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  “Damn,” William, eyes squinting, winced in pain, “I wish I had some popcorn for this shit.”

  —

  Akio dropped the body to the ground, it’s mouth frozen in pain, the eyes dead.

  He walked over to William and pulled up his sleeve, “I am dishonored, but through healing, I may restore you. Will you accept my blood as part of my restitution to make things right?”

  “Of course, Akio,” William said, “But if you can do something to help me when you need to get the two slugs out, that would be a fucking beautiful thing, man.”

  Akio nodded and looked William in the eyes, “Well, hey,” William said, “I didn’t mean we needed to go all man-on-man here brother, you know I like you and all…” Williams' head slumped as Akio smiled.

  Americans, always thinking that every gay guy had to like them.

  Akio grew his nails and searched, and found, both slugs and pulled them out. He slit his wrists to share the nanocytes. He pursed his lips and then slid his finger lengthwise, jabbing the bleeding digit into each of the wounds to push the nanocytes in as far as he could.

  Ripping off Williams shirt, he wiped down the bleeding area to see if he was healing. Satisfied, Akio pushed awareness back into William’s mind, and William slowly started to wake up.

  William blinked a few times and then grinned weakly, “Did I like it?”

  Akio chuckled, “If I didn’t know you, William, I would have to kill you for that disrespect.”

  “Akio,” William put his right hand on Akio’s left shoulder, “That was no disrespect. That was me treating you like I would treat any brother of mine. That was me speaking to family. If I offended, I’m sorry. But, this is all I have to offer you without being false, just me.” William shrugged, slowly, “I can no more change me and my smart mouth than you can change what you feel, so can you accept me as well?”

  Akio stared at William and considered his explanation. Akio then put his right hand on Williams left shoulder, “I needed to protect you as you are my Queen’s dear friend. Now, I will protect you because you are my brother, William.”

  William smiled, “Good, now that we got that male bonding bullshit out of the way,” William paused dramatically and looked Akio deep in his eyes, “Did I like it?”

  The two men started chuckling, “You, William,” Akio said as he got next to William to help him stand up, “are such an ass.”

  “Music to my ears, brother,” William said, grunting, “God,” William pointed to now very dead Goro, “I would have paid good money to have had some popcorn when you tore him a new asshole.”

  The two men had taken a few steps before Akio answered, “I left his asshole alone, William. He isn’t my type.” he replied, deadpan.

  William busted out laughing grabbing his midsection causing the two to stop walking, “Oh God, Akio!” William cried out, “You’re killing me a second time you jackass!” He laughed and wheezed, trying to catch his breath, his insides still painfully tender.

  The two were making their way to the front when Eiji came back, “Clear and I hear sirens, do I need…” he looked beyond the two men, “Oh, I need to get rid of some evidence.” Akio nodded, and Eiji stepped around the two men and grabbed Goro’s dead body.

  “They were here for our technology,” William said as they walked. “The dead asshat behind us was looking for our Kurtherian tech. We need to figure out who gave them this location and provide a proper response.”

  Akio nodded sharply, “That I will do gladly. It is time to remind the cockroaches that there is something to fear in the night.”

  “Oh, fuck me.” William said, “I’m going to miss the good stuff, aren’t I?”

  “If you mean the killing and the destruction, I’m afraid so, William.” Akio agreed as he helped William sit down in a chair, “I didn’t give you enough blood to heal you all of the way.” He paused in thought, then continued “I’ve got some of Bethany Anne’s blood back in Yuko’s room that would be better for you, plus you have some of her nanites already, correct?”

  William nodded he did.

  “We don’t want to mix them if we can help it, I understand,” Akio temporized.

  “Probably not,” William agreed as he looked down the hallway at all of the dead or moaning bodies, “Fuck, this looks like a Cuisinart went through here.”

  Akio looked down the corridor, “I should probably have the Vicereine come,” Akio then grimaced thinking about her response to the blood. “She will need to be here to represent the Queen.”

  William chuckled and turned to Akio, “I’ll give you ten to one odds she will throw up at least once.”

  Akio smiled, looking back down the hallway. “I’ll take that, how about an ounce of gold?”

  “Huh?” William responded, “Oh, yeah I guess humanity’s money is going away isn’t it?”

  Akio nodded, “We are going to go to another system of credits I understand. But, you can always trade gold.”

  William smiled, “Ok, ten to one and I bet an ounce of gold.”

  —-

  Yuko bit down hard as her guards Takeshi and Nario brought her through the first set of the wounded, dead, and dying. The stench of the dead mixed with the cries of the wounded as her eyes sought to hide from all of the police strobe lights flicking around in the night.

  Her stomach, queasy and threatening to rebel was a problem. She did not wish to embarrass herself and therefore her Queen by vomiting in this place.

