Apparently, his military mindset, which he wasn’t changing, still concerned her deeply. She fanned the flames of a small argument into a raging inferno and left town going back, he supposed, to her university.
Never calling him back.
Still, he couldn’t drink her kisses away, or her eyes, or her smell.
Damn. He had tried, oh lordy how he had tried.
He sighed and walked towards the hotel, on another mission to retrieve something no one should probably be trying to attain. He sure hoped it wasn’t back to the sandpit again, that sand always gets in the wrong crevice and there isn’t any polite way to get it out when in mixed company.
The first call came in, warning him about a second call and suggesting he would want to drink some coffee. The second opportunity was the same as last time.
He had exactly forty-six minutes to wake up and slug through two cups of the nectar from the god of life and good will before the second call came in. The voice had a German accent, and it promised an interview, all expenses paid to get him to Germany and back if it didn’t work out.
He sighed, told them he could be at the airport within four hours after he checked out.
That was yesterday morning. Now, Terry was here in Germany looking at a hotel that was probably built two-hundred years ago and would be here two hundred years after he died.
Sliding through the front doors, he made his way to the front desk and received instructions how to get to the meeting room. He was surprised when the door was guarded by a pair of men who were competent, brisk and experienced. The hard kind of experience.
These guys were either still in the military and on loan for this or recently retired. His ID was checked, and then he was allowed inside.
Good thing he left his weapons back in his hotel room.
This meeting room was arranged a little differently than his last job. Three people were sitting up at the front behind a table, and about twelve people sitting in the first two rows of chairs. He was the first to sit in the third row, with two empty rows behind him. There were five seats on each side, the main aisle down the middle splitting them.
Most of those here seemed to have tasks, so he pulled out a tablet and started to see if he could figure out who these characters were.
By the time the meeting started, another four people had entered.
There was some rustling of papers that got everyone’s attention, and Terry put down his tablet to give them his attention.
There was a woman in red on the left, an older gentleman in the middle and another on the right. Both of them in suits. The gentleman in the center stood up, “My name is Dr. Schäuble, and I appreciate all of you joining us on such short notice. We seem to be missing two people, so either they have decided not to join us, or perhaps traffic has not worked in their favor. Either way, we will not hold you up because they have been rude.”
He took a drink of his water and then sat the glass back down. “This expedition, and trust me, it will be an expedition, is a research effort comprised of private companies in concert with support from the German Government. The support is not as overt as perhaps we would like, but we do have deeper pockets and access to information we might not have had otherwise.”
To Terry’s right in the corner was a screen and Dr. Schäuble pointed to it and pressed a small button. A slide came up, and Terry’s blood went cold.
The title was Operation Highjump.
“We are looking to sail a ship we have to a particular location in Antarctica which is rumored, and backed up by information the German Government has shared, to be possibly a base started by those from here in Germany in the 1930’s. There were many in …” Dr. Schäuble’s voice droned on about the location, but Terry was already tuning him out.
If there was anywhere he hated going more than the sandpit, it was into the cold. They could take this operation and shove it up their asses as far as he was concerned.
No fucking way was he freezing his testicles off in the Antarctic.
No way, no how.
The door opened behind him, and a light melodious voice interrupted the speaking man, “I’m sorry for being late, I was caught up in traffic.”
Terry hung his head down, his shoulders dropping. He knew this voice, and he also knew that his choice of whether he was going to go to the Antarctic was now in someone else's hands.
Specifically, it was in her hands. Melissa had apparently been called in on the very same project.
God, he was going to need some good thermal underwear.
Terry was surprised when she tapped him on the shoulder, “Move aside TH, you can’t be allowed to go on this trip without me, you will just get in trouble.” He was trying to come to grips with her even talking to him when he slowly started sliding to his left, one chair over.
She sat down and bumped him with her butt, “Move a little faster, soldier, I’ve been running the last four blocks to get here.”
Terry slid quickly into the next seat, his emotions completely fubar’d by her actions.
“We shall talk,” she hissed to him, “About how you failed to call me back. You military guys have no idea how to act around females. I cried for a week, you ass!” she practically spit.
“I’m to blame?” Terry’s anger started to get the better of him when a couple of people in front of them turned to look at the two of them, and both he and Melissa mouthed ‘sorry’ and held in their conversation.
