WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12) (25 page)

“Damn, for an intellectual, you can be pretty dense at times,” Terry told her. Before she could parse his words and decide that mad was the right response, he added, “How many men carry a present of chocolate chip cookies halfway around the world so he could surprise a woman he doesn’t care about?”

Melissa pulled back and looked up at him, “You do care about me?”

Terry wanted to beat his head against a rock, “Yes, Melissa, I care about you. I worried about you, I’m not about to let some irrationally irritated Islamic idiots shoot up the first woman I can have a conversation with that didn’t start with ‘Today Kim Kardashian’ or end with ‘I know, right?’”

She sniffed and wiped the tears from her cheeks her eyes were red, large and beautiful. “You know I’m going to slap you, right?”

“What?”

The four men heard a sudden loud
crack
, Robert turned to see the lady academic putting a hell of a lip lock on Terry, who didn’t seem to be trying to struggle out of it at all. He shrugged and returned to the conversation at hand.

The government wag, who had started his long tirade of bitching finally wound down his tirade. “Well?” he demanded from Lance.

“Well, what?” General Reynolds replied, “Well, do I give a shit about anything you just said? Not one bit. I’m not in your chain of command and as far as I care, you are an adult. I’ve been tasked with making sure those idiots,” he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, “didn’t shoot your asses. Mission accomplished. We are taking anyone who would like to leave out of here. You are welcome to grab some equipment, but there are twelve of us, twenty-three of you, right?” Robert nodded, “and one more container available for stuff. We have thirty seats we can lock people in. So, we are short five places. If you want to stay here, we will be short one less.”

The General looked around, “We are lifting in thirty minutes.” He turned and started walking back towards the hill. Robert noticed the government wag begin to reach out to grab the General’s shoulder when the silent guard stepped forward, grabbing the outstretched hand and twisting it. Before you could say ‘ouch,' the government guy was on his knees, and the General turned to look at the wag.

“Akio, don’t stain your sword with his bureaucratic blood, that shit doesn’t come out.” The General turned and started walking away, but called out over his shoulder. “I’ll have a Guardian shoot him, that way the blood doesn’t stain anything.”

Akio let go of the man, who was staring, mouth open, at the General’s back as he walked away.

Robert looked down at the man, “Don’t say one word. He doesn’t work for the United States. The President ASKED for their help. If he comes home with twenty-two people instead of twenty-three? Well,” Robert looked back up at the receding two men, “that’s twenty-two more than the President could have reasonably hoped to have after your monumental fuck-up.” Robert turned, leaving the man kneeling in the dirt.

Robert noticed that Terry had a slap mark on his face and smiled. He called out to everyone in hearing range, “Twenty-five minutes’ people! The bus is leaving in twenty-five minutes. If you aren’t ready, you’re walking. Let’s go!”

Over the Clan Temple Near Shennongjia Peak, Hubei

The mountains, lower than what she would have expected, were beautiful. Well, what she could see of them. China was a gorgeous country. Shame it had some real asshats running it.

Although she had to admit, China really didn’t corner the market on asshats in government.

ADAM’s voice came over the team’s comms, “We are twenty seconds from landing, do you have a preference where to set down?”

“Not at the bottom, where we have to fight our way up is my preference,” Scott quipped, “I’ve seen the movies. They will just empty the damned school and hundreds of really pissed off, splendid martial arts fanatics will come running out, and it’s going to suck. No thanks.”

“Pussy,” Darryl shot back.

“My dark-brother from another mother just volunteered to go first. I saw Black Dynamite and Black Samurai, I know it’s in your blood somewhere, Darryl.” Scott shot back.

Darryl came back, “Hey now, let’s not be losing the feeling of ‘all for one and one for all’ before we even start.”

Bethany Anne let the chuckles die down, “ADAM, TOM, set us down over there at the main door. Guys, we will need to run through the place pretty hard. This is a quick in and out. Figure out if there is something here we need, kill the bitch and split before we get stuck with the Military.” Bethany Anne paused and then continued, “Not necessarily in that order.”

The five Black Eagles dropped to within twenty feet of a clear area near the temple opening. She popped the hatch and looked over the side. “Ashur,” He put his head forward, and Bethany Anne touched him. Then, she made a small roll to her left, and the two disappeared. Twenty feet below, they reappeared a couple of feet above the ground.

“I’ve gotta learn that trick,” John muttered as he and the guys all jumped the twenty feet.”

“We’ve got company!” Darryl called out as he dodged an arrow that sliced the air where his head had been.”

“Fuck.” Bethany Anne spoke under her breath. She pulled a pistol as Ashur took off towards the temple opening. Spotting two guards hidden above the entrance, she shot them both. One was only a shoulder wound, so she used another bullet to the head to take him out.

Silver frangibles for everyone, this time.

The team quickly ran into the entrance, wondering how long they would have before the party smashers would get here … oh wait, they were the party smashers.

—

Stephanie Lee looked around the table, “We have the first four boxes of parts out of the temple. The remaining twelve need to leave by other routes. Take one North, one East, and one West. If any get seized, no one can put the technology together. Hold the components on your Family’s Honor. We will …”

Stephanie Lee heard two soft gunshots reverberating down the hall. She waved to the three Kings, “Go! Grab your people and take the boxes to safety. I will come to you once we get through this fight with the Chinese Military. Why they thought they could surprise us, I will never know.”

