Love Lost (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 3) Read online

  William grabbed a sheet that had been folded into quarters from his back pocket and opened it up. He had found the specs on the defense industry daily website.

  “Here we go: The Level II kit would add guided weapons, including optical and laser guided anti-armor missiles like TOW, Spike, and Hellfire, and emerging laser-guided rockets. The baseline under consideration would mount 12.7mm/.50 caliber gatling guns on the inboard pylon pair, and either missiles or a 19-rocket launcher on the outboard pylons. This will include laser-guided missiles and rockets, and combat optics are upgraded accordingly; the baseline configuration’s AN/AAQ-22E BRITE Star II turret or L-3 WESCAM MX-15Di include laser targeting, as well as surveillance. The armed kit will be integrated with the helicopter’s flight and weapons management systems, which will link to a day/night capable helmet-mounted display. A helicopter with this kit retains its full cabin capacity for 11 soldiers, but its ability to carry that many on a specific mission will depend on the weight of the weapons it’s fitted with. Owners may also choose to devote some of its space and weight limits to mounted and/or in-cabin ammunition and weapons, extra fuel on board, 2 door gunners with 7.62mm gatling miniguns, etc. As equipment is added, troop carrying capacity will decline.”

  He folded up the paper. “They go on to talk about a level III that was tested with the Israeli’s, but I’m not comfortable with that yet. I figure Level II is good enough and if we want better we need to look at an attack chopper, not a conversion at that time.”

  Bethany Anne could see his point. However; while she could get away with flying a Black Hawk around Miami, she sure as hell couldn’t get away with an attack helicopter. “Thank you, William. Bobcat you have authorization to pursue the Level II package for Shelly. Get back with me before any purchase for a final decision and rope Dan into the conversation to see if he has any operational needs. We might need this done for an Op in Central America.”

  “That’s going to be a hell of a trip for a helicopter. Not a good choice with us stopping for fuel everywhere. It will be obvious we are up to something.”

  “No worries, I’m going to go look at an Amels SEA AXE. It is a 220 ft support yacht. There’s one available, possibly, in Miami in two weeks. It’s coming over here from Europe right now. It will hold Shelly, all of our small equipment and a 40 foot speedboat, even a submarine. I have Nathan checking out the owner now, he is a sheikh or something. Probably doesn’t need money, but we will see if he has anything we can use as leverage to pry that boat from him legally.”

  The “illegally” part was understood. They weren’t the guys in the white hats. They would do what they needed to do and Bethany Anne would compensate as best she could. The story of how she purchased the house next to them got around the team. The fact that she paid half a million over the going rate made the action more palatable to some on her team. They weren’t the government who could and would just take it under imminent domain. See how well the government paid if you had any complaints when that happened.

  “Ok, next.”

  Bobcat took it from there, “The Gulfstream is in good shape. Ecaterina brought a representative for retrofitting it to your liking two days ago. I understand that the insides are getting redone?”

  Bethany Anne nodded, “Yeah, we need to consider branding here. All of the businesses are going to be officially pulled together. What we are doing is going to get noticed, so we might as well play it up. The general and Nathan are going to go through our businesses and see what we need to fix and what we need to support. The G550 is going to be the corporate jet until you get us something better. I want you to keep looking. I know the G650 is horribly backordered. See if there is something we can do with a retrofit. We need something with a corporate feel but military capabilities.”

  “Not giving me a challenge there, are you?” Bobcat smiled. He knew William was listening in rapt attention. This was the shit he lived for.

  “Well, if it isn’t doable, I didn’t buy out the right guy and hire the right engineer. What do you two say?”

  William piped in, “It’s going to be as sweet as sugar and as hot as spice. We’ll come up with a plan that will do you proud. That’s for damn sure.” Williams mind was already racing on ideas. If they took a 737 and found some …

  “Pipe down a second back there, Billy.” Bobcat reined in his engineers racing thoughts. Bethany Anne was curious.

  “Hey, that reminds me. I saw your info from Ecaterina. Is your name William or Billy? Isn’t Billy a nickname for William?”

  Bobcat laughted. “Actually, it’s all Williams fault. Back in the army, he was always telling the other mechanics that ‘they were getting their shit backwards.’ So, someone finally had enough of Williams lip and and told him his parents couldn’t even name him correctly. That Billy was a nickname for ‘William’, you weren’t supposed to name your kid the nickname up front. I don’t remember what happened to the guy, but his comment struck a cord from all of the people William had made fun of and the name stuck.

  She smiled. How ironic that your nickname was a name for your first name that was a nick name? She gave Bobcat some coordinates. “Take us over to this area, there are a few key’s I want to check out.”

  He located the coordinates and locked them in. He pulled the zoom factor up a bit to see both Europe and the eastern coast of America. Seemed to him that if you were coming from Europe, you might just go right through that area on your way to Miami. Curious, that.

