WE WILL BUILD

by Michael Anderle

  He said in a weak voice, “Yield.”

  Instead of being dropped the eight feet onto the grass, he was lowered down and carried like a baby back over to the pool and gently laid down on the grass next to the pool surround. Samuel felt a blood bag placed in his hand, “Drink this,” he heard Gabrielle say.

  He turned to his side and lifted his head, drinking the blood and then resting his head back down, waiting for the throbbing to stop.

  He felt the plastic bag taken from his hands.

  He finally got enough energy to look around to see Gabrielle kneeling by him.

  He crookedly smiled up to her and asked, “What is it you wanted to know?”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Toumen Island

  “You never offer a Forsaken an even break.” Darryl grumped, as the three of them pulled their guns and swords from the two Pods. It was mid-morning. They had arrived earlier in the morning under the cloak of darkness and then waited for the time Gabrielle felt that all vampires would finally be asleep.

  They were a mile from the location that Samuel had provided them as being the location for this ‘vampire queen’. It seemed like this lady didn’t get the memo that there was a new Nicht in town and Bethany Anne didn’t share titles. They ended up flying to an island off the coast of China just east of Taizhou.

  Gabrielle slid her sword into her sheath and checked her two pistols. Both guys had two pistols in side holsters, one each under their left arms and a backup behind their waist. Scott reached back into the Pod storage behind the seats and pulled out a wooden box with a metal clasp. Flipping up the clasp he opened the box to find four grenades. One smoke, one magnesium and two fragmentation. He turned the box towards Darryl, “Excuse me sir, care for a grenade?”

  Darryl looked down at the box, “For me? You shouldn’t have.” Scott started pulling the box back and Darryl quickly said, “Hold on! Here, I’ll take one frag and the smoke. That leaves you two.” Darryl looked up to Scott, “You do remember that if you pull the pin then Mr. Grenade is not your friend, right?”

  Scott looked at him, “I was a cop, not a congressman.”

  Darryl smiled, “Good point.” Darryl put each grenade into a zippered pouch on his vest he was wearing over the ceramic protection.

  The same type of vest protection that Bethany Anne had worn when David had tried to blow a hole through her back that he could drive through.

  Scott put the box back after taking the remaining grenades for himself. Samuel was good to his word and he had provided as much information and hearsay as he could remember.

  When they had left Australia, Gabrielle told the two vampires she would be back to discuss what happened the last time they were together. Scott had watched with fascination as the rather pale Samuel had been able to achieve yet another shade lighter after all.

  By now, Gabrielle had started wearing close to the same outfit that Bethany Anne would. Leather pants with ceramic protection over a tight Under Armour shirt and then an additional vest and supplies on top of the ceramic.

  Her breasts, unfortunately, were a bit of a challenge to compress enough on her own, so she had Darryl latch and pull straps from the back.

  Gabrielle grunted when Darryl got it tight enough then muttered, “Would be pretty nice to have Bethany Anne’s ability to walk through the Etheric right now.”

  Scott asked, “What are you thinking? Appear up above and drop down?”

  “Well,” Darryl thought out loud, “I doubt that this is going to be a cake walk. Stupid Vampires are always thinking up some new and unique ways to booby trap the path up to their homes, plus the escape holes.”

  Gabrielle added, “When we think about our long lives, we have something to lose. Tends to make us focus on keeping ourselves alive.”

  Gabrielle shouldered her small pack, “Plus, it hurts like hell to get shot. Ideas guys?”

  Darryl shrugged, “Any chance we just fly up on the Pods and jump off?”

  Gabrielle looked between the two men, “Other than being seen, being shot at or blown out of the sky?”

  Darryl nodded, “Well, I was guessing those were a given.”

  “I like to assume nothing.” She said out loud. “However, I’m liking the idea of trying to sneak over land even less. Hold on a second.” She went over to the Pod she had used and reached into the cab to the left above where the doors would close and grabbed a mic. She pulled it out and clicked it. “Hey TOM, are you listening?”

  It took a couple of seconds before she got a reply, “Hello Gabrielle, I am listening.”

  “Can you possibly do something to help us get close to the front area of the building we need to attack?”

  “I thought you were going to go see her? Isn’t attacking a bit much at this time?” He replied.

  “You would have to understand, TOM, attacking is a form of knocking on the front door for vampires. Considering she is already focused on taking control of most of this part of the globe, she will not understand anything less than absolute authority. The only way to confirm our authority is with force.”

  Darryl was going over his weapons one last time and commented under his breath, “That is the best type of authority I know.”

  Scott came around his pod, “You know, in the police force we always wanted to be able to just make an entrance without worrying about the law. I am looking forward to this.” He smiled when he saw Gabrielle nod her head.

