“What about air support?” Abdullah asked.
“We brought in all of the SAM’s you gave us,” Paula told him, “How you disperse them around the area is up to you.”
“No, is there any additional technology you can provide in that area?” Abdullah asked.
Yes, she thought, but no fucking way were you getting it. We’ve had our asses handed us by doing that before.
She shook her head, “No. Nothing we can do without risking the whole operation. The energy needs are pretty substantial and it wouldn’t take too much of a sweep to find them at the moment. Our efforts tend to be aiming at spaceships, not little ships zipping around the city.”
“Too bad. You know TQB will have backup, yes?”
“That’s why the SAM’s are here. We outfitted a few with enhanced seek and destroy abilities. Otherwise, the chance of those things hitting TQB ships are about zero.”
Abdullah flipped his hand over and back, twice, “It is in the Prophet’s hands at that point. We are but to stand there and aim, then click the buttons under while bullets seek our lives. If he chooses it to hit the enemy’s ships, they will hit the enemies ships.”
He pulled the coffee up to his lips, “Of course, if the missiles have better tracking solutions before we fire the missile? Well, that is just advanced preperation on the Prophets part, I believe.”
A small curve graced Abdullah’s lips as he took a sip of his coffee.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Geneva, Switzerland
Anny Elizabeth slid her feet into the new high heels she purchased expressly for this evening. It had been over three years that she had been working for Bethany Anne’s company and she had two promotions so far.
One of them had been into the negotiations group.
It had been a surprise to Anna to find out that Bethany Anne no longer owned the parent company. When she first found out, she was concerned and went to go speak with Amanda in HR to find out what was going to happen.
For a moment, Amanda had looked at her with a blank expression.
“Blackballed,” Anna reminded her, pointing to herself, “remember?”
“Oh!” Amanda responded, “That was taken down when we hired you, didn’t you know?” Anna didn’t. “Oh yes,” Amanda confirmed, but pulled up the necessary screen to look again, “For us to hire you, and for it not to be a problem your name has to come off the list. So, when the bosses bosses…”
“Bethany Anne,” Anna supplied.
“Yes,” Amanda pushed up her glasses to peer at her computer, “When she had me hire you, I’m sure she spoke with whomever had put your name on the list and convinced them to take it off.”
Anna winced internally. Whoever had blackballed her was screwed if they didn’t remove her name. Bethany Anne, she was aware, took care of her people.
Tonight, however, Anna Elizabeth had a chance to pay back Bethany Anne and ask her if the option to immigrate with her people was still open.
She slipped on the second shoe and stood up to look in the mirror. She turned around and looked over her shoulder.
Yes, the dress looked very good.
She stepped over to the closet and grabbed a coat. While it was in the low fifties fahrenheit during the days, it approached freezing at night and there was a chance of rain.
She had just snagged her purse from the bar when her doorbell rang. She walked over and looked through the peephole.
Holy Crap! She barely saw his chin but she new who was on the other side of the door. Opening it, she smiled to one of the men she admired.
“Good evening, my name is…” he started to say, but she interrupted.
“John Grimes!” Anna said in a rush. Looking up into his eyes she said, “My god, you are so much bigger in person.” Then, her hand clapped on her mouth, her eyes wide, her voice came out muffled, “I’m so sorry, that was so rude of me.”
John smiled, but shrugged, “I’m American, we are good with compliments such as that.” John stepped aside as Anna stepped out of her apartment and turned to lock the door. “Besides,” he added, “Jean isn’t here to take offense on my behalf.”
A moment later, Anna said, “I blame the calendar,” as the two walked down the hallway to meet up with Bethany Anne, John’s chuckling lingering in the air as they turned the corner.
—
Bethany Anne’s foot tapped on the floor. They were in one of the new, posh Executive Pods. With seats for ten, it didn’t lack for comfort.
What it did lack was the ability to just make the whole night go away. These stupid meetings went no where. The sycophantic suck-ups wanted stuff she wouldn’t part with. Sometimes, she was just too nice to friends.
>>John is signaling, we are going back down.<<
Good.
She had tried to speak with the two Guardians up front, but apparently Peter had been telling stories and she couldn’t get them to yank the sticks out of their asses and chill a little and talk with her.
She was going to have to find that little toadstool and see what lies he had been concocting lately.
