WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12)

by Michael Anderle

  “Oh,” he said, bending over slightly and speaking hoarsely around the pain from her punch, “that is where you were going with those questions.”

  Nathan tried not to smirk as he stayed bent over. All things considered, he had dodged the conversational bullet rather neatly until this last moment. Now, if he could just keep the smile off of his face when he stood back up, he would be golden.

  —

  It took twenty minutes for Ecaterina to give Bethany Anne all of the instructions for baby Christina. Bethany Anne was wearing sweats, a white top and red for the bottom and smiling at her friend. When Ecaterina handed Christina to Bethany Anne, the little girl cried for a second before cuddling in and going back to sleep.

  Ecaterina looked down at her daughter and then to Bethany Anne who raised her eyebrows, “What?” she asked the young mother.

  “Nothing, it’s just,” she looked down at her daughter again, “she hasn’t taken to very many people. She usually cries for a little while longer.”

  Bethany Anne shrugged, “Maybe she figures I was there when she born, so we have a connection?”

  Or, TOM said, you could admit you are using your ability to impress her with calming emotions?

  No TOM, shut up! This is funny as hell.

  How can this be funny? I get that it is a good thing that the baby isn’t crying, but why is that funny?

  Because first time Mom’s are always worried about their kids. They are hyper-worried and will use almost any excuse to cancel their first time away from their child. Plus, I’ve heard through the grapevine that Ecaterina secretly likes that Christina cries for her each time someone else holds her.

  But not you?

  Nope, no crying for Auntie Bethany Anne. The stories about how well she loves me will be epic!

  But, you are cheating.

  This is no different than a grandmother who knows how to hold a child from having done it so much with her own children.

  The grandmother is not cheating, she is using experience, right?

  The grandmother is using her skills, and so am I.

  Skills, you might admit, that are not so typical for anyone else.

  Wah! Wait for it... Bethany Anne said to him as she left the conversation.

  “Uh,” Ecaterina looked towards Nathan who smiled at her and then back to Bethany Anne and Christina. Continuing in a faltering voice, the young mother added, “She seems ok.”

  “Ecaterina, we will be fine,” Bethany Anne told her and rocked the little girl slightly in her arms, kissing the baby’s forehead. “You guys have a fantastic night, say ‘hi’ to Ivan for me and let him know that Gabrielle isn’t harboring any ill feelings.”

  “You, uh, know about that?” Ecaterina asked her as she tried to figure out if Christina was going to wake up or if she would continue sleeping. The nervous mother bent down to kiss her daughter in Bethany Anne’s arms, and looked back up in sudden concern, “No Coke in her bottle!”

  Bethany Anne smiled, “I know that can’t happen for a few years, I’m not clueless.”

  >>Besides, you always just ask me when you have questions.<<

  That’s because you are simpler than looking it up or asking someone around here. Unfortunately, I don’t have a mom to ask, and asking my dad would not be such a good idea. Patricia doesn’t have any children, so, toughen up ADAM and deal with it.

  Besides, she told her two mental compatriots, how hard can this be?

  —

  Tears were streaming down Bethany Anne’s face as she tried to hold her breathing to the absolute minimum, “How the hell do these things stink so bad!” she cried out, holding Christina’s two feet up in the air as she tried to slide the dirty diaper out from underneath her. “Oh, my god! TOM, PLEASE shut off my sense of smell.”

  I’m sorry, but you told me three weeks ago to reduce helping you out this way for four weeks. Four weeks isn’t up for another three days.

  “But I’m going to suffocate before three hours is up!” Bethany Anne complained as she pushed the dirty diaper to the side and used one hand to open the diaper wipes box. “Who the fuck designs this shit?”

  I’m pretty sure most people would say a higher entity.

  “Not her shit, I’m talking about these diapers and boxes and… Oh. My. God. She is peeing!” Bethany Anne switched into vampiric mode to toss the baby wipes into the air, reach over to grab a fresh diaper, and, as quickly as possible without moving her other arm, slide the new diaper into position to limit the liquid troubles Christina was causing. She undid the tape on the diaper and did a quick, if inexpert, job of locking the new diaper in place before reaching out and catching the box of wipes as it dropped back down.

  “Fuck me!” Bethany Anne said as she realized she needed to change her bedspread, now.

  That’s when she forgot about her breathing issues and inhaled deeply in exasperation.

