SUED FOR PEACE (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 11) (23 page)

“Excuse me, Professor?” A hand from a Gellentii went up in the second row. Well, if you could say that a tentacle was a hand.

“Yes?” Ahrgri-vactix responded.

“Why would her people not expect her to negotiate? Wouldn’t they want to reduce the chance of their own death?”

“Good question, but the answer is tied up in humans, what they are fighting for and the leader they follow. Humans have the ability to believe that there are ideals that are worth fighting and dying for. One of the mistakes some who have fought Bethany Anne’s group have made include attacking first as a form of negotiation. The Yollins were the first to try to impress with military abilities as a lead, true negotiation second with the humans once humans set up their bases on this side of the Terran Annex gate. Remember, no one had any idea who they were at that time. While they had acquired the technology to communicate, they were, unfortunately, very straightforward with their speech, and the Yollins figured they were obfuscating when they claimed they were just running through on their way to find Kurtherians.”

Ahrgri-vactix took a drink and continued, “So, as the humans passed through, the Yollins attacked from the rear, expecting to surprise the humans with their prowess.” He looked around, “So, the first question on the quiz will be ‘which race was the first to suffer utter defeat to the humans and started the Queen Bitch’s Annexed sphere of influence on this side of the gate?’”

The whole class chuckled, “The Yollins,” they all called out.

“Yes, the Yollins.” Ahrgri-vactix agreed and stuck up a finger, “First Rule of Negotiation with the Queen Bitch, Don’t attack first, She doesn’t appreciate that type of negotiation at all.”

TQB Base, Australian Outback

Yuko was the first to get in, hacking into a secondary bank branch that allowed her access.

The attack style was absolute genius, she thought. They were attacking the SWIFT network which facilitated transactions between banks via the Internet. Once they had the password and credentials for any relevant Chinese bank, they were able to request money out of Chinese accounts in other banks around the world.

Her first transaction moved eighty-seven million U.S. dollars equivalent out of the foreign accounts, moving money China had positioned to buy stocks to accounts under ADAM’s control. He, along with another smaller group within the team, moved the money to millions of accounts, bouncing the transactions through banks located in the ‘Stans (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, etc.) which, similar to Switzerland's old banking system, had confidential banking laws and no relationships for extradition. Once the monies were in the almost impossible-to-locate accounts, they would purchase real-world items such as construction materials and the like. Now that the money was moved to material goods, there was no money to re-acquire should the account be found.

Next, Yuko started working on another purchase, this time for just under a billion dollars, pulling China out of sixty-seven percent of all TQB stocks they had been able to acquire from thirty-seven of TQB’s companies.

And that was just this minor bank.

Yuko smiled, as ADAM’s offensive was going to decimate China’s stock market war with TQB and kick them out of their positions within the companies. Her first trade complete, she started setting up, with ADAM’s help, the next major hit.

—

ADAM, Gin, Amber and Kevin were actively looking for a way to bust into China’s diplomatic cables. They had been working on this for a couple of days, but unfortunately did not have any luck so far.

Kevin, a laid back man with long blond hair, shrugged his shoulders, “Look, patience and effort, and a shit-ton of computing power and we will win the day. We have the computing power, let’s keep up the effort and have a little patience.” The two women and Kevin kept at it, going deeper and deeper into the backgrounds of those who worked in the offices.

ADAM had modified one of the ICP’s (Independent Computing Platforms) to work on deciphering the Chinese language on the fly for the team. While he might have several orders of magnitude more computing power than the small group, they were able to intuitively leap to new ideas that he had not yet been able to figure out how to do.

However, he was working on it.

—

“Sir?” Senior Bank Operation Manager Bojing looked up to regard his second in command.

“Yes?” Huan, the Bank Manager, replied

“May I close the door?” Bojing asked Huan nodded. Bojing stepped closer, “Sir, we have uncovered a recent transfer of assets from the Committee's accounts that went through the bank network. Sir,” Bojing swallowed, “it looks like we have had funds stolen from the Committee’s accounts.”