  TOM’s voice came back over the speaker, “I have reviewed the information from the spaceship. If you are willing to accept a little risk, I will be able to move you at max speed to within plus or minus twenty-five yards of the front door and then drop you quickly and you can jump from the Pods.

  Gabrielle clicked the mic, “TOM, how close to the ground will we be at that time?”

  Tom replied, “With the measurements that I have, I would like to stay at least 20 feet above what I believe the ground is. We have to move too fast to get the kind of readings I would prefer.”

  Gabrielle looked over at Darryl and Scott and raised an eyebrow, both shrugged their shoulders and Scott said, “I don’t care, what’s a twenty-foot drop between friends?”

  She nodded and clicked the mic. “That sounds like a plan TOM, we will just drop the rest of the way.”

  TOM’s voice came back over the speakers, “Okay. When you give me the word I will move the Pods to the target area at speed. You will have four seconds to drop and then these pods will rapidly ascend into the upper atmosphere. I highly suggest you’re not on them at that time.”

  Darryl and Scott walked over to their pod, Scott telling Darryl, “I’ll go first, just in case.”

  Darryl asked him, “In case of what?”

  Scott answered as they prepared to sit in the pod for the transfer, “Just in case somebody is waiting for us on the ground, I wouldn’t want you to worry about hurting a fingernail. I’ll take ’one for the team’ and jump first.”

  Darryl chuckled, “Your real reason is worrying about being in that pod when it ascends superfast? Don’t worry, my black ass won’t be on it. If you’re in my way all you’re going to have is my size 14 shoe prints on your ass.”

  Scott grinned, “Darryl, you are about to shame your grandparents for being slower than a white man.”

  Gabrielle sat down in her pod getting ready to accomplish her own jump, “Would you two ass-hats stop talking and make sure you’re ready?”

  Gabrielle heard both men respond in unison, “Yes mother!”

  She rolled her eyes, grabbed the mic and spoke to Tom, “Countdown in three.” She counted down and then both pods disappeared from the area with a soft ‘voomp’. It was three minutes before the birds resumed chirping in the trees.

  Scott wanted to say a little something that wasn’t manly when the forest disappeared and the fortress was suddenly in front of them eighty feet below. Then it felt as if his stomach stayed up above as his body descended astonishingly quickly toward the ground. He had barely registered they
were stopped before he felt Darryl pushing him on the back. This spurred Scott to jump out.

  He sure as hell hoped Darryl wouldn’t land on top of him. Scott was psyched, he was able to bend his knees and stop himself with his hand, Iron Man style! Darryl landed a mere two feet away from him and Gabrielle fifteen feet to his left.

  The three of them quickly looked around and Gabrielle pointed towards what had to be the front door thirty-five feet away. It was a large, at least twelve-foot-tall black wooden slab easily six-foot-wide and looked solid enough to withstand a battering ram.

  Before Gabrielle could motion, Darryl had already started running toward the door. Scott turned around to see if they had any threats behind them and Gabrielle pulled a sword free from her scabbard in anticipation. Darryl ripped a sticky back off of an explosive charge he had and placed it by the lock. He pushed a button, smiled and knocked on the door then rapidly moved to the side, knelt down and covered his ears.

  Neither Gabrielle nor Scott were near the entrance when the ground shook and the door was blown into three chunks, the right side barely holding on. There was a three-foot smoking circle of ruin in the center of the door. It was damned impressive that the door hadn’t been blown off of its hinges.

  Gabrielle was moving in a blink. She didn’t stop to try and pull the door open, but rather she dived through the opening keeping her sword in a position to allow her to roll and get to her feet quickly. She found herself in a large chamber. It was easily fifty feet long and fifteen feet high. It was about twenty-five feet wide with large columns running down the length every eight feet or so. There was a ten-foot-wide red carpet running from the smoldering door all the way to the other end of the room. There, the red carpet ended at a slightly raised dais with a golden chair centered on it. There were two chairs on each side, but set back a foot or so. Even more ostentatious, the golden chair sat on its own raised dais above the other four.

  Oh yeah, Gabrielle thought, we have someone who wants to be royalty.

  To the left at the other end was a hallway leading off into the building.

  She had heard both Scott and Darryl come through the remains of the door and both stood behind her. Soon enough, probably a few seconds, she started hearing footsteps running in their direction.

  “Negotiate?” Darryl asked.

  Gabrielle snuck a look at him. He was actively looking for action. She suspected he could hear the same footsteps running at them from the hallway. “After that entrance? Unlikely, prepare to engage.”

