Life Goes On (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 21) Read online

  And now?

  I rather enjoy it again, Gabrielle admitted. Plus, the look on John’s face when I get inside his guard is sweet. So where is my mark?

  Bethany Anne didn’t look behind her. First row, fourth Ixtali on your left. She is wearing a red necklace with a purple flower of some sort as a pendant.

  You mean the one who looks like she wishes she could shoot lasers from her eyes?

  You can’t fault her for that. Bethany Anne sniffed as she walked toward the podium. Darryl and Scott followed Bethany Anne, while John went around the podium to stand guard on the other side. That’s a cool-ass ability I’m trying to figure out how to implement.

  You mean, TOM cut in, so you can also figure out how long it takes to regrow your eyeballs?

  As Bethany Anne ascended the podium’s steps, her weight decreased so as not to damage the Ixtalis’ stage.

  Darryl and Scott broke off to flank the podium.

  That’s just you being melodramatic, Bethany Anne replied. Think positively.

  Ok, he replied dryly. I’m positive you will have to regrow your eyeballs, and potentially regrow your eyebrows ’cause you’re a stubborn ass.

  Oh, now you are adding eyebrows to the mix? I’m starting to think you’re just trying to scare me because you fear me having laser eyes…and don’t think I didn’t catch you saying I’m stubborn.

  I’m inside you. Why would I fear laser eyes?

  One day you won’t be, and you are a conniving little male.

  I’m alien.

  You’re male.

  Your point?

  You’re probably afraid I’d laser your butt.

  I’ll make sure I wear laser-resistant briefs.

  What would you make them from? Bethany Anne wondered. Some sort of diffraction material?

  Um, no, TOM replied, thinking it through. If you mean what I think you mean, that would only disperse the beam which was burning a hole in my ass.

  Well, that’s a positive, right?

  Only if I didn’t mind having my whole pelvic area being cooked to five thousand degrees by the diffracted laser beams bouncing around in my boxers, burning the shit out of my willyworm.

  SHUT UP! She laughed mentally. I’ve got to keep shaking hands here!

  TOM kept quiet, but put an extra mark by his name. He had flat scored with that last comment.

  Gabrielle had stayed at the edge of the floor a few short paces from the Ixtali Bethany Anne had pointed out.

  What do you want done with her? Gabrielle sent.

  Mmmm, Bethany Anne replied as she took off her helmet to greet the personages and a glove to shake the appendages of the Ixtalis. She seems to think she missed her opportunity since I had the armor on. Let her go for now, and tell Eric to stand down for the time being.

  We have other fish to fry, Bethany Anne finished.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Dock Area, QBS Ranger Prime

  Barnabas ignored the ship that was slowly coming to rest near him as he spoke to one of his Rangers.

  “Not this time,” Barnabas told him. “You have worked with both me and Lance, and since the Rangers are going to drop out with the Empress, I think your future is with—”

  “Lance.” Johnnie sighed and held out his hand. “Barnabas, I can’t thank you enough for letting me play Ranger, but I can’t go forever without seeing my Mom.”

  Barnabas took the hand. “Being a Ranger was a good cover, wasn’t it, Johnnie?” They both smiled. “At least it kept your mom off Lance’s back for the most part.”

  “She never did forgive you, though,” Johnnie admitted. “You actually ate up all the good will you created by showing me my dad’s video, and then some. She wanted Admiral Thomas to win.”

  Barnabas shrugged. “Lance and I knew your weakness for sugar,” he admitted. “Have you given any thought to your time now? You will have to change your persona to keep going.”

  Johnnie ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve thought about it, sure,” he admitted. “I think I’ll go with ‘Sean.’ That’s the other thing my mother might have named me.”

  Barnabas grinned. “Sean Bond?”

  Johnnie chuckled. “Absolutely not!”

  Barnabas tried again. “Sean Powers?” he asked, but Johnnie shook his head emphatically. He went back to Johnnie’s question. “No major requests…just run this ship as a Ranger. You can’t be involved in this altercation, and we need someone with an active badge on the ship.”

