Evacuation

CHAPTER SIX

Romonavka Town Square

Boris stood in front of a crowded square full of people whose scents told him of anger, grief, resolve. As he suspected, the crowd was large and included everyone from the surrounding area that could make it. While he could speak loudly, he couldn’t possibly shout for all of these to hear him.

At least ten thousand people were in the square, nearby public buildings and streets. So, Boris stepped up and made sure the microphone was on before speaking to those in front of him.

He started with praising the courage of those who had taken part in the attack on the NVG. He continued, explaining the danger that he felt the shift in policy, represented, official or otherwise. Finally, he announced “I called you all here for a Meeting of Decision, as I promised your ancestors. I have found someone worthy of taking up the mantle of Czarina of our people. She is not Russian. But challenging times need a change in our perspective. She was loved by the only person to defeat me in combat and has shown a capacity for both ruthlessness when necessary and yet compassion when possible.”

He looked around and over the heads of those in front to register the effect of his words.

There was confusion and turmoil in the crowd. Although many knew he was different, few had actually seen his other form. One loudmouth near the front was disputing Boris’ right to call such without a meeting of the town council, half of whom had been shot. The loudmouth was punched completely out by one of the pack.

“Halt!” He got the crowd to stop for a second and look to him. He took off his cap and tossed it behind him where Paul guarded his back. “I will put an end to all concerns about my authority!”

Boris looked and his eyes furrowed.

There was a sound of shredding cloth as he altered as the crowds gasped and the comments flew to the back as fast as people could pass the story to those who could not see. In the background, Paul grabbed a bag and start pulling clothes from it.

His bear form roared, “Silence!” in a voice that seemed to shake the ground and the surrounding buildings.

“I did not protect yourrr people so you could become a rrrabble. I protected you, your fatherrs and your fatherrs fatherrs in faith for the future Czarr or Czarrrina. I promised to search and have done so. Now, in the time of greatest need for such one has been found!” His voice was rough but clear. Werebear Pricolici, for whatever reason, had always had better control over their speech than werewolf Pricolici.

There were some isolated shrieks in the crowd at his appearance. The family and friends of those timid ones shushed them. Some in the crowd showed fear, but many showed a mixture of awe and rapture bordering on worship.

This was what they had been raised on. That among them some people were also ‘other’, protecting them from the worst of the outside world. Standing before them was the proof of their legends. Their stories had come to life and was standing in front of them, speaking to them, leading them.

Boris changed back, the shreds of his former clothing dropping to the ground and accepted a pair of pants from Paul. He put them on with no show or haste. Glaring out at the crowd when dressed, he stated, “Many of you knew about me. I give you the decision meeting. Although the person I found is… different, as I am. She is of this time and has no small amount of resources. She offered to take you in and swore an oath to protect you when I gave her a personal promise of aid. She did this without my asking and has already sent us aid.”

He gestured to the more than a hundred people who had been injured but were instead now out of the hospital and clearly healthy. “I now ask for you to hear her offer.”

As if they had been watching and waiting for him to finish, five black pods dropped from the sky to the area behind the podium that had been kept clear. First out were John Grimes, Akio, and Erik, followed by Ashur jumping down then Bethany Anne. Following this group was two of the Queen’s Elite. Nathan and Peter exited the last pod.

As they approached the stage, Boris turned to Danislav and said. “Tie that loudmouth up and dump him at the edge of town. We’ll move him outside of our area after we finish this. He has shown a level of stupidity we don’t need.” Danislav nodded, picked the man up, slung him over a shoulder, and then headed off to take care of Boris’ request.

Bethany Anne looked at what Danislav was doing and raised an eyebrow to Boris. He shrugged at her and said quietly, “In any group, there is always ONE idiot.” She nodded in wry acceptance. Boris continued, “Please, your speech and then we will head off to a distance. They have a right under the protection agreement to discuss their opinions amongst themselves without me or the candidate present if the candidate is not a Romanov.”

Bethany Anne thought on that and decided that it was actually a surprisingly wise provision. She smiled at him and waited for what would come next.

Boris, along with the town elders and troop commanders who stood on the stage, exited it to the left while Bethany Anne entered the newly-vacated space from the right. John, Erik, and Aiko took positions on the stage front while the two Elites took silent positions to the side, guarding the steps to the podium.

Bethany Anne smiled as she spoke to the microphone, “Hello, my name is Bethany Anne, and if you do not realize it, I’m a Kurtherian-changed human, like some of you. The difference? I have been changed by one group, and those changes make me what folklore has called a Vampire. Some of you have been altered by another group, and those changes turn you into a Wechselbalg, a changeling. In a few cases, like Boris, the changeling is able to take an additional form, called a Pricolici.”

She stopped a moment to let the information sink in. “I don’t give a flying fuck what group changed you, what your parents did or the color of your skin. We care about two things. The first is protecting this Earth so that the people here can make their own choices for the future, even if those are bad ones. And, our other focus is taking the fight to the Kurtherians trying to subjugate other races in outer space.”

She looked down to the microphone.

ADAM, can you and TOM come up with a way to jack me into the system?

