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  “Yes, and no. The original information did come from the companies that Patriarch had done the financial research on. That report sat without a priority and no notice for almost a year. Then, a minor staffer to a significant congressman out of Florida made a request on a couple of businesses which turned up the Patriarch information. From there, more data mining was requested. Until the last few months, it had been sporadic. Since about two months before the Miami incident, it started to get significantly higher.”

  “So, is the staffer working for someone else, or is the congressman asking the staffer to do this for him?” Lance drank from his coffee, pleasantly surprised at the quality.

  “Both good questions.”

  “So, we don’t know if the congressman is in on it, or not. Based on the information you and Dan told me about the situation back in the Everglades and the terrorist attacks, it seems likely the request for information is connected. What if the attacks on the companies that you guys broke up wasn’t going for fiscal gain?”

  “Well, we can ask two of the hackers on that job.”

  “That’s right, Nathan took them in, right?” Frank just nodded.

  “Ok. It’s looking possible that the information from the Patriarch Research is a tool to help find and locate other companies in our group. We need to know if it was a financial attack, data attack or a fishing expedition.”

  Frank pulled out his phone and hit Nathan’s number. After a minute of talking with Nathan, who promised to get the two employees to call him, he hung up.

  By the time the waitress refilled their coffees, Frank's phone had a call coming in from Texas. “Frank Kurns. Yes, thank you for taking the time to call Ben. I am looking into what information you were directed to procure during your job in Miami a while back. Yes, the job before you took work with Mr. Lowell’s company. I work for the lady who was in charge of the security during that job. Yes, her. Really? You want to meet her?” Frank looked at Lance, who just shrugged. “I can’t tell you if that is or isn’t possible right now, Ben. The better person to ask would be Mr. Lowell. I don’t know of any reason the lady wouldn’t be willing to meet with you, but make it known to Mr. Lowell and let him know I asked you to do so.”

  Frank listened to the phone for a bit while Lance finished his eggs.

  “So, you guys were looking to create back doors into the organization to extract what, exactly? Right, I understand what you are talking about. Yes, I have had some experience with that technology. Interesting, so the last item was to transfer money from bank accounts to hide the trojan horse and the worms? Ok… No, I don’t think it was a problem we didn’t go into more detail before now. That’s what I needed to know, thank you for your help.” Frank said his good bye and hung up.

  Lance pushed his plate away, “So, rob them to hide the data attack?”

  “Pretty much. He said that they had some good code that should have been pretty untraceable once it was installed. However; he and the female hacker have given Nathan’s company, or I guess I should say Bethany Anne’s company, everything they know about the code. So, their product Guardian has the ability to look inside firewalls and protect the network. The company is discretely passing the word around to companies who aren’t their customers. They’ve picked up two consultations and one client so far just by being nice people.”

  “Ok, but where does this get us? We know that the attacks would have been financially successful, but the real desire was to get inside the companies. What are they looking for?”

  The waitress came and took their dishes and topped off their coffees. Frank voiced his first thought, “What if they don’t know?”

  Lance reached over for the Splenda, “Just a fishing expedition?”

  “No, what if there are rumors that Michael has something, but they don’t know what it is. If I was in charge of a project like that, I would first limit my scope.”

  “All of Michael’s companies.”

  Frank nodded, “The second would be to get into each one and start a massive digging expedition. They are getting cash, new research they might or might not be able to use and still searching for the answer.”

  Lance took his sip, too sweet. “To the question they don’t know how to ask. That only works if they don’t fear getting caught.”

  Frank thought about that. “They were already operating in America, I think they either didn’t fear getting caught, or considered it worth the risk. For them to push so hard while Michael was gone and have attacked his companies directly speaks to them having inside information. They believe the risk from Michael is small or non-existent.”

  “Until Bethany Anne came along, that was true. Her busting up the Miami operation had to put a crimp in their plans.”

  Frank thought back to the fight and the aftermath. “I bet we have a bigger Miami connection than we think right now. The congressman and the staffer come from that area. I need to see if there are any phone records I can procure for that time frame from the congressmen himself.”

  “Who is it?”

  “William Pepper. Pretty powerful in the Appropriations Committee. Been in office for six terms so far. I have some background tasks running to get more information on him. That will probably take until this evening or tomorrow before I have a good brief.”

  “Do we need to be here in D.C., or go back to Miami?” Lance called the waitress over to top him off and dilute the sweet coffee he had.

  “Both of the suspects are here in D.C., plus some of my own support is back in my office and I need to be there to use those old computers.”

  “Do we need to move them?” Taking a sip, Lance seemed pleased with the new sweetness of his coffee.

  “Eventually. However; I don’t know where I would feel safe if we moved them. So best to leave them here in D.C. until we get our own location with better security.” Frank pushed his coffee away and grabbed his water, the caffeine was starting to make him jittery.

