Never Forsaken

by Michael Anderle

  TOM, is this where your people are?

  Tom was silent for a moment. Some, yes. Those who had the ability, but far too many can’t make the change.

  Stephen watched Bethany Anne for a moment, she seemed to be considering something. Michael leaned his body over towards Stephen, while watching Bethany Anne. “What is she doing?”

  Stephen looked down at his father, the man who had left him to go to America centuries before. Stephen almost felt compassion for his cluelessness. “I imagine she is deciding how to move us somewhere.”

  “How? Are we doing this transporting thing again? How far can she go, more than three miles?” Stephen nodded his head, “Ten?” Stephen nodded his head again. “Twenty?” Stephen decided to stop answering Michael’s questions.

  Bethany Anne focused again, looking at the two men. “Ok, Stephen. How safe are Ivan and Claudia?”

  “They are good. They can move again tonight, but they are safe where they are right now as well, why?”

  “Because I want to make sure they will be ok for a few days alone. Can I use your phone?” Stephen went to the gun bag and reached inside for a smaller bag that was cushioned, unzipping it he pulled out his phone and turned it on, handing it to Bethany Anne. She waited for it to boot up. Michael stared at Stephen, realizing in his haze that Stephen looked better than he remembered him, and he was comfortable with technology. This wasn’t the man he remembered, or the man of the stories he had been hearing when he had been awake. What had happened while he was in that infernal device?

  “Stephen, what is the date?” Stephen told him, “Really? David is going to pay for that.” His voice trailed off as Bethany Anne put the phone to her ear.

  “Nathan? Are you at the house? Can you go up to my bedroom and check to make sure no one is in my closet? Wait, don’t you fucking look in my closet either. Just knock… Shit. Ok. Look, make sure the floor in my closet is clear and nothing is in the middle, but if you say one fucking thing about my shoe count I will personally pull your dick up around your neck and strangle you with it, understand?”

  Bethany Anne rolled her eyes as she heard Nathan try to hold in his snickering. “Fur face, if I hear one mention, and that includes from Ecaterina too, your ass is grass, capiche? Who else is there? Frank? Where is dad and Patricia? Ok, so they are camped out next door for now? That’s interesting. Watching movies? Netflix. God, I hope it isn’t Netflix and chill.” She thought about who she was bringing with her and started smiling, if she could pull this off Nathan would wet his pants. “Tell you what, Stephen and I need to drop in, but I have a huge German Shepherd with me, yeah Ashur. Really? Those guys just got on the boat, no telling what they think is large. Yes, we know where Michael is and we have a plan to get him back to the United States.” Michael’s eyebrows rose at the comment about getting him to the United States. He was clueless as to why she wanted her closet emptied out. “It’s dark here right now, so David is up. Mmhmmm. Right, Michael in the morning, stop, stop! No, no more comments; that would be a bad idea.” She didn’t want Nathan to comment about Michael where he could over hear. She smiled evilly, her plan coming together. “Call Frank up there would you? I am going to want him there in a minute and I’m sure he will want to meet … Stephen.” She winked at Stephen who was getting a good idea of where they would be shortly.

  Ashur came into the room. Stephen started pulling all of the bags together, taking the empty one from Bethany Anne and the plastic around Michael. He tossed them all in the gun bag, Michael looking at him strangely so Stephen answered the unasked question, “We don’t need to leave behind anything that will make the hotel maids curious.”

  Bethany Anne continued her conversation, “Yes? Frank is there. Good, make sure the lights are on, but you guys get out of my closet. Good, see you in a second.” She pointed to a spot on the floor. Ashur walked over to it and stood. “You good enough to walk old-man?” She smiled and Michael decided to just go with the flow. He didn’t have the strength to fight with her and she was a force of nature.

  He slowly rolled over, getting his legs off of the bed and got ready to get up. She pointed to Stephen, “You.” She pointed to a spot on the floor, “Here. Grab me, ok?” He just nodded.

  She walked over to Michael, who was just making it up to a standing position. She stopped in front of him, looking up into his eyes. “You know, I’ve been wanting to slap your face ever since I woke up and your ass wasn’t around. For now, you get a reprieve, but I haven’t commuted your sentence yet. Understand?” Michael suppressed a grin; she didn’t seem to be in a joking mood right then, or at least not one that was directed in his direction.

  “What do you want me to do?”

  She smiled, “Nothing, but if you pinch my ass I will kick yours, understand?”

  He didn’t until she bent down and grabbed him around the waist, lifting him up and carrying him in a fireman’s carry. Now his head was, in fact, starring right at her ass when she carried him back around the bed. From upside down, it was pretty fetching.

  Stephen reached out with one hand and grabbed the arm she was using to hold Michael. She used her other hand to grab Ashur, “Let’s go, boys.” They disappeared.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The closet was pretty close to how she remembered it. She lowered Michael down. Even as pissed off as she was, she wouldn’t have him in such an embarrassing position when he met Nathan and Frank.

  He looked around, “Where is this?”

  Bethany Anne could hear Stephen introducing himself to Nathan and Frank. She knew with Nathan’s hearing he would now know Michael was with them.. Damn shame she couldn’t see his face.

