Under My Heel

by Michael Anderle

  Bobcat was watching everyone around the helicopter while speaking with Marcus. “One sec, doc.” He opened his door and called out to the main crew leader, “Make sure the weight is distributed evenly! Yes, use the leather seats, I think I’d rather risk a torn seat than one of these tipping over. Huh? Of course I believe the scientist, but my momma’s boy is still here because he always added a second layer of protection. Sure, use the seatbelts but hurry the fuck up, it’s getting dark soon!”

  Bobcat turned back to Marcus, “What was amazing? Did you lose your virginity in TOM’s ship?”

  Marcus sniffed, “No need to be crass.” Then he smiled, “Hell yes! I’ve been able to watch technology from another galaxy, Bobcat. I don’t know how it works, yet, but I hypothesis TOM’s ship works on the same principle that Bethany Anne uses to move through the Etheric. Somehow, the pilot aims in a direction and then calculates the distance it needs to travel. From there the ship pulls in enough energy to ‘step’ from one location to another. Whatever actual momentum it possessed when it stepped, it has when it arrives. I spoke to TOM. They would always stop before making ‘the step’.”

  Bobcat mused, “Makes sense, if you don’t know exactly where you are going, you wouldn’t want to end up in an asteroid field and be running right towards one.”

  Marcus started explaining, “Well, if you are in an asteroid field, most likely they are moving as well, so you would have to immediately concern yourself with the asteroids hitting you…” Marcus stopped when he finally noticed Bobcat’s hand.

  “I got the idea, now isn’t the time for a lesson in astro-navigation, doc.”

  Marcus took a moment to try and calm himself but, he thought, it was damn difficult. He had engineered, with an alien, anti-gravity devices that were about to be used.

  Yes, he considered, they were his babies and he was a proud, proud papa.

  Moments later the helicopter doors slammed shut and with one look around to see if he noticed anyone in the wrong place, Bobcat gently lifted off the Ad Aeternitatem, turned and headed back towards land.

  Marcus’s stomach felt a little funny with the takeoff, as gentle as Bobcat was claiming it was, and was wishing he was forty years younger.

  The Queen Bitch’s Ship Ad Aeternitatem

  Frank Kurns was busy pulling as much information as he possibly could. He had Ben, who was in the other office, trying to see if he could get any COMINT from cell towers in the area. Their team had gone dark.

  Everything had been fine, the team landing went well. He even had a request to see where the team could offload a bunch of children safely out of the area.

  Then it all went to hell.

  He reached over and hit the intercom, “This is Dan.” Came from his speaker.

  “Dan, I can’t get anyone. Ben is trying to piece together COMINT if the other side is using Cellphones.”

  Frank could hear Dan’s sigh, “Yeah. Good idea but doubtful. I’m told most of the fighters are smart to that now.”

  “Could be, you never know. Unless you say otherwise, I’m going to reach out to Bethany Anne.”

  “Why are you going to reach out to me?” Bethany Anne was right behind him, startling Frank.

  He turned back to the intercom, “I’ve got Bethany Anne scaring the shit out of me in here. You want to meet in the conference room?”

  Dan agreed and shut off the connection.

  Frank picked up his laptop and started towards the door, “I take it you know something is up?”

  Bethany Anne followed, “No, we just got back. I’m looking for an update. What’s going on?”

  Frank briefed Bethany Anne on the way to the conference room.

  The three took seats, Bethany Anne started, “So, David has sprung a trap. They can’t get out without the children until tomorrow. We don’t have anything that can grab the children and we have to keep live bait in the town or the Nosferatu are going to leave. Does that about sum up the issues?”

  Frank considered her summation and added. “Well, the fact that we can’t talk to them to confirm anything and that they had requested a location to ferry the children using Shelly. That about sums it up.”

  She asked both men, “Do we have a place to put the children?”

  Dan looked to Frank who answered, “Not yet. I’ve reached out to the new lead on this operation, damn strange that, and I’ve been told they are looking into it.”

  Dan raised an eyebrow, “What is damn strange?”

  Frank replied, “We have a new lead. Someone who is a little up the chain. Usually, we don’t get people butting their noses into something like this. Either way, our request for air support has been denied. They either don’t have the resources, this isn’t a priority, or …”

  Bethany Anne answered, “Or David has his hooks into someone, right?”

  Frank just nodded.

