Never Forsaken (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 5) Read online

  Gabrielle nodded her head in agreement and slid into a sitting chair against the wall. “You are not so naive for such a youngling.”

  “Process of elimination. Plus, I have to admit I’m thinking about it too. This ability to have children again took me by surprise and I can’t say that I’m happy about revisiting this decision again.”

  Gabrielle looked confused, “You have a guy that you want to have children with? How did I not know this?”

  Bethany Anne stuck her tongue out. “You know I don’t, and stop trying to tweak me because I called you wank-bait.”

  Gabrielle looked at the younger woman, “It wasn’t simply ‘wank-bait’ but also ‘boner gypsy, jizz-queen, wank conductor, boner barn and penis harmonica.”

  “Dick harmonica, but who is taking notes?”

  “Apparently, you.”

  Bethany Anne tapped her forehead, “Alien symbiont, remember? There is nothing he forgets.”

  I didn’t remind you of what you said.

  Keep quiet; I might get to score again.

  Humph.

  Gabrielle mouth twisted as if she had eaten a sour lemon, “I looked up jizz. Really? Queen of sperm? That is disgusting.”

  Bethany Anne smiled, “Is that so? I figured after 500 years, you had just about tried everything. You have that tattoo and all.”

  Gabrielle was quick to reply, “I am not 500 years old!” Then she got it. Gabrielle hadn’t told Bethany Anne her real age and her dad, bless his black soul, had agreed not to tell anyone a very long time ago. “You are baiting me, it won’t work.”

  “Maybe not this time, but now I know you are less than 500 years old.” She winked at the older vampire.

  Gabrielle put her hands to the sides of her forehead and started rubbing. “You can be insufferable. Why can’t you just let it go? Can’t a woman have a secret or two?”

  Bethany Anne replied, “I’m sure you have more secrets than I am ever going to find out. For example, how many lovers have you had?”

  Gabrielle sputtered, “What? Why would I tell you such a thing? I am not a slut! But after a … few … years, a woman might acquire a few companions. After a few … more … years, they might exceed a handful.”

  “A handful at a time?”

  “Not a handful at a time!”

  “Ok, four.”

  “It was not four! Just three.” Gabrielle’s face turned red as she stomped her foot; “Shit!”

  Bethany Anne cracked up and started rolling around on her bed. “My, my Gabrielle, does Stephen know that you have been quite the lucky lady?”

  She pointed her finger at Bethany Anne, “No! I swear you had better not tell him, either. He would not let me live it down if I ever admitted to such a thing. Look at this, I come in here to bare my heart and you pull this information out of me.” Her eyes narrowed, “You are a very evil woman.”

  Bethany Anne got her laughter under control. “I am just curious, it is the natural predilection of females and since I have lived such a chaste life.” Gabrielle snorted. Bethany Anne glared at her, “May I continue? Since I have led such a chaste life I am trying to figure out what my future might be and you are the only one who I know that has been alive long enough to share. That you don’t drives me a little nuts.” She finished with a smile, “So, all of this is actually your fault for not sharing.”

  Gabrielle was about to tell Bethany Anne off, but realized she herself had come for a similar reason. “Ok, I get it. I may not have realized that you have a decent reason for wanting to know my past. I never considered you might be thinking about your future. I just thought you wanted prurient details.”

  “Well, some of those too.” Bethany Anne smiled.

  Gabrielle shook her head, “You are a handful, my Queen. Ok, I’ll share more some other time and yes, I have had in excess of ten lovers.” Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow, “Ok, twenty.” She raised the other eyebrow, “Forty, but that is over a very long time. There was a time back in Paris in the 20’s that I might have been considered for some of those words you used.”

  “Really, the 1920’s?”

  “No, the 1820’s.”

  “God, this is just like Ivan was talking about with Stephen, you have to confirm what century you two are talking about.”

  Gabrielle did her best impression of her father, “Indeed.”

  Bethany Anne sighed and sat back up. “Ok, you’ve been fair. I don’t want to talk about this subject, so it is easier to pick on you. I don’t know what I want to do about children.”

  “So, you understand my dilemma?”

  “Maybe, but for you I would think it could be both easier and harder. Easier because it has been a significant, but unknown, amount of time since you could not have children so why make a change now? On the other hand, you have a human lover and within a few years, he will probably have a desire for children and he, knowing you can have children, will make it harder for you as time goes by.”

  Gabrielle sighed, “Yes, that about sums it up nicely.”

  Bethany Anne scooted to the end of her bed and draped her legs over, “How much do you care for Ivan?”

  Gabrielle glanced over Bethany Anne’s head looking into the distance, focusing on nothing. “I don’t know. Part of me misses him; part of me forgets he is available to be missed when we get busy. It is only when everyone is asleep and I am by myself that I think of him.”

  “So, to be blunt, you’re lonely for companionship when it is available, but it isn’t a driving need in your life right now?”