  He looked at his young protégé. “Sean Royalty?” Barnabas offered a last suggestion, but this time Johnnie didn’t even answer. He just smiled, waved goodbye, and walked toward the hangar’s exit. Johnnie called over his shoulder, “Sean Royalty? That has possibilities!” He waved to Tabitha and the Tontos as he passed them and exited.

  Barnabas nodded as Tabitha and her five remaining Tontos walked up. “Everyone ditch their Ranger ID?” he asked.

  Tabitha winked. “Yes, oh Wise One of the Ages,” she said as she stepped onto the ramp, her coat swirling as she headed into the ship. Hirotoshi and Ryu nodded sharply, as did Katsu, Jun, and Kouki as they passed him.

  This time everyone had their Jean Dukes.

  He walked up after Kouki, and the ramp started to rise as he entered the ship.

  “Barnabas,” the AI’s voice, a little guttural to his ears, said through the speaker system, “would you mind coming to the bridge?”

  “No problem, Shinigami,” he answered.

  Six pairs of feet followed him.

  It seemed that the Japanese vampires and their esteemed leader wanted a chance to see the AI in person.

  It was a large ship, and he admitted to himself that he would love to grab one of these. Had Bethany Anne allowed a second to be made?

  If not, who had the plans?

  When they got to the bridge, the team fanned out. They had no problem with a bridge that looked more like a nice living room, or perhaps a comfortable meeting room in an office.

  With a circular sofa.

  A face came up on the screen—Baba Yaga, but with Bethany Anne’s teeth and younger skin. “Shinigami.” He nodded as he took a seat.

  “Ranger One,” the AI replied as she looked around. “Ranger Two and Tontos, welcome to my ship.” She placed an external video stream on the far-right screen. Kouki and Jun had to lean forward a little and look sharply right to see what was going on. “We are leaving Ranger Prime, and will be cloaked the whole time.”

  Tabitha pointed to the screen. “That explains that guy in the upper right hand corner scratching his head.”

  Inner Chambers, Ixtali Cabinet

  “So that’s the sum of it,” Bethany Anne said to the fifteen highest-ranking members of the Ixtali Cabinet. “The one group is housed here,” she told them, pointing to a blue location on a map floating above the table. “They want to go back to the old ways.” She pointed to an orange-highlighted area. “And we have this group, which wishes to secretly bring enough of their people into positions of power to operate the government in the future. They want to start using your information services to tap into the fractious efforts of the different polities coming together to create the Etheric Federation. Since you guys are currently part of the Empire, I’m going to be a bitch about that.”

  A senior Ixtali on her left leaned over and asked what that meant. Bethany Anne answered, “It means I’m going to be a hard-ass.” He looked back at her, still confused. She willed her eyes to flare red and glow. She pointed to her face. “Pissed off!”

  His mandibles signaled he understood now, and her eyes returned to normal.

  “With your permission,” she continued, not that her tone indicated she was asking as she looked toward the members, “we will take down both locations simultaneously. We will have interrogation-capable talent with each team.”

  “Where will you be during this operation?” the third-from-the-left Ixtali asked. Bethany Anne thought his name was Gril, but she might have been mistaken.

  She smiled.
“Kicking in the front doors, of course,” she said as she reached down and grabbed her helmet. “Why do you think I dressed this way?”

  Gril wisely kept his thoughts to himself.

  Minutes later, the fifteen members were sequestered so that no information could get out “accidentally.” Bethany Anne and her people left.

  It was time to win their hearts and minds—one way or another.

  QBS Shinigami

  Barnabas reviewed the compound’s layout from the data provided by Bethany Anne’s team, tapping the screen as Tabitha, Ryu, and Hirotoshi looked on. “So,” he pointed to the top floor of the three-story schema, “we have an underground location, and no idea if they have bolt holes.”

  “I can help with that,” Tabitha answered. “I’ll toss a couple small spy spheres…” She tapped her lips. “Ok, maybe four of them. I doubt we need to worry about the first floor. We should be able to clear those three rooms within seconds.”

  Barnabas tapped his head. “We need them read and cleared, if possible.”

