Release the Dogs of War Read online

  “I might have heard about that,” Stephen admitted, “I think she mentioned something about being able to find his ass when she needed it.”

  “That’s powerful hate, Stephen.” Barnabas cautioned, “It can eat at a person.”

  “You won’t get me by arguing she has very strong convictions and powerful emotions, Barnabas. But, you need to see that she is usually passionate in all things, not only justice.”

  Barnabas lowered his eyes, “Why is it I cannot believe as you, Stephen? Why is it I cannot just trust and then…then all of this,” he waved at the massive amount of folders on his desk, “would become so much easier!” He tried to grin but quit as he considered what he just said. “You don’t think she would be so devious as to be dangling that possibility to me, would she?”

  Stephen laughed, “Yes!” he swung a hand, “I’m not suggesting she is doing what you suggest. I’m answering your question that she could be devious enough to be doing what you fear.” He continued chuckling, “But, let’s ask you the question that you need to answer, shall we?”

  Barnabas drew his eyebrows together, “Why do I sense that you are about to ask something that I’m not sure I want to be questioned?”

  “Because it is time, old friend,” Stephen answered. “You need to realize that intelligence and neutrality are not the paths forward.”

  “Oh? And what is?” Barnabas asked.

  “Forgiveness, Atonement, Belief, and Action,” Stephen answered in a calm voice.

  Manufacturing Facility 01 - Asteroid Fields

  “There is the frame,” William said to Bobcat as the two came closer to the large manufacturing area which Jeo Deteusch as Lead of IOS Mining and Manufacturing and Bandile Annane, his lead of Mining had focused the teams on building.

  “Damn, they really have got shit together out here,” Bobcat replied. He tapped the glass in front and spread his fingers to zoom in on a location in front of them, “I see they’ve used Jeo’s design to build platforms between the ships for staging and additional manufacturing areas.” He moved the camera angle, “Shit, they’ve completely enveloped an area with that canvas stuff and inflated it. Rigid, lots of space under it.”

  William was looking at the aft area of the ship, “That is going to be a sweet ride when it is finished.” He reached down to pull up his tablet and switched to another app, “Looks like the latest design calls for a hundred and twenty-one different gravitational engines. Sum-bitch that’s a lot.”

  “Yeah, they added some up to the front and sides for rapid maneuvers. Another of Jeo’s ideas,” Bobcat responded.

  “Kid’s been around too many video games,” William muttered. “He should have focused on shooters.”

  “That’s because you're just embarrassed you didn’t think of it first.” Bobcat retorted, “Give yourself a little credit for the tweaks you suggested.”

  William shrugged, “That’s from the modifications we did to Shelly and how she handled,” he admitted. “However, I’m completely taking credit for the ‘stopping on a dime and giving you nine cents change’ breaking option.”

  “Gott Verdammt dangerous if you ask me,” Bobcat said. “If the gravity modifications don’t work out, someone is going to impale themselves on the bulkheads if they ever have to stop quick.”

  William put up a hand and waved just two fingers up and down, “Someone get me out of this wall!” He chuckled, “Yeah, we will test the gravity to push against forward momentum and inside the protective shell as well to hold items in place against their momentum.”

  “Fuck all, I don’t want to be riding during the first test of that feature,” Bobcat admitted.

  “Yeah, that one does give me a few concerns, I’ll admit.” William said, then thought for a second, “But I can think of a few ways that would help a lot.”

  “That’s because you watched Top Gun. It isn’t like this ship is going into a dogfight.”

  “What if you come out of high speed right into an asteroid belt?” William asked.

  “I’d suggest you don’t come out at speed, then!” Bobcat argued, “That’s why TOM’s people always engaged the engines from standing still. It meant they were still wherever they popped out.”

  William watched a moment as the massive production area grew in size, “Bobcat, all kidding aside. This is going to be Bethany Anne’s ship for the foreseeable future.”

  Bobcat looked at the almost complete shell and thought a moment, “We’d better make sure that gravity idea works and while we are at it, see if we can do a flipping maneuver.” He sighed, “And whatever else we can think up because sure as shit she’s going to want to do it.”

  “Worse than that, she’s going to get into some situation where she NEEDS to do it.” William retorted.

  “Fuck,” Bobcat replied.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  QBS Polarus - Mid-Atlantic Ocean

  Bethany Anne nodded to the two female Guardians as she and Ashur walked to her suite. Just a little earlier, she had told John that he and the Guardians needed to go blow off some steam. She would be a ‘good little Queen’ and stay here on the ship with Gabrielle and a bunch of protection until they got back the next day.

  Well, so long as they got back by noon New York time. When she said ‘noon’, John made her say where noon was being counted from as he didn’t want her to change the time zone on him.

  She flipped him off while she laughed and decided New York would work.

  When she stepped into her meeting room, Ecaterina was already there, speaking with Barb in a hushed tone. She wanted to roll her eyes as she stepped over to the small fridge. She grabbed a glass bottled Coke and dipped down to check no Pepsi had made it back into her fridge. She heard Ecaterina snort behind her.