  Ashur walked around, smelling her shoes again. Then he went out of the closet and started growling almost immediately. She yelled out of the closet, “Gott verdammt, Ashur. Stop your fucking alpha battles. Don’t make me bitch slap you again!” Ashur calmed down.

  “I swear; it’s like going home at Christmas when you’re seeing cousins.” She held Michael’s arm, giving him some support as they walked out of the closet. At least most of his color had returned. “We are in Key Biscayne Florida. Miami is a few minutes from here.”

  She had to stop as Michael paused his walking. “Truly? You just moved us from Germany to Florida? How?” Stephen came and took Michael’s arm, sensing how tired Bethany Anne was.

  She let him take Michael. She sat down on a chair and pulled the blood bag around, getting a pouch of blood out. “It is called using the Etheric to trans-locate. Something you might be able to do right now and certainly will when I fix you.”

  Stephen helped Michael lay down on her bed. Nathan’s face was a mask, not letting out anything. She smiled at him; he finally just rolled his eyes and walked over to her, “What happened?”

  “David had him in a device that would kill him immediately if he was in a normal body. Don’t ask more about that, but suffice to say Michael was almost dead. We got him out and now we are here. We are going to have to get him healthy again and I’m sure David and Anton know they don’t have him anymore. For the next couple of days, he is going to be healing. He and I have some discussions, which reminds me.” She looked over at Michael, “Michael, I’m throwing the structures out the fucking window. That bullshit has fucked up so many lives it is ridiculous. I’ve run into a couple of situations where I understand why you did it, but we have to come up with another solution.”

  He looked at the three men around him and the white dog laying on the floor. She was truly a force of nature. He wasn’t sure what happened while he was gone, but it was obvious the biggest mistake of his life was allowing David and Anton a free hand while his biggest success was sitting right in front of him. She was everything he had hoped and so much more and he had nothing of himself invested in her success. He spoke after careful consideration reflecting on his thoughts while in the chamber, “Maybe it was appropriate for another time.”

  She nodded her head, closing that conversation. She believed that was p
robably the most Michael could bend right now. Nathan just stared, first at Michael, then back at Bethany Anne. The strictures, the rules the UnknownWorld had lived under for hundreds of years had just been verbally torn apart. An agreement between the two most powerful beings he knew to forge a new destiny. Nathan went and sat on the couch, at a loss for words. Frank noticed Nathan’s reaction and was itching to get his notebook. He hadn’t known what to expect when Nathan asked him upstairs and now he wasn’t prepared.

  Anton’s residence, Buenos Aires Argentina

  Behind his desk, Anton reached for the ringing phone, one that he had for three years but had never been used. It stayed charged and was one of three he had to communicate should David call him.

  He smiled as he answered the phone, “Hello David, tell me dear old father is dead.”

  Anton’s face lost its color. “What? How the hell did he get out!” Anton screamed into the phone, “YOU TOLD ME YOU HAD HIM. HE WAS DYING AT ANY MOMENT!” Anton stood up and started walking back and forth in his office. “Well, fucking find him you jackass!”

  He listened for a minute. “Don’t worry about that bitch and stop trying to change the subject. I know where she’s at and I have a plan to take her out. You find dear old dad and take care of him… What? “

  Anton stopped walking and went back behind his desk and sat down. “That isn’t a bad idea. If he goes back home, we can take care of him there. Yeah, I’ll put the word into a couple of ears and they will watch for him. Dammit, David. I handled my side of this. You know Michael isn’t going to forgive me for killing Bill. No, I guess he won’t be too pleased with you, either. I’m going to have to push forward on the serum. No, I’m out of the original, I’ve got our changed version. No, we had to kill the most recent three subjects. The last was one was impressive though, a real monster. Yeah, I imagine you do need more protection now. Michael isn’t going to let this go. You have a target on your back and you’re not willing to leave that stupid castle. It’s going to be the noose around your neck. Fine, I’ll take care of myself, you take care of yourself. Thanks a lot for being such a worthless fuck. Why you didn’t just encase him in cement I will never understand. Yeah, good bye to you too!” Anton stood up and slung the phone as hard as he could, it shattered against the wall, the sound like a gun shot.

  There was a knock on his door, “Boss?”

  Anton looked around at the phone parts everywhere and called out to the closed door, “Francisco, find someone to sweep up phone parts for me, I need to go to the research lab. Call up the car.”

  “Yes boss.” Footsteps quickly walked away.

  The Queen Bitch’s Ship Ad Aeternitatem

  Bobcat, Marcus and William were standing around the frame William had pulled together with help from the engineering crew on the Ad Aeternitatem. This ship version had most of Bobcats design but very little of Marcus’ help yet.

  They discussed what should work, and with Marcus’ insights what certainly wouldn’t work.

  William sighed, “This isn’t going to fly, is it?”

  Marcus shrugged, “We have an untested engine, a nominally untested flight design and not a clue exactly how we are supposed to steer the craft yet. The one individual who might be able to help us is in Europe, right? He looked over at Bobcat for verification and got a nod of agreement from him. “Ok, so we have some details but can’t fully bake everything in at this time. Is there any harm in trying it out? What happens if we lose the craft?”

