Might Makes Right (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 18) Read online

  Marcus frowned. “I’ve done other things!” He pointed down the stairs to her left. “I’ll have you know I’m part-owner of the most famous bar in multiple systems.”

  “Uh huh,” Tina tapped the telescope, “but was that your goal in life?”

  Marcus chuckled. “Well, to be honest, I just wanted to prove the existence of aliens.”

  Tina slowly looked around the large room with its two-story-tall glass window that provided a view of space and the planet Yoll in the far distance. In this room she could count three different alien species. “I count three right here, and I bet if I went downstairs there would be another four.”

  “Five,” Marcus corrected.

  Tina turned to him. “Five?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I have everyone let me know when we get a new alien species in the bar. Two months ago we had a multi-alien group show up and we had twenty-two different species at the same time.” His eyes glinted in humor. “Bobcat thought I was going to shit a…” He stopped, eyes wide, and looked at Tina in alarm. “Oh shit, woman present! I’m so sorry, Tina.” He fumbled a moment. “I’ve been around Bobcat and William too long to place a filter on my mouth.”

  “Well.” She patted his hand. Marcus looked young, until you noticed his eyes. Right now, they were looking way older than she had seen them in a long time. “I appreciate your concern, but given that Scott is my dad, my uncles are John, Darryl, Eric and Peter, and my aunts are Gabrielle and the Empress, and that doesn’t even include…” Tina scrunched her eyes. “Well, shit. Just about everyone who cares about them cares about me. I tend to be around some harsh and brash language.”

  Marcus nodded in agreement. “I bet you are, at that. But in my time, there were a few things we didn’t casually talk about to a younger woman and I’ll ask you not to have me change too much.”

  Tina moved her hand to pat the older scientist on his arm. “That is why so many women don’t understand the amazing person you are, Teacher my Teacher.”

  Marcus smiled and placed a hand on hers. “You know that there is never going to be a good enough guy for you, right?”

  Tina snorted. “Do you know how hard it is to get a date? Hell, my dad is a Queen’s Bitch and my uncle is famous, or infamous anyway, in how many systems for the death and destruction he can cause?”

  Marcus turned to look out the window. “Do you regret it?” He waved toward space. “There is a whole galaxy out there you could lose yourself in, Tina.”

  She took her hand away. “You think? Do you really believe that my mom and dad wouldn’t know exactly where I was?” She tapped the side of her head. “I know these wonder gadgets inside my skull can be used to track me as well as let me translate and all the other badass stuff they do.”

  “So,” Marcus asked, still looking at the stars for a moment before turning back toward her. “Do you want it removed?”

  “Haaayllll no, as Uncle Darryl would say.” Tina laughed. “I have ADAM and everybody, including you, on instant connect. Plus, you allow me to wake you up whenever I want.” She shrugged as she looked at the stars. “I’m special.”

  Marcus chuckled. “Tina, you will always be special, and not just because you’re my favorite student.”

  “I’m your only student.”

  “Not true!” Marcus grinned. “I have a lot of students.”

  “No, you have a lot of people you help in the Etheric Academy from time to time. Those are ‘here today, gone in six weeks.’”

  Marcus shrugged.

  “I’m the only one you seek out to show the latest cool stuff that’s going on,” Tina proclaimed

  “Maybe.”

  “Maybe, my ass,” Tina responded.

  Marcus looked at her, shocked.

  “What? Marcus, I’m pretty old now. You think maybe I can cuss a bit if I want to?”

  “You still look like a young woman.”

  “I look no younger than you do.”

  He stared at her.

  “Ok, maybe five years younger,” she amended. “However,” she tapped the side of her head in a different location, “I’m smart and you know it.”

  Marcus smiled. “Why do you think I keep pestering you?”

  Tina turned to the bar table next to them and picked up her glass. This time she had gotten one of the guys in the back to try brewing Dr. Pepper. She mumbled an answer under her breath to Marcus before she took a sip, wrinkling her nose.

  “What did you say?” he asked. Still facing away from him, she rolled her eyes.

