WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12)
Page 1
CONTENTS
Dedication
Legal
Social Links
Series List
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Authors Notes
The Kurtherian Gambit Store
The Dark Messiah
DEDICATION
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
To Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
To Live The Life We Are
Called.
WE HAVE CONTACT
The Kurtherian Gambit 12 Team
Beta Editor / Readers
Bree Buras (Aussie Awesomeness)
Tom Dickerson (The man)
Sf Forbes (oh yeah!)
Dorene Johnson (DD)
Dorothy Lloyd (Teach you to ask…Teacher!)
T S (Scott) Paul (Author)
Diane Velasquez (DD)
JIT Beta Readers
Brent Bakken
Timothy Cox
Heath Felps
Andrew Haynes
Kelli Orr
Gage Ostrander
Leo Roars
Hari Rothsteni
Björn Schmidt
If I missed anyone, please let me know!
Editors
Stephen Russell
Kat Lind
Thank you to the following Special Consultants
for WE HAVE CONTACT
Jeff Morris - Asst Professor Cyber-Warfare, Nuclear Munitions (Thank God!)
Stephen Russell - Ideas & Suggestions
We Have Contact (this book) is a work of fiction.
All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright (c) 2016 Michael T. Anderle
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
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Michael Anderle - August 31, 2016.
Series Titles Include:
Death Becomes Her
The Kurtherian Gambit 01
Queen Bitch
The Kurtherian Gambit 02
Love Lost
The Kurtherian Gambit 03
Bite This
The Kurtherian Gambit 04
Never Forsaken
The Kurtherian Gambit 05
Under My Heel
The Kurtherian Gambit 06
Kneel Or Die
The Kurtherian Gambit 07
We Will Build
The Kurtherian Gambit 08
It’s Hell To Choose
The Kurtherian Gambit 09
Release The Dogs Of War
The Kurtherian Gambit 10
Sued For Peace
The Kurtherian Gambit 11
We Have Contact
The Kurtherian Gambit 12
FUTURE
(21 books planned)
My Rides A Bitch
The Kurtherian Gambit 13
Don’t Cross This Line
The Kurtherian Gambit 14
**Future Series**
The Dark Messiah - Michael’s Return
The Second Dark Ages 01
Winter 2016/2017
SHORT STORIES
Frank Kurns Stories of the Unknownworld 01
You Don’t Mess with John’s Cousin
(read before TKG08)
Frank Kurns Stories of the Unknownworld 02
Bitch’s Night Out
(read before TKG10)
The Boris Chronicles
With Paul C. Middleton
Evacuation (Out)
Retaliation (Out)
Revelation Oct 2016
Restitution TBD
Anthologies
Glimpse
Honor in Death
(Michael’s First Few Days)
See on Amazon: http://kurtherianbooks.com/Glimpse_Amazon_US
Beyond the Stars: At Galaxy's Edge
Tabitha’s Vacation
See on Amazon: http://kurtherianbooks.com/Beyond_Stars_Amazon_US
PLA Headquarters
The Chairman of the Chinese Government looked to his two Generals and nodded before sitting down at the long table. The meeting room was secured from all listening devices. It was utilitarian, consisting of a table, ten chairs and a small cupboard for refreshments. The three men opened their notebooks to go over the findings from the last three weeks. The main subject, their efforts after recent, as they chose to call it, ‘disagreement,’ with TQB Enterprises.
General Tsang, responsible for the multiple teams reviewing the destruction and deaths across their country, started the meeting. “The damage in the Kunlun Shan Mountains is impressive. Our scientists have calculated the obliteration was truly from kinetic strikes. The video that our camera person took correlated to the inspected damage. But, at this time, the scientists are still arguing about how the objects could have been accelerated to the speeds necessary to accomplish the destruction.” The General took a sip of his tea. “Suffice to say, we cannot duplicate the effect.”
General Li, responsible for the forensics related to the digital attacks, snorted at General Tsang’s last comment and received a dark look from the Chairman. All three men were more relaxed in this setting than they would have been in a more formal meeting.
General Tsang continued, “The scientists do believe that the same type of weapon was used on our covert ops base to smash open the door. Considering the power displayed at Kunlun Shan, there is no engineering effort we can accomplish to produce viable protection at this time.”
“When,” the Chairman interrupted, “is the expected time that we can defend against this kinetic weapon?”
Tsang shrugged his shoulders, “When we figure out their anti-gravity abilities. It is postulated we will have the capacity to build a repelling field then that will at least considerably minimize the damage.”
“So,” the Chairman continued, “there is no place which is truly safe from their attacks?” Tsang shook his head, as the Chairman asked further, “When the Avatar was displayed in our bunker, they could have demolished us at that time?”
“Yes,” Tsang admitted, “that th
ey did not was a strategic decision, not due to a limitation of their ability should they have decided to hit us.”
The Chairman reached up to his face and took off a pair of reading glasses. He needed these now when reviewing paperwork, which frequently annoyed him. Scratching his nose before replacing the glasses, he thought for a moment and continued to probe for information, “Ok, Li, what else?”
The other General continued, “The covert ops base had no survivors. The men, all of them, fought. We have blood samples from many of the battles, and we have some highly suspect forensics,” he added after a pause, “highly suspect.”
“For example?” the Chairman inquired.
“We have hair from at least two types of wolves, perhaps three. We have structural damage on doors inside the base that seem to be organic in nature. These ravages had occurred before a massive retaliatory gun strike from our men peppered the door with gunfire in response. Our men are trained to think rationally in any situation, and it is evident that is exactly what didn’t happen in multiple cases. We have men shot, stabbed, necks bitten out by animals, and bodies ripped apart by something massively strong. We have a couple of places where there appear to be nail scratches from something that must have weighed hundreds of pounds and stood a minimum of seven feet tall, I’m told.”
