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  Stephen had called and let the Romanian local pack know that he was going to visit the main council in Frankfurt after he went through Brasov. While it had certainly surprised them, they assured Stephen they would let the main council know of his plans. Later, they left Stephen a voice message with the Council Lead, a Mr. Josef von Dorman and his contact phone number.

  Stephen called Josef when he was a day outside of Frankfurt. Stephen confirmed that he was uninterested in meeting the whole council that just Josef was enough for his needs at this time and they agreed to meet in two days.

  The hotel was about six blocks away from the train station so it was a quick taxi ride to get there. Ivan asked about reservations. Stephen just smiled and let him know that he had no reservations at this time, but that Ivan shouldn’t worry.

  The taxi driver pulled up to the main entrance and jumped out to get the two suitcases for the men, Ivan tipped him as Stephen looked around as if he was noticing a difference in the place from the last time he was here. Ivan had both suitcases and just leaned over to ask him quietly, “When was the last time you were here?”

  Stephen leaned into Ivan and said, “The 90’s” then leaned back out.

  Ivan looked a little surprised, “That’s all? Just two decades?”

  Stephen smiled at him and added softly, “I never said the 1900’s, Ivan.” Then Stephen winked at Ivan and started walking through the door held open for him. Ivan shook his head and followed.

  Stephen had paused a few feet in the door and was looking around. Ivan heard him mutter, “I much preferred the original layout.” He then started walking to the main desk where two ladies were behind the reception area. “Good evening frauleins. My name is Stephen and I would like to make a reservation for a week in the geschätzt Zimmer, please.”

  The first lady, a pretty brunette with gold framed glasses name ‘Abby’ on her name badge smiled to Stephen. “I’m sorry, sir. But the ‘geschätzt Zimmer’ is a unique room in the basement of the hotel, it isn’t one we can rent out except to the owners, we do have two rooms on the second to the top floor which do have nice views if you would prefer?”

  “Thank you, Abby, but if you would check the geschätzt Zimmer instructions, you will find that my name, Stephen, is on the list.”

  “I’m sorry, sir. I do not know of any instructions for the room, one second” Abby turned to the other lady, a blond headed middle aged woman, “Elyse, do we have geschätzt Zimmer instructions?”

  Elyse came over to stand next to Abby, “The geschätzt Zimmer, yes. But they are in the safe, why?”

  Stephen smiled a little coyly to the older lady, “My dear, because I need to use the rooms down there for the next week.”

  Elyse looked over at the new guest, a pretty young looking man who seemed to hold himself like someone much older than he obviously was. “I’m sorry sir, but the geschätzt Zimmer has never been asked for in my twenty-two years with the hotel. It’s almost a rumor at this time.”

  Stephen smiled, “That would be true, I haven’t been here in twenty-two years.” Stephen’s smirk just dared Elyse to be rude and make a comment about his obviously young age to have possibly visited over twenty-two years ago. “However; the instructions should be in the safe, I’m sure the manager can grab them.”

  Elyse just shook her head once and went off to find the manager on duty. Abby asked Stephen to excuse her while she helped the gentleman behind him. Stephen stood to the side and waited patiently. Ivan looked around and found some waiting sofas and took the suitcases to them and sat down. A couple of minutes later, Elyse came back with a very old fashioned letter holder that had the clasp held with a leather cord, Stephen stepped back up to the desk. “I’m sorry, it took a minute to find the manager and he took a minute to locate them.”

  Stephen just stayed quiet and nodded his head.

  She got the cord unwrapped and opened the letter carrier and pulled out the very crisp, but very old linen stationary. She quickly read the document and asked the question it stated, “Was sind die fünf Worte möchte ich wissen?”

  Stephen replied, “The five words are, ‘Blut ist wertvoller als Gold.’”

  The lady looked down at her page and back up to Stephen. She then pulled the document to see if you could see through it, but she couldn’t. She folded it back up and placed it back in the document carrier for placing back in the safe later. Before wrapping it closed, she pulled the key out and handed it to Stephen, “Welcome to Steigenberger Frankfurter Hof Sir Stephen. Do you need directions to the elevators?”

  “I don’t know, do they go down to the bottom level?”

  Elyse had to think about that. The elevators had been added in the 70’s, “No, I don’t believe they do.”

  “I thought not, I’ll see if the original stairs down are still available if that would be acceptable?”

  Elyse just shook her head in agreement, where did this young man come by his knowledge? Had he found secrets of the hotel on the Internet?

  Stephen turned around and caught Ivan’s eye. Stephen waited to Ivan to catch up as he walked towards a small alcove in a wall to the left of the reception desk. Elyse called out, “Sir, that isn’t the way to the…”

  She stopped talking when Stephen opened a small door set into the wall that she had never known existed. Stephen opened it for Ivan to go through before he winked back at Elyse and stepped through himself. He turned on the light switch above the door after closing it. The passageway went about twenty feet before turning to the left.

