Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set Three: Books 15-21, Never Submit, Never Surrender, Forever Defend, Might Makes Right, Ahead Full, Capture Death, Life Goes On (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets Book 3)

by Michael Anderle

  They also showed exactly where you were, a significant downside for sure.

  Tabitha slid that pistol on her hip.

  She considered the multitude of goodies that were in her case, trying to figure out what she would need if they attacked a house outside the city. If they had cops there, then she needed to be able to take them down without killing them.

  Done.

  If they were part of the underworld, they might have killers on the grounds.

  She was prepared for that as well.

  She needed eyes in the sky. She lifted a box out of her case and pulled out four silver orbs. “Connect to these four, Achronyx.”

  Done, he replied.

  She reached into the suitcase and pulled out a yellow case. Opening it, she lifted out a pair of goggles that looked like something you might use to ski. Placing them over her face, she said aloud, “Lock them in.”

  The goggles adhered to her face, no strap holding them on her head.

  “Lift all four in the air, then give me their cameras.”

  All four orbs floated into the air, taking positions equidistant from Tabitha and looked down at her from three feet away. “Lock them in standard locations.” Four little scenes showing her from the front, back, and both sides came up in her goggles. Two on the left side of her view, two on the right. If she looked straight ahead, they didn’t impede her view.

  “What the fuck?” she exclaimed, turning her head to look behind her. “Why the hell didn’t anyone tell me these pants make my ass look fat?” She huffed, “Achronyx, pull back camera three and focus on my full body from behind.”

  Tabitha turned straight and looked at herself from the back. She reached down and adjusted her pants, “Dammit, I’ll need a tailor for this.” She exhaled. “Aww, fuck it.”

  She sat down on the bed behind her and took off her shoes. Then she started stripping out of her nice pants, tossed them aside, and stood back up to reach into her case to pull out her black leathers.

  She flipped them open. “Seems like momma’s going in bad-ass leather tonight.” She slid her legs into the pants and then jumped up once to pull them up. “Cause leather…” she said as she pulled up the zipper and snapped the two snaps. Slapping her ass, she finished, “…always makes this badonkadonk look like a million bucks.”

  “Well, crap.” She grabbed her working shoes. They weren’t as sexy as the nicer boots she had brought, but in for a penny with the leather, in for a pound.

  Who knows, maybe Ted would like the vigilante look?

  She folded the rest of the clothes, grabbed another two magazines for the electrical pistol and one extra magazine for her Dukes’ special. “Can never bring too much ammo,” she muttered as she packed all of the clothes and boots. She closed her suitcase and locked it. “At least, that’s what John always says.”

  She sent the request to unhook her goggles, took them off her face and slid them inside a pocket. Walking to the mirror, she examined herself carefully.

  “Trinity, suck it, ‘cause I look hotter than you!” Tabitha grinned and held her hand up in the air. The four silver orbs dropped to land in her hand, and she slid them into her coat. As a former hacker, she knew what male computer geeks liked about the female Matrix character.

  She reached over and grabbed the suitcase.

  She looked into the mirror and blew herself a kiss. “I’m a damned computer geek’s wet dream.” She smiled as she took the suitcase and walked towards the door. “And those that don’t like me thinking that can kiss my fantastic ass.”

  She turned the doorknob and opened the door. “Where else can you get incredible hacking skills with this body?”

  “Nowhere,” she answered herself as she stepped into the hallway to leave the hotel.

  10

  Harvey Podstawa nodded to the elderly couple as they entered the hotel. He held out his hand and took the older gentleman’s umbrella. Turning to his right, he placed it in a special box that would allow it to drain for a few moments while the couple took off their coats.

  “I’ll be back in a few minutes, so I’ll grab it again,” the silver-haired gentleman said.

  Harvey nodded and helped the two move along. At the moment, the hotel was quiet. It was late morning, and with the crappy weather, those that didn’t need to leave the hotel weren’t. He watched the older couple walk towards the elevator which dinged and opened before they could reach for the call button.