It seemed she was right about one thing. He had no idea how to act around her.
Las Vegas, Nevada - USA
When Eric and Gabrielle were notified the hit was happening on the Switzers, They drove the eight houses to pull up in front of the Gants’ house. They got out of their car as the Gants came running out of their home.
The teams had placed a couple of monitors and piped in the video of the three locations for Robert who was having trouble believing that his group would kill them.
“Just stay around and park at the small mall,” Eric told him, “We will slip into your bed and if this is a false alarm, you can drive back here, jump back in bed, and nothing happened, understand?”
Robert nodded and slid into the car, Gabrielle having already closed her door shutting Mrs. Gant inside. They walked into the house as the Gant’s drove off.
“Incoming, one minute, thirty-six seconds,” ArchAngel warned them. Gabrielle shut the front door.
“Not bad, but a little messy on their timing,” she qualified as the two of them walked into the master bedroom. Eric was already yanking the power plugs for the monitors and set them on the floor next to the wall.
“Come to bed, baby?” He asked as he slid into the bed and patted the other side, “I promise you a good time.” He twitched his eyebrows at her.
“Wow,” she replied, sliding into the warm sheets, “you know just how to sweet-talk me into the horizontal position, at least…” Her voice cut off when he slid across and kissed her, “Oh…” she paused a moment, regrouping her thoughts, “Good call on the mouthwash.” she ran her hand up his chest, enjoying the feeling of the goose bumps she was causing along his skin.
“Four exiting a dark van in front,”
“Seriously?” Eric turned to look at the door, his eyes starting to glow red.
Gabrielle decided she liked that look on her man. She turned and snuggled back against Eric, “Shall we take care of these annoyances and plan another night together, hmmm?”
Eric smiled, “I suppose it would be rude to use someone else's bed. Well, I’m sexually frustrated now and pissed as hell, care to take care of the riff-raff?”
“Now you are talking like a Vampire Mr. Escobar, and I like it.” She purred, and the two turned as men could be heard coming down the hallway.
“Go ArchAngel,” Eric subvocalized, and the alarms started shrilling, and the two darted out of bed in the darkness. Eric tossed a small ball that exploded into light, blinding the four men who had on night vision goggles.
That w
as when the shouts, yells and dying began. Eric passed by Gabrielle as he streaked out to the street, seeing what kind of fish he had to catch out there.
Moments later, with the driver sedated, Gabrielle came up with one over her shoulder, “He seemed to have a clue so I decided to bring him along. The other three are done.”
Eric closed the back van door after shooting the extra guy with a sleeping dart. Gabrielle got into the passenger seat as Eric walked around the other side and got in, driving off into the night.
CHAPTER TEN
Chapter 10
Tokyo, Japan
William was in heaven. Well, if heaven was a large warehouse with some of the latest computer controlled CNC mills, lathes and other machines for mass manufacturing. Some of the new machines included contraptions with capabilities he didn’t even know existed, yet.
The Japanese had pulled out all the stops to impress the hell out of Bethany Anne.
William had arrived the previous night and immediately started trying to figure out what his group had, and what they needed to get moving to help the project that would result in a new home for Bethany Anne’s people.
The base they needed once they went through that gate.
Might makes right in Yollin space, and while Bethany Anne had promised the opportunity for the Yollins to allow them safe passage, no one, human or alien, was expecting them to take her up on it.
So far, Bethany Anne and the core team believed that only the Yollins had Earth’s home location and frankly, the Yollins admitted no one was expecting much from the effort. It wasn’t until the end that those on the G’laxix Sphaea understood just how much opportunity the little backwater solar system represented. By then, it was too late.
They had been trapped and couldn’t get back out of the system.
Now, William was taking a sabbatical from space to get everything he needed to mass produce the tools and technologies the teams required to bore out a nickel-iron asteroid about eighty kilometers in circumference.
Moving the big ass son-of-a-bitch wasn’t his problem, thankfully. Marcus had spent many nights, yanking his hair out, with TOM and others as they figured on using the enormous numbers of the smaller gravitic plates they had from the shipping containers to help move it. It wasn’t like this was going to be speedy at all. In fact, it was going to take a few years to move the asteroid to the gate. First, they had to speed it up, then slow it down as it approached. The ships and the asteroid would go through mostly together. The way he understood it, they had thirty minutes for everything to get through once the first passage happened.