  She placed a finger nail under the cap and popped it off like a bottle opener. She caught the cap and tossed it into the trash before sitting down at the head of the table, “So, when are you going to fess up to being pregnant?”

  Ecaterina’s mouth opened and shut a few times as Barb snickered.

  Bethany Anne smiled, “I get it, you think you are not making me face what is missing with Michael, but realize that hurt will heal with time. Well, it should fucking heal with time,” she agreed, “but it hurts a little that you wouldn’t trust me to be happy for you even as I go through my own grieving.”

  Ecaterina put her hands on her slightly expanded stomach, “I’m sorry, I can’t say I’m thinking properly anymore.” She allowed, “For what it is worth, Nathan argued that telling you would be better.”

  “Don’t you hate it when men get things right?” Gabrielle stated as she walked into the room, “Not that we can let them know they are right.” She looked over at Ecaterina, concern clearly written on her face, “You didn’t tell Nathan he was right, did you?”

  Ecaterina rolled her eyes, “I said I wasn’t thinking properly, not that I wasn’t thinking at all.”

  “You haven’t seen him in three days,” Bethany Anne added.

  “Well... there is that, too.” Ecaterina blushed.

  Gabrielle sat down with a notepad and a pen, “You were so going to throw women under the bus. Dammit, centuries of training men are going to go down the tubes.” She threw her hands up in the air, “what are we going to do with you Ecaterina?”

  Barb interrupted, “You mean besides playing with the new baby?”

  “Well, of course!” Gabrielle’s eyes lit up, “I get to be Auntie Gabby and spoil him rotten!”

  “Her,” Ecaterina corrected.

  “Great!” Gabrielle rubbed her hands together, “The first rule of a woman’s club is we don’t admit there is a woman’s club!”

  Ecaterina rolled her eyes. Her daughter was going to be the most twisted child in history.

  “Any names?” Bethany Anne asked, smiling after watching Gabrielle’s antics.

  “We are agreed on the middle name, and we think that we have decided on the first name,” Ecaterina said.

  “Well, don�
�t sit there and make us wait!” Gabrielle said, “I’ll tell Nathan about your continued working out if you don’t spill the beans!”

  Ecaterina looked around, “Uh…”

  Barb looked at her, “What? You think we are worried that you are working out? Hell, my mom was seven months pregnant and skiing while pregnant with my brother and smoking as well,” she mused.

  “Really?” Ecaterina asked, “He is ok?”

  “Well, he turned out a writer, so I don’t know if we can say ‘alright’, but he isn’t mentally deformed,” she allowed.

  “Ma’am?” The four ladies turned to the Guardian at the door.

  “Yes, Jasmine?” Bethany Anne asked.

  “Captain says a call is coming in from Tabitha.”

  “I’ll take it here,” Bethany Anne agreed. Gabrielle reached over and pushed the phone towards Bethany Anne, who waited for the first ring before lifting it up, “Tabitha. Yes, hello. Wait, hold on one second. I get that. You have more dead people but this time inside the house. What did you do? Mmmhmmm, oh, got a little blood-thirsty, did you?” She paused as the ladies all looked at her with curiosity on their faces.

  Bethany Anne continued with Tabitha, “Ok, it sounds like you need action to get something off of your chest. If you want to take care of business, you need more people which I will supply. No, it comes with strings, of course… Do you want to take care of South America Tabitha? It’s a massive undertaking and to be blunt, you may be killed.” Bethany Anne paused to listen.

  Gabrielle got Bethany Anne’s attention and whispered, “Does she need me?”

  “Do you need Gabrielle with you? No? Then Hirotoshi and Ryu have to be doing a hell of a job I take it?” She said with a little humor coloring her voice, “Mmmhmm, however, if you are going to do this, then you will come here for a discussion. You will be required to take martial art lessons from your team, and you will be expected to grow and be the leader for those of my elite you have with you. Realize, they are not allowed to serve any but who have given their allegiance to me, Tabitha.”

  Bethany Anne listened for a moment, “We will send a Pod to pick you up in thirty minutes, you can join us here, then you and I will talk after. Very well, make it happen, Tabitha. Good, see you shortly as well, bye.” Bethany Anne hung up, “Seems Tabitha is also going through a life-changing situation.”

  “I wondered why we did not see her in Australia?” Ecaterina asked.

  “She couldn’t handle the ceremony,” Bethany Anne replied. “She doesn’t believe Michael is dead. She is holding out hope that he turned to myst and is going to come back to us.”

  “Isn’t this what you hope?” Ecaterina asked.

  Bethany Anne breathed in deep and released it. “Yes, but I cannot plan the future on that hope. God knows this universe owes me a fucking break, but I don’t have the luxury of stopping our progress to rip through every conceivable option to see if he is there…somewhere.” She ended on a quiet note.

  The three other woman wanted to reach out, but realized there was a gulf of responsibility between them as followers and Bethany Anne as the leader.

