WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12) (21 page)

“Oh. Ok, I get it.” Adarsh said, then added, “might I add that is atrocious visual imagery you provided. I will not be able to erase that now.”

This time, Coach joined in the laughter.

Minutes later, the two were finished, and they started their trip back to the hatch to cycle through to get inside the station.

Syria

“Where are we going?” Hamza called out to Yasin. The two of them grabbed the poles around the bed of the truck when it dropped into a particularly bad hole in the poorly graveled road.

Yasin moved back onto the wooden bench, his rifle between his legs, “Near the Syrian border. Someone is up there digging without an official permit from the Antiquities Division of the Diwan of Natural Resources.”

“Why do we care if they dig in the ground? We have others to take care of.” Hamza asked, trying to cushion the ride with his legs as best as he could.

“Money, it is always money at the end of the day, Hamza.” Yasin answered, “Don’t forget we cannot allow desecration in our lands, either.”

“How did we even find out about this in the first place?” Hamza asked, particularly annoyed with having to make the trip.

“Rumor has it the leaders were tipped off,” He turned to look at his friend, “they say there are Americans in the group.”

Yasin’s eyes grew large in surprise, and then a grin split his face, “Yasin, why didn’t you start with that? To kill American dogs is what I have been asking to do for over a year.”

Hamza lifted his hand up, “High-five brother!” The two laughed until the truck hit another pothole and both bounced painfully off of their seats. Yasin laughed at Hamza’s pitiful efforts to curse the driver of the truck and his ancestors.

Outside Tal Ajaja, Syria

It was getting close to sundown when Robert came over to Terry. He was helping Melissa review some of the items they had uncovered so far. Terry looked up, out of the pit they were in to his old friend who motioned for him to come up to speak to him.

Terry turned back to call into the dark hole, “Melissa?” He heard her curse.

“What?” she called back to him.

He smiled, she could never remember to keep her head down. Even with the hard hat he tried to make her wear, she regularly hit her head doing something stupid. While she was insanely intelligent in almost anything archeological, she was field-dig-stupid. Seems the only time she had been out on digs, they had been open pits with tent poles and large coverings to protect them from the sun. Nothing inside of dark holes.

“I’ve got to go up top for a moment to speak to Robert. Don’t do something stupid while I’m gone, ok?”

“What the hell can I do stupid in a hole in the ground?” She asked.

“Probably grab a rock that drops everything above you, crushing you to death comes to mind,” Terry replied.

Her contrite “Oh” was the best he was going to get from the academic. Terry turned and used the ladder to get out of the hole. Close to the top, Robert held out a hand to pull him up the last two steps.

Terry beat the dirt off of his pants and raised an eye when Robert didn’t say anything but waved Terry to follow him. The two of them went fifty feet away, then around an outcropping.

“What’s up?” Terry asked, “We have unwanted visitors?”

“I think so,” Robert admitted.

“Think?” Terry said, “I thought they could count the hairs on a camel’s ass. Why are we qualifying if we have visitors or not? Dammit, Robert, we can’t be guessing on whether we are going to be up to our sweet puckering assholes in Islamic fundamentalists with attitudes and weapons here. What’s with the waffling?”

“The government wag is saying that nothing is on the radar or the spy satellites.”

“Is he right?”

“Yes,” Robert admitted, “There are no large groups of vehicles coming in this direction. But, I saw a couple of images with groups of two and three from different areas heading in this direction.”

Terry put his hand up to his face and wiped his brow, “You think they know the U.S. is involved?” Robert nodded, “Aw, fuck. I don’t know why the wags won’t learn the jackasses get sneaky as shit when we are involved.” Terry looked out over the land, “How much time?”

“Based on what I’ve seen? We might have visitors as early as the morning.” Terry nodded as Robert continued, “What, if anything, do you need to do with your materials?”

Terry took in a deep breath and sighed before looking at Robert, “I’ll have to make a call and ask. Look, if we are going down the shitter and you make the call we need to use my ace-in-the-hole, I will. Just remember I’ll be sent pretty far away because of it, alright?”