  The three of them separated slightly, like they had trained. Scott behind her and to the left, Darryl behind her and to the right. Both Scott and Darryl had worked hard to learn their new abilities since sharing the oath with Bethany Anne on an alien spaceship.

  Now, they were here to represent her wishes.

  A second later, four men came through the hallway, swords drawn to face down Gabrielle, and the two ‘humans’ that didn’t show any weapons in their hands.

  The first, a Japanese man put his left out to wave his followers to hold. He stepped forward and bowed slightly. He made an obvious gesture to the front door and spoke in a clipped English fashion, “This is how you enter someone’s home?”

  Gabrielle replied, “Considering the in-hospitality your group provided Hichoi and his retinue, I believe it is a warranted introduction. Consider it your one and only warning.”

  He barked a laugh, “You? You and what, your two humans behind you? Have you even told them the viper pit you have brought them to?” He turned his attention to Darryl and Scott and spoke to them. “You have either been told lies, or told nothing. When you came out of the sun, you sealed your death.” He turned his attention back to Gabrielle, “When my Queen gets here, she is going to hear your statement, then these two are going to be the sacrifice for your impertinence!”

  Scott snorted behind Gabrielle. She turned and he just shrugged and mouthed, ‘sorry’ She rolled her eyes and turned back to their host and said nothing.

  Thirty tense seconds later, many more footsteps could be heard coming. Men in golden livery and chainmail with halberds stepped into the room. Two side-by-side they came in before they separated. One staying to the left, the right column moving to the right side of the room. After three sets came out, a beautiful Japanese woman entered. She was dressed resplendently in a white kimono that hugged her hips. All three noticed it was slit towards the bottom to provide better leg movement. There were intricate gold and red embroidered dragons along her right arm and going down from her arm through that side of the dress. The other side had no decoration. As she took the little throne, an additional six more guards filed in after her.

  Gabrielle could hear Darryl whisper to Scott, “I’ll take the eight on the right, you take the eight on the left.”

  Scott replied, “What about the girl?”

  Gabrielle could hear Darryl’s grin as he replied, “I always wanted to see a little girl-on-girl action. It’s a damn shame I left the popcorn in the Pod.”

  Gabrielle had a difficult time keeping the smirk off of her face. She completely understood why Bethany Anne loved these guys so much. They had seventeen vampires in front of them and they were talking porn? ‘Fuck it!’ she thought. Why hold back from the moment?

  Gabrielle hissed, “You pricks! If you wanted to see some girl-on-girl action, you just had to ask.”

  She smiled to herself. God! She wished she could see their faces right now. Darryl’s voice came back at her, a little subdued, “Gabrielle, now that was just cruel. I’m not even going to enjoy this fight because I’m not going to be able to get that thought out of my mind!”

  “ENOUGH!” The lady on the throne yelled to them, her voice reverberating down the stone hall.

  It was quiet for two seconds before Scott replied in a normal voice, “Bitch! We were just starting to have fun.”

  These two human males were not scared in the least. It was obvious to Kamiko Kana this was a tight group. She had heard the comment about Hichoi, so they were very aware of the danger and yet had attacked her group anyway.

  Kamiko Kana had been asleep for the last three days. She had planned on sleeping another two before going back to the mainland for an update from one of her slaves in the Chinese military.

  When the destruction happened to her front door, it had taken them too long to respond. They had gotten too lax and been too trusting of their defenses. How this group had passed them, she didn’t know. She would make sure to learn before she allowed this woman in the middle to leave.

  Properly subdued, of course.

  As she settled in Kamiko Kana could hear the one on her left, the dark one, talk about taking out the guards in front of him. Then she heard the comment about the woman taking her on in a disgusting exhibition.

  That would not happen! To her surprise, the leader kept no discipline and even joked with the two men.

  Her anger burst from her, “ENOUGH!” She was surprised when within a mere couple of seconds, the white male called her a bitch. Her eyes narrowed, he would be tortured for days before his death. But, his death was foretold as sure as she was sitting on her throne.

  She let the silence drag. Long enough to assure no more insulting remarks, but not long enough to tempt the two humans into doing it again.

  Kamiko Kana eyed the female, “Your name?”

  The woman in front of her smiled. Kamiko wasn’t sure this is what she wanted. Fear, of course. Hesitation perhaps. But definitely not smiling. What was going on here?

  The woman spoke, “My name is Gabrielle. I am the Daughter of Stephen who is the brother of Michael.” There was a small gasp from her men. Michael was mostly a rumor on this side of the world. Unlike most of her men, Kamiko Kana knew him to be real, not just a tale told about the origins of Vampires. Her mother had spent a night with him.