  William snorted, “It sinks?”

  Bobcat rubbed his chin, “I don’t think Bethany Anne wants us littering the ocean floor with our efforts here. We had better put scuttling charges on the craft. If we lose one of these things, no one should be able to figure out how we have it working by what is left of the parts.”

  Both men nodded their agreement.

  Marcus could understand the secrecy, but as a researcher he was still having trouble with the concept that knowledge was being hoarded which would benefit all of mankind. Once he had a discussion with Bethany Anne, his desire to release any of the technology early had been squashed, like his desire to ever leave and pursue research somewhere else again. That woman was fascinating. That she was beautiful never entered Marcus’s analysis. Then he met Gabrielle and walked around in a daze for ten minutes before he recognized the mirth in Bobcat’s eyes. He had the good grace to at least blush at his scientific infatuation with the women.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Today was not a good day to fly. At least, if you were the first effort for Bobcat’s team.

  Captain Wagner put out to sea after retrieving the last of his crew from their shore leave. Once he located an area safely outside the viewing area of other craft, he permitted the team to put the testing vehicle on a pontoon platform they lowered off the side. Bobcat had the ship move off a quarter of a mile away. First, the craft didn’t react at all to any commands. It took another hour for the team to communicate with Bethany Anne, who then replied back with the answers. She apologized for not being there, but she was needed in Miami for a little while longer. She hoped to be there that evening.

  They were surprised to find out she was in Miami.

  The team decided to move ahead with ideas including the input they had received from Bethany Anne. After three more hours they tried again.

  Everyone who was available went up to the main deck to watch the ‘amazing liftoff’. As everyone counted down from ten to one, the team hit the button to test the ability to rise up on its new gravity based engine. The cheering was loud for the first few seconds as the triangularly shaped rocket, all twelve feet long, slowly rose off of the pontoon platform. It attained about a five-foot height when Bobcat sent the command to reverse gently and land. Unfortunately, something wasn’t wired or coded correctly and the craft accelerated in the down direction at its maximum velocity. The pontoon boat disintegrated, pieces flying fifty feet up in the air, as the heavy vehicle went straight through it. Bobcat quickly fired off the command to detonate the scuttling charges and the team could see a large amount of bubbles come to the surface thirty seconds later. Marcus wondered how far it had gone down in the scant time before Bobcat had hit the command?

  One person commented that they should label that version the ‘X6’. Apparently he was a fan of Top Gear and since the team was Bobcat, Marcus and William it fit to call them Team BMW and name their first failure after the car Jeremy Clarkson dubbed the ‘stupidest model BMW had ever shipped’.

  Captain Wagner came over and asked them if there was anything they needed to do regarding trying to salvage parts of the rocket. Bobcat told him no, they had the electronic recordings sent before the scuttling charge activated and there wouldn’t be anything of value after they went off. Besides, the water was too deep here to accomplish anything.

  Captain Wagner did have a team retrieve the parts of the pontoon boat that were floating, there was no reason to litter and if anyone wanted to know what caused the large explosion, at least he would have some physical proof to concoct a story around.

  Down in the workshop area, Marcus was reviewing the electronic data they had been able to receive right before, and after, the debacle. Bobcat came into the room and brought with him a bucket of ice with beers in it. Marcus looked up from his laptop and gave it a curious glance.

  Bobcat smiled, “Look, if the numbers don’t make much sense, maybe our minds aren’t lubricated enough to understand them at this time?” Marcus smiled and reached for the first beer of what would become a serious effort to lubricate the hell out of his mind.

  William came in an hour later. He had helped the team retrieve the pontoon boat remains and had been taking some serious shit for the effort. One of the engineering guys grabbed a couple of pieces they had retrieved and made a casket to put the pieces in and a headstone. He brought a three-foot casket and headstone back from the engineering section. The headstone read, “R.I.P. Pontoon 001, We Hardly Knew You. May Pontoon 002 last a little while longer.” Will
iam had to suffer the congenial joking the rest of the people gave him. Captain Wagner thought it was a hilarious effort and had the deckhands clear a small area to put up the headstone and coffin. The original jokester asked William how large they should make the graveyard and William flipped him off as he walked away.

  They were well past their third round of lubrication when Marcus came across some numbers that didn’t make sense. He swung his laptop around to push it across the table to William and asked him to review it. William was sober, he didn’t want Bethany Anne coming in and smelling any alcohol on his breath. It took him about ten minutes to see what Marcus was having problems with. He slowly put his head down on the table, and then proceeded to beat his head slowly against it.

  Marcus and Bobcat stopped the swallows both had been taking, recognizing that their less sober teammate might have figured something out.

  William tried to explain what he thought was wrong, but both of his teammates had lubricated a little too much. They agreed to sleep it off and get back together in the morning. William made sure Marcus was able to get back to his berth correctly. Marcus didn’t seem to be able to hold his alcohol any better than William, while Bobcat could probably have passed a sobriety test so long as they didn’t make him breath into a Breathalyzer.