  —

  Bethany Anne handed three diapers to her security detail to take out of her suite. Unfortunately, the residual smell was still affecting her vampiric-heightened senses. Normally, it wouldn’t be this bad, but Bethany Anne had never had to deal with changing a baby’s diaper since she had been modified in TOM’s spacecraft. Truthfully, she had only changed a handful of diapers since she turned eighteen. In one evening, she had almost doubled her diaper changing count.

  Christina was sleeping in the middle of Bethany Anne’s bed. Bethany Anne had already changed the cover and placed pillows around her in case she, somehow, rolled around. With Christina’s Were parents, Bethany Anne wasn’t going to take any chances on what could or couldn’t happen.

  Bethany Anne watched the little baby from the couch facing her bed and took the clothes pin she had found in one of Christina’s bags off of her nose.

  TOM, if you don’t cut me some slack with my sense of smell, I swear I’ll figure out a way to kick your ass.

  Bethany Anne, I’m already cheating and cutting your sense of smell by half.

  You’re fucking kidding me, right?

  No, I’m sorry, but your system’s reaction to the smell was affecting me, so I cheated.

  God, those diapers are radioactive. Bethany Anne whispered.

  TOM spoke back, in a quiet mental voice, They are hands down the worst things we have ever encountered.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Various locations around the World

  In some groups secrets, and the sharing of secrets, is the currency of inclusion. For the most relevant countries in the world, who you include in certain discussions says a lot about your friends and your potential enemies.

  This time was different. This time, the secret was kept within the group. No one dared leak out the information due to concerns about cataclysmic retaliation. No threat had been issued, but everyone knew it was a possibility. France, England, Germany, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Japan, Canada, Netherlands, Israel, India, and Italy all received a special envoy who represented the Secretary of State from the United States.

  The U.S. Envoy, Jimmy, came in and shared information. There was a requirement that the meeting be on his plane. Once the meeting was over, he left. No information shared was left behind, and at most, only three people were ever invited to be a part of the meeting.

  Always the head of state, the head of foreign relations, and often the genuine head of national security. Why anyone found it strange that the person behind the power was actually asked instead of the political figurehead humored Jimmy. The U.S. knew which person held the real power. It was surprising for those with whom Jimmy spoke that the selection was not made by the U.S., but rather by TQB Enterprises. Any reluctance by the nation to meet with Jimmy went away when that information was shared.

  China itself could not hide the massive destruction in the western part of their country because it was still causing problems for them, even in the mostly uninhabited areas. One story that surfaced in reports was about a small nomadic family which had been trapped by the water run-off caused by the ice caps
melting. The rising water had stranded the family on a small hill with the flood waters eating up the available ground quickly.

  A few hours from drowning, the family was rescued when a floating TQB shipping container came down, and four people in military gear ushered them into the container. They helped both the humans and the livestock by transferring them to another area approximately thirty kilometers away. The TQB personnel did not speak Chinese, and none of the nomadic family spoke English, so there was no communication between the two groups except for a lot of hand waving and gesturing.

  Jimmy suspected there were many more examples. But, if there were, no one had spoken about the events or the stories were actively being censored.

  Twice, Jimmy had to explain the U.S. was doing this as a way to reduce the escalation of tension that had flared up after the short Chinese War. Not that China had admitted to any such war at all. China said the destruction of a portion of the Kunlun Shan Mountains was caused by a massive earthquake set off by unfortunate events due to research they had been conducting.

  While a few scientists had wondered aloud on national television what research could possibly destroy so much land, those who had seen the spy satellite photos had no doubts, there was no research responsible for the destruction.

  Furthermore, the U.S. had shared some very secret video of their own regarding two ships that were, even now, somewhere above them in space. That alone had many of those that Jimmy visited concerned.

  It didn’t take a mathematician to add up two space-capable warships and the destruction in China to realize that pissing these people off was a universally bad idea. All it did was make those foreign heads of state wonder how to handle the relationship with TQB. And, how to get on their good side so that they could learn the secrets for themselves.

  Only the United States and Australia had quietly stopped their clandestine efforts to learn more about the company.

  The U.S. and Australia had enough information from the bases located in their lands to understand that TQB could be pleasant neighbors or very dangerous enemies.

  Australia had sent a delegation out to the TQB base in the Outback after the missile attacks a few weeks back. The Australian Government representatives had been invited to sit and talk in the TQB cafeteria. One of the leaders of the Australian group, General Goddard from the military, had been asked to visit the operations room by TQB's Operations Officer, Lance Reynolds.