“Down the river?” Robert asked, surprised.
 

“Down the river, over the waterfalls, out to the sea and then drowned I imagine.” Terry grimaced, “No, it won’t be that bad, but I will have to get out of Dodge, get me?”

Robert nodded, “I’m sorry, but if we’re going to lose people, I’ve got to call it.”
 

Terry smiled and shrugged, “I expect nothing less, Robert. No one needs to die if we can help it, but just make sure we need it, ok?”

Robert nodded and held out his hand, “Once more we face Hell together, let’s be as successful as last time, ok?”

Terry smiled and shook his hand, “Kill them all…”

Robert finished as they shook under the waning sun, “Let God sort them out.”

Yollin’s Force

“Captain, we are on station, awaiting permission to start our flight.

“This is Captain Kael-ven T’chmon - permission granted, Kiel, good hunting.”

Kiel was surprised, it was rare for Captains to issue the authorization personally, “Understood Captain, Kiel out.”

It was time to see what their ship had found. He had been at a table listening to those with more experience when younger telling a story about when they found a civilization that had backbone. The alien’s subjugation was glorious! The stories were still shared to this day.

Perhaps he and his team would be able to come back with a story or two.
 

—

“Why are we rushing?” ReaLea asked Bree, both of them jogging to catch up to the two men.

“Red!” Adarsh shouted over his shoulder as he followed Coach into his lab. Sure enough, as the ladies turned the corner, they noticed three different monitors had red symbols up on their screens.

“SHIT!” Coach exclaimed as he dropped into his chair, putting his helmet aside. “Adarsh are we sure about these readings?”

Adarsh set his helmet down and dropped into a chair behind Coach, facing the opposite group of monitors, “Give me a minute, Coach.”

“We ain’t got a damned minute!” Coach snarled, “Give me your best guess in ten seconds.” Coach punched up Penn’s number.

A second later, his voice came over the speaker, “So, Abbott and Costello made it back ok?”

“Abbott and Costello think we are about to be under attack,” Coach shot back.

“What?”

“The new detector is saying we have an anomaly approximately five hundred kilometers away from us in the opposite direction from the Moon, and several small somethings are lying doggo between the two of us.”

“Are you sure?” Penn asked, his voice getting calmer.

“No, not yet.” Coach admitted. Barely finishing his answer before the station-wide alarm started going off.

“What the hell, boss?” Coach asked, “I told you we weren’t sure.”

“Time for a surprise station drill, Coach.”

“Got them!” Adarsh called out, “And shit!”

“What shit?” Bree asked.

“It’s working, they’re real,” Adarsh answered.

“Well, that cuts it,” Penn said, “Give me an idea of how long before the visitors arrive?”
 

Adarsh answered behind Coach, “Two minutes, they just took off.”

Coach heard the phone click and a second later Penn’s voice was speaking over the alarms, “This is Station Commander Penn, we are under attack. Repeat, this is Station Commander Penn, We are Under Attack. This is not a drill. All Guardians, suit up. All secondary personnel, acquire station approved weapons. All civilians, please move to escape containers nearest your location. This is NOT a Drill.”

—

“Interesting, Captain.” Scientist Royleen commented. He was up on the bridge of the G’laxix Sphaea watching, listening and available should Kiel need any recommendations of which of these species they should grab. Melorn had been able to provide plenty of images to the Scientist, so he was well versed in the alien’s physiology.

“You are going to have to give me more to go on, than
just interesting
Royleen.” Captain T’chmon said as he hit two buttons on his chair’s armrest, changing the view of the hologram in front of them.

“The readings in the lower right-hand corner are the vibration calculations. The station has vibrations now all over.”

Captain T’chmon touched a button, “Kiel, something tripped them up. They are possibly aware of your arrival.”

“Kiel here, we are almost there, Captain. They cannot possibly be prepared for us. This will be a smash and grab.”

—

“Cafeteria area!” Coach grabbed his helmet, turned and stepped around the ladies, “Stay here,” he told Bree and ReaLea as he stepped through the hatch out of his workroom.