So long as the first passage was an approved ship, that is. Good thing they didn’t blow the Yollin ship to kingdom come or their plans would have been screwed.
Three hours later, his eyes drooping a little, his ears caught the first noise that had been in the back of his mind as being misplaced, but he had been too tired to care much about it.
—
Akio was walking down the street. He was coming back from making sure Yuko was protected. He had two men with her and one watching over the warehouse at the moment. He was three blocks from the warehouse when he received a signal that a break-in was occurring. He started running, quickly.
The pistol shots occurred when he was but a block away, and Akio’s eyes went red.
The screaming had started as he saw Eiji attack. Something was wrong, way wrong.
There were too many here.
Not only was this warehouse supposed to be a secret, but there is also no way a hit with this many people involved should occur. Many of the people weren’t fighters but looked like thugs or landsmen. Someone used for muscle.
Eiji was doing his best, but the sheer mass of people was allowing some to run past him, even as he cut down many, dodging as others tried to shoot him, often hitting those in their own group in the process.
Akio ratcheted up his fear projection as he slammed into the back of the group, his sword swinging like a scythe through wheat as he sought to maim and not kill.
If he saw a weapon, however, that person died.
His fear had the desired effect, as the people trying to push their way into the warehouse stopped and those trying to get in started to turn and push their way backward, often finding Eiji or Akio.
“Let them pass!” Akio yelled to Eiji who nodded his understanding. They certainly had enough people incapable of running to answer questions. Akio was able to grasp enough from the frightened men that they were Yakuza, or hired by the Yakuza to hit this warehouse and grab everything they could carry off that didn’t look like conventional technology.
That’s when Akio heard William yelling from inside the warehouse and two pistol shots.
Akio’s eyes flashed over to completely red, and he pulled a separate knife and started slashing at anyone who dared slow him down as he raced into the warehouse seeking his Queen’s friend.
—
“This stuff has to be worth something, there!” Goro said, pointing at the large black man who was writing on a clipboard. He turned around, looking at the trio first in confusion and then in anger.
“Who the fuck are you?” the big black man yelled, “Get the hell out of here before you lose your fool lives.”
Not only did the black man look annoyed, but he also didn't seem concerned that Goro and his two buddies had pistols out and pointed at him.
“Not us, you,” Goro replied, “Which of these have non-human technology?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” the black guy responded, “these are all CNC mills and lathes and over there,” he pointed with the clipboard, “are microprocessor manufacturing machines.”
“You lie, American!” Goro spat, a fear coming over him. His hand jerked twice, “Let’s see how well you answer now as you beg I don’t shoot you again!” Goro practically yelled at the man. The fear was becoming overwhelming like it was growing on them. The two other guys with him were looking around.
Goro kept his attention on the black man, who was leaning back on a large container, blood running down his shirt, “Oh, now you gone and fucked up,” the black man said weakly, “You can kiss your ass goodbye you poor excuse for a second-rate villain.” He paused as he watched Goro striding towards him. “For the record,” William coughed, “this shit hurts.” He finished as he dropped his clipboard and slid down the container to land on his ass.
“Fucking shit!” He groaned. “If I can’t eat after this because I’m healing, I swear to God I’ll kick your little scrawny Asian ass.”
Goro stepped over to the black man, and pointed his pistol, “You will tell me where the technology I need is, or I will put this next bullet between your eyes!”
“Motherfucker,” the black man wheezed a little, “you should turn around and pay more attention to him, than my black ass.” he nodded behind Goro.
Goro looked over his shoulder. He watched in alarm, as his friend slid off the sword of the person the black man had just warned him about. A man whose eyes were red, glowing and looking in his direction. His voice, centuries old and full of anger spoke harsh, clipped, “You have hurt my Queen’s friend, my charge. He is in pain that you will atone for. You will provide the energy necessary to heal him.”
Goro, overcome by fear couldn’t move as he watched the vampire, his teeth growing walking towards him, “You have come to the end of your life, and you will scream as it ends, this I promise!”
My Ride is a Bitch (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 13) Page 11