  Charlotte Pavela had worked for the hotel for the last nine months and recently had been moved to the day shift. She preferred it, and she knew that this hotel only hired, and kept, the best. Inside this city, there were plenty of people who worked hard to get the best paying jobs.

  Therefore, it surprised her when she saw Harvey’s face display anything but professional decorum. Then she turned to see who he was looking at and she stopped in the middle of the floor herself.

  Harvey happened to be watching when she exited. As one of the doormen at this hotel, Harvey was very professional in all ways.

  Therefore, it was a testament to the amazing view that his jaw dropped open.

  She walked out, a long coat of some fabric he didn’t recognize draped about her. In a city of wonders, it was one of the strangest things Harvey had seen. The coat seemed both soft and rigid at times, matte black and then reflective. He couldn’t remember ever seeing anything like it.

  Her suitcase matched it well. The older couple just stepped back and watched the woman walk past them towards the door. It appeared as if she was deep in thought as she didn’t seem to notice that most of the people in the hotel’s lobby had stopped to watch her walk out.

  Harvey remembered in time, thank God, to close his mouth, smile and open the door for the young woman. He wasn’t sure who she was, and he couldn’t remember seeing her before. But she was, as his friend Ronald would say…

  One badass motherfucker who would accept no shit from anyone and look fucking fine doing it.

  “Thank you,” her South American accent was in the wind and taken from his ears as she disappeared down the street.

  “Who was she?”

  Startled, Harvey turned to see Charlotte beside him, looking out the door. He shrugged. “A guest?”

  Charlotte nodded, then turned and started walking away. “Well, that was one woman—if I were tempted that way—I’d try to chase down and get a phone number.”

  Harvey smiled at the next gentleman who came in, the memory of the woman slowly leaving his thoughts.

  Ted took the last puff of his cigarette and smashed it into the ashtray. He hadn’t been much of a smoker, but everything was going down and he would either be dead or hated by the end of the night.

  Either way, there wasn’t a decent goddamned solution to his problem.

  Ted lived on the Upper North Side, off of Saint Nichols in a one-bedroom apartment up on the top floor of a four-story building.

  He had gotten notice on his computer that his message had been received and he should expect a visitor. Ted reached for the pack of cigarettes he had purchased earlier that morning when he stepped out of his house to walk off his nervous energy.

  He swallowed hard when he noticed the package was empty. He looked down at the ashtray, full of twisted, half smoked and frenetically forgotten cadavers sacrificed to the god of stress.

  He was a nervous wreck.

  He considered grabbing the least wrecked cigarette when his buzzer sounded, and her voice came through his speakers.

  “Hey Ted,” she spoke this time in an almost normal voice, devoid of her occasional teasing. “Coming up!”

  He failed to notice that he hadn’t punched the button to allow her in the building.

  Purchase, NY, USA

  Ecaterina and Nathan were let out of the taxi just a block down from the PepsiCo Anderson Hill Road main building. The weather was annoying, but they lifted their coat collars up. Nathan grabbed Ecaterina’s hand and they started their walk towards the building.

 
“How are we going to get in?” Ecaterina asked.

  “Easy, they have a center for customers to come and learn more about their product. That’s as far as we need to go.”

  “What? Why?” she asked as he waved at a security guard who nodded. Apparently, cars were a problem, but a couple walking in the light mist wasn’t a big issue.

  They walked up the long drive towards the main building.

  “I’ve got some new technology we’re testing, out of Jean’s team. Just need to get inside and let it go. Give it a few minutes to see if there’s anything we want and then leave. Grab another taxi and go to Joe’s Pizza in the West Village.”

  “So, you do remember,” she leaned her head on his upper arm.

  He wasn’t about to admit that he’d taken almost all of his dates there at one time or another.

  One doesn’t tell one’s mate about previous girlfriends. Especially when her version of pissed off was a whole new level.

