WE HAVE CONTACT (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 12) Read online

  CONTENTS

  Dedication

  Legal

  Social Links

  Series List

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Authors Notes

  The Kurtherian Gambit Store

  The Dark Messiah

  DEDICATION

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  To Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  To Live The Life We Are

  Called.

  WE HAVE CONTACT

  The Kurtherian Gambit 12 Team

  Beta Editor / Readers

  Bree Buras (Aussie Awesomeness)

  Tom Dickerson (The man)

  Sf Forbes (oh yeah!)

  Dorene Johnson (DD)

  Dorothy Lloyd (Teach you to ask…Teacher!)

  T S (Scott) Paul (Author)

  Diane Velasquez (DD)

  JIT Beta Readers

  Brent Bakken

  Timothy Cox

  Heath Felps

  Andrew Haynes

  Kelli Orr

  Gage Ostrander

  Leo Roars

  Hari Rothsteni

  Björn Schmidt

  If I missed anyone, please let me know!

  Editors

  Stephen Russell

  Kat Lind

  Thank you to the following Special Consultants

  for WE HAVE CONTACT

  Jeff Morris - Asst Professor Cyber-Warfare, Nuclear Munitions (Thank God!)

  Stephen Russell - Ideas & Suggestions

  We Have Contact (this book) is a work of fiction.

  All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright (c) 2016 Michael T. Anderle

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

  Version 1.00

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  The email list will be sporadic with more ‘major’ updates, the Facebook group will be for updates and the ‘behind the curtains’ information on writing the next stories. Basically conversing!

  I hope you enjoy the book!

  Michael Anderle - August 31, 2016.

  Series Titles Include:

  Death Becomes Her

  The Kurtherian Gambit 01

  Queen Bitch

  The Kurtherian Gambit 02

  Love Lost

  The Kurtherian Gambit 03

  Bite This

  The Kurtherian Gambit 04

  Never Forsaken

  The Kurtherian Gambit 05

  Under My Heel

  The Kurtherian Gambit 06

  Kneel Or Die

  The Kurtherian Gambit 07

  We Will Build

  The Kurtherian Gambit 08

  It’s Hell To Choose

  The Kurtherian Gambit 09

  Release The Dogs Of War

  The Kurtherian Gambit 10

  Sued For Peace

  The Kurtherian Gambit 11

  We Have Contact

  The Kurtherian Gambit 12

  FUTURE

  (21 books planned)

  My Rides A Bitch

  The Kurtherian Gambit 13

  Don’t Cross This Line

  The Kurtherian Gambit 14

  **Future Series**

  The Dark Messiah - Michael’s Return

  The Second Dark Ages 01

  Winter 2016/2017

  SHORT STORIES

  Frank Kurns Stories of the Unknownworld 01

  You Don’t Mess with John’s Cousin

  (read before TKG08)

  Frank Kurns Stories of the Unknownworld 02

  Bitch’s Night Out

  (read before TKG10)

  The Boris Chronicles

  With Paul C. Middleton

  Evacuation (Out)

  Retaliation (Out)

  Revelation Oct 2016

  Restitution TBD

  Anthologies

  Glimpse

  Honor in Death

  (Michael’s First Few Days)

  See on Amazon: http://kurtherianbooks.com/Glimpse_Amazon_US

  Beyond the Stars: At Galaxy's Edge

  Tabitha’s Vacation

  See on Amazon: http://kurtherianbooks.com/Beyond_Stars_Amazon_US

  PLA Headquarters

  The Chairman of the Chinese Government looked to his two Generals and nodded before sitting down at the long table. The meeting room was secured from all listening devices. It was utilitarian, consisting of a table, ten chairs and a small cupboard for refreshments. The three men opened their notebooks to go over the findings from the last three weeks. The main subject, their efforts after recent, as they chose to call it, ‘disagreement,’ with TQB Enterprises.

