Queen Bitch

by Michael Anderle

  He knocked on Bethany Anne’s door. “Yes?”

  “It’s Nathan, do you have a moment?” She cracked the door and peeked out the slit, raising an eyebrow.

  “Privately?” She pursed her lips and opened the door to let him in. The sleeping compartment was very small. She liked to lay down and hadn’t wanted to share a compartment so had purchased her own and asked Nathan what he wanted. He wasn’t sleepy so had opted to sit out in a seat to see what was going on. He still wasn’t comfortable with the robbery happening while they were at the bank.

  She was wearing a night shift and a robe on top of that. Appropriate, but hardly demure. Fortunately, he was still well aware of her dark side and frankly, he was still anxious to see Ecaterina again. Ecaterina was gorgeous, fun, gregarious, enjoyed the outdoors and didn’t have red eyes. A major plus for Nathan. Plus, she had an accent to die for. All things considered, he had almost died for Ecaterina once so far.

  Nathan got to the point, “we have two guys watching your compartment. I think I’ve placed one as a romantic interest, the other, however; is probably undercover.”

  “You mean like an inspector from the police back at the bank?”

  “No, like a governmental individual.”

  “European?”

  “Could be, might be American. I can’t tell and I haven’t talked with him yet. I haven’t spoken to Frank in a while, so it could be another person sent to look after me, looking after you. Or, it could be Pack related. Either way, I’ve been out of touch for a while.”

  Bethany Anne felt a pang of remorse. She knew she had taken too much of Nathan’s time, but she was too new with the UnknownWorld and she had to admit she was using Nathan as a lifeline to not screw up too much. She needed to not take advantage of her, admittedly few, friends right now.

  “I guess we do need to talk with Frank. However; I refuse to label it as ‘checking in’. I’m not a big fan of thinking someone has me on the proverbial leash. You either.” Then she smiled up at Nathan in that ‘I’m going to have fun at your expense’ way he was becoming used to. “Well, let’s be honest, I’m only ok with either myself holding your leash, or maybe Ecaterina?”

  Big, bad Mr. Lowell looked down at the shorter vampire and both blushed and gave her a long suffering look at the same time. “That obvious?”

  “Only to everyone else, Nathan. You know she has it bad for you, too. Right?” Bethany Anne didn’t promise to not get involved and the longer these two danced around each other it was driving her mad.

  “Really?”

  Bethany Anne rolled her eyes, “Only to everyone. Alexi, Ivan and myself. The only two clueless are you and Ecaterina. Like two teenagers mooning for each other. Wipe that grin off of your face, Nathan. What do you suggest we do about you checking with your Council and Frank and our unexpected guests outside?”

  Nathan tried to dampen his smile and focus on her questions, but Bethany Anne shouldn’t have confirmed that Ecaterina liked him if she wanted his full attention.

  “Ah, damn. Uhhhh, let me call Gerry and get the lay of the land and then I’ll talk with Frank. Do you want to talk with them?”

  “Not yet. I don’t mind you updating Frank with what is going on, however; I don’t want him to think that I need anything from him right now. Hell, maybe never considering what was in the accounts.”

  Yeah, that was true, thought Nathan. When Bethany Anne shared that she was officially independently wealthy with the money in the accounts that Michael had connected her. He was simultaneously relieved and concerned. If Michael had given her access to that much wealth, it could lead one to believe that he wasn’t expecting to be around for a while, if ever. She had access to all of his holdings all over the world. She had asked him to keep the particulars to himself, but that he could share his suppositions and concerns regarding Michael he had shared with her.

  “Nathan, once you talk with Gerry and Frank. I think we need to make further plans. I will understand if you need to go back to the States. Ecaterina and I will follow you as soon as I finish with Stephen. I value everything you have done for me and I hope that we can stay friends?”

  Nathan was surprised. So far, Bethany Anne had been very aloof since they had met. This was the first time she had offered the fig leaf of friendship in his direction. “So, if I ask how again how you could get back up with a hole so big in your stomach I could see the wall through you?” He smiled at the memory.

  Bethany Anne smiled back, “Yeah, ok.” She put her fingers really close together. “Maybe only 1 minute away, Mr. Lowell.”

  She started getting out a pair of jeans and a shirt. “Give me a couple of minutes to get dressed and you can use my compartment. They way things are going, check the compartment for bugs before you call. I’ll go hit the restroom and get a bite to eat.

  Nathan just smiled and stepped out of the compartment.

  —

  Bethany Anne placed her hat on her head and then opened the door. Nathan was getting up from a seat a few feet away, she stepped back and let him go into her sleeping compartment to talk with Gerry and Frank.

  She walked up towards the bar-buffet car. With her Premier ticket, the food was included. She hadn’t any previous experience with eating on a train and was immediately enjoying the experience. It looked pretty posh to her.