Huan’s face barely moved a muscle as he considered the implications, “How?”

“A set of hackers seemed to have figured out the security credentials for our SWIFT system and determined the accounts the Committee uses.”

Huan tried to slow down his rapidly escalating heartbeat, “How much?”

Bojing barely whispered, “Sir, a little over six billion Yuan.”

Huan calmly put his elbows on his desk, “You believe that we have had almost a billion U.S. stolen from the Committee's accounts from our bank?” Bojing nodded, “Do we have specific accounts within those?”

“The military was hit harder, but most accounts have lost assets.”

“What have you done?” Bojing shrugged, “At the moment, I’ve told them to shut down the SWIFT account and to pull together the fraud department for a meeting.

“I understand,” Huan nodded to him, “Please, I need to make a few calls.” Bojing bowed and turned, opening and closing the office door.

Huan, forty-eight years old, called his wife and had a pleasant conversation before hanging up. Huan’s personal assets, due to his inclusion in many opportunities, almost equaled six hundred million Yuan in total. The responsibility for the mistakes - however, they happened - would come back and rest on his shoulders.

Huan had been paying attention to the transactions associated with the government’s accounts, one would have to be a fool not to. They had been trying everything they could to acquire technology by the typical expedient of purchasing the companies, and it wasn’t working with TQB.

He made a call and requested an immediate meeting with the head of the committee that ran the bank. He hung up the phone, closed and locked his desk and stood up.

Looking around, he considered if he wanted to take anything and exhaled loudly. With the money missing, and he suspected this wouldn’t be the only hit, the currency was most likely going to take a hit and he would be one of those blamed.

His wealth was gone, and he would be lucky to keep his life, much less a memento of his job. He walked to the door, opened it, and stepped into a future he had never expected for himself. A future he didn’t want because his government attacked the wrong group.

Washington D.C. - USA

“Mr. President?” General Vance Deliando nodded his head as the President sat down at the small table.

“Vance,” he responded, “How are things going with the contacts now that you have this new position?”

“Oh, I’ve been better - I’ve decided all of the gods must hate me.”

“Oh?” The President looked down at the table and realized it was always George providing the Tums.

“Yeah. I’ve read the documents on that shit George was into, and if that isn’t bad enough, this issue between China and TQB is causing a fffuuu…lot of problems all over the world. The QBS Polarus and Ad Aeternitatem received sixteen landings in the last three hours before they went tits up and flew out of range of our following vessels.”

“How are the different chiefs reacting to this?”

“Outwardly? Calm if annoyed. Behind closed doors? They are rooting them on. When their Pods interrupted the two J-10’s on that intercept mission and sent them packing it was the absolute best bit of P.R. they could have done with the Air Force.”

“Our information from that trip?” the President asked.

“That we aren’t sure?” Vance shrugged, “We used some of the new technology and were able to get access to the gravitic wave anomalies until about two miles out. So, we have some range.”

“On their pods?” the President asked.

“Yes,” Vance moved a couple of pieces of paper aside and picked up the third, “So far, the geniuses we have working on that situation don’t have a clue how they did the little planes. Oh, we have ideas. We have images of them landing little,” he put up both hands to create a circle about three inches around, “pucks, probably about twenty-one, across the jet. We figured they forced the plane to move a certain direction pretty carefully.”

“Why so many?”

“Aircraft engineers say if they used too few, it would just rip the plane apart in the air, so they needed more to accomplish it with minimal risk. Even then, if the pilots had fought too hard their planes would tear apart.”

“At that point, they were trying to minimize damage…” The President went silent for a few moments before Vance interrupted him.

“Sir, we have incoming reports from NASA that are frankly damned unbelievable,” Vance admitted.

The President wiped his face with his hand and sighed, “Lay it on me, we have an asteroid or something about to hit the world?”

“No, not that bad. Well, let’s be honest I don’t think that bad.”

