It's Hell To Choose (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 9) (32 page)

Kevin swore and looked away, “She feels like she sent her love to his death?”

“At a minimum. Oh, she will know the intellectual arguments, but the only reason we don’t have massive fucking holes on this earth right now is that TOM is only allowing her to feel enough grief so the dam doesn’t burst. He’s been through this once before. Maybe not at quite so high a level, but he is better prepared for the reaction this time.”

Lance looked up into the sky, “If I know her, and I do, she is trying to convince herself this pretty blue ball is worth saving right now.” Lance turned back to Kevin. “When she is finished up there, we need to be prepared.”

“Why?” Kevin asked, “Lance, you have to remember that I never knew her nearly as well as you. Even now, I’m not close.”

“Kevin, what did we, as a nation, do after the terrorists hit our country and attacked the twin towers?” Lance asked the younger man.

“We came together, and we attacked…” Kevin grimaced, then his shoulders slumped, “Someone has really, really made a big-time mistake.”

Lance grunted, “It had to have been several someone’s. ADAM is researching it now, but even with the help of his human posse, it's hard to find everyone involved. They have a good correlation with a group that is tangentially associated with the UN, but that connection is a farce. It is a bunch of conglomerates.”

“Commercial interests, then?” Kevin asked, “because I guessed state-backed interests.”

“Hell, Kevin. It’s probably both, all and everyone.” Lance looked around the base, “We will keep most of this base online, but the core group will move.”

“Our people? Wounded or dead?” Kevin asked.

“Wounded should be on pods and moved to the Ad Aeternitatem. The dead will have a service, first.” Lance answered.

“Michael?” Kevin asked.

Lance shook his head, “We have nothing. Based on our readings, he made it as far as the valley and then it detonated. Considering the evidence, the bomb wasn’t all the way in the valley, but rather still close to the lip. ADAM calculates he threw it but was then caught in the blast.”

“What about the police and the reporters?” Kevin asked.

“Jakob still working that angle?”

Kevin barked a laugh, “Him and ADAM, apparently. All of the incorrect paperwork is eventually going to catch someone’s attention.”

“Can’t be helped. I’m not letting her deal with this alone. I wasn’t there for so much of her life, and I’ll be damned if I don’t support her right now. They can stick me in jail. She will just get me right back out,” Lance said.

Kevin smiled, “Pretty sure of that?”

Lance returned the smile, “I’m damned sure of that. If it happens, I’ll be sure to flip off the video camera when we leave. Maybe I’ll moon them, too.”

“Sir?” Lance turned to one of the Guardians who was holding up a radio, “She’s coming down, now.” Lance nodded his thanks.

“Make it happen, Kevin. Get everyone in the upper levels out of here before the legal shit is figured out. No one else here knows anything. We’ve left a lot of Williams CNC crap in the old lair, plus some encrypted drives in Marcus’s old office. They will play with that forever before they figure out it isn’t worth anything.”

“Monkey’s paw?” Kevin asked.

“Yup,” Lance agreed. “Go on, she will be down any moment, and I’ll be fine. Plus, John is with her.”

Kevin grinned, “I don’t care how nice he is, John is still one scary mother fucker.”

Lance nodded, “Yeah, but for Bethany Anne, he’s a walking teddy bear.”

Kevin shivered as he walked away, “That’s a scary teddy bear!” he hollered over his shoulder.

Lance chuckled. It wasn’t but half a minute later when the two Black Eagles came into view and then quickly descended to land fifteen feet ahead of him. He walked over to her Pod and stood outside of it. Trying his hand on the security lock, he was surprised when the attempt produced an audible click, and the cockpit door came up. He looked at Bethany Anne, sure that her red, bloodshot eyes came from two hours of continuous crying.

Lance leaned into the pod and enveloped his daughter in a hug. It had taken only a second before she was rocking against him, her quiet sobbing tearing at his heart.

His shirt quickly becoming soaked with her tears.

QBS Polarus - Atlantic Ocean
 

“Captain Thomas,” Comms Specialist Winger spoke up, “We are being hailed by both Russian and American warships. They are telling us that their arrival will be within the hour.”

“And do what, help us wash the salt off our ships?” Captain Thomas asked. “Tell the Russian ships, ‘Nyet’ and the American ‘Thank you, but no thanks’. You can add ‘we won’t be here for them to worry about’.
 
I plan on testing our ability to fly...oh...say a few thousand miles before we land.
 
Helm, take us to the Caribbean.
 
That should help a few people recuperate.”

Winger turned around and got back to dealing with the incoming requests. Winger was sure they would be unhappy with his Captain’s response.

—

“It’s a media circus, now” Mark commented.
 
Sia was on one side, Giannini on the other, as they watched the two jets fly past every couple of minutes. The Ad Aeternitatem had dropped off life rings to all of those who were alive in the water but refused to bring them onto their ships. Most of the civilian craft had left over an hour ago. All except one, but even the captain of that ship kept well away from those in the ocean.

The speaker came on, “This is the Captain speaking, would all personnel presently on the outside deck, please come inside. This is a mandatory requirement. All personnel outside must come inside. We are leaving this location. You have ninety seconds to comply.”

The three news people shrugged, but turned and grabbed their stuff. None felt like arguing with the Captain right now. That was a good way to get tossed off the boat, and none of them felt like getting into a life raft right now.

