Forever Defend (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 17) by Michael Anderle

Author:Michael Anderle [Anderle, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: LMPBN Publishing
Published: 2017-06-30T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

QBBS Meredith Reynolds, Military Meeting Room

When Lance walked into the medium-sized meeting room, he nodded to Dan, then Admiral Thomas, John, Frank, Gabrielle, and Patricia in turn, then pulled out the chair at the head of the table and sat down.

“Good morning, everyone. I hope you brought your thinking caps this morning.”

The quiet laughter did nothing to assuage his concern. He looked around the table. “Ok, someone say it.”

“Well, we’ve talked,” Dan spoke up, “in twos and threes, and we just don’t see a way to keep her out.”

“John? Gabrielle?” Lance directed his stare at the Empress’ guard and guard captain, who were sitting next to him.

Gabrielle beat John to the answer. “No fucking way. Not an ice cube’s chance in hell.”

“Well,” Lance sighed as he eyed her, “no need to sugarcoat it for me.”

“If you want me to sugarcoat it,” Gabrielle started, but Lance put up a hand.

He grimaced. “No, I’ve got the same feeling.” He looked around again. “Ok, now that we are all agreed Bethany Anne is going to be in the fight on the Karillians’ home planet against a Kurtherian-modified race, what are we going to do about it?”

“Well, let’s first determine why she will be there,” Patricia spoke up.

“She needs to fight,” John answered. “There is only so much Empress-ing that we can hope to get her to do. Her Bitches, including me, are there for her if she needs something done up close and personal. Or she has Dan’s team go in, or the Navy, or whatever. She has been slowly pressure-cooking and she is going to blow her top sooner or later. When you have the Kurtherians in the fight, you are not going to be able to keep her out of it.”

“She’s the damned Empress,” Lance groused.

“She’s your daughter,” Patricia shot back. “Maybe you shouldn’t have told her so many ‘leadership is from the front stories.’”

“Duly noted,” Lance agreed. “Next daughter, I’ll work on that.”

“Oh?” Gabrielle perked up, looking between Patricia and Lance. “Do you have something to announce?”

The room started chuckling at Lance’s expression when Patricia didn’t answer right away. After a few seconds, she winked. “Not at the moment, but trying is still fun.”

“Gott Verdammt! Give me a heart attack, woman,” Lance mumbled.

“Wouldn’t do you any harm. You would just heal from it,” Dan told him.

“It would still hurt like a sonofabitch,” Lance replied.

“Well, I want to be there when you tell Bethany Anne she has a sister on the way,” Gabrielle informed Patricia.

“I’ll let you know first, honey,” Patricia confirmed.

“Ok,” Admiral Thomas interrupted. “We know she is going to insist on being there, so why don’t we sequester her in a low-risk area? We have the Bitches protect her. That way she’s there more or less safely, and if a few combatants come along, she gets a little action.”

The table quieted down. Dan looked at Lance, who turned to Patricia.

She just shrugged her shoulders, so Lance glanced at Frank, who was taking notes but spared a second to flip his hand back and forth in a universal maybe gesture.

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