  General Tsang, responsible for the multiple teams reviewing the destruction and deaths across their country, started the meeting. “The damage in the Kunlun Shan Mountains is impressive. Our scientists have calculated the obliteration was truly from kinetic strikes. The video that our camera person took correlated to the inspected damage. But, at this time, the scientists are still arguing about how the objects could have been accelerated to the speeds necessary to accomplish the destruction.” The General took a sip of his tea. “Suffice to say, we cannot duplicate the effect.”

  General Li, responsible for the forensics related to the digital attacks, snorted at General Tsang’s last comment and received a dark look from the Chairman. All three men were more relaxed in this setting than they would have been in a more formal meeting.

  General Tsang continued, “The scientists do believe that the same type of weapon was used on our covert ops base to smash open the door. Considering the power displayed at Kunlun Shan, there is no engineering effort we can accomplish to produce viable protection at this time.”

  “When,” the Chairman interrupted, “is the expected time that we can defend against this kinetic weapon?”

  Tsang shrugged his shoulders, “When we figure out their anti-gravity abilities. It is postulated we will have the capacity to build a repelling field then that will at least considerably minimize the damage.”

  “So,” the Chairman continued, “there is no place which is truly safe from their attacks?” Tsang shook his head, as the Chairman asked further, “When the Avatar was displayed in our bunker, they could have demolished us at that time?”

  “Yes,” Tsang admitted, “that th
ey did not was a strategic decision, not due to a limitation of their ability should they have decided to hit us.”

  The Chairman reached up to his face and took off a pair of reading glasses. He needed these now when reviewing paperwork, which frequently annoyed him. Scratching his nose before replacing the glasses, he thought for a moment and continued to probe for information, “Ok, Li, what else?”

  The other General continued, “The covert ops base had no survivors. The men, all of them, fought. We have blood samples from many of the battles, and we have some highly suspect forensics,” he added after a pause, “highly suspect.”

  “For example?” the Chairman inquired.

  “We have hair from at least two types of wolves, perhaps three. We have structural damage on doors inside the base that seem to be organic in nature. These ravages had occurred before a massive retaliatory gun strike from our men peppered the door with gunfire in response. Our men are trained to think rationally in any situation, and it is evident that is exactly what didn’t happen in multiple cases. We have men shot, stabbed, necks bitten out by animals, and bodies ripped apart by something massively strong. We have a couple of places where there appear to be nail scratches from something that must have weighed hundreds of pounds and stood a minimum of seven feet tall, I’m told.”

  “Are you suggesting,” the Chairman asked, his voice neutral, “That we have been attacked by monsters?”

  Li shrugged his shoulders, “That is what the evidence at the base suggests. Something was able to negate the men’s training. The psychologists suggest that if they were subjected to something very primal, it could work at an instinctive level. This could cause them to only react, instead of responding the way they had been trained.”

  Li paused to allow time for any questions. When none were raised, he continued, “Further, when our group investigated the escape of General Sun, we found additional hair evidence at both the location of his abduction and later inside the discarded plane.”

  “Why would TQB want General Sun?” the Chairman asked, confused.

  “Sir, I apologize for not being clear,” Li responded, “We do not believe TQB was involved with General Sun.” The General looked across the table to his counterpart in the investigations and to the Chairman before continuing.

  He cleared his throat and replied, “Sir, we have two groups.”

  CHAPTER ONE

  QBS ArchAngel - Beyond the Moon

  Nathan and Ecaterina were packing up a bag for little Christina. It was their first evening to spend some time alone, and Aunt Bethany Anne had offered to watch the little one.

  Nathan wasn’t sure that even Bethany Anne’s offer to watch their first child for an evening would be acceptable to his wife. But, when Ecaterina looked over to Nathan to see what he thought of the offer she could tell he was doing his best to remain neutral. Well, as neutral as possible to not make her feel bad if she decided to not accept the offer.

  Ecaterina knew her husband well enough to realize he wanted some time with her without interruptions, if at all possible. So she had agreed that it would be nice to have a few hours alone with her husband.

