WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12) (12 page)

“Yes, of course.”

“Do you mind taking a walk? Some of your responses might be personal.”

“Oh, no problem.” Yuko stood up, grabbed her white sweater from the back of her chair and called out to her group as she walked out, “Going to take a personal call, send me an alert if you need me!”

She got a few responses, half the group probably had their headphones blasting their favorite music as they traveled the dystopian digital web doing bad things to bad people for good reasons.

She went through the large meeting and eating area and waved to a couple of friends from the Wechselbalg group. She had been taking a few martial arts classes to increase her body strength. Even though she was a goddess on the Internet, she was a wilted flower in real life.

She had aspirations to be a rose with thorns.

“Ok, ADAM, what are we talking about?” She walked to the edge of the protection area, not wanting to trust that no one was aiming a missile at them right at that moment.

“I want to ask you, if I may, about your conversations with your father?” He asked.

This time, she exhaled loudly, “You haven’t shared have you?”

“No.”

“Ok, good. I would not want to waste Queen Bethany Anne’s time with something so unimportant.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “He is a typical arrogant father. Always right and never listening or worse, hearing.”

“What are you telling him?”

“I thought you were reading my emails?”

“While I am aware of their contents, that does not mean I understand the emotions behind them,” ADAM explained.

 
“I have tried to explain on multiple occasions that I am working for a company that is trying to benefit the world. He seems constitutionally incapable of believing that I have made something of myself. He believes that women should be at home, attending to the house and feeding babies. Aiieee.” She stomped her foot on the ground. “He upsets me so much!”

She started walking to the right dodging the occasional small boulder in her way. She was careful to stay within the safety perimeter net. “I have no idea how my mother is able to stay with him.”

“Could it be that she had expectations taught to her from another generation?” ADAM asked.

“Well, of course. Don’t misunderstand me, I understand how she could be dealing with it. It is what she knows, but it is not what I know. If my father knew when I lived at home what I had been doing on the Internet, I am sure he would have banned me a long time ago. However, since most of my hacking was done with ASCII screens, and code, even when he was looking over my shoulder, it meant nothing to him.”

Yuko stopped at a boulder and jumped the few inches to sit on the top moving back to a comfortable position. “I know, I know … it is like so many other things. My parents and perhaps those of their generation still think in the past, regardless of how our cities and our people have accustomed themselves to technology. My father has had a cell phone for ten years, but he only uses it to make calls. He refuses to understand how text messaging works.”

“If you could change him with a snap your fingers, how would you have him act?”

Yuko had to stop and think about that for a second. The first response made her realize that she should not snap her fingers and change her father. At least, not against his will because then anything he said wasn’t real. “That was not a nice question to ask me,” she finally admitted.

Adam replied, “Whether it was nice or not, I can’t judge. I am merely asking how you would like him to change if you could make it happen.”

Yuko pondered his question a few minutes in silence. She watched as what looked like a star glided slowly through the sky. She wondered if it was a satellite, or was it the ArchAngel up there? “Adam, where is the Defender right now?”

“It is on station near the transition point the alien ship used to enter our galaxy.”

“Oh, just curious.” She sighed heavily, “I don’t know that I have an answer to your question. If I ask for what I want, it isn’t my father anymore that is reacting to me. Perhaps, I would wish the opportunity to prove to him without any doubt, that what I am telling him is true. Then, he will be left with his prejudices laid out plainly. I will just have to accept, if that were to happen, what he would do at that point. If he chose to hold on to his dogma, I would have to be able to walk away and know that I tried.” She looked around and put on her sweater against the chilling night.

“Very mature answer,” ADAM came back with, after a few seconds.

“Thank you, that means a lot to me, Adam,” Yuko said into the night.

Hundreds of miles above the Australian outback, the world’s first truly artificial intelligence, told his host he appreciated her advice.

He was able to use it to help his friend.

QBS ArchAngel, The Bitch’s Workout Area

Bethany Anne stood in the middle of the workout area, practice swords resting at her side. “Eric, I’m pretty sure Gabrielle is ok with being asked on a date to a restaurant, not necessarily would she look forward to the same type of invitation to an ass-kicking.” She moved her two swords around, limbering up, “So, is this about her, or about you?”

Eric, stretching on the floor looked up to his boss, “Well, a little of both, perhaps?” He leaned back to grab his foot and put his head on his knee. His voice muffled, he continued, “I need to prove to her she doesn’t have to protect me again, and to myself, I’m up to speed.”

“Up to speed, or superior?” Bethany Anne asked.

Eric rolled backward, pushing off with his arms to flip in the air, landing back on his feet. “Well, can I admit between us that my culture is very male dominated?”

“This isn’t about your culture if you think domination is going to be a good thing,” Bethany Anne warned.

“It isn’t domination, boss, it is equality. I screwed up in South America. That caused a somewhat childish reaction with me around her, and then we got into our rhythm. Now, I think that stuff has fallen by the wayside, and I like the woman. Still, I’m not going to be thought of as
that guy
. If we are going to have a good, solid opportunity, I need to know I’m not
that
guy anymore.”

“And so, training with me is going to do what, exactly?”

Eric looked to Bethany Anne, worry in his eyes, “Get me ready for Stephen, I hope.”