  The seats were all in a deep red velour, with white table linen and red drapes around the windows. There was a huge amount of polished brass in the car and it was certainly an upscale experience. She sat down at a table with two places. She didn’t want to be rude and take a whole booth for herself. She wasn’t sure how long Nathan would be on the phone. She had been pretty strict not wanting him to check in. Now, she was going to have to suffer the results for requiring Nathan to stay out of communication.

  The waiter came and he enquired what kind of white wines she might like. She smiled and just asked him to surprise her. With her hat on, an affectation she had to admit she enjoyed, the most people could see was her mouth and chin. She sat a moment and watched the countryside slide by.

  She had a lot to accomplish. Now, Michael had saddled her with the means to do anything she wanted. She had more money and accumulated wealth a thousand years can bring and frankly, she was overwhelmed.

  She thought back to the basics. Shelter, water, food. Well, she didn’t suffer from a lack of shelter if she trusted Michael’s homes across the world. Just glancing through the documents she had multiple domiciles on all of the major continents and a few very secret places in South America and Africa. She guessed that made sense with his forsaken children over in that area.

  But did she want to use them?

  Her wine came and she thanked the waiter and took a sip. A very nice Chianti Classico from Italy, she had been told. It was nice. She noticed a black rooster design on the neck of the bottle before he had taken off the seal.

  She had no idea how much it cost, and was still trying to understand her life. She needed to consider short term goals, such as talking with Stephen and connecting with the UnknownWorld while still planning for the far future when the world would need to be able to defend itself.

  TOM, what do we need to produce the parts for our ship?

  Our ship?

  You keep calling this our body, it makes sense to me.

  She sensed that TOM was a bit befuddled through their connection. Ever since the organic computer had been placed in her head, she was getting a better and better connection in her discussions with TOM.

  Ok. I guess that makes sense but it is a bit much to understand. I’m in your body, so ‘we’ are sharing it. The ship was mine as I landed it here. I can’t take control of it back without a body, so I guess you’re right.

  Back to the question, TOM.

  Well, it needs two structural joints that were destroyed when landing. Without them we can’t get the landing legs to retract into the body and then we would not have a craft that would work without atmosphere. Other than that, the whole body wil
l need a review and patching with some rather sophisticated alloys I’m not sure your world has available yet and of course, there is the jump-engine and anything which might have been affected when I came in on the last jump. I didn’t have time to do a full diagnostic on the engine and you can’t do this while in an atmosphere.

  So, to summarize, with the landing gear fixed we can go out of the atmosphere, but what about here on the ground? Why didn’t you ever move the craft after you landed?

  I’m not sure what other pieces were broken and while it had power, I didn’t want to chance crashing it completely with another ascent and descent. When Michael came to the ship within the first thirty to forty solar turns I figured I was in a good enough place. I didn’t realize that I wouldn’t see anyone until you.

  Bethany Anne considered his comments. It seemed the ship was probably capable of making a trip to a hanger she could acquire. There they would look into ship refurbishment and reverse engineering. However; how was she going to accomplish this without getting the tin-foil hat group or governments involved? She knew that her own government would grab the ship and stuff it into a black hole even she would have trouble getting it back out of. It spoke to why powerful people worked with smaller and more easily manipulated governments.

  However; if she was going to make a difference she would eventually need to be able to work with the major powers. All of them. The U.S., China, Russia, India and the European’s. If she decided to start with a smaller country, it would make it harder for any of the big governments to get involved, but not impossible. Plus, she doubted that as much pull as she might now have, she had more than the biggest governments.

  What a freaking headache, she finished off her glass of wine.

  “Would the beautiful lady allow me to provide your second glass of wine?”

  Bethany Anne looked up through the veil to see a spectacular example of a well groomed and cultured European gentleman in front of her. With dark hair, an Italian suit and shoes, gold cufflinks and a glass of wine in each hand he stood on the other side of her table a smile in his eyes. God, she thought, this man was smooth. “And how, dear sir, do you know that I am beautiful?” She had to smile in spite of the interruption to her conversation with TOM. It wasn’t like this man had a clue. He looked familiar.

  You saw him sitting two rows behind Nathan when you left your sleeping cabin.

  She forgot that TOM saw, and remembered, everything. However; it was damn useful right now. So long as he didn’t become an ‘I told you so’ pain in the ass, she would deal with it.

  “Madam, any who would block their beauty to save the rest of us from the sadness of no longer being permitted to view their face is not only beautiful on the outside, but is truly beautiful inside.”

  No wonder American woman loved Europeans. While it was so much beautiful bullshit, they certainly made it smell as wonderful as spring time with flowers. She reached out to accept the wine and the gentleman sat down. The waiter was right there to take away her extra glass. She took a sip of the wine and set it down.

