle conversation where she…”

  Patricia interrupted, “Boxed your ears and told you to ‘man up’?”

  Lance’s sharp bark of a laugh caused a couple of heads to turn before the other customers resumed their own conversations. “Yes, pretty much.” Lance took his hand out from under Patricia’s, and then took hers in his.

  He continued, “There is only one decision, and it could be a relationship ending one. Not in the near term, but certainly in a few years.”

  Patricia was both excited that Lance was talking ‘relationship’ anything. Then her insecurity kicked in about the ‘few years’ comment.

  “What? What is the decision?”

  Lance breathed out heavily. He had been dreading her possible response to this question all night long.

  He squeezed her hand and looked into her eyes, “Patricia, are you willing to drink Bethany Anne’s blood?”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The Queen Bitch’s Ship Ad Aeternitatem

  Captain Wagner entered the holding area for TOM’s ship and joined Todd who had walked over to shake his hand, “Capt., I appreciate you coming down here for little chat.”

  He nodded, “Todd, what is it that you wanted to speak about? I presume, since I’m here next to the ship, you want to talk about this?”

  Todd turned to look over his shoulder at Tom’s ship, his team’s responsibility for the security since it had arrived. “Yes, I am just concerned that if all of us are off the Ad Aeternitatem, how are we going to handle security for TOM’s ship? What are we going to do should David, or anyone else, actually try to come after it?”

  Capt. Wagner walked towards the spacecraft, “Although I have been down here quite a few times, I still can’t believe we have a craft that has been in another galaxy sitting in the hold of my ship.” Capt. Wagner turned to look back at Todd, “Have you ever stopped to consider the ship has been through untold reaches of space that no human has ever seen?”

  Todd joined Capt. Wagner staring at the ship, “Not until you mentioned it, to be honest. I consider the technology enhancements that are inside all of the time. Do you realize that the fate of the world sits just 10 feet in front of us? Or, if some other power gets ahold of this ship, what they might do with it against our interests?”

  Capt. Wagner started tapping his toe, “No, I can’t say that I’ve considered the military ramifications. I had been kind of focused on other items, but you bring up a very good point. Have you talked to anyone else about your concerns?”

  “Only Pete. He still tends to assume that upper management is always aware of everything that is going on. So he hasn’t quite grasped the fact, that top brass sometimes gets overwhelmed. And, that means they occasionally fail to recognize a potential ‘oh shit’.”

  “So, I take it you want me to be the one that pushes this concern up the chain?”

  Todd smiled, “That is one thing I’ve always admired about you Capt. Wagner, you really see to the core of a problem and the best solution very, very quickly.”

  “Humph. You don’t believe that talking to Nathan or Frank is the best next step?”

  “I considered those two options; however, I feel that the security of the ship is with my team and ergo moves up my chain of command, which would be to you. So, it would be appropriate to get your input and have you direct what should happen next.”

  “If we could move it, do you have any idea where it could go? I don’t believe that Lance is ready for anything to be moved to Colorado yet.”

  Todd sighed, “No, I am really and completely out of ideas. If there was a simple solution, I would have offered that solution when I told you of my concerns.”

  Capt. Wagner laughed, “So, have you ever had a superior officer who told you to never bring a problem, without the solution, to him or her?”

  “Not personally, however, I have had a few friends who have suffered under that require
ment. I can understand the reason why a superior officer would request it. However, I imagine that it can become a crutch if you never hear of problems without solutions along with it. My best idea? I would ask Bethany Anne to fly it to some unknown location in the middle of absolutely nowhere and leave it there. That way, she is the only one who could bring it back.”

  “Todd, that is a really good suggestion.”

  “Well, since I didn’t have a poor solution to give you and then pull out my mediocre solution, I figured that I would go with no solution, and then give you this option.”

  Capt. Wagner looked over at the ex-Marine, “Have you considered going into politics?”

  The Queen Bitches Ship Polarus

  Frank was in love with his laptop. So long as he felt he was in a secure area, no one looking over his shoulder, he could work from anywhere in the world. As evidenced by his working in the mess on the Polaris in the middle of the Mediterranean.

  Eating ice cream.

  The only thing he missed, was having two monitors running. However, he couldn’t stay in his room all of the time. He had noticed that the more time he spent in and around Bethany Anne’s group, the more he felt the need to be around people. Even if it’s only being in the same room as them. Plus, he had noticed that he could have a calorie rich diet without harming his physique nearly as much as it had before he took Bethany Anne’s blood.

  He pushed aside the empty bowl that had held his first bowl of ice cream. Then he pulled a second, now partially melted, bowl of ice cream in front of himself.

  His laptop beeped, which wasn’t an abnormal situation for him. He left the metal spoon in his mouth as he reached down to manipulate the keys, trying to find the tab on his dashboard which flagged a potential issue.