  Bethany Anne sat back in her chair. No one had expected this to be easy, but after the South American operations had gone pretty flawlessly, maybe they were suffering from a little too much hubris.

  “Put a reminder in, to track that question down. If someone was paid to mess with us, I want to know. No one messes with my people without paying a price.” She considered what might be next, “Dan, what is the status on Team BMW?”

  Dan looked at the clock on the wall, “They should be back with the IZTA’s and loaded within the next four hours.”

  “So, darkness will have hit?”

  Dan nodded.

  Frank’s phone went off, he looked down. “It is the satellite phone.” Frank picked up the phone and hit the accept button, “Hello? Hold on for second, I’ve got Dan and Bethany Anne in here, I will put you on speakerphone.”

  Frank changed his phone settings to speakerphone “Stephen? You got everybody.”

  “I have to be quick, David set up this trap very well. We’ve lost Shelly due to shoulder fired rocket. Chris is hurt, but should survive. We have 26 children with us, and no way to communicate once I go back into the valley. You can bet we are going to get hit hard tonight. Do we have any response for air support?

  Dan replied, “We have a response, but you’re not going like it. The military says no way. We think it might be due to David’s influence with someone up the chain of command.”

  A long string of a foreign language came from Stephen, “I swear on all that is holy if I get a chance I’m ripping that asses head clean off his body.”

  Bethany Anne chimed in, “you will have to get in line behind Michael and myself.”

  Stephen came back, frustrated. “Fuck it, we can almost kill him and then give him some blood to heal, right?”

  Bethany Anne smiled, Stephen was definitely riled up. “You have to hold tight as long as you can, we have the ships that should be able to get us there sometime by…” she looked over at Dan.

  “Ten o’clock at night?” Dan got out his cell phone and started dialing.

  Bethany Anne was frustrated, without knowing where she was going to go, she couldn’t take her team there through the etheric.

  TOM, can we call the ship back down and use it?

  TOM calculated where the ship was at this moment. I’ll start it back down here. Not sure if it will arrive in time.

  Dan placed his phone on the table, “Bobcat, tell everyone what you just told me.”

  Bobcats voice came from the little tinny speakerphone. “We have the engines on the floor with the IZTA’s. It won’t take us but maybe twenty minutes to load them up. The problem is going to be light. It won’t get dark for another hour and it will look really strange with ten big black metal boxes suddenly flying through the air.”

  Bethany Anne spoke up, “How fast can I have some of them here?” She could hear Bobcat turn around and ask Marcus the question.”

  You could just ask me, you know.

  Right, sorry, what is the answer?

  With everything going correctly, 12 minutes.

  What could go wrong?

  They don’t wo
rk, they explode, we have to deal with bad or shoddy workmanship. I could go on.

  You’re not making me feel very good about the quality of these engines.

  The engines are fine, you merely asked for a list of items that could go wrong, not what I expected to go wrong.

  Fine, what do you expect to go wrong?

  Nothing, in fact we should be able to lift them off as soon as we hit dusk. We won’t be able to fly as quickly, but the engines can warp light around them to somewhat hide themselves.

  Like what your ship does?

  Not even close, but they should be traveling so fast no one would be able to see them unless they were looking directly at them.

  Good enough for me.

  “Guys, never mind asking Marcus. TOM tells me that they should be here in approximately 12 minutes. However, we are going to take them out as soon as it’s dusk.”

  Dan spoke up, “how many did you say you had going?”

  Bobcat answered, “Ten.”

  Stephen spoke up, “Did you say ten? I thought I had ordered eight.”

  Bobcat responded, “Was that Stephen? Tell him it’s for the Calvary.”

  Stephen came back on, “I’ve got to go, I’m pushing it as far as I can. We will see you, when we see you, but sooner would be better than later.” He disconnected the call.

  Bethany Anne considered the situation. “We bring the ships here, we load everything we need, we go there. We kill maim and destroy as best we can. We load kids up and take them, where?” She looked at the two men.

  Dan shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t think we have a choice, we will have to bring them to the Polarus. We will have ten of these ships, I’m sure we can stick three children into a space where two adults are supposed to be able to fit.” He scratched his forehead, “However, our team will not be able to leave the area right away.”

  Bethany Anne looked confused, “Why not? Once we beat everyone, and have the children safe, what else is holding us?”

  Frank answered for Dan, “Because if I was a devious bastard, I would have another round ready to go.”

