WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12) (3 page)

On their way back to the Nation’s Capital in Canberra, General Goddard had shared what he had been shown in the operations center.
 

The video, Lance Reynolds had told him, was the real explanation for the destruction of the Chinese mountains. Lance explained TQB was absolutely willing to have civil discussions, but pushing them around tended to upset the CEO. And, any aggressive military force would be returned in like manner.
 

Then, General Goddard continued, the TQB representative turned to him and pursed his lips to point at the mountains after the destruction and said, “That was a warning. The six hundred special operations military people that were killed, planes downed, and ships destroyed were in response to the seven deaths the Chinese accomplished. They tried more attacks, including one on this base and another against the small wet navy we had at the time. Their missiles failed,” he nodded to the video screen, “hers did not.”

Then, the Australian general paused for a moment, “He told me one more thing.” General Goddard made sure he had all of their attention, “He said to make damn sure if we had any ideas of attacking, there had better not be one child, born or unborn, killed or we could probably kiss a quarter of our military goodbye.”

The hard stare from General Goddard put the final exclamation point on the warning.

It was but a few moments when Parry Paterson, one of the younger members of the Australian House of Representatives asked a question, “Why would we kill children?”

General Goddard looked over at him, “Because some of those in power have been there a long time and get greedy, thinking that they can grab what they want. I’m not saying we have any like that in our government,” the General heard a snort from beside him but ignored it, “but it was a message with two parts.”

“Really, I get the first one, don’t kill children, but what is the second?” Parry asked.

“The second,” General Goddard replied, “is that they are watching everybody.”

—

Camp David, United States

Secret Service Agent David Dennison stood in a small clearing admiring the waxing moon with the President of the United States. The evening was a little warm on this late summer’s evening. “Sir, why are we standing here?”

The President turned to his Secret Service agent and smiled, “Because I’m going to take a little trip, and there is all of this concern about protecting me. So, you are my chosen security for tonight.”

David looked around. The woods were quiet, and he knew that they had a lot of protection surrounding the Camp. “Sir, are you expecting someone to arrive soon? Because I’ve checked the night’s notes and we don’t have any air transportation approved, no one is getting inside our perimeter at all.” The President nodded his head slightly, as if he was hearing but not accepting David’s comment.

David decided to try again, “Sir, how long are we going to be out here? I’m going to have to call this in if we need additional surveillance.”

The President turned to face his security detail of one, “David, you are the security tonight. Not that I’ll need it, but I don’t want to hear the whining and crying and stuff that would go on if any of this gets out. You are already required to keep everything you see and hear as a national secret, but I’m going to go one further and say that you, personally, cannot admit to anything you see tonight until I give approval. Is this understood?”

David shrugged, “Sure, but I’m not really sure how we are going to see anything. We…” David stopped talked when he noticed the President had lifted his head to look up into the night sky.

“That’s how we are getting to the meeting,” the President told him.

David turned his head, and his mouth fell open when a pitch black Pod came down silently to hover over the ground fifteen feet in front of them, and a door in the front of the vehicle opened up.

The President started walking toward the Pod, “David, I’m getting in this Pod and going to a meeting, are you coming?” he called over his shoulder.

David Dennison turned to look back at the base camp. He was way too far away for any help to arrive in time. When he turned around, he found the President was already clicking his safety harness closed. David jogged to the Pod and turned around to slide into the seat as the doors started closing. Clicking his own harness closed, he muttered, “Please don’t make us both regret this. Neither my boss nor your wife wants us disappearing tonight.”

The President sat grinning and slapped David on the shoulder, “Hang on buddy, I understand the takeoff is a BIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTCHHH!” he yelled as they shot up into the night sky.

The Pod disappeared in seconds.

Outside of Berlin, Germany

“Mr. President, of all the hair-brained ideas you have had in the past few years, I’m going on the record and suggesting this is one of the worst.” Bundesnachrichtendienst Federal Intelligence officer, Max von Tupper, admitted to the President of Germany as they sat in a small field an hour and a half outside of Berlin at 4:30 in the morning. The temperature was in the high teens Celsius, so not uncomfortable, but the situation made up for that lack.

“You say that now, Max.” President Theodor chuckled, “But when our ride appears, you will kiss the ground I walk on that I asked you out here tonight.”

Max snorted, “Theodor, we have been friends for a long time, and unless you have been hitting the beer for too long I …” Max stopped talking as he noticed the President, his long-time friend, open the car door and started sliding out of the seat to exit.
 

There was a black Pod landing not that far from the front of the car. Max froze for a second in shock, before quickly following his president and friend into the unknown. Remembering as he went to the pod that in Germany, the Prime Chancellor was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the government.
However, the Bundespräsident was the head of state and considered above the pitfalls of party politics and day to day business, plus he had been making an effort towards influencing the foreign politics since his inauguration.

While Max wasn’t sure that foreign relations were ever attributed to an international conglomerate, he was pretty sure no other conglomerate had space capabilities. Two doors from the front of the pod opened to show the men empty seats.

“You think it is safe?” Max asked the President.
 

Theodore chuckled and slid into the right seat, “Max, do you really think they need to trick us to do something devious?” He started clicking the seat belts rapidly. The call from the United States representative had warned them that the takeoff could be a little quick.
 

Max slid into the seat beside Theodore and started buckling in, “So, Theodore, how about I kiss you on the cheek instead of the ground?”

Above the Earth

“Oh my god,” the President mouthed silently as the Earth turned beneath them.

“We are so screwed if this Pod opens to space. We don’t have a spacesuit or any way to save ourselves,” David told the President.