“Are you suggesting,” the Chairman asked, his voice neutral, “That we have been attacked by monsters?”
Li shrugged his shoulders, “That is what the evidence at the base suggests. Something was able to negate the men’s training. The psychologists suggest that if they were subjected to something very primal, it could work at an instinctive level. This could cause them to only react, instead of responding the way they had been trained.”
Li paused to allow time for any questions. When none were raised, he continued, “Further, when our group investigated the escape of General Sun, we found additional hair evidence at both the location of his abduction and later inside the discarded plane.”
“Why would TQB want General Sun?” the Chairman asked, confused.
“Sir, I apologize for not being clear,” Li responded, “We do not believe TQB was involved with General Sun.” The General looked across the table to his counterpart in the investigations and to the Chairman before continuing.
He cleared his throat and replied, “Sir, we have two groups.”
CHAPTER ONE
QBS ArchAngel - Beyond the Moon
Nathan and Ecaterina were packing up a bag for little Christina. It was their first evening to spend some time alone, and Aunt Bethany Anne had offered to watch the little one.
Nathan wasn’t sure that even Bethany Anne’s offer to watch their first child for an evening would be acceptable to his wife. But, when Ecaterina looked over to Nathan to see what he thought of the offer she could tell he was doing his best to remain neutral. Well, as neutral as possible to not make her feel bad if she decided to not accept the offer.
Ecaterina knew her husband well enough to realize he wanted some time with her without interruptions, if at all possible. So she had agreed that it would be nice to have a few hours alone with her husband.
Now, Nathan looked around their suite on the ArchAngel. They had two rooms at the moment, and both were filled with baby stuff. In two days, Bobcat promised him a storage container would arrive from the moon. He would be provided ten linear feet of storage to move little Christina’s unneeded gifts out of here and into the holding space.
If Ecaterina had her way, at least a quarter of it was going to Bethany Anne’s suite tonight. “Sweetheart,” he spoke, catching Ecaterina holding two different toys, “I don’t think we need to provide everything in one pass.”
Ecaterina looked over to him and lifted her left hand which was holding a squishy duck, something that Christina liked to hear at times. “But, if she doesn’t have the right toy, she might cry too long.”
Nathan stepped over to his wife, and wrapped his arms around her, “Don’t you think that Bethany Anne might be able to figure out a way to come get a toy if she feels something is needed? We are going to be gone, there isn’t a reason she can’t come into the room and fetch another set of toys, or hell, she will probably just tell someone to come get them.”
Ecaterina placed her forehead against Nathan’s chest, “I’m freaking out, aren’t I?”
Nathan gently swept his hand down her back, saying nothing.
She sighed loudly and poked him in the chest and looked up into his eyes, “You are too quiet. How bad is it?”
Nathan wasn’t getting out of this one. He pursed his lips and considered his response, “On a scale of one to ten, with ten being an ultimate freak-out, you are a six.”
Ecaterina weighed what he had just told her. Trying to figure out how he was squirming his way out of telling her the total, horrible truth. She pressed her lips together, realizing that she couldn’t figure it out. Either she was only freaking out a little past the middle, or he had just figured out a way to hide the truth from her due to English not being her first language.
She smiled, either way she looked at it she needed to relax. She put her ear back on his chest and wrapped her arms around him, “She’s beautiful, Nathan. Sometimes, when it’s just Christina and me, I tell her how I met you in a bar and how her uncle robbed you blind.”
Nathan scoffed, “What? Ivan didn’t rob me blind."
“Ivan most certainly did rob you blind!” she snickered, “for a trip into the mountains, it was very expensive,” she snuggled a little closer.
“Oh, but you misunderstood what I was buying,” he replied.
“What?” she asked. He could feel her move her head so she could look up at him and could picture the question in her eyes.
“You misunderstood what I was buying. You see, I was buying the chance to have you alone on the mountain. That way, there would be no other competition for your attention. So, from my vantage point, it was a bargain.” He grinned, happy that he had gained the upper hand.
Nathan could almost hear her brain work the words around, deciding how she would translate that back into her language. He sure hoped there weren’t translation issues. Once or twice, when he forgot her language, he would screw up, and it was hell to pay for a little while as he tried to get her to understand the English-Romanian translation issues.
She finally spoke, “So, you are saying you paid for my time, and it was worth much money?”
Nathan just held her close and mumbled, "Mmmhhhmm."
“So, I was like a, what do you call it in America, a call girl?”
Oh…Shit! Nathan’s eyes opened and darted around, trying to come up with some idea, ANY idea to stop her line of questioning. “Sweetheart, that is not what I was thinking, and you are well aware of it.” Nathan had no defense but to push back.
“Then what is the meaning of an ultimate freak out?” she asked him.
Befuddled on the sudden change in subject, Nathan answered quickly, “An ultimate freakout is the absolute worst example of something that you can think of. Like, take one of the bad examples of those monster bride reality tv shows you watch and then triple that reaction.”
“So, it is like a logarithmic scale, not a linear scale?” she asked him, still with a slight edge in her voice.
“Huh?” Nathan was confused even more as his mind went wandering off in an attempt to figure out who was teaching Ecaterina about logarithmic and linear scale, and answered, “Yes, logarithmic, why?”
She took a step back and then punched him in the stomach. Nathan barely had time to clench his muscles before her fist slammed home, “Because that means a six is not so good!” She told him, triumph in her voice for figuring out how he was dodging her earlier question.