  Ivan looked around at the old hallway. It was dusty. “I would suggest no one has been here in a while.”

  Stephen squeezed by him in the narrow hallway, “True, but I dare say they will shortly.”

  “Why, they are curious?”

  Stephen turned to look over his shoulder as he walked down the hallway, “I’m sure, but there is another reason.”

  Ivan caught up to Stephen, “And that is?”

  “Why, the geschätzt Zimmer rooms belong to the owner of the hotel.”

  That would do it, Ivan thought.

  It took house cleaning over thirty minutes to find their own way down to the special rooms beneath the hotel. There wasn’t a window in any of them. Stephen was very gracious and understanding about the dusty rooms and waited patiently for them to change out all of the linens and clean everything. There were ten people helping to clean the three room suite which included the manager on duty and two help staff. It took three minutes for the water to run clear through all of the pipes. Stephen was patient through the whole process and Ivan just watched amazed as everyone practically fell over themselves to make sure Stephen was ok.

  Ivan made his way over to Stephen as he watched everyone clean. Leaning over, he asked, “Why is everyone so polite yet anxious right now? Because you’re the owner?”

  Stephen looked over at Ivan, “Let’s just say that the ‘owner’ from before had a fit the last time he was here, the story probably gets told to this day.”

  Ivan leaned back, holy crap, what kind of temper tantrum happened over a hundred years ago and was still known today?

  Everyone finished and Stephen patiently waited until only the manager was left. “Jurgen, please have them clean once a day while we are here. I will swing by the reception desk when we leave for the day to let them know when we are out. Here is a gratuity to share among everyone for their efforts, please let them know I appreciate the diligence to getting the room cleaned so quickly.” Stephen handed the man five hundred-euro notes.

  He looked down in surprise, thanked Stephen and left. He quietly closed the door after him.

  Stephen walked over to the brick wall opposite the entrance door and started studying it.

  Ivan asked him which room should he take, “Oh, any except the one to my left, that is mine.”

  Ivan put up the suitcases and came back, “What are you looking for?”

  Stephen bent down and pressed one of the bricks, then pushed a little harder and
it slightly moved in and you could hear a ‘click’.

  “This.”

  Stephen pushed harder and the brick wall moved inward two feet, leaving a gap. Stephen pushed the brick again and the wall slowly returned to the original position making it almost impossible to tell anything was different about the wall. Stephen looked back at Ivan, “I had that put in place in case I ever slept here and needed to leave quickly by another route. Unfortunately, the person who dug that died the night he finished. I couldn’t have that knowledge getting out and I was very sad he sacrificed his life to make my tunnel. However; he had killed twin sisters in a drunken stupor, so I didn’t feel too bad.”

  Ivan ran his hand over the brick, “That is good work.”

  They said their goodnights and went to their rooms to sleep.

  Carpathian Mountains, Romania

  Bethany Anne had called the guys back inside a couple of hours ago. She checked on Gabrielle in the medical pod one last time and went back to the cramped pilot area. Shoe-horning her way into the seat she called over her shoulder out the open door into the hallway, “If you’re religious, you can say a prayer right now.” She turned around to get this party started.

  John’s voice came back down the hallway, “God, don’t let Bethany Anne hit this mountain on the way out of here, AMEN!” She heard Eric snort.

  Bethany Anne yelled back to the guys, “You’re lucky it is a possibility or I would kick your ass, Mr. Grimes!” He stayed quiet.

  Eric yelled out, “Where are the seat-belts?”

  She yelled back, “TOM says we don’t need any, the gravity what-cha-ma-call-thems will handle all of it. We won’t even feel g-forces. So sit down, shut up and don’t hold on to John for safety, got it?”

  A pair of chorused ‘Yes Ma’am!’ came back to her.

  You know we won’t hit the mountain by accident, right?

  No? Why not?

  Because when we get out from under this over growth, we will be going straight up a couple of miles. If we hit this mountain, it will be due to malfunction, not your piloting.

  You know, TOM. That doesn’t make me feel any better.

  Just a clarification, Bethany Anne.

  How exactly are we getting out from these trees and crap around us?

  The craft is made of materials that would probably not dent at all if we hit these tree’s going a thousand miles an hour. We are sitting on a propulsion system that generates enough power to drive a warp gate. This will be the same as an eighteen wheeler running through an old rotted wooden fence.

  Good metaphor, I get that. Will we feel it inside?

  Slightly, if any. However; it will make a ferocious racket, hope no one is in the area.

  You can’t tell?

  Well, certainly from the instruments, but I felt it was appropriate to say.

  Bethany Anne just sighed to herself. TOM was becoming more human all of the time.

  Let’s do this, TOM.

  Bethany Anne went through the process to bring the craft totally online for the first time in a thousand years. She was surprised to see everything come on crisp and clear. There were no ‘missing LEDs’ like you might see in an older used car. They certainly made this craft with precision. Spending the next five minutes with TOM double checking everything, she hit the final button that took them off the mountain. Ten seconds later, they were at ten thousand feet and holding steady. Bethany Anne just looked at the two view screens with awe. The lights beneath her and in the distance were captivating. She had always wanted to be able to fly.