  Frank’s phone rang again, another Texas number. “Hello, Frank Kurns. Hello Tabitha, I appreciate the call back.” Frank went through the same discussion with Tabitha that he had with Ben. He politely said his good bye and hung up. “Same information that Ben gave me earlier. She had the same instructions as the other two.”

  “Bethany Anne hit one too hard when trying to incapacitate them, right?”

  “Yes. I asked her about it and she mentioned the last time she had done that was to a Wechselbalg, so she hadn’t adjusted for the ‘human eggshell’, her words not mine.”

  Lance snorted, “That sounds like her. I don’t know any other person who can get so righteously angry for a person who has been in the grave for years and then turn around and be the one who puts a person into the grave just seconds later.”

  Frank raised his water to Lance, “Strangely enough, that’s why I follow her Lance. By the way, did I ever tell you the first time I listened in on her operation and heard her call someone ‘ass-munch’ on the team radios? God, I thought I was going to die of laughter that night.” Frank was on the cusp of laughing right there in the pancake house. “I think that night was when I started to think how I could live a little while longer.”

  “Really? Here, let me tell you a story about when she was in high school and we were at a martial arts tournament…”

  Frank put his water down, “Wait, wait. Let me get my journal out of my bag. I’m collecting stories, hold on.”

  The two men sat another hour while Lance thought of three different stories about his young daughter and told them to Frank. By the time the men finished, both had been laughing for the last thirty minutes. Frank had to fight to contain himself enough to jot down any notes. They left a large tip for the waitress and left the restaurant.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The Queen Bitch’s Ship Polarus near Costa Rica

  The clanging of swords had the staccato sound of a string of fireworks going off. There would be a fast set of sounds with moments of silence and then an occasional clang and then
the fury would start again.

  Gabrielle was dripping with sweat while Bethany Anne calmly walked around her, seeking a weakness in her form. Gabrielle had endured almost thirty minutes of hard sparring to get comfortable with her new body. She failed to enjoy the moment as Bethany Anne had been soundly defeating all of her attacks and then Gabrielle’s head had been rung hard when Bethany Anne hit it with flat of her blade. When Gabrielle looked up from the floor, she saw Bethany Anne’s red eyes and heard her simple ‘Get up’ command.

  She struggled to push off of the floor and fight through her exhaustion. She wanted to at least mark the younger woman. This was getting embarrassing. At first, the guys who were watching which included John, Eric, Scott, Darryl, Pete and Todd Jenkins supported both women. After about five minutes it became obvious that Bethany Anne didn’t need a cheering section and they all were yelling for Gabrielle to ‘get back up’ and to ‘stop laying about’. Actually, that last one came from Darryl and Scott. She never heard John or Eric support that comment. She would enjoy that more if she wasn’t getting her ass kicked so soundly at the moment.

  They started another pass.

  Bethany Anne started talking.

  Clang - Clang - Clang. “You.” Clang - Clang. “Have.” Clang. “To.” Clang-Clang-Clang. “Reach.” Clang - Clang - Clang. “Deeper!” Clang - Clang.

  Gabrielle stepped back, “What are you talking about?” She tried to catch her breath as quickly as possible.

  Bethany Anne started walking in a circle around her in the other direction, forcing Gabrielle to pivot.

  “You aren’t using your Etheric power. Haven’t you ever felt strength beyond what you have now? Speed that exceeds your present abilities?”

  Gabrielle almost dropped her guard as she thought about that question, but quickly put her swords back up. It would be just like Bethany Anne to slap the side of her head again as an object lesson. “I don’t remember, maybe? But it happened so fast I could never be sure what occurred.”

  “This is what can happen, Gabrielle.” Bethany Anne’s eyes went even redder and her fangs grew. It was the only warning Gabrielle had before Bethany Anne attacked. Gabrielle was able to stop two blows before her left hand went numb from the block to Bethany Anne’s strike and her hand dropped the sword. She tried to pull her right sword up in time when Bethany Anne was already spinning around and Gabrielle’s feet were swept out from underneath her. She hit the floor hard enough to make her ancestors flinch in their graves.

  Bethany Anne’s fangs were on her throat. She froze, not wanting to do anything to push the woman over any edge. Bethany Anne spoke into her ear, “You will learn to pull from the Etheric, you will learn to walk the roads with me between the dimensions, Gabrielle. You are your own challenge. You are stopping yourself from your destiny, Gabrielle. Are you ready to embrace it, or do you want to be my bitch, always laying on the ground after I kick your ass? Hmmm little girl? What is it going to be…. Speak!”

  Gabrielle didn’t move, but anger was in her whisper, “I… Will… Kick… Your… Skinny….Ass…Bitch!”

  Gabrielle could feel Bethany Anne’s lips curve into a smile, “Yes, there is the fire. I can feel your blood right now, Gabrielle. Calling to me, telling me I should take it. Should I give in, hmmm? Should I just take a little, to see what you taste like? Maybe not this time, however; the next time you call me ‘Bitch’, it better have the title ‘Queen’ in the front, Or I will teach you what being my bitch really means. Do you understand me?”