  I said, she thought to herself, well, you don’t pester me because I’m beautiful. Aloud, she told him, “This Dr. Pepper might be an acquired taste.”

  He raised his eyebrows, so she grabbed her drink and passed it to him. Surprised, he accepted the drink and took a small sip, then another one. “Hmm.” He looked down into the glass. “Actually, from what I remember they got it right.” He took another sip. “This came from Texas originally.” He looked down the stairs. “Who did you bribe to make it?”

  “Like I would rat someone out!” Tina told him. “I have my sources.”

  “Probably Chester,” Marcus continued, ignoring Tina’s remark. “He’s the best down there, and he’s already married.”

  “What does being married have to do with anything?” she asked.

  Marcus turned to her and raised the glass and one eyebrow in question. She shook her head so he shrugged, then upended the glass and finished the drink. “God,” he reached around her to put the glass on the table, “that was good.”

  “Elementary, my dear Tina,” he told her. She didn’t get worked up about his comment since she had read all the original Sherlock Holmes books. “It’s in our glass, so it’s one of our people. Besides Chester, we have only two others who are good enough with brewing this stuff that you would even bother asking. Barry is young and still deathly afraid of Scott, and the other is so scared of Bethany Anne she probably wouldn’t even touch the ingredients.”

  “She wasn’t even willing to look at a printout of the recipe,” Tina answered, thinking back to her conversation with Jackie before she looked at Marcus, smiling. Then she played back the conversation and realized she had given up the truth. “Gott Verdammt!”

  Marcus chuckled some more. “Ok, my little Padawan, why are we up here?” He pointed to the telescope. “We aren’t really looking, so what did you want to talk about?”

  ADAM? Tina reached through her connection, the technology placed in her skull behind her ear.

  >>Yes, Tina?<<<br />
  Would you please ask Meredith to give Marcus and me some space?

  Moments later Tina noticed the small conversations start to diminish. Fortunately, a couple of years back Bethany Anne had had the same technology installed up here on the viewing deck that she used in the throne room.

  Startled, Marcus looked around before returning his gaze to Tina. “Seriously? It’s so important you want audio privacy?”

  “Yes.” She looked straight at him. “I need to tell you something, and I want your full attention. That is why we aren’t in the lab.”

  Marcus nodded. “Good choice.”

  “Tell me about it,” she agreed. “If we were, I wouldn’t remember what the hell I wanted to talk about because we would be concocting something.”

  Marcus looked at her a moment before barking a laugh, his smile wide and his eyes crinkling in delight. He pointed at her. “That’s right!” He smiled some more, the most fully animated he had been so far with her, and it caused her to stare back at him.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I wouldn’t be the problem child in the lab, you would!” He stepped around the woman and pulled out a bar stool for her to sit on at their table before he pulled out one for himself. When she was seated, he continued, “I think you might be worse in the lab than I am.”

  “No,” she shook her head, “I’m just a little younger and more excitable in the lab.”

  “Yeah, there is that,” he mused. “Ok,
Padawan, you have my full attention, and your own.”

  Tina took a deep breath, running through the speech she had been working on all week. She folded her hands and placed them on the table.

  Here goes nothing, she thought to herself.

  QBBS Meredith Reynolds, William’s Manufacturing Cavern

  William slid the bolt into the last hole and grabbed a nut. Reaching around to the other side, he found the threaded end and quickly spun the nut onto it. The large cavern was peaceful. He had ten large copper brewing kettles and their associated piping in various stages of completion around him.

  While the Yollins and others appreciated manufactured products for brewing, there was something about owning a handmade William’s Kettle (TM) product. He charged fifteen times more for a handmade product than a manufactured one.

  Hell, he even had a black-market product he shipped through other sources that promised “You can’t tell the difference between ours and a William’s Kettle, or your money back.” He sold that one for half the cost of the William’s Kettle.

  He had become stupidly wealthy just by using his hands and for the joy of making stuff that it wasn’t funny.