  He finally found the tab, and started reading through the information, his eyes growing a little wider as he continued reading the paragraphs.

  He pulled the spoon out of his mouth and set it in the bowl, then pushed the bowl away. He grabbed his phone and sent a quick text to Nathan, asking him to join him in the mess.

  He continued reading the information while he waited for Nathan.

  Frank was first aware of Nathan arriving when he pulled a chair out from the table, startling Frank from his reading.

  “What you got, Frank? Another update on the mess in Turkey?”

  He replied, “I wish. No, we apparently have somebody over at Nellis Air Force Base checking out Patriarch Research and what’s going on there. The system found a request to raid their offices. The request is actually a couple of days old so I’m not sure what the status is right now. Do you know where Bethany Anne is right now? Wasn’t she supposed to go talk with them.”

  “Yes.” Nathan looked down at his watch, “I imagine she is in Las Vegas right now.”

  Frank reached over and picked up his phone again, “No time like the present to try to give her the bad news.” Nathan moved his chair over just a little bit in order for his voice to be picked up by the phone’s microphone a little better.

  Frank tried dialing Bethany Anne four times before Nathan reminded him that John and Eric were with her. He tried both of their phone as well, but wasn’t able to reach anyone. Frank was getting frustrated.

  Nathan pursed his lips, “If they are in the bunker, she won’t be able to receive any phone calls, it is shielded. Unless John or Eric step out of the bunker they won’t be able to receive any messages either.

  “Damn,” Frank slapped his hand on the table. “Do you have any other ideas how to get a hold of her? I can only imagine if they raid the building they could try to pick everyone up and then we would be rescuing them from Nellis Air Force Base. It could take a while for the lawyers to get them free. I don’t think Bethany Anne would have the patience to just sit there.”

  Nathan shook his head, “No, I can think of a dozen different ways that could go bad.”

  Inside Turkey

  A much younger looking David looked around at the small town, pleased with himself. While the two military groups had been annoying, they had not been a challenge.

  He had the trap set up as effectively as he could think of. He had the bait with the children, he had the Nosferatu to keep their attention, and he had the backup attack to keep them here.

  Further, if this trap didn’t attract either Michael or Bethany Anne, this part of Turkey would go up in flames. While that wasn’t his intention, David had always enjoyed a little chaos.

  It was a little past midnight, and it would take at least two hours to travel to the next town. He started down to the car where his driver was waiting for him. This trap, he figured, was one of his best.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  San Jose, Costa Rica

  Michael looked down at the two Taser needles sticking in him. He let them sit there, buzzing, while he looked at the frightened reporter who had shot him. “Was this really necessary?”

  Tabatha turned to her left to see Giannini, mouth open, staring at Michael who should be flailing on the ground right now. Tabitha reached out and grabbed the wires, yanking them out of Michael. She turned on Giannini, “Come on already! Use that reporter’s deductive reasoning, you halfwit! If we had wanted to hurt you, would we have met you in the middle of the freaking morning?” She dropped the wires.

  “But,” she stuttered, “He’s, he’s one of them!”

  Tabatha reached over to snap her fingers in front of Giannini’s eyes, “One of who? Neither one of us have been in San Jose before.” She looked over at Michael, “have you?”

  “Not in this century.” Tabatha didn’t know whether to take that as meaning in the last couple of decades, or the last 100 years. One thing that she was learning pretty quickly, these vampires could be incredibly obscure when they wanted to be.

  Michael reached over and gently took the Taser out of the reporter’s hands, he wrapped the wires around the barrel and gave it back to her.

  Giannini was finally coming off of her adrenaline rush. “Then who are you? And how come the Taser didn’t affect you?” She turned to Tabitha, “And can you get me an interview with Bethany Anne?”

  Tabatha glanced at Michael, “Well, the reporter is back online.”

  Michael looked around the street, although it was still fairly early there was some foot traffic. “Why don’t we find a café to where we can talk, and get off the street? Is there anything nice around here? Something with some good coffee, preferably?”

  Giannini pointed down the street, “There’s a nice little café right down the block, to the right. I suppose we could go there. Does this mean I’ll get my interview?”

  Tabitha started down the street, “Michael, can I have your coffee?” Giannini started following Tabatha.

  Michael turned and started walking alongside Giannini, “Why would I give you my coffee?”

  Tabitha replied, “What? You can drink it? I thought your beverages needed to be a little bit more, um, how should I finish this?”

  “You shouldn’t. I happen to love most coffees, excluding Starbucks.”

  Giannini finally entered the conversation, “Starbucks? What do have you against Starbucks? I don’t think it is the best in the world, considering the price, but it is good coffee.”

  “I am from a different era, I prefer the smaller ‘mom-and-pop’ shops. I tend to patronize those when I can.”

  Tabitha smiled, “Really? How often are you able to frequent coffee shops?”