  “It does make me sound like a user when you put it that way.” Gabrielle said.

  “Who’s to say you both aren’t users? I don’t know that Ivan is pining away for you, either. The distance is probably showing you both that the relationship is nice, but not a driving factor in either of your lives. You need to talk to Ivan and let him know you need some time. You don’t need to keep him tied up if you truly don’t want a relationship. It isn’t like he wouldn’t be willing to provide you a warm bed… Damn, listen to me. Using him like a convenient sex toy when your in Romania sounds a little crass.”

  “But isn’t this what men and women have been doing for centuries?”

  “I don’t know; I wasn’t around but you were.” Bethany Annes smile came back, “How many centuries has it been going on?”

  “Ever since I’ve been alive.” Gabrielle stuck her nose up in the air.

  “Which is?”

  “None of your business!” Gabrielle smiled, appreciating Bethany Anne pulling them out of the morose talk. “I’ll call Ivan and let him know I’m too busy right now with the teams to continue a relationship at this time.”

  “Will you let me know how the call goes?”

  She eyed the younger woman, “Will you continue trying to find out how old I am?”

  “Yes.” Bethany Anne said.

  Gabrielle sighed, “Well, it was worth a shot. I’ll let you know about Ivan, even if I have to deal with your insatiable curiosity.” She got up out of the chair, “Thank you for this, you know. I’ve never had a friend to truly talk to about these things.”

  Bethany Anne looked at her, puzzled, “Boys?”

  “No; well yes in a way. Matters of the heart. For vampires, such things can be used against us and we don’t forget leverage like who other vampires care for, so we don’t share.”

  “Is that why you don’t talk with Stephen about it?”

  “Oh definitely not! It wasn’t because he would use it against me for leverage, it is that he would laugh at me for centuries… at least one that is and I couldn’t provide him proper guidance if he could throw this back in my face.”

  Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow, “You mean like three guys at one time?”

  Gabrielle walked over to the bed and stuck her face six inches in front of Bethany Anne’s and said in a slow measured voice, “I think I hate you.”

  Faster than Gabrielle could react, Bethany Anne struck out with her lips and kissed Gabrielle on
the forehead, “No you don’t, you just aren’t used to having a girlfriend tease you. I’ll get you past it, trust me.”

  Gabrielle stood transfixed. The strike was fast, the kiss was nice, the comment made her heart glow as a fire on a cold night. She stood up, slowly and looked down at the woman who was smiling, a twinkle in her eye. “Yes, a girlfriend to tease me.” She turned and walked to the door, opening and closing it without looking back at Bethany Anne. When she finished closing the door she reached up and wiped away the tear rolling down her cheek. She hoped the phone call with Ivan went well.

  Las Vegas, NV - USA

  Jeffrey Diamantz and Tom Billings, CEO and Lead Programmer respectively, looked at the large number of computer boxes sitting on the floor in Building 1. They had talked for fifteen minutes on what designations they should have for the buildings, then named them buildings 1, 2 and 3.

  Building 1 was where Adam would be constructed. Well, to be truthful it was where the computers would all be put together and the critical kill switch. Building 2 would be where they would house all of the secondary computers and internet connections and building 3 would be for housing, showers, food and secondary uses.

  The racks had arrived yesterday and they had a team in the previous night assembling the damn things. They didn’t look like much. Basically big-ass metal boxes on wheels. Both of the men had wanted to slap themselves in the head when Nathan had mentioned moving the whole thing once it was proven to work. The original design had them using computer server racks that bolted into the floor. Tom suggested they use the much more expensive rolling racks and they would lock them in place. If and when they could move, they would have to shut everything down, move the servers and bring them back online in the reverse order.

  Of course, they would be crossing their fingers the whole time that somehow they didn’t just kill the first AI in the world by doing it this way. That wouldn’t go down in the history books very well.

  Then again, if Adam 1.0 was going to design Adam 2.0, maybe he would have a better idea. Kind of like asking a brain surgeon to operate on themselves.

  They were looking at all of the server boxes around the room when they heard a vehicle stopping outside. The brakes on the newly arrived vehicle squeaked horribly. Tom looked over at Jeffery who just shrugged his shoulders. Both men walked out through the doors to find a dark blue jeep with an Air Force insignia on the door. One man stayed behind the driver’s seat while another got out of the passenger side.

  Jeffrey took the lead, “Good afternoon Officer… Billings?”

  The blond haired man closed his door and put on his hat, he reached out to shake Jeffrey’s offered hand, “Yes. I’m from Nellis as you might have guessed.” He turned and shook Tom’s hand a moment later.

  “How can we help you?”

  “I am here to find out about our newest neighbor who has purchased property and a ton of computers right next to a large American Air Force base. Plus, I understand that our newest neighbor is bringing in a substantial amount of internet and communications and I wouldn’t want to mistake you for a foreign power trying to sneak a peek into our computer systems.”

