Called Read online

  CONTENTS

  Dedication

  Legal

  Sphinx

  Estarians

  Oggs

  Sark System

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Epilogue

  Author Notes - Ell

  Author Notes - Michael

  Social Links Ell

  Social Links - Michael

  Series List

  DEDICATION

  To everyone who ever dreamed of making a dent in the universe.

  — Ellie

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  To Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  To Live The Life We Are

  Called.

  — Michael

  Called

  The Ascension Myth 03

  JIT Beta Readers

  Alex Wilson

  Kelly ODonnell

  James Caplan

  Kimberly Boyer

  Keith Verret

  Mike Pendergrass

  Paul Westman

  John Findlay

  Joshua Ahles

  John Raisor

  Melissa OHanlon

  Peter Manis

  Sherry Foster

  Micky Cocker

  If I missed anyone, please let me know!

  Editors

  Lynne Stiegler

  Jen McDonnell

  CALLED (this book) is a work of fiction.

  All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  This book Copyright © 2017 Ell Leigh Clarke, Michael T. Anderle

  Cover Design by Andrew Dobell http://www.creativeedgestudios.co.uk/

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  First US edition, June 2017

  The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2017 by Michael T. Anderle.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Gaitune-67, The Other Side of the Demon Door

  Molly, Joel and Brock stood on the balcony overlooking the most enormous hangar deck they had ever seen. Advanced starships cluttered the deck, positioned as if prepared to scramble at a moment’s notice.

  Awestruck, they remained motionless for several minutes, emotionally swinging between disbelief and excitement.

  Joel was the first to try to speak. “Isn’t that…?” His voice trailed off.

  Molly nodded, her mouth hanging open, still taking in the scene.

  She could hear Brock breathing behind her. “Holy mother of fuckery!” he whispered under his breath.

  Molly finished Joel’s sentence. “The Queen Bitch’s insignia,” she mouthed, breathlessly.

  She’d spent so many hours searching as a child, fantasizing about the Etheric Empress, wishing she could be one of her guards and fight the good fight for the Empire.

  For years she had worked in secret, hijacking her parents’ EI in order to raid the dark web for intel of sightings or references in history, near and far. Anything that would give her a clue or direction.

  The pull the legend had on her was deep. And profound. And inspired.

  When the team had shown her the painted-over insignia in one of the corridors just after they had moved into the safe house, she hadn’t dare imagine that it might have been the insignia. The female skull with fangs. The slight ridges and the odd English letter they could make out… Rationally, it had been inconclusive.

  But now, standing on the platform overlooking the immense hangar with ships of all different sizes—with that insignia on every single one of them!—was like a lucid dream materializing in front of her eyes.

  And then she saw it. The image that would confirm everything she had ever wondered.

  Her heart missed a beat.

  Painted on the side of the cockpit of the largest ship in the center of the hangar was a photorealistic painting of the Empress herself. Molly had never seen a picture of her before. She had read accounts of her being stunningly beautiful, and the usual about her being formidable and deadly. But she’d never been able to find an image.

  But the painting of the fanged human female, the Queen Bitch herself, was enchanting. It seemed to have a mystical quality that invoked a sense of power and pride in those who looked upon it. Molly could tell from the reactions of Joel and Brock that it wasn’t just her.

  “We should get the others in here,” she said, finally becoming aware of what was happening. “We’re going to need to look into what all of this,” she waved around the hangar, “is, and why it’s here.”

  Joel cut in, almost absently, “—and if we can play with it.”

  He was still transfixed by the enormous ship in the middle of the hangar. Or rather, by the image of the dynamically beautiful Bethany Anne painted on the side of the ship.

  “Who is she, though?” he asked, not really understanding Molly’s reference to the Queen Bitch.

  Molly was beaming, and still enthralled. “That is Bethany Anne. Human turned vampire, Savior of the human race, Yollin Empire, and Etheric Queen of Everything.”

  She took a breath, and seemed to ground herself a little.

  Brock finally found his voice. “But wasn’t she a bad guy? Like a villain? My grandparents used her as a warning when we were being bad.” His look of awe was slowly morphing to mild concern.

  He continued, his speech accelerating a little as his fear kicked in. “And if this is her stuff, and we’re here, living on top of one of her disused bases, then might she be coming back for it some time?”

  There was a loud crackling, then an audio feed similar to the one which had initially granted them access started up again.

  “She’s not coming back any time soon,” announced the human-sounding voice. “But there are things we need to discuss before you can play with these…toys.”