  Gabrielle just shook her head up and down slowly, trying not to cause Bethany Anne’s fangs to cut into her skin. She wasn’t sure if her blood would cause a reaction, but she didn’t want to find out.

  Bethany Anne was over her neck one second, breathing on it and the next she was standing beside her, with her hand outstretched to help Gabrielle to stand up.

  When she was standing, Bethany Anne waved Pete to come over and hand her the sword she had dropped. Pete just looked at her with sympathy and stepped back out of the sparring area.

  “Now, I want you to stand there and feel your body, feel your core. Inside that core is an opening, as if you are a mountain and it is a small cave that has the air come in and out. That is your connection to the Etheric. It fills you up, slowly. However; it is the same energy that blood provides you. You can use this energy to increase your power, your speed, your abilities. In the beginning it is limited, you run out quickly. In time you become more proficient in the use.” Bethany Anne thought about what she needed Gabrielle to learn. “We need to try something else, hold on.”

  She called over to John, “Can you bring me the fifteen sticks?” John jogged over with fifteen, six-inch long by half-inch in diameter dowel rods that Chief Engineer Rodriquez had cut for Bethany Anne. She took them, “Thank you. Now give John one of your swords.” Gabrielle handed John the sword that she had in her left hand. That rat bastard had skipped out and left her in previous fight, so it was in the dog house as far as she was concerned. John took the sword and went back to watching from the side lines.

  “How many of these do you think you can hit if I toss them all up in the air?”

  Gabrielle thought about that, “Probably most of them.”

  “And if I have you close your eyes until they are already falling back down?”

  She pursed her lips, “Maybe half?”

  “Let’s see,” Bethany Anne split the dowels between her hands. “Turn around.”

  Gabrielle knew Bethany Anne wasn’t going to make this too easy on her, but turning around? What a way to make the challenge a real pain in the ass.

  “Close your eyes. You may open them when I say ‘go’.”

  Gabrielle turned to face away from Bethany Anne and put her sword up. She heard Bethany Anne step back a few steps away from her. “Go!”

  Gabrielle opened her eyes and turned around. The damn dowels were coming right at her! She started to react, striking the dowels as quickly as possible. She missed two and clipped four. One dropped from above and hit her in the head. “Gott Verdammt!” She rubbed the top of her head.

  They both went around and picked up the dowels. They now had sixteen because Gabrielle had sliced one into two pieces.

  “Here. Hold this one up as high as you can.” Gabrielle did as instructed. Bethan Anne turned around. “Now, I’m going to react as fast as I can without pulling from the Etheric.”

  Gabrielle dropped the dowel and yelled ‘Go!’. Bethany Anne had it in her hand within the first 4 inches. Blazing fast, but certainly not enough to explain her abilities.

  Bethany Anne handed the dowel back to her, “Now, I will turn around again, but this time don’t say a word, just let go of the dowel, ok?”

  Gabrielle nodded and Bethany Anne turned around. She thought of dropping more of the dowels, but she considered that Bethany Anne was trying to help her, regardless of how inadequate it was making her feel at the moment. She raised her hand and immediately let go. This time, Bethany Anne had it in her fingers before it had dropped even an eighth of an inch.

  “That, Gabrielle, is the difference between enhanced speed and Etheric speed.” Bethany Anne stared at her, eyes glowing, “Are you ready to embrace your heritage?”

  Gabrielle started to understand how her father felt. This wasn’t just some woman who was powerful. No, this was someone you followed because she embodied your beliefs. She lead you through the times that were tough. Both pulling you along, and pushing you over the edge. You became more as a member of her team than you might ever become on your own. In the future, when she was asked, Gabrielle would point to that moment in time when Bethany Anne became more than her boss, she became her Queen.

  A Queen whose ass she was still going to kick.

  “Yes, Queen Bitch, I’m ready.” Bethany Anne smiled at her and raised the dowel up in the air. “This is what you need to do…”

  It took almost ten more minutes before Gabrielle was able to switch over to what Bethany Anne called her ‘
vamp speed’. However; she was able to make it happen on purpose after another ten minutes. Then, she had to stop and drink a bag of blood as the guys came over and congratulated her. She enjoyed their enthusiasm. In her centuries of life, she had never belonged as she did here with her friends, her teammates and now she had her Queen. She looked around and didn’t see Bethany Anne in the area with them.

  She finished her blood pack and looked at the guys. “Guess it’s your turn, boys.” She smiled as everyone looked around for Bethany Anne and realized she meant they were about to be schooled by the latest new super-vamp. Eric looked resigned to an ass kicking.

  Frankfurt, Germany

  Ivan and Stephen had gone back to the hotel from the club. While Stephen had been alert for any issues, nothing untoward happened.