  The blood drained right out of Tom’s face while Jeffrey was able to keep his composure a little better. Shit! Neither had considered what it might look like to the Air Force to drop millions of dollars in computer equipment and connectivity right on their damn fence line.

  Tom said, “Ah, no. To be honest we rather didn’t think about the fact that we were right on your fence line or how it would look. We needed a building, fast, and this old machining area had the P’s we needed or could acquire fast enough to meet our timeline.”

  The Air Force officer was puzzled, “The ‘P’s?”

  Tom shook his head, trying to get his equilibriam back, “Yes, sorry, Power, Ping and Pipe. Our company, Patriarch Research has a new set of code we need to test and it isn’t something we want to do out on the wild and woolly web. The owners are pushing us to move forward, fast. We thought we might have two years to test our research. They gave us a bit less.”

  Officer Billings face held a small smile, “How much time did they give you?”

  “Two months.”

  Billings head nodded back and forth as if he expected an answer similar to Tom’s timeframe. “That had to grab you by the short and curlies! So how long did you look for a building?”

  Tom looked over to Jeffrey as if hearing it for the first time, himself. “Two days…. Three, sort of.” He turned back to the Officer, “We had already used up five percent of our time so we grabbed the first property we felt would work. Got our corporate over-seer to approve the purchase and started with all of the changes including the power review, the internet connections, the cooling and the building modifications. We have the server cages inside and a substantial amount of computer boxes to go through.”

  The officer looked around, “What is it you’re going to do with all of this?”

  Well, that was the rub, wasn’t it? Jeffrey really didn’t want to tell the Air Force officer that he wanted to create the world’s first Artificial Intelligence, but if it ever came out that he had lied, Jeffrey wasn’t sure what his culpability would be. So he punted and turned to Tom. “Officer Billings, meet Tom Billings our head of Research and Development.”

  Tom asked, “Nevada Billings?”

  The officer shook his head left and right emphatically, “Hell no! Montana.”

  Tom shrugged, “No family in Montana, so probably not connected.” He turned around and pointed at the building they had just come out of, “This is building 1, it is going to house the main set of computers to run our Heuristic Internet Defense algorithm. We have no internet coming into this building.” He pointed to the next concrete building over, “That is building 2; it houses the internet connections and some servers to pull data from the internet. We are using that building to download everything we need and then use sneakernet to move the data over to building 1.” He jerked his thumb back at the building behind them.

  Office Billings interrupted him, “Excuse me, but did you say ’sneakernet’? I’m not familiar with that term.”

  Tom pointed his finger down at his Adidas shoes. “Sneakers, as in we are walking the data from building 2 to building 1 using our feet. No connectivity between the two buildings.”

  “Why wouldn’t you have connectivity between them?”

  Jeffrey was wincing internally; he hadn’t meant for Tom to tell the truth!

  Tom shrugged, “Just a precaution. If the program doesn’t work as we expect, we don’t want it to do anything out on the real internet. We operated the damn thing on the Amazon AWS system a couple of years ago and got a three hundred-thousand-dollar data bill in ten minutes. That pissed off the bean counters.” Tom turned to look at Jeffrey, “No offense.”

  Jeffrey just shook his head in amazement, “None taken.” Instead of bullshit, Tom was baffling him with the truth.

  Tom continued, “So, imagine what would happen if some idiot forgets to disconnect a connection in time? Our Internet bill would make even the Kardashians wince.”

  Billings, the officer not the research guy, was pretty convinced he didn’t have some foreign terrorists on his hands, but rather a couple of bumbling scientists. He was wondering why they hadn’t been fired already. Three hundred-thousand-dollar data bill? This made his daughters seventy-dollar text overcharge pale in comparison. “What about the last building?”

  Jeffrey took this one, “Building 3 is for food, restrooms, showers and cots. We only have a few weeks to get this done, so some of us aren’t going to go home, much. I don’t want a bunch of ants in the computer rooms, so I am being an ass about cleanliness.”

  That was something the Air Force officer understood and did appreciate. “Ok, I hope you understand why we got a little nervous.” Both men shook their heads in agreement, “I’ll probably still stop by from time to time, just to make sure everything looks on the up and up.”

  They all
shook hands. Jeffrey and Tom watched as the Air Force Jeep turned and left their little area.

  Tom looked over at Jeffrey, “Is that what you wanted?”

  Jeffrey shook his head in the negative, “No. But it was the perfect answer. How did we miss such an obvious problem?” He looked after the retreating Jeep.

  Tom followed his eyes, “Maybe because we aren’t terrorists that are wanted by the US Air Force and didn’t think about what it might look like from their side?”

  Jeffrey nodded in agreement, “Yeah, let’s just hope Adam 1.0 doesn’t become Anarchist Adam 2.0”

  “There is that,” Tom agreed. They both turned and went back into building 1.