  Nathan had wanted a Were for a mate. Now, a few years into his relationship with Ecaterina, he was beginning to comprehend a few of the subtle downsides.

  Like making sure he kept his mouth shut until he had thought about what he was going to say and analyzed that son-of-a-bitch for any landmines that might explode in his face.

  “Of course, sweetheart, there was no way I’d forget you, and Joe’s.” he told her.

  Mission accomplished.

  New York City, New York, USA

  Ted stood up and walked to his door. He might as well open it so that Tabitha would see him right away. No time like the present to get this party started.

  Like he had enjoyed the invitation.

  He opened the door and was startled to see Tabitha right in front of him, with her hand raised to knock. He turned to look behind himself.

  It was only five steps from where he was sitting to his door. He turned back around to see Tabitha peering around him.

  “Oh!” He stepped back. “Sorry, uh, the place is a mess.” Tabitha wrinkled her nose. He looked down. “Yeah, sorry, I smoke when I’m stressed too much.”

  Tabitha looked around the small one-bedroom. It looked like it had seen a better day or two. The messes in the areas she could see suggested that this stress happened recently.

  Tabitha stepped in. “No worries, Ted,” she said as he closed the door behind her.

  “Here, let me grab that for you, although I didn’t know you’d need to pack. I’m sorry, I didn’t think about your sleeping arrangements.” She lifted the suitcase and handed it to him. Her mind was still on something else and didn’t notice Ted’s sudden strain to hold it. He took it and set it down next to his brown leather couch.

  Just what the hell did she have in that thing? he wondered, quickly followed up with, and how strong is she?

  She reached into her long coat and pulled out a box. He walked over to stand next to her and asked, “What are you…” he stopped when a finger was pushed against his lips. His eyes crossed as he tried to stare at the finger’s sudden appearance at his mouth.

  But he got the message. She took her hand back.

  She opened the box of what looked like a thousand tiny balls. She took a pinch out and flung them into the air. Before he could ask a second time, her fingers pinched his lips together.

  He nodded that he got the point.

  She closed the little box and put it in her coat pocket. Her hand returned with what looked like goggles, but they didn’t have anything to hold them to her face. She put them on and then mumbled something Ted couldn’t quite pick up. Finally, she reached back into her coat and pulled out four silver orbs. She flung one towards his bedroom door.

  It never hit anything that he could tell. She walked past him towards his little living room and stepped up to the window. She put a ball next to the window and lowered his blinds. The orb hadn’t dropped when she released it, but stayed right where she placed it.

  He heard her mumble this time, “Seven? Seriously?” Ted didn’t even bother asking. He saw her nose twitch.

  The smoke in his apartment was probably annoying her.

  He turned to watch her open his apartment door, stick her head out and then toss a ball out. A motion pulled his attention back towards his bedroom door, and his eyes opened.

  There was a little silver orb floating into the main room from his bedroom. He never thought about the dirty clothes he had hidden on the other side of his bed as he stared at the orb floating towards him.

  He turned to see Tabitha pull out a small tablet. “Kill em, Achronyx,” she said, and Ted heard multiple sparks, and a minute smell of ozone overpowered his cigarette smoke for a minute.

  The goggle-wearing face turned towards him. Now, they were a yellow metallic color; he couldn’t see Tabitha's eyes as she looked at him. “What are you really involved with, Ted?”

  Oh, fuck! he thought as the blood drained from his face.

  Purchase, NY, USA

  “Okay,” Nathan said as they exited the Pepsi building. “That was kind of cool. Although, renaming it Pepsi from Brad’s drink was easily a marketing win. Brad’s Drink? That was a horrible name.”

  Ecaterina grabbed his hand. Together, they had started a small but delicious effort to sneak Pepsi back into Nathan’s life and pay Bethany Anne back for her No-Pepsi-On-My-Battle-Station edict.