  Bethany Anne muttered, “I’m considering beating Michael to the punch, David is a devious bastard. I think I’m going to support Stephen’s idea of almost killing him, only to have him regenerate so we can almost kill him again.”

  Frank raised an eyebrow, “Stephen isn’t usually this blood thirsty, is he?”

  Bethany Anne responded, “He is when he is being attacked, he was quite bloodthirsty back at his house with David’s goons. That man can become quite an artist for causing a vampire pain when properly motivated.”

  There was a rap on the door, causing the three of them to look up. It was Gabrielle. “Are we going back to the other ship, or have plans changed?”

  Bethany Anne waved her over and pointed at the seat next to her, “Take a seat, plans have changed. Let the guys know they need to suit up.”

  She called out to the phone, “Bobcat?

  “Yes, Bethany Anne.”

  “Make sure you have those devices outside., Hopefully in a place where they won’t be stolen.”

  Bobcat laughed, “This place is a ghost town. Whatever Stephen told them, no one wants to be found here right now. You could take a cool million dollars, set it outside and it would be here in the morning. Once William finishes with the engines we will set the craft outside. Give us a three-minute delay, to make sure we are cinched in, before you take us.”

  Bethany Anne confirmed TOM knew what to do.

  “Understood, be ready to fly as soon as possible.” Bethany Anne said. Bobcat said his good-byes and hung up.

  Frank looked at the three of them, “Did anyone tell Bobcat that Shelly was lost?”

  “Damn,” Gabrielle muttered, “Bobcat is going to be pissed.”

  Bethany Anne turned to Gabrielle, “What is the status on the team?”

  Gabrielle answered, “they are all suiting up, will have their weapons and their backup weapons. They’re also taking more ammo for everything we have plus some extra for what the first team took. Along with extra bandages and first aid equipment. Did we forget anything?”

  Dan answered, “Yes, you should have equipment and protection for Bobcat, William, and myself.”

  Bethany Anne, surprised, looked over at the head of her military. “You? How are we supposed to operate this if you are in the middle of it with us?”

  Dan shrugged, “What is there to operate? We’re going to go there, be out of radio contact, and shoot every fucking thing that’s not part of our team. Seems like a pretty straightforward op plan to me.”

  “You’re going to need a STIM shot.”

  Dan looked at her, a smile on his face, “I was hoping you would say that.”

  Bethany Anne turned to face Frank, and raised her eyebrow.

  Frank put his hands up in front of him, “Maybe later, but I don’t have the skills for something like this. I’m better here trying to track down the ass-hats that created this little party.”

  Bethany Anne stood up and looked around, “Frank, I need you to get in touch with Michael for me.” She paused a second then asked, “What are you sitting on your asses for? Let’s get ready to fuck up some Nosferatu!”

  The room quickly emptied, each leaving to head back to their respective areas. Bethany Anne stopped Dan, “Are you sure about this? There isn’t any going back.”

  Dan smiled at the beautiful woman, “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. Even if you hadn’t offered, there is no way I’m letting all of my people be in the middle of that cluster-fuck without one more gun in the mix.”

  Bethany Anne nodded her head, and started toward the door “Follow me then, this ride is just about to get a lot more interesting.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Small village in Turkey near Syrian Border

  Stephen was staring out at the town. The sun had just descended behind the hills. Those hills defined the west edge of the valley. Stephen had watched the shadows grow and they now covered the entire area. Nathan came up from behind him, “we have the children in the far back of the cave, with the caretakers. We’ve also moved all of the supplies further back, in case we have to fight inside the cave. Any other recommendations?”

  “Yes, we have more than enough weapons, can any of them shoot? Or, can you teach them how to shoot?”

  Nathan’s eyes roamed over the valley wall, “Do we really want civilians with automatic weapons shooting in our general direction?”

  “Perhaps, perhaps not. Make sure they realize who the good guys are. However, I don’t want them without any defensive weaponry if Nosferatu get past us.”

  Nathan turned and was able to get Chet’s attention. Once Chet got close enough Nathan told him, “Let’s check out the civilians on the weapons, if they know how to use them, great. If not, at least show them what to do in case it all goes to hell.” Chet nodded and started jogging back into the cave.

  Stephen spoke out over his shoulder, “Have we checked out the back of the cave? The chokepoint is here, if we need to we will brace ourselves around the door.”