  Can anyone see us up here?

  No, we have all protection abilities engaged. Even with the advances in human technology in the last hundred years they have a few more generations before they should have anything that this ship can’t defeat.

  How fast can we go?

  Not the fastest possible, since the landing gear can’t be pulled in, so maybe a thousand miles an hour. Call it a five and a half hour trip?

  Ok, let’s go. Bethany Anne punched in the coordinates as TOM instructed and the two forward screens showed the lights beneath them start moving as they turned forty-five degrees and rapidly started disappearing beneath them.

  Bethany Anne, the radar is showing that most commercial jets are staying beneath forty thousand feet. I would suggest we move up to 45,000.

  Make it so, number one.

  Excuse me?

  Sorry, Star Trek reference.

  I’ll have to add that to the shows I need to watch.

  You know what, TOM? I’ll watch that with you.

  TOM didn’t know what to say.

  Five and a half hours later, they were hovering a thousand feet above the right location over the water, and she had two large super yachts beneath her. However; Bethany Anne was looking at the viewer with tears in her eyes. She sniffed once or twice and wished she had some kleenex in the pilot area.

  Her ships were beneath her. She could see Shelly on the Polarus and the S-76 on the other ship. But it wasn’t the SEA AXE. The name on the back of the ship had obviously been changed and Bethany Anne hadn't felt so supported since back when Martin had been her mentor in Washington.

  The Ad Aeternitatem was ready for her to land.

  She took a moment to compose herself. TOM explained how she needed to modify the controls to acquire the right frequency. She spoke to the air, as the pilot microphones were extremely sensitive, “Queen’s Ride to Ad Aeternitatem, come in please.”

  “Ad Aeternitatem, Captain Wagner here. Good to hear your voice, ma’am. How soon will you be arriving? Over.”

  “Captain, in seconds if you can move the toy-on-the-top, over.”

  “One sec… Ok, Top Toy will be shortly doing a check flight. Any other instructions, ma’am? Over.”

  “Negative Captain, just happy to be arriving in one piece without any paparazzi, over.”

  “Understood, welcome home to the Ad Aeternitatem, ma’am, over.”

  “Glad to be home, and please pass my heartfelt appreciation to the crew for the outstanding name selection. We will have patches made up for everyone who stayed with us, out.”

  Bethany Anne watched as two small figures ran to the Sikorsky and jumped in. The rotors were turning quickly and then the craft took off over the ship's superstructure and slowly started to fly in a large quarter mile circle. The doors to the lower hanger had started to open mere seconds after they took off.

  Bethany Anne and TOM brought the craft down to a hundred feet until the doors were completely open.

  TOM, do we have the space to fit in there?

  Yes, pretty easily in fact. We will have at least three feet on each side to set down.

  Good, let’s bring her in slowly. I don’t want to accidentally crush anyone.

  TOM’s craft slowly glided down the last one hundred feet to the ship. It was underway at five Knots with a minor roll. Nothing that a helicopter would want to try to land on inside the ship, but a simple exercise for TOM’s craft. A minute later, they were in the hold of the Ad Aeternitatem and Bethany Anne could see Todd Jenkins and three marines on guard outside. There was another person manning the controls for the doors and lift. She could tell everyone was aware ‘something’ was with them in the hold, but they couldn’t tell what it was. She hit a button that would place her voice outside the ship, “Gentlemen, be so kind as to close the roof, I don’t want any accidental pictures from a spy in the sky.” The five men jumped and the one by the controls started moving his arms and shortly the doors above her closed. She hit the button to turn off the ‘cloak’ around the ship. The three marines had looks of awe on their face while Todd and the Engineer’s faces split open in grins.

  Bethany Anne turned around and yelled back down the hall, “Sorry, this is a little tardy but put your shit together men, We’re here!”

  She heard a ‘whoop’ from the back and then moving around.

  She gently pulled herself out of the seat and crawled back into the hallway where she stretched to get feel
ing back into her neck and legs again.

  TOM, you guys are damned short!

  No, we are height challenged.

  Bethany Anne smiled as John and Eric came up, completely kitted out in their black tactical gear. “We got front, Bethany Anne.”

  “No, I want one of you to stay here in the spaceship with Gabrielle for now. No one is permitted on board until I say otherwise. Clear?”

  She looked at both men and got nods of assurance. Eric spoke, “I got first watch, no one will touch our teammate, ma’am.”

  “See that they don’t, we protect our own, all of our own. Even if it is from accidents and mistakes. Here, I’ll show you the commands if you need to stop the process and pull her out quickly.” Bethany Anne took Eric into the medical room, and made sure he knew what the button sequence would be. She had him run it both forwards and backwards ten times to make sure he knew it.