  Once the Australian General had come back from his meeting with Lance, he gently steered the conversations away from any of the most outlandish conditions for TQB’s continued ability to base their operations on Australian land they owned.

  On their way back to the Nation’s Capital in Canberra, General Goddard had shared what he had been shown in the operations center.

  The video, Lance Reynolds had told him, was the real explanation for the destruction of the Chinese mountains. Lance explained TQB was absolutely willing to have civil discussions, but pushing them around tended to upset the CEO. And, any aggressive military force would be returned in like manner.

  Then, General Goddard continued, the TQB representative turned to him and pursed his lips to point at the mountains after the destruction and said, “That was a warning. The six hundred special operations military people that were killed, planes downed, and ships destroyed were in response to the seven deaths the Chinese accomplished. They tried more attacks, including one on this base and another against the small wet navy we had at the time. Their missiles failed,” he nodded to the video screen, “hers did not.”

  Then, the Australian general paused for a moment, “He told me one more thing.” General Goddard made sure he had all of their attention, “He said to make damn sure if we had any ideas of attacking, there had better not be one child, born or unborn, killed or we could probably kiss a quarter of our military goodbye.”

  The hard stare from General Goddard put the final exclamation point on the warning.

  It was but a few moments when Parry Paterson, one of the younger members of the Australian House of Representatives asked a question, “Why would we kill children?”

  General Goddard looked over at him, “Because some of those in power have been there a long time and get greedy, thinking that they can grab what they want. I’m not saying we have any like that in our government,” the General heard a snort from beside him but ignored it, “but it was a message with two parts.”

  “Really, I get the first one, don’t kill children, but what is the second?” Parry asked.

  “The second,” General Goddard replied, “is that they are watching everybody.”

  —

  Camp David, United States

  Secret Service Agent David Dennison stood in a small clearing admiring the waxing moon with the President of the United States. The evening was a little warm on this late summer’s evening. “Sir, why are we standing here?”

  The President turned to his Secret Service agent and smiled, “Because I’m going to take a little trip, and there is all of this concern about protecting me. So, you are my chosen security for tonight.”

  David looked around. The woods were quiet, and he knew that they had a lot of protection surrounding the Camp. “Sir, are you expecting someone to arrive soon? Because I’ve checked the night’s notes and we don’t have any air transportation approved, no one is getting inside our perimeter at all.” The President nodded his head slightly, as if he was hearing but not accepting David’s comment.

  David decided to try again, “Sir, how long are we going to be out here? I’m going to have to call this in if we need additional surveillance.”

  The President turned to face his security detail of one, “David, you are the security tonight. Not that I’ll need it, but I don’t want to hear the whining and crying and stuff that would go on if any of this gets out. You are already required to keep everything you see and hear as a national secret, but I’m going to go one further and say that you, personally, cannot admit to anything you see tonight until I give approval. Is this understood?”

  David shrugged, “Sure, but I’m not really sure how we are going to see anything. We…” David stopped talked when he noticed the President had lifted his head to look up into the night sky.

  “That’s how we are getting to the meeting,” the President told him.

  David turned his head, and his mouth fell open when a pitch black Pod came down silently to hover over the ground fifteen feet in front of them, and a door in the front of the vehicle opened up.

  The President started walking toward the Pod, “David, I’m getting in this Pod and going to a meeting, are you coming?” he called over his shoulder.

  David Dennison turned to look back at the base camp. He was way too far away for any help to arrive in time. When he turned around, he found the President was already clicking his safety harness closed. David jogged to the Pod and turned around to slide into the seat as the doors started closing. Clicking his own harness closed, he muttered, “Please don’t make us both regret this. Neither my boss nor your wife wants us disappearing tonight.”

  The President sat grinning and slapped David on the shoulder, “Hang on buddy, I understand the takeoff is a BIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTCHHH!” he yelled as they shot up into the night sky.

  The Pod disappeared in seconds.

  Outside of Berlin, Germany

  “Mr. President, of all the hair-brained ideas you have had in the past few years, I’m going on the record and suggesting this is one of the worst.” Bundesnachrichtendienst Federal Intelligence officer, Max von Tupper, admitted to the President of Germany as they sat in a small field an hour and a half outside of Berlin at 4:30 in the morning. The temperature was in the high teens Celsius, so not uncomfortable, but the situation made up for that lack.