  Now, Nathan looked around their suite on the ArchAngel. They had two rooms at the moment, and both were filled with baby stuff. In two days, Bobcat promised him a storage container would arrive from the moon. He would be provided ten linear feet of storage to move little Christina’s unneeded gifts out of here and into the holding space.

  If Ecaterina had her way, at least a quarter of it was going to Bethany Anne’s suite tonight. “Sweetheart,” he spoke, catching Ecaterina holding two different toys, “I don’t think we need to provide everything in one pass.”

  Ecaterina looked over to him and lifted her left hand which was holding a squishy duck, something that Christina liked to hear at times. “But, if she doesn’t have the right toy, she might cry too long.”

  Nathan stepped over to his wife, and wrapped his arms around her, “Don’t you think that Bethany Anne might be able to figure out a way to come get a toy if she feels something is needed? We are going to be gone, there isn’t a reason she can’t come into the room and fetch another set of toys, or hell, she will probably just tell someone to come get them.”

  Ecaterina placed her forehead against Nathan’s chest, “I’m freaking out, aren’t I?”

  Nathan gently swept his hand down her back, saying nothing.

  She sighed loudly and poked him in the chest and looked up into his eyes, “You are too quiet. How bad is it?”

  Nathan wasn’t getting out of this one. He pursed his lips and considered his response, “On a scale of one to ten, with ten being an ultimate freak-out, you are a six.”

  Ecaterina weighed what he had just told her. Trying to figure out how he was squirming his way out of telling her the total, horrible truth. She pressed her lips together, realizing that she couldn’t figure it out. Either she was only freaking out a little past the middle, or he had just figured out a way to hide the truth from her due to English not being her first language.

  She smiled, either way she looked at it she needed to relax. She put her ear back on his chest and wrapped her arms around him, “She’s beautiful, Nathan. Sometimes, when it’s just Christina and me, I tell her how I met you in a bar and how her uncle robbed you blind.”

  Nathan scoffed, “What? Ivan didn’t rob me blind."

  “Ivan most certainly did rob you blind!” she snickered, “for a trip into the mountains, it was very expensive,” she snuggled a little closer.

  “Oh, but you misunderstood what I was buying,” he replied.

  “What?” she asked. He could feel her move her head so she could look up at him and could picture the question in her eyes.

  “You misunderstood what I was buying. You see, I was buying the chance to have you alone on the mountain. That way, there would be no other competition for your attention. So, from my vantage point, it was a bargain.” He grinned, happy that he had gained the upper hand.

  Nathan could almost hear her brain work the words around, deciding how she would translate that back into her language. He sure hoped there weren’t translation issues. Once or twice, when he forgot her language, he would screw up, and it was hell to pay for a little while as he tried to get her to understand the English-Romanian translation issues.

  She finally spoke, “So, you are saying you paid for my time, and it was worth much money?”

  Nathan just held her close and mumbled, "Mmmhhhmm."

  “So, I was like a, what do you call it in America, a call girl?”

  Oh…Shit! Nathan’s eyes opened and darted around, trying to come up with some idea, ANY idea to stop her line of questioning. “Sweetheart, that is not what I was thinking, and you are well aware of it.” Nathan had no defense but to push back.

  “Then what is the meaning of an ultimate freak out?” she asked him.

  Befuddled on the sudden change in subject, Nathan answered quickly, “An ultimate freakout is the absolute worst example of something that you can think of. Like, take one of the bad examples of those monster bride reality tv shows you watch and then triple that reaction.”

  “So, it is like a logarithmic scale, not a linear scale?” she asked him, still with a slight edge in her voice.

  “Huh?” Nathan was confused even more as his mind went wandering off in an attempt to figure out who was teaching Ecaterina about logarithmic and linear scale, and answered, “Yes, logarithmic, why?”

  She took a step back and then punched him in the stomach. Nathan barely had time to clench his muscles before her fist slammed home, “Because that means a six is not so good!” She told him, triumph in her voice for figuring out how he was dodging her earlier question.