  With this recipe, they would be able to make little batches and keep them in their suite. Nathan had already ordered the necessary ingredients and loaded the request to the group on ships that were involved in the massive worldwide effort to grab last minute supplies. Fortunately, he would be able to run his purchases into a supply pickup just hours from now.

  No one the wiser.

  He turned to kiss Ecaterina. “Have I told you I love your devious Romanian mind?”

  “Is that all?” she asked, returning his kiss.

  “No, but you need carbs for the rest,” he said.

  New York City, New York, USA

  Ted looked at Tabitha. “Politics.” he answered.

  She mumbled something and even though he was standing just two feet in front of her, he couldn’t understand her, but someone did.

  “Bullshit,” she retorted. “You were on a normal case just forty-eight hours ago.” Her hand waved at his living room. “And, there were seven bugs in your home.”

  He looked around. “What?”

  She didn’t answer him. “So, you do have a girlfriend now, and what, she’s missing?”

  All of the blood left his face as he stared at her. “Tabitha, these people aren’t shitting around. They grabbed Monica, told me to contact you as best I could and pray that I could get you to come here.”

  Tabitha turned to face him and the yellow shield dropped, allowing him to see her eyes. They didn’t look kind. “Who is ‘they,' Ted?”

  “Government, I think.”

  “That’s just fan-fucking-tastic,” Tabitha huffed. “And the building out of town, a ruse?”

  He shook his head. “No, that’s real. I’m supposed to get you over there.”

  “Achronyx, give me a view of the place outside of town,” her eyes were unmistakably watching something she could see, but Ted couldn’t. “Drop a set of psy-spies on that area, and see what we can find inside the building as well.” Her eyes switched from looking slightly to her left and up, to her right and down. “We have company.”

  “What? Who?”

  “Dark van, no windows, coming down the street.” She leveled her gaze at him. “Do I lay your ass out, or are you in?”

  “In what?” Ted asked, “Tabitha, those are bad motherfuckers out there who have a woman in trouble because she was interested in a guy who happened to know you, and through you, TQB.”

  Tabitha ignored his comment but did clarify her question. “Are you up for saving her, or do you want me to deliver her to you when I’m done?”

  Ted stared at Tabitha for a long moment. Once again, this was the other Tabitha, not the one who played around. “What will happe
n to her if I stay here?”

  “I’ll do my best to grab her and move her to a safe place,” she told him, “I’ll knock you out, and give you an alibi.”

  Ted’s face twisted. “Fuck them.” He headed towards his room. He noticed the orb following him.

  It didn’t look like Tabitha was going to trust him, and frankly, she had every right not to. He dropped to his knees beside his bed and reached under to pull out a case that was two feet wide and four long. It was a bit tricky to get out, but when he had it, he entered the combination and opened it. Inside was a bulletproof vest and two 1911s plus plenty of mags, holsters for his guns and a jacket specially fitted to help him hide the weapons. He pulled it all out and started getting it on.

  It grated on him to go against authority. This armament was the closest he ever got to doing what Tabitha had when she went vigilante here in New York in the past. He had been working on a case to uncover those who were cooking the New York Police Department computers to falsify the data in their databases by judiciously tagging some higher level crime with lower level flags.

  Unfortunately, his case hadn’t been sanctioned by his boss. Further, it might have been his attempt to do that which had attracted the attention of this group, and now Monica was involved.

  He didn’t like playing the hero, here. It had been more of a romantic notion than a real desire to play the uber-hero. But now, his half-assed approach was requiring him to go all in.

  He put on the heavy bulletproof vest and then his holsters.

  He loaded both pistols and locked their thumb safeties in place when he heard Tabitha’s voice. “Take my suitcase up to the roof, I’ll meet you there.”

  He turned to step out of his room to see her slide her coat back on. This time, she was a little bulkier.

  She had brought armor.

  “Give me two minutes before you leave. It will be safe by then,” she said as she locked on some sort of black headgear that fit on her goggles and wrapped around her head.

  A woman had walked into his apartment. Perhaps a badass woman, but still a woman.