  “We can do that.” Ryu and Hirotoshi nodded. “Enough to call them clean or dirty. If clean, we will zip-tie them.”

  “And dirty?” Barnabas asked.

  “Shoot them first,” Hirotoshi answered, “then zip-tie them.”

  “It would be easier to separate the bad apples,” Tabitha agreed.

  “What, with the blood and all?” Barnabas asked.

  “Actually,” Ryu answered, “we usually can tell by the screaming, but puddles of blood work just fine, too.”

  Tabitha shrugged. “Sometimes it takes us a while to get back to them, so they either get hoarse or have fainted from blood loss.”

  “I…see,” Barnabas answered.

  Ryu turned to Hirotoshi. “What is the bet?”

  Tabitha looked at her teacher in anticipation. “Yeah, Pops, what do we get?”

  Hirotoshi shook his head. “No bet today. Just try to keep up with Barnabas.”

  Tabitha waved him off. “Easy-peasy.”

  Only Barnabas noticed the slight curve of lip Hirotoshi displayed as they broke up from their discussion.

  QBS G’laxix Sphaea, Above the Headquarters of the Strom

  “This is the Captain speaking,” a Yollin voice called as the ship winked out of existence on the landing pad on top of the Ixtali convention hall. “While I would love to go with you, my task—whether I want it or not—is to be a glorified taxi driver.”

  Bethany Anne looked at Kiel as they checked each other’s packs. “Is he serious?”

  Kiel locked down his right arm’s armor before looking back at her and shrugging. “Only a little. Kael-ven was miffed he didn’t find you first, so he is grumbling a little. Talking about getting into armor to do the door-knocking.”

  She looked toward the bridge. “I’ve got half a mind to tell him to do it,” she mused.

  “Only problem is,” Kiel replied as he locked down his torso plates, “we don’t have any bottom armor for a four-legged Yollin. His important bits would be unprotected. It could become a game of tackle-torture for the Ixtalis, and completely ruin his chances of ever becoming a father…again.”

  Bethany Anne turned back to him and raised an eyebrow. “I thought he was done with kids after his stint on-planet? Wasn’t the last time he went home to his ex and their three grown kids, and I quote, ‘an existential effort to singularly befuddle him into an old folk’s home?’”

  “He was a bit of a curmudgeon to them,” Kiel admitted. “By the end of the evening he had told his pacifist son to grow a spine, his politically-minded daughter to marry a Marine, and his literati son to read some of the classics. When said son explained he had, Kael-ven told him he meant human classics. He was pleasant to his ex-wife’s husband, and pissed her off by slipping him a thousand-credit note to help him with his drinking problem.”

  Bethany Anne thought about that for a moment. “I didn’t know Gleerah’s husband had a drinking problem.”

  “He didn’t at the time,” Kiel explained. “Kael-ven told him he was paying it forward.”

  Everyone around Kiel had finished suiting up and was listening to the story. Bethany Anne chuckled. “What did Gleerah say about the money—or did she know?”

  “Not at first,” Kiel admitted. “Her husband kept the note and waved good-bye until Kael-ven was far enough away, although our esteemed pilot did hear her yell a hearty ‘you piece of bistok shit!’ as he closed the door to his Pod.”

  “And Kael-ven’s reaction?”

  Kiel drew in a deep breath and blew it out. “It took three days to get him to stop smiling.”

  The green light in the hold went to yellow as Kael-ven’s voice came from the speakers. “This is the Captain speaking. Would everyone near my soon-to-be-erstwhile Marine leader please take a step back? I’m going to open the ramp door and jettison him for failing to tell the story correctly.”

  The chuckles went around as Kiel looked up at the nearest speaker and said loudly, “What the hell did I get wrong, you old goat?”

  “One mark until we drop on the compound, and to answer your question,” Kael-ven paused a moment, then finished, “I smiled for a total of five days straight!”

  Bethany Anne, Gabrielle, John, Eric, Darryl, and Scott laughed as they walked toward the ramp. Kiel shook his head, then followed Scott and asked, “Where’s Peter?”