Adarsh grabbed his helmet.

ReaLea turned to Bree, “Did he just tell the little ladies to stay behind?” Her eyes narrowed in anger. “As a previous officer of the law, I think I should be…”

“These are aliens, they probably want females the most,” Adarsh said as he walked by the two, grabbing a knife on his way out.

“They better not want this woman,” Bree said, “I haven’t had any caffeine yet, and I’m a real bitch without my caffeine.”

“They always say,” ReaLea said as she started out of the lab, “that admitting your problem is the first step.”

“What’s the second?” Bree asked, following her friend.

“Grabbing a weapon and beating the shit out of anyone pointing out your problem,” ReaLea said as they headed towards the cafeteria.

—

Kiel’s craft slammed into the side of one of the containers, sealing the hole quickly with a gel which expanded and froze in the vacuum until it locked in place. The outer shell would jettison when they left, leaving the punctured area to close up, but slowly. Anyone in this area when they left could possibly die.

The alarms went off in his helmet as the horrible metal screeching sounds occurred, their tools opening the puncture for them a little further. Royleen wasn’t positive at the proper speed to impale the fragile looking station without his people slamming out the other side in their craft.

That would certainly mess up their mission.

The alarms changed tones. It was time to go hunting.

—

John Jensen had been returning from a workout session, protective guards still on his shins and forearms when the alarm went off. He turned and ran back into the training room, grabbing a long staff and then taking the protective padding off of the tips with a quick rip. Turning around, he ran back outside almost slamming into Coach and Adarsh coming down the hall, “What the hell, Coach?”
 

“They are attacking this area; we just don’t know where, yet,” Coach panted.

“You aren’t up for this, Coach.”
 

“I’ve been fucking up people since before you were born, John. Let’s see if I’ve got another couple in me, shall we?”

Coach turned, surprised when another three of the Guardians came around the corner, going behind John who answered Coach’s unasked question, “They are grabbing weapons.”

Coach followed the three guardians, “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”

Outside Tal Ajaja, Syria

Terry walked away from the group and opened up the phone that had been given to him. He had hoped against hope not to use this ace-in-the-hole. When he had to admit he was on another payroll, it was going to upset others. Still, the group was rich, and they were powerful.

It was the rich part that got his attention originally. Now, it was the powerful part he was betting their lives on. He didn’t need anyone to know of this connection, but here it was. His reputation wasn’t going to be worth spit after this. He sighed, so much for impressing the lady back there.

He punched in the number given him and waited, “It’s Terry, I have a problem…”

—

Robert watched his friend from a decade before walk away from the dig for privacy. While he understood that this help would probably cause Terry future hardships, whatever Terry had in his crate had been Robert’s ace-in-the-hole. Together, he and Terry had multiple operations under their belt. Terry always had some surprise, and Robert had counted on him providing one this time, as well.

It was only a couple of minutes before Robert noticed Terry walking back into the camp. His face was set in a mask of determination. Robert turned around, walking back to his men to get them prepared. While the government wag was continuing to suggest there was nothing to worry about, Robert wasn’t taking his advice. He could feel that itch between his shoulder blades, the action was happening soon.

—

Yasin and Hamza sat on the ground behind the parked truck, thanking God for a little breather from the constant battering their bodies had taken so far. Yasin looked over to his friend, talking around the food in his mouth. “We are supposed to get there at sunrise tomorrow. Hopefully, if we can make a little time we will be able to get in position before the sun rises and we will be able to slaughter the dogs as they get their morning’s coffee.”

“Coffee? You mean the piss poor mud water they call coffee? Killing them is a mercy.” The two men laughed as they ate their dinner on the side of the road, “It will be good to have them in my rifle’s sites. It has been a long time coming and something I have dreamt about many times.”

Yasin swallowed his food, “I understand it is a small group, maybe twenty people. At most, they should have ten guards, and we will have thirty to thirty-five fighters. It should be a simple attack, and we will be finished by noon and then on our way back by tomorrow afternoon.”