Under My Heel

by Michael Anderle

  “Not very often, especially if I have to answer twenty annoying questions from my technical liaison every time I go out.”

  “If you two are not part of the group that tried to kidnap me weeks ago, how is it that you have hacked into my online account and entrapped me this morning?”

  Tabatha turned around and started walking backwards, “Perhaps because you have a lot of information about someone who wants to remain unknown. As far as I know, they helped you, multiple times, and the way you repay them is by creating these secret notes? What are you planning on doing, holding them for blackmail?”

  “No! But my nose for news is good. And I smell a hell of a story with what’s going on. Do you have any clue what those people … things .. were, that this group was killing a few months back? Those things were not alive!”

  Michael spoke, “Technically, they were very alive. I have spoken with someone who is intimate with what was going on and I can verify they were living, not dead. These were not zombies.” Michael made a little circular motion for Tabatha to turn back around. Tabatha did so and barely missed walking right into a fire hydrant. She waved over her shoulder to let Michael know she appreciated his warning.

  They found themselves in the little corner coffee shop a few moments later, ordering their coffee. They stopped talking as everyone picked up their cups and added their own cream or sugar as they preferred. Tabatha and Giannini both picked up a couple of morning breads as well. Michael paid for the three of them.

  They sat at a table near the door.

  Now, it was Tabatha’s responsibility to get Giannini thinking about the files. “So tell me Giannini, why is it you have all of these notes on our boss’s troops?”

  Michael raised one eyebrow at her, his boss?

  Giannini took a sip of her coffee, collecting her thoughts. “Have you ever seen a woman jump over 20 feet between buildings? And do this while carrying another woman on her shoulders? Not only have I seen it, I was the woman on the shoulders. Seconds later, I noticed that her eyes were as red as blood. I looked down, to see that she had been shot in the leg and she was still acting as if nothing was wrong! We were lifted by helicopter off of the top of the building. We travelled for over six blocks just hanging by a rope. When we landed, I noticed that her eyes were normal again. I might be able to believe that I had made a mistake as far as her having red eyes. However, it looked like her leg was already healing. I would swear it. A normal human would have been crippled by then. I don’t care how much adrenaline she was running on she would have had to deal with that gunshot.”

  Michael asked Giannini, “Can you describe the woman to me?”

  “Sure, she had a European accent…”

  “Gabrielle, not Bethany Anne.” Michael corrected.

  Giannini look confused, “Excuse me?”

  “The woman who rescued you was Gabrielle, not Bethany Anne.”

  Giannini was annoyed, “I know that. Why are you clarifying that for me? I know everyone that was on the trip, it’s in my notes. They didn’t hide their names from me.” She looked between Tabatha and Michael trying to figure out their game.

  Tabatha shrugged her shoulders, she pretended to not understand Michael’s game either.

  “I see.” Actually, Michael could understand a lot. He had been sifting through her memories as she was re-playing the event in her mind. Giannini wasn’t trying to do anything nefarious, but she was trying to land a huge story and she had locked onto the story of a lifetime.

  Michael nodded minutely to Tabitha, who understood that he had enough information. Tabatha took over the conversation with Giannini and within five minutes had them talking about fashion on the streets of San Jose. A year ago Michael would have taken Giannini’s memories away from her. Now, while it was an option, he was considering the ramifications of letting her keep her memories.

  While the women talked, Michael staring out the glass window. What was the risk he was taking with her knowing as much as she did? He thought about it for a while, considering the ramifications for her life and decided to give her information and trust. He brought his attention back around to the two ladies and rapped his knuckles on the table, getting their attention. “Giannini, you have information that can be dangerous to you. If Tabatha here can find it, others can as well.” He put up a hand to forestall Tabatha’s interruption, continuing his conversation with Giannini. “There are those who will be looking for the information that you have, and what you are using for security will protect you as well as it has so far. Which is, to say, not very well at all. I will not attempt to threaten or harm you. I don’t have any need to do so. Should I choose to, I would be able to remove that knowledge from your possession.”

  Let her figure he meant that Tabitha would take her electronic copies, if that made her feel better.

  “That’s it?” Giannini was a little shocked that the meeting was already over. “What about my opportunity to speak with Bethany Anne? Do I get that chance, for you interrupting me this morning?”

  Michael shrugged, “I’m not in charge of Bethany Anne’s schedule so I can’t speak for her.”

