It's Hell To Choose (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 9) (11 page)

Take a look out there, what do you see?

Ummm…People?

I see over a hundred and fifteen people modified by Kurtherians in one way or another. I see humans that are lining up to die, TOM. I see humans having to deal with changes to their bodies, some for over a century.

I…I’m sorry, Bethany Anne. I hadn’t stopped to consider this.

I know, TOM. I’m not judging you. I’m reminding both of us that we are setting up some of these in front of us to die. Perhaps here on Earth, maybe in space. Friends, brothers, family and compatriots. I’m afraid the chatter ADAM has found, and now Frank is watching, is confirming we are going to be against powerful agencies here on Earth, as well.

All I can do is tell you what I know of the Clans. Well, that and I know there are other Races out there that love to fight.

Well? So do Humans.

Bethany Anne spoke clearly, “You have been introduced in one form or fashion to every person up here. Some by Gabrielle, some by Nathan.” She looked over to the Wechselbalg.

“The differences between Vampires and Wechselbalg are due to technology, nothing more. The reality is both alien technologies which affect us were introduced here on Earth for one thing -
war
.”

There was a slight stirring on the Wechselbalg side. She noticed Ecaterina in the back of the group. The way she understood it, they had a calming effect on the Wechselbalg’s innate desire to act up.

“You have heard the news, and you know some of the details. We are presently working to expand our base on the moon, complete our first space station, start mining for materials, and build the production facilities to create spacecraft.”

This time, the murmurs increased a little as they took in the scope of what she just said. The moon base had been explained to them. The space station was new information and so were the production facilities.

Fortunately, Jakob Yadav had already started handling the ‘requests for her time’ coming from a multitude of interests. Some news organizations, some non-profit, some business and a few related to countries.

Including Paraguay. While Paraguayans were ‘proud’ that their country was the first to go to space with the new technology, they weren’t very happy about not knowing before everyone else. Officials from the government had arrived at the location where TQB testing had occurred with their military helicopters to find nothing but a large area devoid of trees and mud.

Lots and lots of mud.

Bethany Anne continued, “We will be making choices. Not just for ourselves, but for our neighbors. Those next door, those across the city, another state, and other countries. We will be making choices for those we love, and those we hate.” She looked around. “Understand this statement, you will be fighting for those who hate you, vilify you, and would spit on you. Well,” she smiled at them, “If they could spit up to space, anyway!”

She received a few chuckles. “We won’t get there without upsetting a lot of people. They won’t understand because I’m not going to tell them ‘why’ we are doing this. We are working on ways to handle the bad press. But the reality is most will choose what is easy rather than what is hard. Especially when what they have to go on is a vague concept of the enemy at best.”

“Hard is just fucking hard!” She grinned, “And if there is one thing we know, it's that hard is what we do better than anyone.” Her smile turned feral, “And when challenged, we hit back, and we hit back hard.
 
If others play nice, we play nice.”

“If not?” she sighed loudly, the weight of leadership heavy on her shoulders, “Then it’s hell to choose, but I will choose the future over the present. I will choose opportunity over status quo, and I will choose freedom over subjugation.”

She continued, “There is always freedom to choose. Freedom to make something of yourself as we move forward. This group is composed of a lot of Americans, and due to that, some ‘Americanisms’ are bound to occur. The first is that you respect leadership, but trust comes with time, with testing, and with trials.”

“I am to understand that every Wechselbalg here has been informed you may test your prowess against my Own, my Guardian's lead and should you pass, you may test your mettle against me?”

This caused a murmur again. No one had told them they could rise up high enough to fight Bethany Anne herself.

“No?” She grinned, “That is because where you come from, fighting is a sport. My team has been tested in fire, in blood, in bullets, and in mayhem. We have fought in the Florida Everglades, from the countries in South America to the mountains of Turkey, and beyond to Asia. I’ll be honest, your chance of beating any on this stage is infinitesimally small. However, I leave that option open. If you can win through, you get to fight me.”

She turned to the Vampires, “I understand your oath restricts you from this display. Just know we will spar later. I will have you understand your present limitations and how I expect you to step up!”

A complete hush fell across as Bethany Anne allowed her visage to change, her eyes to glow red as she turned back to look at both groups. The Vampires went down to one knee as her fangs grew and she pushed out her mind towards all in attendance and sent her voice into each one staring at her now.

My name is Bethany Anne. I am the Queen Bitch. I am the only one you will kneel to until you die, or leave my service. For some, that means on your shield, for others when your agreement is up.

Until that time, you are forbidden to answer to anyone but who I appoint. No outside interest controls you, commands you, or summons you, but me.

Is this understood?

Even the five standing behind Nathan shouted their ‘Yes!’ with gusto.

Nathan himself was having trouble coming to grips with the change in his leader since he left to go work with the Wechselbalg. When he had left, Bethany Anne was a leader, charismatic and decisive.

Now? Now she commanded all of those attributes and a force of will elevated above what she had before. She was truly a Queen now; it wasn’t just her title.

It is who she had become!

Jakob was waiting for Bethany Anne when she stepped into his office. He looked up and smiled, “How did it go?”

Darryl had poked his head in right before Bethany Anne’s arrival. Jakob could hear him snort from right outside his door and say, “About like a rambunctious high school football player deciding he was good enough to play in the pros. It was over so fast that the last contestant admitted he wasn’t expecting much, but he just had to know. So, this time, John didn’t break any of his bones, he just picked him up and knocked him out.”

“I take it they all want to go against John?”

Bethany Anne grinned as she took the cushy black chair that was in his office. “It was a gimme.” she got comfortable. “Once Nathan planted the seeds that John was the one to beat, the first guy called him out.”