Seconds later, the door on the side of the Exec-Pod cracked open and Anna Elizabeth stood there transfixed. Her eyes alight with the delight of the Pod coming out of the sky, Bethany Anne was sure.
“Well, come on in, it isn’t very warm out there!” Bethany Anne told her.
“Oh!” Anna accepted John’s help getting up into the Pod. The Pod stayed a foot off of the ground. “Sorry, it’s just so weird seeing this big ship come out of the sky like this without any sound. It’s hard to see even when John pointed it out as you guys arrived.”
John got in and shut the doors.
“That’s by design,” Bethany Anne admitted, “but, let’s not talk about this stuff. Let’s talk about you!”
“Me?” Anna asked, “But, I’m kind of boring.”
“Says the cute young woman in her … oh my GOD those are beautiful!” Bethany Anne exclaimed as she looked at Anna’s shoes, “Manolo Blahniks?”
Anna turned her foot sideways, “YES!” She practically squealed. “I got this last weekend, do you like them?”
“If I didn’t like you so much, I might have had to mug you for those.” Bethany Anne looked up at Anna, “What is your shoe size?”
Anna looked back “Five and a half, why?”
“Bethany Anne,” John snickered, “Is thinking of acquiring them.”
“You want them?” Anna asked, confused.
“John, don’t be an ass,” she told him and then turned to Anna, “I’m like any woman, I see a pair of shoes that are beautiful…”
Anna laughed, “I never thought you had a shoe fetish.”
“Oh, it might be a well keep secret,” John said, “but Bethany Anne and Imelda Marcos have a few things in common.”
“Ok,” Bethany Anne turned to John and told him, “You mention me and Imelda Marcos together one more time, Mr. Grimes, and I’ll make you pay next time we are on in practice together.”
“Boss, be reasonable,” John argued, “You have complete shipping containers of shoes you haven’t opened yet. The last three years of whole lines from over, what, seventy designers?”
“You have shipping containers of shoes?” Anna asked.
“Well, it’s not like that,” Bethany Anne started, then stopped herself. “You know? It’s exactly like that.” She flung a hand out towards the windows, “How am I supposed to know how long this is going to take to save this place? I need to know that I always have a new pair of shoes in case the latest meeting went bad. It helps my mental disposition,” she finished.
“Shipping containers, I heard that right, yes?” Anna asked again.
“Over five,” John clarified, “Only two pairs of each type in her size,” he grinned and winked at his boss.
“Hey!” Bethany Anne retorted, “I’m not the only one. Gabrielle has two containers herself and let’s not discuss how many containers of guns and shit you and the other guys are bringing along. Es
pecially when your own woman has made half that shit you bought useless.”
“Whoa!” John put up his hands, “Don’t be dissing the firepower. It is a therapeutic release to feel the guns kick and the smell of gunpowder after you shoot.”
“Yeah,” Bethany Anne sat back in her seat further, crossing her arms across her chest, “So is the smell of the leather, the curve of the front of the shoe and the height of the heels.”
Anna, looking back and forth between the two of them as they spoke tried one last time.
“These are the ocean going shipping containers? Those are the ones you have?”
John looked over at Anna, his hands opened showing his ten fingers splayed out and mouthed, silently, “Tens of Thousands of pairs!”
Bethany Anne, looking out the window lifted her hand and flipped John off to the laughter of everyone in the Pod.
You better pray to Saint Payback-is-a-Bitch. She thought to herself. Because your time is coming.
—
The ex-President and his security, David, waited in the dark, next to the limousine near their plane. The ex-President was looking up into the night sky, “You ever looked up into the sky, knowing there were aliens out there, going about their business day to day just like you?”
David, keeping a watch around the area answered, “Not too much, sir. I have to admit it is a weird feeling knowing and meeting the Yollins up on the ArchAngel.”
“Yes, the Yollins. It helps, a little, to know they also fear the Kurtherians.” He looked over at David, “At least TQB is not fighting figments of their imaginations.”
David shrugged, “Not always sure I agree with their methodology, sir. Those decisions are above my pay grade.”
“I get it, David,” he answered and looked back up to the sky himself. He might be out of office, but one doesn’t just leave behind the feeling of responsibility as easy as taking off a coat.