  He dialed the magnification back closer and just kept his thoughts to himself. Whatever would be, would be.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Constanta, Romania

  Stephen was acclimating to the new technology quickly. Although he had been asleep for most of the computer and Internet revolution, he had the centuries of knowledge to make the connections quickly. It felt as if he was born in the wrong time.

  At one time, he loved his books. He spent four decades collecting the fine works of the time, rare copies of books that would be worth millions today. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been very careful with a female. For once, it had nothing to do with his vampire situation and everything to do with chasing two women at one time. The first woman saw him with the second woman and by the time he got back home, all of his beloved books were ashes in his fireplace.

  He learned from that lesson never to have a lover in the same city as another. Now, with this Internet his rule would have to change again. How these men could cheat and get away with it he had no idea. He, however; was thinking that dates were good enough. Plus, there was this Tinder app he found fascinating. Ivan had caught him just going through the descriptions one after another. He almost blushed when Ivan winked and smiled knowingly at him.

  Ivan had been changing his sleeping patterns to become closer to Stephen’s. Stephen would go to sleep at about 3:00 AM and wake up at 9:00 AM. Ivan couldn’t quite match him yet, but he as going to sleep about 1:00 AM and getting up at 10:00 AM.

  The bell rang for the front door and Ivan called that he would get it. He hadn’t said hello to the person before Stephen could smell a vampire at the door.

  This was a surprise. His daughter, Gabrielle, had come to visit.

  Constanta, Romania

  Gabrielle had heard the rumors that Petre’ had been killed. Not that she was terribly upset about that. She felt Petre’ was a bad choice to have been turned and nothing the waste of space had done had changed her opinion of him.

  However; that another vampire had killed him, on purpose for his actions spoke of Michael. Gabrielle had never met the ultimate Patriarch. However; if there was any vampire-on-vampire killing for Petre’s sins, then it could travel back up to the maker which was her father, Stephen. She had traveled through and found Petre’s house a mess. It had suffered through a fire, some vandals and the weather. She had talked to the local pack who spoke of another female vampire and a Wechselbalg who had killed Petre’. She feared for her father’s safety.

  She took another train an
d then a taxi to get to his door. She noticed that there was recent human traffic around the outside of the house. She could smell a man and she thought some scent of her father, but it was a different scent than what she remembered.

  She heard the steps coming to the door and a voice saying that he had it.

  The door opened and a most handsome man stood there, staring at Gabrielle before shaking his head and smiling at her. A very fetching smile was on his face.

  Gabrielle returned the smile, her dimples complimenting the mischievous smile on her face.

  The man opened the door a bit more, “My goodness! To what do I owe the pleasure of a beautiful woman showing up at Stephen’s door this time of the night?” She could hear his heartbeat beating a little faster. The song of his blood and the smile on his face was so captivating. She had to smile at the flattery. It wasn’t often it came without any political machinations behind it.

  It took Gabrielle a few seconds to register that there was another man behind this one who opened the door. She reluctantly pulled her attention away from the greeter and found herself staring at a very young and dashing man.

  Her mouth just dropped open and she barely spoke out the word, “Papa?”

  The door opened wider to let Stephen step closer to Gabrielle, “My loving daughter, it has been too long!” He wrapped her up in a tight hug. Gabrielle could do nothing in her shock, she barely put her arms around this strong man who was holding her up in the air.

  He set her down and brushed the hair out of her eyes. “Why don’t you come inside and let’s talk, you, Ivan and me!

  Ivan barely registered that they had come inside before he closed and locked up the door. In a stupor he followed the two. My God, he thought, what dimples!

  “You are fed, Gabrielle? We would not want to use my technology instructor.” Stephen turned towards Ivan who had followed the two into the living room in the back. “Gabrielle, please meet Ivan Romanov. He was sent by Bethany Anne to come and get me up to speed with technology these last few weeks.”

  Ivan stepped over to Gabrielle. She was a little short for a woman at 5’2” and had dark hair and an Olive Spanish skin color. Her dark brown eyes lit up as she took his hand. He seemed back in control now. “Pleased to meet you, Gabrielle. Would you care for anything? There is food of course and we do have some blood if you need some? I have learned that Stephen prefers it warmed a little, it would be nothing for me to do some for you.”

  Gabrielle was trying to parse all of the information in the short introduction. Ivan knew about vampires, there was blood in the house and her father was so young! This man in front of her was certainly not a new vampire. “No, thank you very much.”

  “Then I will leave you two to catch up.” Ivan turned to Stephen. “I’m going to retire a little early tonight. I’ll see you maybe before you sleep?”

  Stephen didn’t miss the covert glances his daughter was giving Ivan. It looked like these two were smitten with each other. Ah! Life was so very, very good. “Thank you, Stephen. We will catch up with the application training tomorrow?”

  Ivan smiled, “Yes. I’ll catch you up on Facebook and Twitter. You will enjoy it tremendously.” He nodded to Gabrielle with a smile and walked out of the living room towards his area of the house. Gabrielle could hear when he closed his own door. She turned around to her father.

  “Training?” Her eyes wide in shock.

