It's Hell To Choose (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 9) (7 page)

Cheryl Lynn looked at her for a moment trying to figure out where she was going, “Don’t we have enough ships?”

“Actually, I’m thinking something like a medium sized cruise liner. Have it retrofitted as quickly as possible and invite the people who are going to be changed. They would be rotated through the Ad Aeternitatem so that we can inject them with nanite blood. Put them to sleep before the effort, shoot them with the infusion, let them rest a few hours and wake them up in a room full of machinery and then wheel them out.“ She rotated her head about her shoulders, “That way, everyone has a memory of a sophisticated medical room with lots of equipment.”

“Red herring,” Eric commented. “You think that if the ships go out to sea, not as many people can surround them?” he continued.

Bethany Anne turned her head toward Eric, “Yes, not too many people can walk on water these days. I’m sure we are going to get enough rich folks who have boats that will try to track them so we need to come up with another solution in case it becomes too busy right around the ships.”

“What about a method for leaving quickly? Something like a superior propulsion system?” he asked.

“I think I may have a good idea on that. Is it okay to get with Marcus first?” Cheryl Lynn interrupted.

Bethany Anne turned back to Cheryl Lynn, “Sure, I don’t mind. If Bobcat and Jeffrey give the idea a thumbs up, go ahead, and implement it. I’m sure whatever they agree to will be satisfactory.”

Cheryl Lynn smirked. She had just been given a blank check from Bethany Anne.

London, England

Stephanie Lee exited the armored Mercedes and stepped inside the opened door. This hotel had a special back entrance built so that the elite could enter and exit without worrying about paparazzi or the multiple cameras that surrounded the city.

Rank hath its privileges.

She nodded to the second gentleman who held a door open for her. She pulled off her gloves as she walked down the hallway to the private elevators. She hit the open button, and after a few seconds, stepped inside, turned around and hit the button for the penthouse.

When she arrived at the top floor, the doors opened, and she nodded to the two men on either side who were standing and verifying everyone who came through.

The elevator opened into a circular room approximately twelve feet in diameter with a door on the far side which was immediately opened by a third individual. She walked through that door, and it was closed behind her.

She kept the small look of disgust off of her face. She was not fond of Johann Pecora, but he did represent many incredibly powerful companies.

“Stephanie,” Johann nodded in her direction.

“Johann,” She replied and then stepped over to the bar. She picked up water and turned back to the small group. Beside Johann stood Beatrice Silvers, who represented a large contingent of companies from both Ireland and the United Kingdom, and Terrance Burrens, representing companies in France, Spain, and Germany.

Together, the four of them made up over fifty-eight percent of the number of enterprises and over seventy-two percent of the financial muscle of the ‘Sub-Assembly for the Advancement of the Human Race’. With Anna Elisabeth stepping out of the group, twenty-five percent of the money and twelve percent of the companies had also left.

She had represented a large portion of the group, but when the current plan proved fruitful, it would strengthen the four of them, and Switzerland would lose a significant amount of reputation.

“I appreciate the three of you joining me here so quickly. I have had conversations with those I represent back in China. Let me be frank, is there any type of coercion your members will not accept?” She took a swallow of water while waiting for their answers.

Johan spoke first, “No. However it would be preferable if diplomatic efforts were tried first.”

Beatrice waved that off, “That has already been tried. We have used forty-two different avenues to implore TQB Enterprises to work with others related to their space technology. None of them have proved fruitful. In fact, their responses are annoyingly succinct. They say “We apologize. However, this technology is not available to the general public at this time. We will keep your information and should this decision be changed, we will get back with you.”

“Fourteen ourselves,” Terrance added.

Stephanie Lee looked over to Johann, who made a face of disgust.
 
“One hundred and seventy-two” he admitted.

She wanted to slap the man! “And why are you asking for diplomatic methods?”

He shrugged, “We thought perhaps it had something to do with American companies. She seems to have connections all over the world.”

Beatrice asked for clarification, “But she has a base sitting in the middle of your country! Most of her top personnel seem to be Americans.”

Johann shrugged, “We are still trying to get a handle on that. It could be that most of her relationships evolved around America, and now she is branching out. However, all of our answers seem to be aligned with your results as well. Short, succinct, annoyingly trite.” He sniffed. “We have made a few runs on her companies that have stock. Not only were they blocked, but her teams, whoever they are, were able to acquire a superior position during the stock manipulation efforts. We have figured out that they have some excellent options people.”

He took a swallow of his amber drink.
 
“When it looks like we are going to run up the price for a stock drop, they made money on option calls and before we can drop the price, Puts are in place to earn money on the drop. Anytime there is significant activity and volatility, there are butterfly spreads. Our people have looked, and whenever we attack a company without options, we find activity in sympathetic verticals that react to our efforts. We have been able to keep our losses to between sixty-five and seventy-five million at the moment, but we are pretty sure they have acquired the majority interest in four additional companies and have realized a surplus of close to sixty million.”

“That speaks to some significant smarts,” Terrance considered “and a fund manager that knows the industry incredibly well. They must have an enormous amount of computer power. What is being done on that front?”