The three men left the meeting room, heading further inside the mountain.

That was not wise, trusting them with the components of our ship as you have.

Is there any way for them to put it back together?

Without Us? Highly unlikely. Your species has insufficient mental abilities. They would need to read Kurtherian to understand how to operate the machine should the mechanical team accomplish their task. Enough random button pushing will only cause the machine to lock up for approximately seventeen of your days.

Then shut up.

Her father following her, she swept out of the meeting room, “Go see about those noises!” The two guards that had been standing by the room’s entry left quickly.

Stephanie Lee, annoyed and impatient, was about to follow the two guards when her father spoke, “We should move to the main sanctuary room as our operations command center.”

Two more pistol shots, louder this time, reverberated down the stone hallways. “Come, my Empress,” her father turned to follow the hallways to the sanctuary room.
 

Stephanie Lee grimaced, but followed her father, her robes billowing in the light of the oil lamps. More gunfire happened behind her, and she could hear the pre-arranged gongs of the temple bells from the western side of the complex announcing the arrival of the Chinese Military.

If the military had just been engaged, where had the previous gunshots come from?

—

Bethany Anne, swords at her side, walked quickly and calmly down the hallway. Occasionally, she would hear one of the guys behind her make a quip and more rarely, a pistol shot.

Once only, she heard John use his Dukes Special. He had used it to shoot into a stone ceiling, showering those nearby with rock chips and allowing the team to pass through the intersection easily.

Then the gongs started going off.
 

“Well, that cuts it,” John commented, “I can hear submachine gun fire. I think our gate crashers have arrived.”

“Fucking shit!” Bethany Anne said, irritation flavoring her voice, “Where is a map when you need one?”

“I doubt they were thinking about the clueless walking the halls,” Scott said, then she heard him shoot a round, “We might want to choose a direction, we are getting more unwanted visitors.”

Bethany Anne, use Ashur’s sense of smell.
TOM told her.

If I weren't busy, I’d say ‘thank you.'
 

Bethany Anne looked around, “Ashur,” a chuff was her response, “Seek out the path with a lot of scents, we need to find the main worship room.”

—

Shun had barely landed in the marked off descent area when he heard the staccato gunfire erupt in the night.

So much for the element of surprise.
 

He saw Bai and Jian wrapping up their parachutes. Now, if he could find Zhu his team was golden. At least until they received their four scientists. Fortunately, it had become painfully evident, enough so that the higher ranking officers couldn’t ignore the signs, that having that four non-military personnel do a drop at night was tantamount to slitting their throats.

They would be arriving in twenty minutes by helicopter, provided the location was secured.

Zhu came up on his left, holding his QBZ-95. “Ready?”

“Yes, let’s grab Bai and Jian and make sure we keep the LZ secured.”

Together, the four men made their way to the outer markers for the LZ and looked to each other when the growls of cats filled the night.

Each of the men calmly ejected their magazines and reached around to their pack and pulled out special magazines, inserted them and cocked their rifles.

When the cries of astonishment and some of fear reached their ears, Shun grimaced but made a decision.

They would need to leave their post and help those up front.

—

Bethany Anne had to put her swords up and pull her pistols when John and Eric took the point. For the last five minutes, it had become a target rich environment as they walked down halls, backtracking once or twice and shooting anyone or anything that tried to slow them down.

They didn’t shoot to kill, but they didn’t worry about sloppy marksmanship either. If the person, cat, or otherwise tried to stop shots by putting their heads in the way? Well ... shit happens.

As long as the people were incapacitated and her team was able to get by, they did. Bethany Anne wasn’t here to kill everyone, she only had one person on her mind.

As they were crossing a hall, she smelled perfume, “Stop!” The four men kept their eyes focused on their areas, Bethany Anne holstered her pistols and pulled her swords, her eyes, already increasing in intensity, “Ashur, follow the perfume!”

Ashur chuffed and took the lead.

—

“Shun, why is everyone getting behind us?” Bai called out as he shot twice, the cries of the tiger he hit puncturing the night. It didn’t just get back up and seem to shake off Bai’s shots, in fact, it acted like a tiger might and disappeared into the brush.

One other cat had started to attack again, noticeably slower after Shun and Jian had both shot it. Gunfire from others then rang through the night, decimating the creature.

Once you put enough rounds into them, they stayed down.

“I do believe they think we have magic bullets,” Shun answered, looking for his next target.

“Do you have any idea what the officers are going to say about this?” Bai asked, then shot twice. He missed once and clipped something that snarled in the darkness.

“Probably going to demote us for leaving our posts,” Jian countered.

“What, now you speak?” Zhu called out, “Next time, be a little more confident when you choose to speak!”

“Ok, I
know
they are going to demote us!” Jian answered with a chuckle.

Shun shook his head. He knew that macabre humor was the way of the battlefield, but Jian’s answers might not be that far off. This landing had all the hallmarks of a poorly run operation, and they had just highlighted themselves as having had a clue and then implementing a better plan.

It was
, he thought,
an excellent way to become the punching bag for frustrated officers.

—

Bethany Anne could see the hallway opened into a much bigger, more brightly lit room ahead of them. Two more guards broke from the doorway into the room and started heading in her direction.