  Tabitha interrupted, “She’s pretty cool, I’ll see what I can do to get you an interview. Give me your contact information, where you can be reached and I’ll pass it on up the chain with a request. Also, let me write down a much better and more secure location for you to use putting your information into the cloud. cajaarchivo.com sucks. Friends don’t let friends put secure documents on caja archivo.” Tabatha then wrote down a IP address and page name. You couldn’t find this solution by using a normal naming convention on the Internet. It was a place by hackers, for hackers… and their friends.

  Tabitha’s insouciance towards the chain of command was starting to wear thin on Michael. He was having his patience, never a strong point, tested pretty thoroughly.

  He considered Bethany Anne’s effort to hide Tabitha’s becoming an addition to his team. Perhaps Bethany Anne’s plan wasn’t just to annoy him but, provide an opportunity to be around someone he needed, who might test him.

  If it was Bethany Anne’s idea to help him work on his patience, Michael didn’t agree with her methods.

  Once Giannini was out of the coffee shop, Tabatha asked in a soft voice, “How was that? Did you get what you needed?”

  Michael nodded, “Yes I did. She’s your everyday run-of-the-mill reporter trying to get a big story to make her career. Like all big stories, if she’s not careful, this one could bury her.”

  Tabatha leaned forward across the table a little, “You’re not serious are you? You don’t mean like, bury her, bury her, right?”

  “Tabatha, what other type of bury her is there?” Michael returned her glare, his face blank.

  “Well, you could use it to mean ‘overwhelm her’. Like she’s not prepared to handle such a large story. Shit, Michael. Why is everything death with you?”

  “Tabatha, if you had been alive as long as I have, you would have seen enough death to where even the most heinous acts wouldn’t affect you. This world owes us nothing, this world gives us nothing, but this world will take everything if you’re not careful. Why would you get upset with me because I merely pointed out that she is working a type of story that people get killed for? Were you not on an operation in Miami, where you could have been killed?”

  Tabatha’s mouth tightened, “I wasn’t on that operation because I chose to be on the operation. I was on that operation because I was forced to be a part of the operation by your son Anton. Changing him, might I remind you, was a douche move.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest.

  Michael smiled, “So shall we discuss Kensington now? Let me understand the story. Then we shall decide whether or not you were in Miami strictly because of Anton, and having nothing to do with your own decisions.”

  Tabatha tightened her arms together and stared out the front glass, keeping her own thoughts for a minute. “Kensington fell into my lap, I thought. I was on the dark web in a
chat room and had been approached by the company seeking firewall protection testing services. It was good money, and seemed like a legit operation. I should’ve known better.” She stopped staring out the window and looked over at Michael, “I mean, who ever goes on the dark web looking for testing services that’s legitimate?”

  Michael shrugged his shoulders, he wasn’t exactly sure what she was talking about. Oh, he understood enough from his conversations with Carl between the World Wide Web everyone talks about, and the dark web, or the websites where you get there by IP addresses. However, he had no idea how to accomplish it.

  She continued, “I was getting a little desperate to make my own money, enough to get myself a place to stay. I had been jumping from friend’s place to friend’s place, sleeping on couches and floors. Just the night before, I had a roach crawl across my arm. I was freaked out a little bit, okay? You would be too if you had a roach staring at you when you opened your eyes.” She grumbled to herself, “well, maybe you wouldn’t.” She sat back in her chair straightening her back, “when I finished the job, I got notified that I had been in a honeypot trap. I could either help them with a few more jobs, or they were going to release my information to the police. I freaked out, made some bad decisions, got myself into it worse and worse. By the end, they had been promising the Miami job was the last job we had to do. Ben and I talked about it later, we both feel they would’ve killed us and their promise would’ve been true – it would’ve been our last job.”

  Michael sat with his elbows on the table, resting his chin on his hand. “So how do you feel about this job?”

  Tabatha wanted to be upset with Michael. He was the person who made Anton live long enough to be such a huge problem in her life. Exhaling loudly, she considered her story. If she had rejected the original Kensington offer, she would never have ended up in Miami. How did she feel about this job? “Cautiously optimistic. Bethany Anne has shared enough with me that I realize that her team is the good side. The fact that she got rid of Anton is a big plus in my column.” With Michael staring at her so intently, she became aware, again, of just how good-looking this man was. She bit her lip between her teeth and considering testing whether or not he was eavesdropping in her mind. She deciding that, maybe, right now was not the time to test the tiger.

  “Consider that Nathan got us new names, new identities and in a place that provided a great job in Texas. Due to that, I was already predisposed to like Bethany Anne. I saw enough in Miami that I know what she is capable of. That is one scary lady when she wants to be.”