The President spoke to him, without turning his head away from the breathtaking from the view, “You think maybe you might stop complaining for a moment and enjoy the ride?”

“I’m not paid to enjoy the ride, I’m paid to keep you safe.”
 

“David, I’m telling you, we are safer here than back in Camp David.”

“How can you be so sure of that?”

“Because if they wanted to kill me, what could you and your team really have done to stop it?” the President asked his secret service agent, quietly.

David looked out the window to the blue globe below them. Finally, after a few minutes of thought, he asked a question, “She visited you both times in the DUCC, didn’t she?”

The President nodded his head as he admired the view, “Yes, yes she did.”

—

Germany’s President and his friend from their counter-surveillance group admired the world for a few minutes before a voice over a speaker in the Pod asked them if there were anything they would like to see before the trip to the QBS ArchAngel?

“The moon,” Max had whispered before Theodore had said anything. He seemed surprised when the President looked at him. “I’m sorry, I just thought that I would like to see where the Americans landed and placed their flag, and now where the Chinese have their little Moon rover.”

Theodore shrugged, “Sounds good to me.” The two men watched in awe as the Pod turned towards the moon and then laughed like young boys as the acceleration hit and they raced into space.

—

The Queen’s Suite, QBS ArchAngel

Bethany Anne laid on her bed, resting. The Lowell’s had picked up Christina a few hours before, but the emotional drain of watching her niece was still affecting her.
 

“TOM, please put these diapers memories into my long term memory. Anytime I think about having a child with Michael, please play them.”

I thought you enjoyed thinking about that future?

“I do, but until I deal with this Kurtherian issue I need to focus,” she replied.

Still haven’t given up hope?

Bethany Anne switched to speaking to TOM directly,
No. That rat bastard promised me he would come back, and I’m holding him to it. If I have to travel the fucking Galaxy to find a way to travel back in time? I’ll do it. That prick is coming back, one way or another. I’m not giving up on him, ever.
 

The two friends stayed quiet, just enjoying their time together for a few moments.

>>Bethany Anne, the world leaders are arriving in ten minutes.<<

“Suppose I should get dressed,” Bethany Anne grouched as she slid off the bed and stood up, stretching. “God, give me the opportunity to fight a hundred Forsaken before another ten hours with a baby, please.” She stepped towards her closet, built to look exactly like her closet in the Florida house.

“Because, that would be a fucking cakewalk…” she mumbled as she started to change.

—

David gawked as they approached the spaceship, “Mr. President, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.” The twelve-hundred-foot long craft was silhouetted against the darkness of space, the light of the sun caressing the features down its length, “Where are the engines on this thing?”
 

“David,” the President answered, straining his neck to try and see down the side as they neared the landing dock, “I have no idea.”

“Would you please,” a female voice told them, “stay in your Pod until you see others approach? We are landing all fourteen pods at one time. We do not have the gravitational fields that hold in the air working at this time.”

David looked up at the speaker, surprise in his voice, “But, you expect to make that happen?”

Surprisingly, the voice answered him, “Yes Mr. Dennison, we hope to make that happen.”

David watched. They were the eighth Pod that entered the vast landing dock. He noticed two more Pods landing to either side of them. Soon, red flashing lights were running along the walls, and a muffled alarm was going off. It took a couple of minutes, and both he and the President could tell that the signal was becoming clearer. Finally, the light switched from red to blue. Seconds later, a large group of people in beige outfits with bright green bands around their arms quickly entered the landing bay. The Pod doors began to open on the crafts.

David had already unbuckled his belts and stepped out before the President could get up. He positioned himself so that the President couldn’t step out of the Pod before David felt comfortable that these people were helpful, not harmful. He could see many had confirmed that everyone was ok, and then quickly stepped back out of the way.

What David thought he was going to protect him from, a hundred-thousand miles from Earth, was beyond the President’s ability to imagine.

—

President Theodore of Germany nodded to those he had met previously. While the Prime Minister of Japan wasn’t someone he had met yet, he was happy to see him here. As far as Theodore knew, Japan and India were the only Asian countries represented.

He shook hands with others, spoke with the American President and the leaders of France, England, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Japan, Canada, Netherlands, Israel, India, and Italy. Some of the most open and economically powerful countries on Earth.

He noticed that Russia and China had not received an invitation. While China wasn’t a huge surprise, he wondered what the Russian’s had done to piss off TQB? He would have to remember to ask Max about that once they got back to Earth.

The meeting room was impressive. It was a small amphitheater. There was a table at the base that held twelve if you put people on the end, or you could fit five behind it if they were going to speak to the five rows of seats arranged on an incline. The wall at the front had multiple video screens.

He did a quick count of the seats, realizing that the room could seat about a hundred and fifty people. There were a few men and women in the chamber, pulled from multiple nations, serving beverages. The invited guests had all been offered rides to the meeting room. While he was happy to not be required to walk the long distance from the landing area to this room, he was sure Max wished for a more leisurely stroll down the walkways to see more.

It wasn’t every day you got to gawk at a real spaceship.

There was a commotion behind him, so Theodore turned to see a young-looking man entering the room making the rounds to talk with people.

“That’s General Lance Reynolds,” Max spoke to Theodore quietly, “He is the COO of TQB Enterprises.” Theodore looked to Max and raised an eyebrow in question, “He was an American Army general before he retired to take this position.” Max turned his eyes towards the new man, “Our pictures of him, even a few years ago, show him to be much older than this gentleman here.”

“But, it is him? Your group is sure?” Theodore asked.

“Yes, it is him. TQB has medical abilities we can’t comprehend at this time.” he looked around the room, and Max sighed, “Like so many other abilities. I hope we get some answers.”