—

Sia pulled the camera out of the bag when they got on the observation deck, and Mark went to the full window. Giannini straightened her hair. Their teamwork had meshed and was operating like a well-oiled machine.

“Is something happening?” a gentleman asked. “You seem to be setting up, do you know anything?”

Giannini turned to the gentleman, “Mr.?”

“Oh!” He held out his hand, “Where are my manners? My name is Omar Kolan.”

“Giannini Oviedo, Mr. Kolan. I’m a news reporter” she started to say but was interrupted.

“Oh, Ms. Oviedo, we all know who you are!” he smiled. “Those of us who follow TQB Enterprises have watched your documentaries multiple times.”

“Oh, ok” she stopped for a second, then answered his earlier question, “No, Mr. Kolan. We don’t know that anything particular is happening, but anytime something weird starts, you can figure…”
 
She paused as the deep thrum of the engines changed.

“Oh, my God…” Sia remarked as she started playing with her camera, “We are going up, folks!”

There were multiple cries of surprise. Displaying a lot of interest and increased talking, those on the observation deck crowded the full height of the windows.

Mark started talking, “This is Mark Billingsly, with an on-the-spot news release. The command group of three QBS ships, that were just attacked a short while ago have decided to leave the area. Not by the usual method a ship would use, however. Instead, the ships are flying out of here. Behind me, you can see the Ad Aeternitatem with six of the black Pods hovering around the ship has risen above the surface of the ocean. The water is flowing down its sides, and the ship has now passed our eye level.”

The ship shook underneath them for a short second or two and then steadied. Mark turned to view out the window and then remembered he was recording, “Folks, it looks like it is our turn to go…”

—

“Sir, The Russians require us to stay in the area,” Winger reported back to Captain Bartholomew Thomas.

Captain Thomas turned and smiled at his Comms specialist, “Tell them I’ll wait for them when their ships can catch me.” Winger started to turn around. The Captain interjected, “And…” as Winger stopped to look back to his Captain. “Tell the American commander when he calls to
kiss my ass
.” Winger smiled and finished turning around.

A minute later, Captain Thomas heard Winger, “Yes, those were his exact words, ‘kiss my ass’.
 
Yes, I think Captain Thomas knows exactly who your commander is. No, I don’t believe that you guys are going to catch us. No, not unless you can fly, and I’m not speaking metaphorically.”

Thomas snorted, he didn’t know Winger used words such as ‘metaphorically’.

Berlin - Germany

Stephanie Lee turned on her phone and used the data wi-fi in the coffee shop in Berlin to download a conference-call application. She used that software to dial in at the prearranged time.

No one provided any names. Everyone knew each other.

“Well” Johann voiced, “that was spectacularly unsuccessful.”

His venom was understandable, but unpleasant and unnecessary. If she hadn’t been told she had to deal with him, she would have dropped all contact.

“And when,” he continued, “Were you going to let us know about the attack on the TQB Ships?”

“That wasn’t me!” Lee hissed. At least, there should be nothing that connected the effort to her direct interests.

“That was a Chinese attack craft!” he spat. “The operative word in that very…short…sentence was
‘Chinese’
.”

“It can be bought by other Chinese!” She found herself taking the side of the innocent very successfully. This man pissed her off so thoroughly it was easy to adopt an injured tone. “We have a billion people, so do the math - there can be more than one effort. Politics, as you Americans like to say, is riddled with backstabbing bastards.”

“Please, both of you, settle down.” The cultured voice of the English lady interjected. “We have had our hands slapped, hard. We have lost the element of surprise, and now we are going to have to work harder on the political side.”

“Like that worked so well in France.” Lee spoke to her, “Maybe you would like them to drop another Mirage Fighter under the Eiffel tower again? With video how it was rescued after shooting an unarmed cargo container up in the air and thereby damaged by its own bullets!”

“Look,” Johann said, “What is going to be the fallout here? Politicians want this tech just as badly as we do. Grease some palms, make some promises you aren’t going to keep. We played hardball, and they slammed the ball out of the park.”

What is it with Americans and their baseball metaphors?
Lee wondered.

Beatrice interrupted Johann’s metaphor, “Yes, but what happens when it is their turn to throw the ball?”

That caused the three of them to go quiet for a few moments.

Seattle, Washington State - USA

The weekend was here. Sean Truitt left Seattle behind and all his frustrations at the office. He needed to clear his head and told his wife of his plan for a weekend at their home at Cle Elum Lake.

She didn’t care, he could work as long and hard as he wanted, as long as he wasn’t diddling a floozy who planned on becoming the next Mrs. Sean Truitt. She would go out with her friends on someone's sailboat this weekend. They could catch up with each other on Monday night.

Sean left the traffic and the stress of this TQB debacle behind him. The group of twelve CEO’s had a discussion on a private Atlantic side island the previous weekend and agreed that they had to have the technology, whatever it took. If they didn’t get it, then for damn sure the Chinese would. Those bastards had no patience.

The Russians, on the other hand, had a hell of a lot of patience. Sean wouldn’t count them out, but right now he was more concerned about the group running faster than his team, not the ones waiting for everyone else to lose.

He turned on Highway 90 and kept going until the exit onto Bullfrog Road.

It was dark by the time he finally pulled off the highway.
 
The roads in the area didn’t offer him a straight shot. They could be rather twisty as he worked his way up to the lake view house. It was located on the exclusive southeast side and had a fantastic view. Given the traffic, he should arrive about an hour after dark.