  “Knock knock?” Jean Dukes stepped into the room, “Seems a little down in here, what happened?”

  Bethany Anne smiled, and the darkness lifted as she turned towards Jean, “Tell me, did the guys like your toys?”

  “Seriously?” Jean asked as she sat down next to Gabrielle and across from Ecaterina, “Those guys are in their own form of heaven at the moment. Those rail gun rifles are works of art. I should know, I made them,” she finished with a smile.

  A moment later, Cheryl Lynn and Patricia stepped into the room and sat down. Patricia mentioned, “Sorry, we used a Pod and then we stayed up looking down at this beautiful blue globe for a couple of extra minutes, which turned into ten.”

  “Not a problem, with you ladies we make a quorum,” Bethany Anne said.

  “Uh Oh,” Gabrielle said, “sounding very official throwing around Roman Senate rules.”

  “It should,” Bethany Anne agreed.

  “I see we have no guys, so is the topic the guys?” Jean started, “Because, you practically bribed them with those guns to go use them.”

  “They need to go get rid of some pent up aggression,” Bethany Anne stated.

  “You mean, they need to shoot people and fuck up others?” Patricia asked.

  The ladies turned to stare at Patricia who looked back, “What? She can say ‘fuck’ and I can’t?” Patricia asked as she pointed to Bethany Anne.

  “It’s not that,” Cheryl Lynn admitted. “It’s that we nominated you the den mother of the group.”

  “I don’t remember this vote,” Patricia replied.

  “Well, I’ll admit I nominated you since I have too much ‘mothering’ with my two, and it sounded more fun to let you do it.” Cheryl Lynn conceded.

  “Was I even remotely supposed to be at this meeting where the vote occurred?” Patricia asked while keeping the woman in front of her directly in her piercing gaze.

  “Can I confess we didn’t have a vote?” Cheryl Lynn sighed, “In fact, I was rather hoping you would just do it.”

  “How about the rest of you,” Patricia asked.

  “Hey, as the oldest female here, I just want to say that age should have nothing to do with role specifications,” Gabrielle said.

  “I think we can go without a den mother role.” Bethany Anne spoke dryly to the rest of the ladies, “However, I do have a ‘mother’ question for everyone here, and it is important enough that you will not speak of it outside of those present. I expect obedience on this matter, is that clear?”

  The women stopped kidding and nodded to Bethany Anne as she caught their eyes. After she went through the group, she started the official meeting. “As Jean commented, this discussion is about the guys.”

  “What about them?” Gabrielle interrupted, “Other than getting some aggression out. They seem to be ok to me.”

  “That’s because you are not looking at what they should be doing,” Bethany Anne continued as if she had not been interrupted by Gabrielle.

  “What?” Gabrielle asked, looking around the room. “I’ve trained them carefully; I’m not sure what they are missing here.”

  “Honey,” Patricia started, “It isn’t the training or the fighting that is missing.”

  Gabrielle looked over to Bethany Anne, concern on her face. Bethany Anne shook her head to the woman, “You have done an admirable job as the Captain of my Own, Gabrielle. But you are used to vampires who have been alive for at least a hundred years. These guys haven't and they are missing something they need.”

  “What?” Gabrielle looked around before her eyes opened wider, “They need women?”

  “Well, I might’ve said ‘action’,” Jean supplied.

  “I don’t think it is just getting laid.” Bethany Anne added, “They and I have a connection so that I can feel them to some degree. Sure, they might need to get laid, but they need to share feelings with that ‘one other’ that a female will give them.”

  “Or male,” Cheryl Lynn stated. All of the women looked to her, “I was thinking Akio, not John, Eric, Scott or Darryl.”

  “Oh,” Jean Dukes answered, “I was going to tell a few women that they needed to get a dick addition if it was one of the four.”

  “Hey!” Barb asked, “Could the Pod change a woman to grow a penis?” Her question caught everyone off guard, and they all looked to Bethany Anne, who stared back at them.

  “Seriously? This is the pressing question of the moment?” She got six ladies nodding to her. She rolled her eyes, “Un-fucking-believable,” then put up a finger to tell them to hold a second.

  TOM?

  I heard.

  What’s the answer?

  It’s possible, but it will start changing a lot of the insides for a long time before they come out. It isn’t going to just sprout a new appendage.

  God Bless America.

  Why?

  What? Oh,
it’s just a saying of exasperation on my part. Why I thought I could have a straightforward discussion with women is beyond me.

  Tom decided to stay quiet.

  “The short answer is ‘yes, it is possible’. The longer answer is it will take a long time in the pod, and nothing will be the same when you come out.” From the looks on the ladies’ faces, Bethany Anne could tell they each had something they didn’t either care to lose or care to gain. “So, if we are done with the biology questions?” She looked around the table.

  “I’ve talked with Giannini after her date with Darryl,” Cheryl Lynn started, “She could tell that she would play second fiddle to you in his mind, and she wouldn’t accept that, so they parted with a kiss and as friends.”