  She noticed Akio and walked over to him. “What happened?”

  “We were hit by Yakuza. They understood we had some special technology here for a transfer to the government. Apparently, the information was planted by someone, and they struck earlier due to lack of complete information.”

  “Is William ok?”

  “He was shot twice,” when she put up her hand to her mouth, her eyes large, he quickly added, “he will heal and be healthy again. But he will also be tender for a couple of days, at a minimum.”

  Yuko put a hand on Akio’s shoulder, “You have blood all over you. Are you and Eiji ok?”

  “I am fine, Eiji is fine as well, but I had him change clothes so it looks like there was only one of us fighting. Many of these,” Akio waved over the bodies, “are known criminals, so they are already trying to figure out what to do. As the Queen’s Vicereine, you are the representative,” he looked at her, and she gave him a sharp nod.

  She understood.

  Turning around, she looked for the clot of important looking police. She paused a moment and covered her mouth.

  “ADAM?”

  >>Yes?<<<br />
  “Find out who is the top level officer at my location, please. Also, I need to have access to anything you can discover about what the police already know or suspect.”

  >>Presently, we have local police, but there are two additional agencies on their way here. One is the Special Investigations Team, and the other is the Public Security Intelligence who are arriving without much fanfare. Further, there are others who are trying to limit the press who are also coming at this time. The Japanese press are usually the ones who report on Police misdeeds.<<<br />
  Yuko turned and started into the building, “Akio, you and Eiji need to step inside. We need to not be seen outside at this time.” She stepped boldly into the warehouse but wanted to gag at the smell and the stench inside the hallway. She stepped carefully over the gruesome parts.

  Akio came up behind her, “Allow me to carry you over this… mess.” Yuko nodded, and Akio gently picked Yuko up and moved through the hallway. He set her down on the other side, and William spoke, surprising Yuko.

  “Dammit Yuko,” She turned to him as he watched her from his chair, “Why can’t you be a normal female just once for me?”

  She looked back to Akio who was smiling, “What is he upset about?”

  Akio looked back at the hallway, “We had a bet, and I just won.”

  She turned to William, “What was the bet?”

  He shoo
k his head, “I will tell you later, now would be unfair to you and Akio.”

  She shrugged and looked around, seeing two more dead bodies down in the warehouse, “Are those the two that shot you?” she asked.

  “No, that one has left, permanently. But, we didn’t want him around so the answer we are giving is ‘yes.'” He grunted and added, “ADAM has already pulled the necessary video and stripped the shit we don’t want getting out. So we have that to provide the police.”

  Yuko nodded, “I’ll work with ADAM myself while we wait.” She turned to Akio, “How many names do you want?”

  “All of them,” he answered, his lips set in a firm line.

  She nodded her head and walked to a small desk a few feet from William, “All that I can find, I will give you.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Chapter 11

  QBS ArchAngel

  “So, you two had fun,” Scott said as he drank his coffee in the cafeteria, “and Nathan and Darryl had a good time, but Barnabas and I got to sit out in our car and drink coffee and shoot the shit.”

  “Not my fault,” Eric sat down across from Scott as Gabrielle waved and then headed towards her room.

  Scott nodded, “Yeah, we waited all night for someone to attack our location. But, we figured the other side losing two sets of team communications caused our hit to be a no-go. Our bait left after the video from Nathan and Darryl’s take down anyway.”

  “Where are our new guests now?” Eric asked, blowing on his cup of coffee.

  “Second set of guests quarters, but I understand they are going to either be repatriated back to Earth if they want, or moved to quarters in the asteroid belt if they don’t. As you can imagine, the men are for it, the wives are completely undecided. Lot’s of family down there.”

  “That will do it every time,” Eric agreed, “How’s it going with Cheryl Lynn?”

  Scott snickered and looked behind Eric.

  “She’s behind me, isn’t she?” Eric asked and then received a thump on his head. “Ouch!”

  “Yes, she is!” Cheryl Lynn came into view walking around the table to pull a chair out next to Scott. “Cheryl Lynn is fine now that Scott is back and she is happy that nothing happened. I know this is what I get for signing up to care about one of you guys, but I can’t say I like it a lot,” she grumped and sat down in the chair. “I saw Gabrielle going down the hallway, she looked tired.”

  “She is, she didn’t sleep during the operation, and while she drinks coffee just fine, she didn’t do much drinking on the trip. The damned nanocytes kinda take the caffeine buzz down a notch. I’ve worked on pulling Etheric Energy to help keep me up, but she needs to do the same, now. She was pissed I was one-up on her, abilities wise, and I’m sure she will figure it out soon enough.” Eric finished.

  “After she sleeps,” Cheryl Lynn added to Eric’s nodding agreement.