  Stephen smiled. He was younger looking than Gabrielle at this time, but she didn’t look too old for Ivan. Stephen, however; was having a fun time with all of the new slang and idioms he was learning. “Come Gabrielle, are you going to be a cougar with young Ivan here?” He actually got his daughter to blush. Life was tremendous!

  “Papa!” She didn’t know where to start with her questions, then remembered what had brought her here. Her tone changed from one of shock to one of alarm, “Papa! I came here because Petre’ has been killed. By a female vampire for actions against the strictures and now you have a human here who knows about Vampires. Have you gone crazy?”

  Stephen smiled at his daughter. Leave it to her to find out about Petre’ and travel to see if he was ok. “I already know about Petre’. The vampire that killed him was Bethany Anne, the same one who helped me become this dashing young man in only one month. Gabrielle, she is now my Queen and I owe my whole existence to what she has done for me.”

  Gabrielle leaned forward, looking closely at her father on the couch in front of her. He didn’t look age crazed to her. There had been vampires which had seemed to go crazy over decades and centuries and started acting in weird ways. “Why did she come here to you?”

  He smiled, “She came here to have a discussion about my irresponsible parenting of Petre’.”

  “What happened?”

  “She came right up to the door and rang the bell until I woke up. I had been sleeping for many years and had decided that maybe I was too tired for this life any more. She told me she had information related to Petre’ and I allowed her entry. She told me that Petre’ had shot her and I didn’t believe her. I could not smell any of the vampire scent on her.”

  “No?”

  “Truly, we sat up in the front receiving room. She offered to let me smell her from a closer distance and walked to me. When she offered her wrist I became hungry and lost my sense and grabbed her wrist to drink of it.”

  “You bit her, father!” Gabrielle was very traditional in her relationships with humans. She had never forced any human to give her blood. Then again, she was a very attractive female and males through all of the centuries have yet to find an effective defense against an attractive female.

  “No, I tried to bite her. She boxed my ears and knocked me five meters across the floor. She walked over to me and when I complained she hit an old man, she told me she would break my ‘old man legs if I didn’t stop acting like a fucking moron.’”

  Gabrielle tried to stifle a laugh and failed. It was obvious her dad didn’t harbor any ill feelings towards the event.

  He smiled, “You would have been cheering her. She told me to ‘get a fucking backbone’ and she expected more from one of Michael’s children.”

  Gabrielle sat straighter, “She is one of Michaels? So he is back in Europe?” She feared for when Michael would truly come back to Europe and enforce the strictures harder than she had. If she were a little more honest, she knew that she hadn’t been the most stringent on occasion with the strictures and was concerned this Bethany Anne would talk with Michael about her.

  “No, Bethany Anne doesn’t know where he is. He has disappeared and is possibly dead. She has taken over the responsibility for Michael’s family. I have Europe to clean up, as it is. In fact, that you are here is a blessing. I was to start looking to find you the week after next.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Why, because you are my new spy master, Gabrielle. We are going to get Europe ready for a cleansing of these Forsaken and their political efforts. I have been studying with Ivan to get up on technology. I have spoken to Bethany Anne, who is back in America, and she has taken care of a major Forsaken problem they were having. These are interesting times, Gabrielle!”

  “I’m going to be your spy master, truly?”

  “Well, maybe that is what we would call it in the past. However; you will be in charge of intelligence here in Europe reporting to me. I’m not sure if all of this will be in person or through the Internet and the connections which Bethany Anne will provide for us. That is, if you care to join me?”

  Gabrielle was shocked. Her father rarely ever told her to do anything. However; when he did it was presumed that she would do it to the best of her abilities. Whether she knew anything about the subject or not was inconsequential. That he was asking her to be a part of this task that Bethany Anne was doing was another reality change that was difficult to believe.

  “I can choose?”

  Stephen smiled. This was another aspect that Stephen loved about working with Bethany Anne. She ha
d a few discussions with him about how she needed to change the future, but it would be with believers not conscripts.

  He wanted Gabrielle to be with him on this wonderful journey and he was tempted to just tell her to do this, however; his queen would be sorely disappointed in him once she found out. Stephen never doubted that she would find out this information. He felt bad he had even considered doing this. He made a decision that this action was beneath Bethany Anne, and therefore beneath him as a follower of his queen. He would not, could not, bring shame to her destiny.

  “Gabrielle, I will answer most any question that I feel I can without being untrue to my queen. I will let you know if you ask such a question. However; you can choose your own destiny.”

  This time, Stephen was on the edge of his couch, earnestly speaking to Gabrielle. “Bethany Anne will not allow me to force you to join in this endeavor. If I should do this she would probably pull my arm off to beat me with it. It would be most painful I’m sure. She is of the opinion that most vampires respect only strength of arms and trust me, she can bring that to the discussion. However; she also sat in that very place and listened with care and talked with me all night long. Finally, she gave me some of her blood to help me start coming back from the death I had done to myself . I have given her my oath.”