  Scott turned around. “Got the short straw. He had to stay on the Meredith Reynolds to make sure he did a few more training videos for the recruits who will come after we leave. Wants to make sure he passes down his knowledge, and that there is institutional memory for those who gave it all during his tenure.”

  “Like Todd?” Kiel asked.

  “Especially Todd.” Scott nodded. “He set up a whole room of Todd’s mementos and a lot of Todd’s training videos, so he isn’t forgotten while Peter is out roaming the universe.”

  Kiel nodded.

  Sometimes you couldn’t do enough to thank someone who chose to give you the chance to continue breathing at their expense.

  The ramp lowered and the seven of them headed into the night, stepping off into the air and floating down to start their attack.

  Back on the bridge, once he confirmed everyone had dropped, Kael-ven hit the button to raise the ramp. The craft silently lifted into the sky, making sure it was out of any lanes of traffic. It wouldn’t do to be hit by a stray personal flitter and scuff the paint.

  It would be even worse for the personal flitter.

  QBS Shinigami

  The craft barely made a ripple as it glided through the traffic in the dark. Two personal flitter pilots thought they had seen a white face in the night, but there was nothing there when they looked again.

  Barnabas watched the external video. “Are you trying to get us seen?” he asked the AI. “I’ve noticed one for sure, and perhaps two pilots who looked in our direction.”

  “Not exactly,” Shinigami answered. “I’m working on showing only part of the ship in a low-risk environment.”

  “Well, stop it,” he told her. “Now is not the time to seed hints about the ghost ship.”

  “Uhh,” the AI’s face popped up on a nearby screen, “how did you know what I was up to?”

  Barnabas glanced at the AI and started, “Shinigami, do you think you are the first youngling I’ve had to school?”

  Tabitha, who was behind Barnabas, turned her attention away from the screen. Ryu and Hirotoshi looked at her, and the rest of her team’s lips curled up slightly as they listened to them talk.

  “Just because you’re an AI,” Barnabas continued, “doesn’t mean you won’t necessarily show traits of immaturity. Unless you screw up this operation for us, you will have many years to create a badass reputation.”

  “Understood, Barnabas,” the AI responded, and the vampire logo faded into the night.

  —

  The team was locked, loaded, and ready to walk out of Shinigami’s hold when the AI’s face appeared. “You know, I cou
ld just puck the fuck out of the ground.”

  Barnabas turned to look at her on the nearby screen. “Why would we do that?”

  “Minimal casualties for our side,” the AI answered.

  “We won’t have any casualties,” Barnabas replied. “Trust me.”

  “Wow, take all the fun out of my night,” Shinigami said as her avatar disappeared.

  What in the seven hells, Barnabas thought to himself, did Bethany Anne do to this AI?

  —

  Gabrielle checked the image against her HUD’s specs and set the seven dots for those on her team. Normally Bethany Anne wouldn’t have been included on the op, but even Lance understood that she was working to become a figurehead, so why not?

  It had been John who had suggested Gabrielle get back into gear as captain again. Her martial skills were increasing, and she needed to get her mind back in the game.

  It felt a bit like old times.

  She tagged the AI-only line on her HUD. “ADAM?”

  “Yes,” he replied.

  “Do you have comm engagement?” she asked.

  “Affirmative.”

  “Any chatter I need to know about?”

  “None. No one currently suspects an attack. There have been two references to a three-person operation waiting for Bethany Anne to appear outside the Ixtali convention hall,” he added. “That information was routed to the appropriate authorities, who are busy getting their people to locate and subdue.”

  “Sow confusion into the communications as you can. We are going live.”

  “Understood.”

  She changed to the main channel in time to hear Kiel.

  “Anyone got an invite?” he asked over the personal comm as the seven dropped out of the darkness, their antigrav armor slowing them in the last four seconds. This compound had seven floors, with heavy security around the first three—which sucked for the security team on the roof who were easily targeted by those who floated down from above.

  Bethany Anne tagged four locations in the HUD and Gabrielle marked one for each of the four Bitches, waited a moment for them to lock on, then issued the take-down command.