  “So, answering your question,” Scott said as he slipped an arm around Cheryl Lynn, “she is fine. Just a little tweaked with worry when I go on an operation.”

  “I’m right here,” Cheryl Lynn said, then laid her head on Scott’s shoulder and closed her eyes, “you guys go ahead and talk, I’m just going to take a nap.” She lifted her head and pushed on Scott’s muscles, “Couldn’t you be just a little flabby? It’s like sleeping on a super firm pillow.” She laid her head back down, “Nevermind, I’ll just find me a small pillow, you keep them muscles hard as a rock, dear.”

  Scott looked down at her hair and smiled then looked up to Eric and winked.

  Eric raised his cup, “I guess that means you will be at the workout at sixteen-hundred?”

  “If I’m not,” Scott said, moderating his voice, “I’ll lose these muscles and then where will I be?”

  Cheryl Lynn reached across with one of her arms, her eyes still closed and snuggled in closer to him, “I’ll still care for you, even with muscles that are kinda flabby. You still have a cute butt.” She paused before adding, “don’t lose the butt.”

  The two men chuckled.

  “What’s on tap for today?” Scott asked.

  Eric answered, “Uh…I think it is Thunderous Thursday, So we go back to the classics.”

  Then both men started singing, “I’ve got big balls, you’ve got big balls, but SHE’S got the Biggest, Balls of Them All!”

  “Seriously?” Cheryl Lynn grumped, voice muffled from speaking into Scott’s chest as the two guys chuckled, “you guys sing about Bethany Anne?”

  Eagles Nest Rocking Country Bar, Virginia Beach, VA - USA

  PO2 Harmon tossed his five bucks on the table and grabbed the waiting beer, taking a sip before wiping the suds off of his mouth, “Damn, that is what I needed.”

  PO3 Neil moved the five-dollar bill to the end of the table so Melissa, their waitress, could grab it the next time she passed by.

  Harmon raised an eyebrow, “She spotted us the beer, knowing you were running late,” Neil told him, “I told her I’d pay it if you failed to show up in,” leaning forward to look behind Harmon, “another ten minutes.”

  “Got called back by Senior Chief Needledick to dot some I’s and cross some T’s on some paperwork. Can’t believe I missed that shit. Didn’t get too much of a talking to, I guess I looked pissed off enough at myself. Damned embarrassing.”

  “What, no one told you that the Iranian Navy has openings if you want to keep fucking up that bad?” PO2 Ronnie asked, grinning, “That’s what I was told by my chief.”

  “Uh, no,” Harmon admitted, “no Iranian Navy offer, but if the rumors are true about where we are going, I think I might have taken them up on the offer.”

  “The big ‘A’?” Ronnie asked, and Harmon nodded.

  Neil turned to Ronnie, “Alaska?”

  “No, dumbass, Antarctica,” Ronnie replied. “Alaska would be nice, at least they have people living there. Fucking Antarctica is nothing but ball-busting cold covered by freezing sleet and winds they say will throw your ass off of the ships.”

  “Make those pansies from Wild Catch squeeze their sphincters tight enough to drop ball bearings out after eating raw metal,” Harmon added.

  “What’s the group going to be?” Neil asked.

  “Frigate, Cruiser, LHD I’m hearing,” Harmon answered. “Go in, let the Marines land and check out a couple of interesting satellite locations and if we find anything, dig in a little and get more backup. If not, we sneak back out. Everyone is going bat-shit crazy wanting to do Indiana Jones stuff all over the damned world. I’m hearing some really high placed people have been up on the QBS ArchAngel and everyone knows that they have the alien tech.”

  “And they aren’t sharing,” Neil interjected.

  “Shit, would you?” Ronnie replied, “Fuck, if I had their tech I sure as hell wouldn’t.”

  The men could see Melissa heading their direction and Ronnie grabbed his mug and finished the last couple of swallows. His mug hit the table just seconds before Harmon’s banged down empty as well.

  She smiled as she dropped off three freshly-filled mugs, “I’ll take that as yes, you would like these?” In seconds, she had their empties on her tray and had turned to move back to the bar.

  “God, I’d…” Neil started.

  Harmon put up a hand, “Don’t say it,” he told his friend, “We all think it, but just don’t say it. She’s had a tough life, and whether we think we wouldn’t do anything ugly to her or not, we all know Uncle S. calls the shots for now. She won’t date Navy, and it has everything to do with her father leaving and never coming back.”

  “He was Navy?” Neil asked.

  “No,” Ronnie replied, “He was just a loser who couldn’t handle the responsibility. She likes us, but won’t date us ... them’s the breaks sometimes.” Ronnie answered and then stopped watching her and turned back to his table, “So, we leaving soon?”