Lowering her swords, Bethany Anne asked, “Stephen?”

“Yeah,” he called over his shoulder as he went to the wall to pick up the other two swords, “another culture thing. I know I’m a grown man, she’s a grown woman and let’s not talk about age here. However, my culture and my mom, God rest her soul, would be livid if I don’t ask her Dad’s permission to date her.” He walked back and finished, “Don’t get me wrong, I need to be ready for Gabrielle’s swords, too.”

“Well…shit.” Bethany Anne said, “That’s kind of romantic. Are all Hispanics this romantic?”

Eric smiled and walked to stand ten feet in front of Bethany Anne, “We are Latin, there is a reason Latin and love both start with the letter
L
.” He grinned then admitted, “and lust, have you seen our ladies?”

“Yes,” Bethany Anne settle into a guard position, “and are you going to talk about how the men are known for cheating?”

Eric shrugged, “You can’t judge every Hispanic man based on …”

Bethany Anne jumped forward slashing down, “Every stereotype about cheating Hispanic men?”

Blocking the attack and bringing his sword around, Eric answered, “It’s a cultural thing. Hispanic men are focused on the man is the man, the woman is the woman.” He counterattacked which was blocked, “Men have to always prove they are male. It’s why boxing is so prevalent.”

“And sex?” Bethany Anne asked, blocking Eric’s attempts. They were keeping a slow rhythm going while they spoke.

“It’s like fighting, another way to prove you are a man in the culture,” Eric responded, the sweat starting to show as Bethany Anne didn’t let up the attack. He could sense that she was making sure he had the basics down. If he screwed up, the mistake was going to be painful.

“I’ve always wondered why the women accepted that shit,” she replied, switching up the attack style. Eric barely caught on in time before he figured out the rhythm. She thought to keep this going until it seemed he had the response in his muscle memory. The Pod Doc’s enhancements helped.

“Well,” Eric responded, finally catching on to the sword style, “it’s not like they are OK with it. However,” Eric tried to swing an attack into the mix, but it was quickly batted away, and he had to fight to get his rhythm back.

“Stop being so impatient with your attacks. You have to seek to own the defense, and you don’t. It’s a weakness you have, always trying to prove something.”

He nodded his understanding, then continued their conversation, “So, the women aren’t ok with it, but they think of it differently. For an American woman, who think their men are in love with the other woman when it’s probably really sex. Love and sex are the same thing to American women. In Latin culture, the women think that there is love, and there is sex. They aren’t going to be ok with infidelity and by God…” Eric had to stop a moment when Bethany Anne changed up the attacks on him before switching back again. He handled the transition pretty well.
 

He would give himself a B-minus on that one.

“So,” he continued, “they aren’t going to be ok with it, but it doesn’t hold the same stigma against them with women and friends close to them as it would here. Well not up here in space, but in America.”

“Huh,” Bethany Anne started walking around Eric continuing the sword attacks, making him move left, then right as she kept switching up her attack angle, “Why do you think American men cheat less?”

“Infidelity is a huge social no-no in the U.S. Most family and friends are going to ostracize the guy except his immediate family and very closest friends,” he replied, deciding against an attack he would have usually tried.

“Not if you are a singer or actor, I think,” Bethany Anne replied, “but then people love the superstar and are willing to forgive them more.”

Eric stilled his breathing and worked to remember what John told him.

Then, he attacked.

—

Pleased with Eric’s attack, Bethany Anne allowed him to continue setting the higher pace. John was right, Eric had been practicing the advanced vampiric tactics.

The two of them stayed at this level for about ten minutes before Eric ratcheted the pace higher up again.

This time, he was sweating pretty hard. Bethany Anne had started sweating about ten minutes ago herself. Eric was showing he had the stamina, now it was time to see if he could put together what John had been teaching him.

It was time to bring the
pain
.

—

“Gott Verdammt!” Eric breathed hard, jumping to the side when Bethany Anne’s blade sliced through the air where his head had been.
Apparently, she was only setting him up to have a one-on-one meeting with her foot.
“Oomph!” He blasted back thirty feet, slamming into the wall. Eric dodged to his left as soon as he landed on the floor, knowing from his workouts with John that some sort of nasty shit was coming soon.

He was pleased to hear a loud ‘bang!’ and then Bethany Anne cursing. The wall, apparently, was hard enough to take anything she could dish out and pay her back for it.

Eric didn’t stop to enjoy the moment. He continued using the stored Etheric energy he had been piling up, for a week, in anticipation of this fight. He ran, jumped, and somersaulted and landed facing where Bethany Anne would be coming from.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t there.

Eric clenched his teeth. If she wasn’t in front of him…

Then may God bless him for the shit he was about to receive because it was going to hurt like hell.

—

Now, it wasn’t about testing, it wasn’t about learning, it was about
survival
.

John had never pushed him this hard and Eric was coming up with new reactions he didn’t know he had in him, to try and keep Bethany Anne’s blades away from his mother’s favorite boy.

She didn’t give up, she didn’t give in, and Bethany Anne certainly didn’t think the session was over. Twice before he had tried to talk to her, she redoubled her efforts, and he got hit six times. It was simply, “Boss…” then, “Ow damn OW fuck-me-SHIT!”