Evacuation (The Boris Chronicles Book 1) Page 7

  Vassily continued, “I came as soon as I found out. At worst you weren’t back yet, and I’d help Danislav harass this NVG. At best you were, and I could give you the information and help as I could. I wasn’t trying to cross you. I didn’t think the mission you were contracted on was the big screw! I researched the mission as I usually do, no red flags came up. As far as I could tell it was a pretty standard request. For you at least.”

  Boris looked to Bethany. She nodded at him.

  Boris turned and tried to keep his annoyance off his face. “Very well, I’ll grant that none of the consequences were deliberate on your part.” Vassily relaxed at that. “Still, do you acknowledge a debt to me? And are you willing to work it off?”

  Vassily looked up “I will. But what will make you believe that I’m telling the truth?”

  Bethany Anne snapped to capture his attention, then her eyes glowed red in the dim office light, “I’m the reason he will believe you.” Vassily’s heart started beating sharply, his forehead broke out in sweat and nearly fainted. He hadn’t realized she was a vampire.

  He got his tongue back under control, “Thhhen you kn-kn-know I’m sincere?”

  Bethany Anne reverted to her normal human appearance. “Yes. You have been honest and sincere.” She turned to Boris and said “You can trust him. I’ll send you the modified cell phones before the storm hits.”

  She rose from her chair and left the room.

  —

  Vassily had left yesterday to pump his sources for more information on the NVG. The custom phones had arrived before Vassily had left. TOM and ADAM had assured Boris that they were secure. ADAM also mentioned he was setting up secure communications, and he would send details to each team leader. Janna had explained ADAM to Boris. She was confident ADAM could keep the merely curious and the hackers out. Everyone who stayed would be getting new identities and papers courtesy of ADAM with Frank’s help as well.

  The phones were protected from tampering and were secured by voice recognition when using the Etheric connections.

  None of Boris’ officers were to take that equipment into operations. ADAM had set up a website secured by himself for other means of communication. Each team would have their own section, each team member their own login. ADAM promised to give Boris and Janna a synopsis each day.

  Boris had spent hours going over the lists of people who had volunteered. First, he’d narrowed it by removing at least one parent from each family with children under sixteen. Then he removed those few with university educations. Then, the eldest were removed, making an occasional exception for those who were exceptionally skilled hunters, trackers, or listeners. That brought the numbers of people that were staying down from more than five thousand to around three thousand, seven hundred and fifty.

  He decided that was enough reduction. After all, they were likely to take some casualties when they finally faced the NVG to dismantle it.

  He was putting off the next task. Paul wanted to talk to him. He suspected the reason, and it was causing him worry. He’d really hoped Paul would choose to go with the group that was headed into space. Boris had taken him into enough situations over the years that should have killed him, but Paul had come through those successfully. Selfishly, Boris just wanted the man who was probably his closest human friend to be safe.

  Boris had spoken to his friend earlier, and it was only two seconds before Paul had insisted that he was too skilled and experienced to waste in space. Even worse, he was probably right. But Alecta was not happy with being separated from her husband. Although she would be comparatively useless to the group that was staying behind.

  She was one of the worst shots Boris knew, she still flinched as the trigger was pulled. With a Master’s degree in metallurgy, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in geology and mining and five years of industry experience, she had returned home to settle with Paul and have a family. The boys were twelve and fifteen, so at least one of their parents had to go with them.

  There was a knock on the door. It was Paul, as Boris expected. “Come.”

  Paul entered the room looking a bit sheepish. “Boss, can you talk to Alecta? She’s saying she’ll hand over guardianship of the kids to her aunt to make sure that she’s eligible to stay. I told her it wouldn’t fly, but she’s convinced that it will. She claims that I’d talked to you before to make sure that she would be leaving. I’ve asked her when I could have, but you know how she can be when she gets a bee in her bonnet. I pointed out that in ten years she still hadn’t learned not to flinch when she pulled the trigger, but…”

  Boris sighed. He really didn’t need this, but Paul was an old friend. To his surprise, Janna spoke up in the sudden silence, “Paul, I placed you in our small command group. That is you, Boris and myself. You are third in command. But Alecta doesn’t have any military experience, nor a reputation as a hunter, tracker or a decent shot. She’d be useless to the group compared to what she could contribute to the space-borne group.”

  She paused, then shrugged, and said. “I think this is where we pass it up the chain Boris. I’ll call Cheryl Lynn. Explain, and see if we can expedite her transport to the design group. That way she won’t play games. Hopefully whatever task they give her will keep her too busy to have other worries.”

  Boris turned to her and grinned, his relief obvious, “And that is how a good aide works out the little things. Paul, you could learn from her. We’ll get back to you as soon as it’s arranged.”

  Hopefully, the NVG couldn’t organize anything else before they were ready to move. They were now only waiting for a storm to cover the area. When that happened, they could travel without any additional assistance. The cloud cover would make everything easier.

  —

  Unfortunately, the weather had not co-operated. It had taken another five days before they had enough clouds overhead to cover their split and scatter movements. During that time the NVG had started a pair of reinforced companies moving towards the town. The same night Boris found out about the force approaching he had begun moving his people into ambush locations. The experienced fighters were all in a position to do attritional ‘shoot and run’ encounters. Half would scatter to their targeted areas of responsibility after each bushwhacking, the rest would fall back to the main force. The NVG was moving by back roads, avoiding highways. After three sprung traps, Boris expected them to switch to an alternate route. He had forces of approximately twelve hundred and fifty set along each of the probable routes into town. The plan was to wipe the NVG out to the last man.

  They had time. ADAM predicted that the cloud cover would last at least ten days. The NVG planned to arrive in three. Boris expected them in about five.