David reached up to his ear, “We have incoming.”
“Where?”
David turned and pointed to the South, “That direction. TQB informed me and traffic control who happens to be bitching they can’t see them.”
Soon, there was the tiniest amount of thrumm one felt, but couldn’t hear and the TQB Executive Pod came swooping in, doing a tight circle before coming to rest near the limousine. David watched as the door opened and John Grimes stepped out and checked the area before he allowed Bethany Anne and finally one more woman out as well.
The doors closed, and the Pod lifted back off into the night sky and disappeared.
The President watched it go as the three walked up to him, “Where are they going?”
“Back up to the ArchAngel,” Bethany Anne told him, “Good to see you again.”
The ex-President turned and greeting her with a smile and a hug, “Thank you for this.”
“Yeah, you owe me,” she told him and they separated, “I’m dreading this like a trip to the dentist.”
“You don’t need to go to a dentist,” he told her as John opened the door to the limousine.
“Nor do I need to do this, either,” she retorted, “before we go, let me introduce Anna Elizabeth Hauser to you guys. She works in negotiations for her company and has worked for me in the past.”
The ex-President put out his hand, “Pleased to meet you, Ms. Hauser.” He shook her hand before waving the ladies into the car, “Ladies first.”
“Thank you,” Anna replied and ducked her head to enter the car. Bethany Anne went second.
He slid in next allowing the two security guards to get in last. David with them, John up front. The ex-President looked to Bethany Anne, “So, you really are going to give this a shot?”
“You mean because I dragged Anna along on this?” she asked him to his nod. “Yeah, I’m not going to waste my time on the infinitesimally small chance it would work without at least giving it the old college try.”
“Really, what college?” He asked and grinned at her. They all felt the car pull out.
“Damn, you people never quite, do you?” she asked him, chuckling, “Or is it the bounty?”
“Oh, the bounty of course,” he replied, “It’s what, up to fifteen million now?”
>>Twenty-two and a half million.<< ADAM supplied.
“It’s over twenty million, now,” she corrected him.
David whistled but didn’t say anything as he looked out the window.
“We can split the money,” he told her, “I mean, ten million just to whisper a name to me?” His smile grew wider, “Imagine the …”
“Bullshit that would happen to anyone who used to know me?” She looked at him, this time with a pretty frank expression, “I’ve had to move a person I knew from my past twice already before she finally decided to just take me up on my offer to immigrate.”
“That is true,” his smile faded away, “They would speak to anyone that knew you.”
“More than that,” she supplied, “Depending on the country, interrogate is the proper term.”
“Unfortunately, too true,” he agreed. “By the way, China wasn’t invited to this seeing how you still have frosty relations with them.”
“Those bastards are lucky I haven’t flattened their leadership and had a new set put in place.”
“There have been some wondering why that hasn’t occurred, yet.”
“Because the computer calculations on the potential social issues brought about by a decapitation of the Chinese Government isn’t worth the enjoyment I would derive from the effort.”
“So, sleeping at night wouldn’t bother you?” he asked.
Bethany Anne looked at him, “When you had to send men into battle on foreign soil, did you worry about the wives of those soldiers they killed?”
“Some, I’ll admit,” he shrugged, “but they chose to pick up arms against us.”
“Same thing,” she agreed, “Just because they don’t have a gun, their political efforts and what they allow in the name of their country is on the heads of the politicians. The buck, or yuan, stops there.”
He nodded his understanding.
—
The hotel was over three hundred years old. With the spires lit up against the night sky by decorative lighting and a golden angel statue at one corner, the hotel looked like a small, five story castle. The car was stopped at the gated entrance and then they were allowed entrance into the inner courtyard and stopped a few feet from the front doors. The back passenger side door was opened and David got out. John exited from the front seat beside the driver and then a knock occurred on the roof of the car.
The ex-President exited next and then Bethany Anne. Anna came out last and all three were swept inside quickly. Walking through the inside to a ballroom in the back of the hotel, Bethany Anne was surprised to see a very modern inside compared to the outside of the building.
They even had a bar with purple and green bar furniture. Not at all what she was expecting.
Soon, they passed through the more public area and their rush slowed to a more normal walk. Anna Elizabeth started cataloging who she saw, and who looked like they had the right intensity for the evening.
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