  Molly and Joel looked at each other in shock. Molly twigged first. “He can hear us?” She immediately looked around for cameras and microphones.

  Joel scanned the other direction behind her. “Seems like,” he agreed softly.

  The voice chuckled a little. “Yes, yes. I can hear you. And see you. But enough of that for now. Assemble your team and then we can talk. Join me in the conference room through the second corridor when you hit the hangar deck. Thirty minutes. I’ll explain everything.”

  The voice clicked off.

  Brock’s eyes went wide. “This is some scary-ass juju. If this is the Queen Bitch’s stuff then this is bad. If someone has stolen her shit and put i
t here, then this is double-bad.”

  Molly pursed her lips. “Brock. Chillax. It’s fine. This is going to be fine. If the voice on the comm wanted to harm us, he probably would have done it already. If this is Bethany Anne’s stuff, then we’ll just give it back to her. And if someone stole it from her, then we’ll hunt them down, kick their fokking asses, and then give it back to her. It’s not a big deal.”

  Her eyes danced with glee as she spoke. “But I for one am excited to find out what the hell is going on and why we ended up here.” She turned to face her comrades.

  You’re thinking about how this safe house ended up on our list again, aren’t you?

  Yes, I am. I’m also thinking this voice might be able to give us some answers.

  When Molly spoke again, her shoulders were back and her voice had a kind of resonance neither Brock nor Joel had ever seen in her before. “OK, let’s gather the troops, let them know what’s going on, and then find that conference room and get some answers.”

  Joel and Brock shifted, their awareness still fixed on Bethany Anne’s image behind her. They nodded and started to shuffle back out of the door, their gaze being the last thing to leave the hangar.

  Molly grinned. “This is going to be fucking epic.”

  Unknown Apartment, Downtown Spire

  A lone blogger worked late into the night from the little desk in her studio apartment. She finished typing, then scrolled through the holo screen, checking for sense and making sure she hadn’t left any distinguishing features like vocabulary or sentence structure that might give her away.

  Finally satisfied that it was going to appear completely anonymous, she hit Submit. The article went into publish status almost immediately, appearing on the planet’s largest independent alternate news site, Whistleblown.

  The view counter started going up immediately. She’d chosen a catchy title, and since the toxin saga was still a hot topic, she knew that an alternate view to what the mainstream media outlets were publishing would be well received.

  Besides, people needed to know the truth.

  Not the whole truth. After all, there was a reason why Molly Bates and her team felt they needed to operate from off-world. But they needed to know enough of the truth to understand that Molly Bates was not the big bad here.

  They needed to know who the real enemy was, and who had really set up the threat to the population of Spire.

  They also needed to understand that those people, with their underhanded agendas and fervent desire to accumulate wealth and power, were dangerous. They had already murdered dozens of people in their toxin experiments, they were most likely responsible for Senator Dewitt’s demise, and they had certainly killed one scientist and kidnapped the other.

  They were not good people.

  And they had power.

  A deadly combination. And the only way to break their grip was to expose them completely.

  The truth—as her grandma always told her—would indeed set people free.

  The Toroid Desert Club, Outskirts of Spire

  The following afternoon, in a secluded country club on the edge of the Narvanah desert, a group assembled behind closed doors. Getting to the secure location had been a challenge. It was imperative that no one track them, which was especially difficult given their high-powered positions, entourages and security details.

  Nevertheless, within minutes of the calls they each received at four o’clock in the morning, they had started making arrangements to be in attendance. Skipping this meeting was not an option.

  “The article has had over twenty million views.” The man who spoke showed a hint of admiration in his voice. Twenty million views in half a day was impressive by any standard, and Mac Kerr was always impressed by people who could get results. After all, it was filtering for that quality which had allowed him to survive.

  “And do we know who posted it yet?” The second voice was Mr. Andus. He walked around the wood-paneled board room, then sat down in the big leather chair at the head of the table. The attendees all turned to look at him.

  It was Mac who answered. “No,” he told his leader. “The site is deliberately designed to keep its contributors anonymous. Makes it hard to fact-check, but these people aren’t interested in that. Their goal is to get it out there and raise enough red flags to prompt authorities and other people with access into investigating further.”

  He leaned toward Mr. Andus, his forearms resting on the table.

  Andus tapped the arms of his chair with the forefingers of each hand. “But this site is fairly reputable?” he asked, assessing just how much of a problem they were up against.

  Mac nodded, glancing briefly at Jessica for support. “Yes, it has been in the past,” he confessed, looking back at Andus.