  There was a soft meow. William frowned and bent to his left, looking down the aisle toward the sound. He waited a moment before leaning back.

  Meow.

  He jumped into the aisle this time, his eyes glancing into the shadows. He looked at the lights above the doorway into his little sanctum.

  One of the twelve was red.

  “Ok, who’s here?” he called. “I’ll give you one second before Meredith initiates a security alarm.”

  William leaned back toward the large kettle he was working on and grabbed a foot-long wrench.

  “It’s me, old friend,” a voice said calmly.

  William recognized the voice. “Goddammit, Stephen,” he tossed the wrench back on the bench, “stop scaring a man like that. I’d likely be upset if I brained the fuck out of you.” He reached up and scratched his chin. “Then Bethany Anne would be annoyed until I explained the situation.”

  Stephen chuckled. “I’ll be more careful next time,” he answered as he came around the corner of one of William’s tall shelving units.

  He was carrying an all-black cat.

  “Huh.” William reached out to take the cat from Stephen. “I was wondering where your furry black ass went.” He scratched the cat behind its ears and then turned, the cat fairly leaping out of his arms to land on the ground and run after God-only-knew-what.

  Stephen put his arms behind his back and looked at all of William’s projects. “I’ve come to tell you that it’s time to close up the shop.”

  William narrowed his eyes, turning his head a bit. “Whatcha talking bout, Willis?"

  Stephen pursed his lips. “William, first of all, be thankful I understand the reference. But, this isn't an episode of Diff'rent Strokes! Bethany Anne says to get your lazy ass up and shake out the fucking cobwebs.”

  “She said those exact words?” There was a huskiness to William’s voice, a yearning Stephen recognized.

  Stephen pulled his arms around to his front and crossed them. “You want her exact words?”

  William nodded.

  “Tell my lazy-ass tinkerer that it’s time he stopped pretending he’s happy building a manufacturing company and get back on the fucking horse, for fuck’s sake. If he doesn’t understand that, tell him I need a Gott Verdammt genius with ships, antigrav and stuff that fucks up annoying motherfuckers. So, Winnie-the-fucking-Pooh-bear needs to get on Tigger’s back and get back to work. We got shit to do, people to protect, and others to fuck up.”

  William eyed Stephen for thirty seconds, the vampire waiting for his response. Stephen wasn’t surprised as he watched the tension drain from William’s shoulders. Some needed to see the light, some needed to be told it was ok, and some needed a foot up their ass.

  William turned, pulled the rag he had been using out of the kettle, and tossed it on the bench. “Meredith?”

  “Yes, William?” she replied.

  “Please sell my remaining inventory and let anyone interested in William’s Kettle products know the old man has taken a sabbatical. Then when I leave, please shut down this area, pumping the air out and mothballing it.”

  He turned and started toward the door that led out of the workshop. “Team BMW has shit to accomplish.”

  “I thought you guys had been doing stuff?” Stephen queried as the two walked out through the double doors. William stopped to punch in some security code or another before waving Stephen to walk ahead of him.

  “We’ve been living life and doing a job,” William answered, “but our Empress just kicked me in the ass.”

  “And how does that make you feel?” Stephen asked.

  “Pretty fucking good, old man.” William chuckled. “Pretty fucking good.”

  Team BMW Offices, Two Hours Later

  Bobcat, Yelena and Bellatrix were the last three to enter through the security doors. Bobcat was surprised to see that Cheryl Lynn, Tina and Stephen were there with William and Marcus. “Uh oh,” he nodded to his friends, “I’m not the only one who got ‘the talk,’ am I?”

  William and Marcus both smiled and shook their heads.

  “Since I’ve got permission—” Bobcat started before Yelena cut him off.

  “You don’t need permission, but you have my blessing,” she told him. “You need to be who you are for Bethany Anne and your friends. I’m not going anywhere, Bobcat, so stop fretting about me!”

  Bobcat reached out and wrapped an arm around Yelena. Then, surprising her he quickly pulled her up, grabbed her legs, and started carrying her.