  Once they knew the attack route from their interception of communications and scouts verification, Boris would consolidate his forces. Four hundred or so troops against his nearly three thousand. He doubted his casualties would be even between 50-100. Particularly with the extra doses Bethany Anne had provided for his medics, nurses, and doctors. The mercs had unboxed and prepared their portable anti-armor weapons, and there were enough to take out any APCs.

  Each officer had access to an account provided jointly by himself and Bethany Anne. These would provide funds for them to disburse to the troops so that working would not be necessary, although many of them would as part of their covers.

  Boris had allowed for four weeks of travel for the refugee column to get to safety. It was, he hoped, a generous schedule. The extra time allowed Bethany Anne to provide a piece of equipment that Janna had requested. A camouflaged mobile command base that would permit them to travel quickly and discreetly between areas of operation. What Team BMW had produced looked like a rusting shipping container. It was modified to fly like the pods and had enough internal power to run communications and basic computer support. A small kitchen, first aid equipment, and beds were also included.

  It also included, somewhat to Boris’s distress, three motorcycles for local transport. Boris hated riding
the damn things but did agree they made sense. Motorcycles would be able to go places that cars couldn’t, so they could hide the shipping crate most of the time in the wilderness, safe from prying eyes.

  The countdown to Retaliation had begun.

  Author's Notes – Paul C Middleton July 14, 2016

  This journey started in late February. The 24th I think. I had just contacted Michael after reading book 4 of The Kutherian Gambit.

  I was so disappointed that he'd taken the easy way out and gone with a Katana of all things as her sword.

  I HATE how Katanas have taken over as sword of note in fiction. I call it the 'Highlander effect'. There is a two thousand word rant on my blog explaining.

  So I joined facebook to contact him (Yes I was one of the very few people in my age group without an account.) And to bitch about his choice of sword. We talked a bit further and I mentioned I was trying to write a book. So he asked me if I wanted to join the 20books group. I was either member five or six (there are now over 300 I think.)

  Then I kept coming up with a Russian Werebear character. One that in no way fit for my story. I named him Boris and eventually (three or four books of Michael's later) saw that he was a good fit for Michael's universe. So I wrote up a three thousand word Character concept/history and sent it to him.

  That is where this book and the ones to follow came from.

  That's not to say that there haven't been a few bumps along the way. But I think Both Michael and I have learnt that the best communication involves at least voice chat. It is so much easier to make sure there is no misinterpretation if you speak rather than type (Little advice for ANYONE who wants to write a collaboration! Speak! Typing only conveys so much!)

  I've learnt a lot writing in someone else's universe. And I have nothing but Thanks to Michael for giving me this opportunity. I hope you all enjoyed it. Now … if I can only convince him to come up with a character in MY universe some time

  Maybe.

  I also have to thank My Beta Team for this project. Bree Buras, Dorene Johnson, Diane Velasquez and Kat Lind.

  A thanks to both Nikolaus Beattie and Jeff Morris for helping me work out military details I was unsure of. (One is Australian Army, One US Army. Had some differing opinions, but between them they gave me the info for realism I needed to get stuff right for the book.)

  You can reach me at any of these places. I do my best to respond quickly but I do live in Australia – Time zone issues and all that.

  Blog: https://betrayedbyfaith.wordpress.com/

  My Series Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Betrayed-by-Faith-1110766018944080/

  My Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulCMiddleton/

  My mailing list: http://eepurl.com/bZxFvD

  My Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Paul-C.-Middleton/e/B01FM3QX6E/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

  The Paladin book page: https://www.amazon.com/Paladin-Betrayed-Faith-Book-1-ebook/dp/B01FBOHOUS/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1468499301&sr=1-1&keywords=Paladin+Paul+C

  Author's Notes – Michael Anderle July 14, 2016

  I love this. I get to be the last person to write my author notes, so I get a peek into what Paul wrote and then say whatever the hell I want.

  Which, should probably be nice as I imagine Paul will get to switch places with me for book 2 … damn!

  Have you ever received a message that starts with “I like this…but!” Yes, the exclamation point is there on purpose. Paul’s NO KATANA email should go down in history as some sort of Martin Luther’esque comment nailed to the door of Author’s homes everywhere.

  He admitted to me that out of about ten authors he has taken to task over using katana’s, I was the only author who replied and struck up a conversation. I’m still trying to figure out how smart that was. Paul can get pretty excited when talking swords, something I’m not exactly an expert with. The only way I was able to ‘win’ the argument was showing how Bethany Anne did have the grip and strength to wield a katana with one hand effectively.

  One point for super-strong modified humans!

  Even then, Paul will not concede the point whatsoever. So, somewhere he has the original document about swords, you should hit him up and ask him. Or heck, he might have it on his blog.

  It is a weird experience to have your world written in, and characters you know as friends to be written by someone else. My job, once we hashed out the general storyline and agreed on what could and couldn’t happen based on future events, was to come back after Paul wrote most of the book. Then, I would either add to sections where he pointed something out (I need you to add fight scene here, or write Bethany Anne’s speech here) or to modify special characters actions and speech to confirm they would sound the same as I would write them (Bethany Anne, etc.).

  By the end of the book, Paul had his groove on pretty well.

  I was adding to this book and doing my pass on the plane coming to Las Vegas and finished while here. When I got to the last sentence, I was wondering where the hell the rest was??? Damn! I was enjoying it and didn’t want it to stop.

  So, if that is how I, the series creator feels, I certainly hope you enjoyed The Boris Chronicles and look forward to the next in the series.

  Now, if you Pitchfork and Matches fans would just light a fire under his ass, it would be much appreciated.

  Forever grateful for readers and fans, beta-readers and our editor (see names up front…No, you really want to - trust me),

  Michael Anderle