“So?” The President pushed, “what other shoe is about to drop?”

“Sir, something is heading this way from the Asteroid Belt where TQB was mining and manufacturing and Sir, excuse my language, but it’s a big motherfucker.”

The President stared at his liaison for a moment, “How…big?”

“At least a thousand feet or more.”

“You know,” the President admitted, “If I didn’t have to worry about the whole world going up in flames I’d be on the sidelines cheering TQB on. A thousand feet?” He watched Vance nod his head before shaking his own, “I guess that spaceship is how she is going to take a country that has a billion people and two and a quarter million in their military and build a cairn for them you can see from space.”

“Sir?” Vance asked, confused.

The President waved his hand in a throw-away gesture, “Nothing. Make sure we are ready if something overflows from their fights, but also make sure we have our nation prepared in case we suffer problems.” The President stood up when Vance interrupted him.

“Sir, you think they even have a chance?”

The President looked down and smiled with resignation heavy in his voice, “When you push, and push, and push someone trying to act civil, and strip away all reasons to stay shackled with the irons of civility you are left with Death and Her Four Horseman. The crying over the dead is about to occur. Call the Joint Chiefs, we need to make sure we have our people prepared as quietly as we can.” He pursed his lips and added, “And raise the DEFCON to Three.”

Vance nodded sharply.

Pacific Ocean

Black Eagle One came down and had barely stopped when the hatch opened, and Bethany Anne jumped out of her Pod. She turned to catch Ashur, who had jumped out and placed him on the ground.

TOM, keep my eyes under control.

It would be easier if you worked to keep your anger in check.

I’m done being peaceful, TOM. I tried that with the Black Cabal, and you saw how that worked out. I’ve listened to the council of those I hold dear, and I held my hand and applied justice. I did this as a testament to allow others a chance to see if their ideas of justice would work effectively.

I understand, and I see that it didn’t work, but I can’t exactly understand why.

Because those with power rarely respect restraint,
she finished.

Twenty minutes later, alarms started blaring across the two ships and then they started slowly lifting from the water to head west by northwest.

It took an hour to pull her people together from the two ships needed for this meeting. She had her Guards, Peter and Todd, Stephen and Barnabas, Dan, Nathan and Ecaterina, both Captains Thomas and Maximillian Wagner, Jean Dukes, and others in the meeting room. The chairs were separated by an aisle going down the middle. The room had a white screen on the wall in the front.

She stood in front of them, in her combat outfit and no one doubted she was getting involved. “I’m here,” she started, looking across the room, “to explain what I’m about to do.”

She lifted her chin a little, “I stayed my hand from vengeance and allowed justice to try her hand with our enemies. You have heard from Nathan what those in Europe would have tried to do while we were busy with China. We saved two, who are incarcerated now.” She started walking in front of them. “I judged twenty-two more and tossed their worthless asses into the Etheric. Now, China has been involved, and they upped the game. Apparently, they need a more substantial message than what has been provided so far.”

She stopped, and her face grew grim, “We have the PLA base location that houses their covert and black Ops groups. It is located in a remote area outside of Mianyang. There is a small airstrip allowing access. While I could go in and pummel the shit out of it with pucks, that isn’t the type of response I plan on sending as it isn’t personal enough. I’m going to knock on that door and provide my answer to their assassination of our people. They took six lives minimum from me. I’ll respond by taking six hundred of theirs. They want to fight? Fine, fuck them. I’ll kill them where they stand, where they sleep, where they eat and where they live.” She turned to two in the front row, “Peter and Todd, stand.”

Peter, Guard of Bethany Anne, Queen’s Bitch, and Guardians Alpha stood up. Todd Jenkins, Lead of the Guardian Marines stood next to him, ramrod straight, looking ahead.

“Yes, ma’am!”

Bethany Anne walked to stand in front of them, “Your Queen calls you and your people to stand behind her on this mission. This is retribution, this is in response to attacking my people. Will you honor your agreement to follow me into this future, and provide the response I demand?”