“What happened?” Jakob had been curious, but Bethany Anne had told him it wouldn’t have gone over very well for the Weres to know they had been humiliated in front of humans.

“Well, John got to get a little exercise and five Weres got to take a nap. He broke legs and arms to make sure they got the picture that to fuck with him was a really, really bad idea. Never broke up a sweat, but would allow them to throw a few punches, kicks, or attacks. That would go on until Michael would casually pull up an arm to review his watch and call ‘time.' Then John would go on the offensive. He would usually catch the next attack. If it were a punch, he would stop the fist in mid air, then break their arm and punch them out. Same idea if it was a kick.”

Darryl’s voice came again from the hallway, “Tell him about you and Michael!”

She rolled her eyes. “Once the display of man testosterone was finished. Michael and I took the middle and went at it. First, we did it at normal speed, then twice as fast. When we got our rhythm down, we upped it twice more.”

Darryl peeked around the corner, “You should have seen the Vampires after the third rampup. They couldn’t even see the hits anymore, and they honest-to-god started talking to each other. They had been eeriely quiet the whole time. Now, they wouldn’t shut up. Finally, the two fighting cranked up the speed one more time, and even Gabrielle was having a hard time seeing what was going on.”
 

Darryl turned back to make sure nothing was happening in the corridor before turning to look back into the office. “She was upset when she realized you hadn’t been sparring with her as fast as you could!”

Bethany Anne shrugged, “It was Michael. I’ve had to up my game going against him just to hold my own. I can punch at him, but a lot of the time he would switch over to myst and I wouldn’t have anything to hit. God, was it frustrating!”

Her little outburst told Jakob everything he needed to know about how competitive she was. She would rise to any occasion. Defeat wasn’t an option.

For her part, Bethany Anne wasn’t going to admit that she had TOM go through every part of her body, and they had gone back up to the Spaceship to implement an update to the synapse firings to make her as fast as she could be.

She couldn’t beat Michael, but now he wasn’t able to take her either. Whenever he tried to myst to take her by surprise, she was too shrewd to stay in one place. Even when she tested staying still, she was finally able to sense his materialization and get out of the way in time.

She had been crowing to herself one time about her skills when TOM admitted there were others in the Universe that would be a difficult challenge for her. It had splashed a cold bucket of ice-water on her jubilation to realize her present skills, while elite, just put her up in a group of maybe thirty or forty of the best martial fighters in the nearby galaxy that TOM was aware of back in his time.

She hoped that her teams never had to fight one of these until they figured out how to compensate. Which, she realized, would mean it was a suitable defense against her as well.

Fuckity-Fuck!

Jakob brought the conversation back around, “I asked you here to discuss the issues ADAM has found with spy satellites.”

“Whose?” She asked.

“Everyone’s apparently, but I’m most concerned with the USA’s satellites that aren’t supposed to point down on our own country. From what ADAM can see, these are approved repositionings.”

What are you doing about the satellites?”

>>I’m sending them pictures with the area modified to still look like they did months ago and slightly out of focus.<<

Why not just send them older pictures?

>>Easily deduced and once that is done, they would all be trying to change the defensive hacking algorithms. And, they would know that their spy satellites had been hacked.<<

ADAM, track those images.

>>Understood.<<

“Ok, what do you suggest we do about them?” She inquired.

“Well, suing them isn’t a viable option. That would cause us too many other issues and then we would be on the radar of some very influential people.”

“We aren’t already?” She asked.

“Well, sure. But we haven’t had a request to speak before Congress as an example.” Jakob replied.

“Exactly how would they make me do this?” She smiled at him, and he rolled his eyes.

“Just because they can’t exactly figure out who you are, doesn’t mean that your Romanian passport will save you from further review. The longer you stay out of sight, the better.” He leaned back in his chair and chew on his pen for a moment before asking, “I don’t suppose you do ditzy well, do you?”

Bethany Anne lowered her eyes to stare at her recalcitrant House counsel when she heard Darryl snort. “No.”

“Hey, I have to ask. I didn’t think you would pull it off too well, but you asked me for my best. A ditzy interview or two and then you have some of the guys looking for the power behind the throne so to speak. Hell, half these people are still going to look for it.”

“Because I’m too young, too female or too…”

“Good looking.” Jakob supplied.

“Seriously?”

“Yes, of course. Men have issues with a woman who is too good looking. We can’t handle it internally, you see. It’s bad enough that all of our chemicals are fighting us when you come around. When you open your mouth and express your intelligence, we immediately have to try to label you a pariah, a bitch, a … Well, never mind. Too much power in your hands at that point. Well, some I suppose would just find you to be that much more of a challenge, but those guys can’t imagine someone better than them anyway.” He shrugged non-committal. “Them’s the breaks, kid.”

Bethany Anne sat back then turned her head towards the door, “Darryl, what do you think about Jakob’s comments?”

Darryl didn’t place his head inside the door this time. Rather, he called out, “Which part?”

Bethany Anne chewed her lip, “The too good looking part. Is this a problem?”
 

This time, Darryl put his head inside the door, “With the team? Hell no! We’ve seen the blood. Problem solved.”

Before he could duck back, she followed it up with, “And others?”

He stopped to consider her request, “Most guys? Yes, it’s mostly true. Obviously, not the Vampires and certainly not Michael. But for a lot of the general population it could be a challenge. But really, guys have figured out tactics when dealing with women who are intelligent and attractive. For most guys, it won’t be an issue because you will be out of reach, and therefore you will be a fantasy, not a reality. It’s the women you have to worry about.”