  Andus pursed his lips. His eyes were steely, in the way they became when he was not pleased. Only people who had worked closely with him would know that, though. “So it’s going to be hard to debunk the article. Or undermine it,” he clarified.

  Mac nodded reluctantly. “Potentially,” he admitted, now wishing he hadn’t been the messenger on this little tidbit.

  Jessica cut into the conversation, her whole demeanor that of someone who had all the answers. “Clearly we just need to go back to the source to clear all this up.” She flicked her dark hair over one shoulder with her right hand and kept her chin high, feeling that it made her look more assertive.

  Mac watched her perform for Andus. Mac thought it just made her appear arrogant, but then he never had liked assertive women. He glanced over at the new guy, who was sitting on Andus’ other side diagonally opposite from him. The new guy didn’t visibly react. He just sat there quietly taking it all in. Mac tried to catch his eye to get some support, but couldn’t. He looked straight-laced, but to be in this room, that couldn’t be the whole truth.

  Andus’ attention had shifted to Jessica. “What did you have in mind?” he asked, his eyes a fraction less cold.

  Jessica paused, enjoying her moment. “I think we need to discredit the Bates girl,” she said simply.

  Mac tried really hard not to roll his eyes. He was a seasoned criminal in the Outer System and he was sitting here listening to this? He struggled to control the contempt in his voice when he spoke. “So how, precisely, Ms. Newld,” he said slowly, “do you suggest we achieve that?”

  Jessica glared at him and blinked. She held the glare, as if mentally boring a hole in his skull with her eyes. “We need to send her on rigged cases, and set her up to fall hard in front of the media.” Only then did she relinquish her glare to look at Andus. He was the decisionmaker here, she reminded herself. “Then no one is going to believe she was innocent in the toxin scare,” she told him.

  Mac couldn’t resist. “But Jessica,” his tone was patronizing now, “wasn’t it one of your convoluted plans to set her up in the toxin scare in the first place?”

  Jessica’s eyes darted back to him, and then her head followed slowly, like an animal toying with its prey.

  “Yes, it was,” she told him. “And it worked very well.” Her tone was furious, but she’d dialed it back to remain somewhat civil.

  Mac wasn’t buying it. He leaned back as if he’d already won. “Not according to this article it didn’t. She wasn’t even taken in for questioning, so our media contacts had no leverage.” He held her gaze, dying to look at Andus’ reaction but resisting to avoid revealing that he was actually jockeying for influence with Andus.

  Jessica’s face turned to stone.

  Andus cut in, mildly amused by the backbiting. “Now, now, children. Jessica’s plan might have legs,” he said slowly. “We just need to be careful about the execution of it. Molly Bates needs to fail.” He paused, turning his ornate tea glass around as he mulled the decision.

  “And fail publicly,” he concluded.

  He took a sip of mint tea before looking into the glass and placing it back into the saucer on the exquisite dark wood table. He looked up at the group. “Do you think you c
an all work together this time to make it happen?”

  Mac was the first to respond. “Yes, sir.”

  Jessica sighed, then relented. “Yes sir.”

  The remaining gentleman in the meeting spoke for the first time. “Yes, sir,” replied Garet.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Gaitune-67, Secret Basement Base, Weapons Warehouse

  Brock led Paige and Pieter through the rather intimidating operations suite to take a peek at the weapons room beyond.

  Stepping through the door at the far end, they entered the huge warehouse. Brock led them around the edge of the room past aisle upon aisle of advanced killing technology.

  Crash ambled a few paces behind, calmly taking it all in. When he saw the missiles aisle, though, he whistled through his teeth, belying his cool exterior. “That is a shit-ton of carnage waiting to be wreaked on something motherfucking deserving.”

  Brock looked past Paige and Pieter to eye Crash in mock judgment. “Ignore the war-hungry crazy man behind you,” he said. “But he’s right.” He turned and gestured at the warehouse behind him. “There is enough ammo here to do all kinds of damage. And I have no idea how to use it yet just from looking at it. The tech is waaay advanced.”

  Paige shook her head in disbelief. “I just… I can’t believe all this has been right next door to your workshop all this time!”

  Pieter nodded in agreement, and glanced over at Paige. “Yeah, like, what the hell?” He paused a moment. “I wonder what programming language they used if this isn’t Sarkian?”

  Paige and Brock ignored the overly geeky question.

  Paige’s eyes lit up suddenly, remembering. “So where’s this ship with the vampire on it?” she asked.