  “Tabatha, we are the good side. Unfortunately, the bad side is still pretty powerful. There will be a lot of challenges in our way to accomplishing our final goals. Success is never black or white, there are always shades of gray. We can use you, because you have skills that we need. How did you get those skills? I seriously doubt that you have kept a squeaky clean life while you acquired those skills. We would never have met you if you had not ended up in Miami. However, I desperately need someone of your skills to help me clean up this mess in South America. But I don’t want a slave in this position. If you want the opportunity to walk away, you need just to tell me and I will make it so. I will provide you enough money to see you through the next year of your life. In that time, you should be able to find a job anywhere in the Americas.”

  Tabatha was shocked, this was not how the conversation was supposed to go. True, she had some misgivings with this position, but there weren’t too many. Now, she felt the opportunity to work in this clandestine world slipping from her grasp. “Wait! You need me, right? I understood from Bethany Anne that you always had a technical liaison that helped you whenever you were awake. Why wouldn’t you want me?”

  Michael shrugged his shoulders and shook his head a little, “I never said I didn’t want you. What I said is, I didn’t want a person who didn’t want to be in this role. I’m not sure you chose the role, or you were chosen for the role without your permission. I just want to make sure that you really, really wish to do this. I don’t doubt that you have the skills, I am just doubting whether or not you have the passion to make a difference.”

  “If I have the skills why do I need the passion?” This time, she didn’t seem like she was arguing with Michael, so much as truly curious about what he meant.

  Michael answered, “Because you will find a time when your skills are not enough. You will need to feel a reason to dig deep, to accomplish what the team needs you to accomplish. Without passion you will not have the energy, or the drive necessary, to make this occur. I would rather not have a technical liaison, then to have to depend on a technical liaison that was not willing to give everything she had to make results happen.”

  Tabatha grumped, “It’s not like we’re trying to save the world here.”

  “Tabatha, that is exactly what we’re trying to do.”

  When Tabatha studied Michael’s eyes, she realized that he meant every word.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Key Biscayne, Fl - USA

  The ambience from the candles around the bar faded away as Patricia was floored with Lance’s question.

  She repeated it out loud, just softly so she could hear herself say the words. “Would I drink Bethany Anne’s blood?”

  Lance answered her question anyway, “Yes, that is the question I asked. Do you believe you could do that? Obviously you get the physical benefits.” He waved up and down his own body with his left hand. “But it comes with the responsibility as well. Bethany Anne only does this for those who are with her until the end. However long that takes.”

  That could be a very long time indeed, Patricia thought. Patricia had to be honest, not only with herself but also for Bethany Anne’s sake and Lance’s. She wouldn’t be able to lie about her feelings. “Lance, I’m not sure my feelings on saving the world would be adequate for your daughter. However, I promise that until forever occurs, I will follow you. And I vow, if something should happen to you, I will transfer that promise to your daughter. I will make this promise whether or not Bethany Anne decides to increase my longevity. But know this, Mr. Man, your ass is mine whether I ‘drink’ or not!” She reached over with her right hand and grabbed Lance by his shirt collar, gently pulling him toward her waiting kiss.

  The Queen Bitch’s Ship Ad Aeternitatem, Mediterranean

  Darrell went searching the ship for Gabrielle, finding her above deck at the stern, watching the water churn behind the big vessel.

  Gabriel spoke to Darrell before he had a chance to open his mouth, “I realize that you guys have no idea how beautiful the simple things in life can be. When you haven’t seen the sun, for as long as I have been alive, the daytime has its own special meaning for you.”

  Darrell closed his mouth, considering her comment. He hadn’t really considered what life would be like if he had been unable to be out in the sun. Hopefully, his request of Gabriele wouldn’t send him down that path. “Hey boss, Scott and I have a question for you and I got voted to speak to you.”

  Gabriele turned from watching the water and smiled up at the bigger man, “I don’t date team members.” Her smile let Darrell know she was completely kidding.

  “No concerns about that, Gabrielle, your European and I have a strict no hairy armpits rule.” Darrell’s smile started to lesson as the silence drew out. He watched Gabrielle face as it scrunched down in concentration. “Just a joke, boss? You know, one of the team giving grief to another team member?”

  Gabrielle smiled, “Darrell, I have been through enough ages of fashion to realize that whether you shave, or don’t shave, it will change next season. I personally shave because it’s more comfortable for me. But it’s not the end of my world if I don’t shave. I was just trying to figure out how many times that women shaving their under arms has changed in my lifetime. Then I realized that if I provided that information Bethany Anne would learn of it and be trying to figure out how old I am. Did you really want to know such personal things about me right now?”


  Darrell walked to the rail and put his arms, folded, on it. “No, I don’t. Scott and I have been talking and want to understand your feelings about us becoming more vampy.”