Bite This (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 4) Read online

  Dan considered her request, “So, you want us to show them enough to feel confident the humans are the poor substitute, then let the Guards bloody their nose, and finally show them the reality?”

  “Something like that, I’m not sure I have the right order. What do you guys think?”

  John joined in, “If we show them them the agents who were killed and maimed before class 101 Beat Down, then come back and show them even more footage they would have to figure that at that time, they might be as good as the agents who have died.”

  Dan thought about it. He hated doing anything that would disrespect the honor of his fallen agents, but he had to agree that their deaths being a warning for this generation of Nosferatu fighters would be a way to continue their fight even from the grave.

  “I think we can work on that. Have you considered where you want to do this?”

  “Yes, only to realize we can’t do it on the Ad Aeternitatem. Not enough space for them and the scientists I expect we will have to place on board. I hate to bring them on board this craft because I don’t want them sitting in the lap of luxury when I’m trying to get their heads screwed on straight.”

  John looked at her, “Do you think Pete’s head is screwed on straight?”

  “Yeah, sure, he’s really solid right now. Why do you ask?”

  “Remember, he lived in a ten million dollar home in Key Biscayne. We can double bunk them to make their rooms a little less palatial, but we run them hard as hell. They won’t have enough energy to enjoy the surroundings. Plus, it wears off in time. I would prefer we weren’t too far from you anyway. I’m sure you weren’t thinking of ditching us if we were too busy with the new recruits, right?”

  That was exactly what Bethany Anne thought she might be able to get away with, “No, not at all.” Her answer fooled none of the team at the table.

  “Ok, if you guys are ok with it and Captain Thomas has a place to stick them, just run it by Nathan and my dad for a sanity check and give Ecaterina a time frame to get them down here. Give Gerry a heads up on what you're thinking. Make sure they bring nothing with them. If they have anything, it gets tossed overboard. Well, maybe that’s a figure of speech, I don’t want to pollute. However; I want it tossed. They need to leave anything they are bringing behind. Make sure we have the same outfits for all of them.” She thought about that for a minute, “Dan, would you talk with Captain Thomas? We need crew uniforms for here and for Max’s crew, and patches for the overall Navy.”

  Dan was writing on his legal pad, “Anything in mind on the uniforms?”

  Bethany Anne got a big smile, “Yes!” Dan and John looked up. They hadn’t heard Bethany Anne sound so carefree in a while. “Ecaterina. Find out the top three designers, TQB Enterprises ships are going to have the best looking uniforms on any ships out to sea. We will have them all done up very nicely. Wait, scratch the three designers. Please find out if Nassau has anyone we might want to use and maybe rope in anyone on either crew that has any comments on the utilitarian aspects of working versus presentation uniforms. I want something that will make other crews jealous with envy and make our people pop and sizzle.”

  Dan and John just turned to look at each other. They knew that Bethany Anne loved fashion, but they hadn’t heard anything about it recently and had rather forgotten that side of her. Looks like it was coming back. Maybe that was a good thing?

  “You realize that most navies use one-piece coveralls, right? You will need to get with the Captains to discuss what is practical and what is fashionable. Practical is going to win.”

  Ecaterina was smiling even with Dan’s comment on practical considerations versus fashion. She loved working with fashion and since she would be wearing these uniforms while on board, the ladies would have both practical and flattering versions. So, warm weather, cold weather, sport… the list could go on and on. She turned to Bethany Anne, “What is the budget?”

  “This is for our disguise as much as the other reasons. Let me know if this is going to go over a million. Everyone who has joined will be completely fitted out and I want a fair amount of extras on board in case we bring in new employee’s. Oh, and add a pair of Christian Louboutin and a Birkin bag for each lady.”

  Ecaterina looked at her, “Birkin?”

  John and Dan just looked back and forth between the two.

  “Yeah, by Hermès? We will want to contact them to get something special made for our team. Work with the designer to make sure they match, but give each woman the chance to choose something a little special. You need to budget $10,000 per bag and we will want the smaller 30 or 35 centimeter sizes probably. Certainly something they can carry their wallet and a pistol in. I know that Officer Dukes will appreciate that.”

  There were chuckles around the table. Jean Dukes was still setting up offensive and defensive armament on the Polarus. The ship was becoming the Q-ship that Bethany Anne had asked for. “When the snobby bitches come on board, I want them to see that every one of my ladies are already sporting some of the best as their uniform. It will knock them for a loop and most of the gossip rags will focus on how our people are dressed considerably snazzier than other people, trust me.” She looked over to Dan and John, “Sorry guys, I’ll make sure you have some excellent footwear, but I don’t think you guys want man-purses, right?”

  Dan just shook his head while John admitted he didn’t want anything of the sort. But then he came back, “Well, if we can’t have any special bags, I sure would like a really nice sniper rifle.”

  “I don’t think that is considered a uniform accessory.”