  Bethany Anne, this wine is not the same makeup as the one you just drank.

  Bethany Anne frowned, not letting the concern reach past her eyes.

  What do you mean?

  I mean that this wine has other chemicals that the glass you originally drank did not. Let me see what it is doing to you and I’ll let you know.

  You do that.

  “May I introduce myself?”

  “First names only, please.”

  He smiled, “Certainly, My name is Rafael and you?” He seemed to be even more sure of himself as he sat down. Was that due to her acceptance or something he put in the wine?

  “Bethany Anne.”

  TOM, hurry the fuck up.

  “How has your trip been so far? Are you going to Romania, or returning to Romania? You are an American, correct?”

  “Going back, Rafael, and yes, I am an American.”

  Got it Bethany Anne. It is a set of chemicals that are working on your cognitive ability, making you less able to function. You would have started seeing effects in about twenty to thirty minutes after you drink enough of the wine.

  Can you get rid of it?

  Absolutely.

  Ok TOM, I am upgrading you to less-than-pain-in-the-ass status.

  Does this mean I move off of the couch.

  Hell, no.

  Well, I tried.

  Bethany thought through her options. When she slipped into ‘vamp speed’, everything slowed down around her and she was able to complete a significant amount of activity, physical or mental. Considering this ass-wipe just tried to roofie her, one of the options was to throw him off the train while it was still rolling. With her luck, they would do some sort of passenger count, find out they had a missing person and stop the train. Of course, he could be working for someone and was trying to kidnap her, too.

  She still liked option #1. Violence was never too far from the top of her preferred options.

  Her voice slipped to silk over steel.

  “Tell me, Rafael, what is your real name?”

  The man’s eyes first started to look scared, then his whole face took on an almost blank expression.

  “Paul, Paul Rutherford.”

  “So, you’re not Spanish at all, are you?”

  “Some, my mom was Spanish, my father English but we lived in France.”

  “And what were you expecting to do with me, Mr. Rutherford?

  “Once you were under the effects of the drug. I was going to have you come to my sleeping cabin for the night. There, I was going to go through your purse and steal your money and credit cards. I would have you share with me your PIN codes as well.”

  “How many times have you done this type of theft, Mr. Rutherford?”

  “Three times.”

  “Why have you not been reported and apprehended before?”

  “The ladies don’t remember due to the drug and I stop using the cards within 72 hours. They often are too embarrassed to pursue it with the law.”

  Bethany Anne switched their glasses of wine. “Drink up, Mr. Rutherford. I think you are about to have a poor night.”

  Paul drank the glass of wine, almost finishing it one long gulp.

  After getting his sleeping cabin number, she commanded him to go and sleep in his cabin and stay there until the train got to his stop. At that time, he was to go to the nearest police officer and admit his crimes. He stood up to leave and while he was turning around, he bumped into Nathan coming down the car from her sleeping cabin. Paul ignored Nathan and stepped around him making a beeline towards his cabin.

  “What was that all about?” Nathan sat down.

  “He just tried to roofie me. He dropped Rohypnol into the wine he bought me. Apparently, he has a small dick and a smaller amount of talent. He finds rich woman susceptible to a few good lines and slips them a drug-laced drink.

  Nathan just sat there, keeping a completely blank face.

  “Nathan, shut up. I was trying to be nice to someone. He was interrupting my thoughts and I was trying not to be a raging bitch to the man and look what that got me.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t throw him off of the train. Without his arms.”

  “I considered it. I’m still considering it, actually. I know where he sleeps.”

  “I take it that the drugs don’t affect you?”

  “Not in the small amount I drank before I, well, before I could tell he slipped the drug into the wine.” Not going to let him know that TOM was the one who figured it out.

  Thanks a lot, I get no appreciation.

  Shut up or it’s back to the dog house.

  Fine, fine.

  “That is a piece of good news, maybe the only good news for a minute or two. So, I have bad news and even badder news. Which do you want first?” Nathan got the waiters attention and found out they had both steak and lamb available. He ordered both with a double side of vegetables.

  Bethany Anne rais
ed her eyebrow at his double order of vegetables.

  “Don’t say a word. Just… don’t.”

  She pinched her fingers together and made to zip her mouth shut. It’s the least she could do. Considering Nathan had just suggested ripping Mr. Rutherfords’ arms off. It was a stellar idea and she was giving it some serious thought.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Zurich, Switzerland to Brasov, Romania

  They sat at their table for a minute in companionable silence as Bethany Anne had a fresh glass of wine delivered. The waiter took everything away. A minute later, he was back with Nathan’s food. Nathan, she noticed, had very good table manners.