  “Let me down, you goof!” She beat at his chest. “I’ll kick your ass!”

  “A good reason not to let you down, I’d say,” Bobcat told her.

  She stopped beating him and reached up to grab him around his neck. Using it for leverage, she pulled herself up and whispered in his ear.

  He damned near dropped her.

  “Hey!” she shrieked, her legs dropping to the ground.

  He helped her stand up. “Sorry.” He smiled. “Your offer surprised me.”

  “Too much candy?” Tina asked, smiling wickedly.

  Yelena smiled. “I promised to try out a new recipe at home.”

  “Uh huh.” William grinned. “You don’t have to share what kind of recipe it was.”

  She eyed him. “Beer!” she retorted. “We have a book of positions we are still working through for the other kind of recipes.”

  William reached over and snagged his tablet. “Kamasutra?”

  “No,” Bobcat answered as Yelena looked at Cheryl Lynn with a “what?” facial expression.

  “Human or alien recipes?” Marcus asked.

  “Alien,” Bobcat answered.

  William chuckled. “Lucky bastard.”

  There was a sharp whack as Yelena finally caught up to the conversation.

  “Hey!” She pointed a finger at him. “That number seven hundred and forty-five was something I’ve been waiting to try for sixty-four positions, so don’t piss me off!”

  Bobcat grabbed a bar stool from under the table everyone was sitting at and pulled it out for Yelena. “Why do you think I thought it was safe to answer the way I did?”

  She snorted. “Because you are Bobcat, and thank you for the chair.”

  Bobcat sat down next to her and glanced around the table. “Ok, Yelena helped me figure out why I have been acting like a mopey dog for the last three months.”

  “Because you’re Bobcat?” Marcus asked.

  “Because your last four barrels of beer have sucked tiger titties?” William responded.

  Bobcat looked at Marcus and answered him first. “No.” He turned to William. “Seriously? My last brew kicked your ass so bad we had to carry you out on a stretcher.”

  “Pshaw!” William waved a hand. “I was just trying to make you feel better.”

  “Dude,” Bobcat
looked at his friend and pointed down the table, “you asked Tina here if she was going to have babies like Gabrielle.”

  William turned to Tina, a blush starting to form. “Tell me I didn’t!”

  “Ok,” Tina shrugged, “you didn’t.”

  “Oh, thank God.” William was slowly turning toward Bobcat when she shook her head and spoke again.

  “But that wouldn’t be the truth.”

  Everyone winced when William’s head hit the table. A moment later a slow moan came from him. “Ooooowwwwwww,” he groaned. “That fucking hurrrrrrrrrrt.”

  They waited a moment for him to lift his head up. When he didn’t, Cheryl Lynn reached over and patted him on the back. “It’s ok. At least you didn’t ask her to marry you.”

  William’s head turned enough that one eye could peek out, straining to look sideways at the woman. “Tell me the truth. My head is already on the table.”

  She winked at him. “You didn’t, but it is true that the beer took you out.”

  William slowly lifted his head back up from the table. “I wondered how I got back home.”

  “Would you like to see the video?” Bobcat asked. William just gave him the fisheye, so Bobcat shrugged. “Just asking.” He took a deep breath and looked at everyone there.

  “Ok,” he nodded to Stephen, “I understand you probably went to William to have a talk, right?” Stephen nodded. “Coming from Bethany Anne?” Stephen nodded again. He turned to Tina. “You and your Mom for Marcus?”

  Cheryl Lynn turned to her daughter. “Uh, not me.”

  Tina smiled. “It was me.” She paused a moment. “Well, except Bethany Anne stopped me last week and asked…”

  There was an intake of breath beside Bobcat. He turned to see a look of surprise on Yelena’s face. “Oh. My. God!”

  Bobcat slowly nodded. “She got to you too, didn’t she?”

  Yelena just nodded.

  He turned to everyone there. “She is getting us off our asses again. We’ve been calling it in for too long.”

  “So,” William asked as he looked at his two friends. “Who do we trust with All Guns Blazing?”

  CHAPTER SEVEN