  “Depends on which uniform we are wearing.” John just smiled at his response.

  Ecaterina piped in, “Oh! I want in on a sniper rifle, are we talking American or British?”

  “Hold up.” Everyone turned back to Bethany Anne, “I’m good with sniper rifles, but you three talk about it. I need to go relieve Eric so he can sleep. I’ll be over in the craft, so you can sleep here on this boat tonight, John. Eric can bunk down over on the Aeternitatem. Just give me a change of Eric’s clothes to take with me.”

  “Now?”

  “Yeah, I’m behind a bit relieving him right now. He can relieve me in the morning and I’ll come back over here. Make sure everyone stays out of my suite until I get back.”

  Ecaterina cut her off, “Actually, I had them modify your closet so you could lock it from the inside. You can leave and come back safely in there.”

  “Really? Perfect. Ok, that solves that problem. Can you grab a small pack for Eric now?” John had already stood up. “Dan, do you have anything for me before I go?”

  “Yes, Frank has some information about Anton, but we haven’t had time to nail down where and even who we think he is for sure. Once Clarita’s kids are safe, I want to ask Stephen to reach out and talk with them to find out if they can give us any information. I’ve talked with Lance for just a minute and he thinks we might have the start of a team to help on TOM’s craft.”

  “Really? That would be nice.”

  “Ah, it comes with a catch.”

  Her shoulders slumped, “Don’t they always? Can this wait until tomorrow? I don’t want to make Eric wait any longer if we don’t have to.”

  “Yeah, it can. Actually, it probably should. Nathan is the best one to explain the situation so we will wait until he gets here.”

  John came back in and handed Bethany Anne a small black backpack, “Everything is in there for a night and a morning over there. How often can you move back and forth?

  TOM?

  Well, probably a handful of times but we haven’t done the first one yet. If you have blood, all day long.

  “A couple of times easily, beyond that I have to start drinking the red medicine.” She made a distasteful face. “So, if we don’t have to do that I’m happier. If you need him here, he can come over on the smaller boat they are using, or Chris can bring him over if Shelly isn’t up top.”

  She stood up, “Are we all good?” Everyon
e agreed that they were. “Ok, I’ll be back in the morning. You guys take care.” She walked into her suite and shut the door. She grabbed a pillow off of her bed on the way to her large closet. Sure enough, her closet door had a substantial lock and the door was made of metal. Nothing much would be getting into that door quickly. With the pack in one hand and her pillow in the other she slipped through the Etheric into TOM’s cabin on his ship. She tossed the pillow on TOM’s bed and walked out to find Eric resting on the floor near the door to the medical room. Eric’s head lifted up when he heard her walking up.

  “Hey boss, how did everything go?”

  She reached down and gave him a hand to pull him up, “Good enough. I need you to bunk here tonight, so John tossed some stuff into this backpack. You’ll have to get with the Captain to find yourself a bunk, but I know they have one for you. Come get me after a really good rest tonight. You might need to bring something to keep you entertained as well.”

  “How do I get your attention in the craft?”

  TOM?

  We will setup a program to listen for your name, or some phrase to play a chime in here.

  “Ok, just say ‘Bethany Anne, it’s Eric, I’m ready to come back in.’ When you say that, the ship will notify me someone has just said the super secret code phrase and wake me up. You just better make sure that you don’t wake me early or your ass is grass, understand?”

  “Sure, what’s early?”

  “At least eight hours after you lay down to go to sleep.”

  Eric then understood it was for him to sleep a minimum of eight hours, not her sleep she was worried about. “I got the message, I’ll get a good night in.”

  They walked over to the exit and Bethany Anne punched in the code. The door opened, surprising Todd and Chet who were just outside the ship. They both did a double take to see Bethany Anne on the ship when they knew she had left on the helicopter a few hours before. Eric stepped off the ship and she winked at the guys and then closed the door. She went into the pod room and checked the information. TOM was able to confirm everything was working appropriately. It was possible she might get out in as few as three and a half more days. That was good news.

  She swung by the pilots area to set the alarm and then went back into TOM’s cabin and laid down on the rather short bed. She fluffed her pillow and closed her eyes. She was asleep in seconds.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The Queen Bitch's Ship Polarus Stationed 10 Miles North of Nassau

  The meeting room was pretty crowded. Lance, Nathan, Dan, Bobcat, Ecaterina, Frank, Todd Jenkins & Captains Thomas and Wagner were sitting around the table eating finger foods with John & Pete inside the room. Darryl and Scott were standing outside of the room.

  Lance, Nathan, Ecaterina and Frank were on the left side, Dan, Bobcat, Todd and the Captains were sitting down the right.

  Bethany Anne came in a moment later, wearing a pair of J Brand high rise marie skinny jeans in black and a pair of Christian Louboutin pumps and a green Ramy Brook high neck top. She had spent a couple of extra minutes relaxing in the bath this morning after Eric came back on board to watch over Gabrielle. If anything went wrong, the pod was setup to emit an ear piercing sound both inside and after sixty seconds, outside the ship. She was biting on an apple as she placed her tablet down on the table.