“What isn’t?” Johann admitted, “We have over twenty-five hundred attack vectors focused on their Colorado base to get in.”

“What are the results so far?” Beatrice asked.

“About the same as yours, I imagine.” Johann grumped.
 
“Don’t try to tell me none of your companies aren’t also trying desperately to be the first company to crack their security?”

“Oh, we are.” Terrance continued “and I would agree we have had no success. It has become a challenge more than a project to many of our best and brightest.”

Terrence turned to Stephanie, “We have noticed a significant drop in attacks on our companies. Would you care to provide any insight?”

Stephanie smiled, “I can neither confirm nor deny that the Chinese government and corporations have decided that acquiring TQB Enterprises technology is a superior goal at this time.” She took a sip of her water, “However, personally I believe that whoever is able to crack the data first is going to make a killing. Either through sharing the technology or learning what to do and then bringing it to market.”

Johann said “If we don’t share the technology, and TQB Enterprises has the opportunity, I’m sure they will sue the hell out of anyone who makes themselves a target.”

Stephanie nodded, “Speaking of targets, we have to discuss the effort for any physical attacks.”

Terrence smiled, “I was wondering when you would get to that point. It does seem that you guys are a little more impatient than usual.”

Stephanie wanted to lash out at the man, even if he was correct. It was just rude to mention it in polite company. “We believe that an attack on their ships, the Polaris and Ad Aeternitatem, are our best options. Presently, they are off the coast of France and are eventually going to enter international waters.”

Johann questioned “Do you need support? Or are you asking us to create diversionary efforts?”

Stephanie knew that all of them would want to take very limited risk, but would certainly want to be there when they cracked open the treasure chests. “No, the military aspect is not a joint operation. You are welcome to try this on your own.”

Beatrice looked disgusted, “Not from our group. The Swiss have totally fouled up anyone’s courage in that regard. I don’t know why our people listen to them at all, but it’s like everyone has lost their balls or something.”

Terrence just raised his drink in Beatrice’s direction.

The Cabal was simply one more relationship the Chinese used and, to date, they had honored all commitments and kept everything as honest as any of the members. However, the upper government had stepped in and, over the angry voices of many of the top business leaders, the rules had changed.

“It would be a legal thing for us,” Johann said, “since they are so tied in with us in America, they could make it pretty damned hot for us from both a legal and PR perspective. If they find any Americans in a raid and could provide proof, I shudder at the problems that would bring.”

Such a shame, Stephanie thought, because mercenary groups with Americans involved were integral to her plans.

Costa Rica

“What we want, Mr. Simmons,” the female voice said from the speakerphone, “is for your experienced direction and a procured team to work with ours to infiltrate and deliver packages to the base in Colorado.”

It wasn’t odd for Phillip Simmons to work with external contacts. Due to his long involvement in South American black operative efforts, he had made multiple weird relationships work in the past.

Although this would be one of the oddest yet.

He had spent a couple of days up in Washington with Terry, who was spending time in a military hospital. His brain had been fried and couldn’t recognize his own boss and one of his better friends.

Well, at least Terry’s own boss.

The look of fear on Terry DeLeon’s face when Phillip went to see him was telling. Phillip didn’t know what could have caused it, but he knew it wasn’t ‘right’ for Terry to be acting this way. Something was going on in that base, and Phillip wanted to know what it was. While he doubted it was good for America, at this point it had become an obsession for him to get back at that group.

Phillip had lost the chance to grab the analyst in Washington DC, but he had found enough information to confirm his suspicions so far.

This group had shot his men, stopped his efforts, and mind wiped Terry. Further, he was now able to associate the CEO’s partner with some substantial efforts down here in South America. It seemed that Michael, no last name that he could figure out, had been secretly working with groups to repatriate money or, in his estimation, probably using the money for bribes. Either way, he was attempting to affect three different countries here in South America.

This group was too dominant in his estimation. They needed to be knocked down at least a couple of pegs, if not more, and he was personally going to be responsible for helping to accomplish that.

Unfortunately, it would have to be completely off the books. There was no way he could be associated with anything going back to actions inside the United States.

“Unfortunately Ms. Lee, I will not be able to provide any physical resources to accomplish any missions inside of the United States. Having said that, I am open to personally reviewing and helping plan efforts to both create a diversionary attack which would then allow a primary attack on the base to occur. My expectation is that we could insert devices for data acquisition as well as infrastructure destruction.”

“And what would you require in exchange for the support?” Ms. Lee asked.

“I want the data to be shared. Understand, I am aware that you will desire to renege on this agreement. I will have insurance in place should that occur.”

“Of course, it is good that we understand each other.” She said “from our satellite pictures, it seems that the base is substantially defended at this time with what look like emplacements. Unfortunately, we cannot ascertain the type of defensive armament.”

“We were trying to learn that ourselves when my asset was neutralized” Philip said. “We have tried using long-range telephoto lenses and have seen enough to believe they are barreled weapons of some sort. They are not manned, and if I didn’t know better, I would say they are a type of railgun technology.”