  “Good afternoon, everyone. I apologize for being a few minutes late.” She looked down the table at everyone, “I would like to say it was because I was held up talking with the President of some where, but the reality was my bath wouldn’t let me go. TOM’s ship might be the ticket to help us understand their technology, but their beds are little better than lying on the ground.” She took another bite of her apple. “We have a few things to go through, some of them taking longer than others, so let’s go with the two ships first and if the Captains need to leave after that they have the option. However; Captains you are invited to stay if you desire to listen to the rest.”

  Everyone either grabbed their pens if they preferred writing or made sure their laptops weren’t in sleep mode.

  Since Captain Thomas was the senior officer, he went first, “We are fairly prepared for a small skirmish with any Navy. We can take any non-Navy ship that I am aware of and we would probably surprise a larger Navy vessel right now. We have some missile defense and even some ability to send charges down below if we need it. As a Q-Ship, this vessel is pretty competent. Jean is waiting for another delivery that will expand our sig-ops abilities up a notch.”

  Bethany Anne interrupted him, “What would happen if we were attacked by non-military efforts? Say something like Green Peace?” Captain Thomas seem perplexed by the question. “Think of it this way, if I wanted to place something aboard this ship, I might decide to make a PR spectacle of a bunch of people working to do a peaceful demonstration against the ship in an effort to move someone or something aboard. How would you repel these types of invaders?”

  “I suppose you want this without lots of loud booms?” Bethany Anne shook her head and bit into the apple again. “I imagine we would use the firehoses to repel invaders in a method that seems as peaceful as possible. However; that doesn’t guarantee no one would be hurt. We would be throwing water instead of lead, so that is a plus. We do exercise the scenario of boats approaching under false pretenses, but since the USS Cole incident it's generally regarded that the chance of a bomb on board outweighs the bad press from killing them if they disobey all warnings. The Navy make their warnings very clear, and since everyone knows lethal force could be employed against them, you can't get in too much trouble if they're stupid enough to disregard the guns aimed at them. But I can see how this might be more of a concern for us now that we're not on a commissioned government warship and don't have government protection. If a government was able to coordinate the press to put pressure on us, we would be in a bad position if we shot people. I would suggest we don’t anchor too long in one place. If we allow ourselves to stay in one place then our adversaries can plan for multiple boats to arrive at the same location in a way that you might explain away otherwise. By staying under sail, we will modify our direction and force others to adjust their tracks to stay after us and give us more warning prior to an attack.”

  Todd spoke up, “What about sonic defenses?”

  Captain Thomas looked over at him, “What, like the sonic cannons used inside cities?”

  “Yes, something like that.”

  Captain Thomas rubbed his jaw. “Well, I don’t know much about the effective range or how it works if they get behind their own walls. We can look into it. We need to add the idea of repelling ‘non-violent’ boarders to our exercises from now on. And eventually, we'll need some laid down Rules of Engagement. Not only will that give us a framework for how we respond to incidents, but something we can point at if we have to excuse the use of lethal force in the future.”

  Bethany Anne turned and tossed the apple into the trash. Turning back around, “We'll have to consider that further later. The exercises should be enough for now. I don’t know that this will happen, however; in the future I can imagine a time when we have those who are trying to force us to release emergency medical technology and believe by taking over this ship, or yours Captain Wagner, they might force our hand. Unfortunately, getting on the Ad Aeternitatem might just sign their death warrant. I know that constantly moving will be a little expensive, but please put that into effect immediately. Even if we look like a Lloyds looper, it will help our team identify possible enemies quicker.”

  Ecaterina interrupted, “What is a Lloyds looper?”

  Captain Thomas took the question, “For a lot of cargo ships they are insured by Lloyds of London. For them to be tied up in port is more expensive due to the increase in insurance costs than just sitting out in the ocean doing a figure eight until they get their next destination to pick up cargo. Now, lots of companies are in the business of insuring ships but the name has stuck. In our case, whether we are at the pier or anchored, our risk is h
igher than if we move around. The only issue with moving around is it'll decrease chances for crew respite, so we might need more personnel rotation to avoid long-term fatigue and burnout.”

  John spoke up, “What about issuing pistols with the ‘sleepy’ rounds?” He was referring to the special darts made with Bethany Anne’s blood that put almost any person to sleep within two seconds.

  They now had TOM’s ship, so maybe it was possible to change the chemical’s in the darts without forcing Bethany Anne to bleed a drop of blood into every dart. Bethany Anne answered, “That’s a good idea. I need to talk with TOM about using the medical capabilities onboard his ship to change the dart chemicals without me having to bleed all over them to make it work.” She paused for a minute, “Or Gabrielle I suppose. I’m sure she wasn’t thinking she would become a blood cow in the future.”