>>Yes, one second.<<

Bethany Anne smiled to the group.

>>Done.<<

Bethany Anne started walking slightly back and forth on the stage, the distance from the microphone not causing a problem. “It won’t be easy, it won’t always be fun, but it will be the future. We are going to space, we are taking the fight out there,” she said, as she pointed to the sky, “and we need people. People who aren’t afraid of the future, people who can bring skills, intelligence and passion. People who understand family, because that is what my group is, a family. One of my closest female friends is a Pricolici, a werewolf, another is a vampire, and the third is a human.”

She looked at the assembled people stand a few feet from the podium, yet her words clearly heard through the speakers everywhere, “To me, we are all people. Not Americans, South Americans, Russians, or Chinese. For most people on this earth, it will be a challenge they cannot comprehend or accept. They can’t handle the savage frontier of space, but for those who have tamed Siberia?” She smiled looking around to the hardy people in front of her, “I doubt outer space holds much of a challenge for you!”

The roar of the crowd confirmed their agreement. The gathered people knew their own worth, their resilience, backbone, even stubbornness. They were the ones who beat the savage weather and knew how to stick together to make a future happen.

Bethany Anne’s kind of people.

She walked to the other side of the stage, the Bitch’s stepping out of her way, “Our challenge now is to keep you as protected as we can without causing a major event. Once you hit the border, well, Russia can kiss my ass. We will have containers to get you to our base in Australia and are building our first space station to provide you with temporary quarters.”

She held her head up, throwing her arms wide pointing to the crowd, “It will be YOUR job to help design the next space station, your home. I would suggest learning well and learning quickly.” She pulled her arms back down, “Pull your best people for each area and work with our teams to gain knowledge of what is available and possible. We have to use manufacturing and trading capabilities from Earth to build our space facilities right now, but we are learning quickly how to procure our own resources out there. You can be assured, unlike this country, I want you to join my team! You are needed to help protect the earth and we want you to be a part of the future, a new future!”

The clustered mass of people exploded into cheers and loud calls for action. The combined excitement of what they had just heard and the relief from the previous day’s acute danger had left the crowd in a flammable state, and Bethany Anne’s speech had provided the fire for the fuse. Small groups of people were talking excitedly, with expansive gestures and loud exclamations.

Bethany Anne let them vent. She waited in silence as the yelling started to die down, as the crowd’s attention returned to her. She spoke calmly, with passion, “Know this from the bottom of your feet to the top of your Russian heads, while I don’t want to start a war with Russia, If they bring in too much, I’ll bomb them to the fucking stone age! You have my promise. I don’t forsake my own, ever.” Her eyes flashed red at the end, bringing the fact home to everyone there that this was a Czarina that wouldn’t leave them to freeze out in the tundra.

Standing for a moment in contemplation, looking over the crowd, Bethany Anne presented an impressive figure to people that hungered for a leader. She walked down from the stage and her guards formed up around her and headed to an alleyway that Boris had kept clear for them. They continued over to a building that was being guarded by members of Boris’s pack.

“I checked the building personally before the meeting and set guards on it once we knew it was clear. If you feel that your people need to check as well, please feel free to do so,” Boris said, waving a hand in invitation.

Nathan snorted when John seemed about to pick up his pace. “If Boris’s pack can’t be trusted to follow his orders I’ll jump in front of a train, John. They have either accepted his authority or left. It’s how we are.” Turning to Boris, Nathan asked, “How long has it been since someone has challenged for leadership of the pack?”

Boris looked at him and grinned, responding, “About a hundred and seventy years. And that time I was the challenger.” Nathan turned to John “Let me put it this way, John. He probably knows as many or more possible ‘hazards’ as you do. If I were a member of his pack, I wouldn’t cross him. Hell, before I was a Pricolici I wouldn’t have purposefully crossed his second. That guy is… strong. So how about we just head in? Boris has sworn an oath to Bethany Anne. He won’t break it.”

John looked at Nathan, then glanced in apology at Boris. “It’s just…” Boris smiled and continued “Professional paranoia, I know. I have done bodyguard work from time to time when the pay was right.”

Boris checked the group that was following Bethany Anne and nodded when he saw that all of them had followed. “Thank you for following the spirit, not just the letter, of my agreement. I assure you no harm will come to your craft.” Bethany Anne just smiled and said. “No, it won’t. If someone approaches them, the Pods will go up to two-hundred feet and hover there.”

Boris nodded. He knew his people. Any such approach would be more a part of a passionate discussion rather than an intent to damage or steal.

While they waited, Bethany Anne picked his brains for whatever he knew about the UnknownWorld situation in Russia. Nathan nodded on certain details, and frowned on others, depending on whether the information matched or conflicted with what he already knew.

After about an hour, a runner came from the crowds. He knocked on the door and waited until John opened it. The messenger looked up to the tall man and explained, “We have reached a consensus. All agree that someone willing to be that open with her goals, and the challenges to achieving them, is worthy. However, there is disagreement with how best we might serve. A significant number wish to remain behind, to disperse and serve as your eyes and ears in Russia. If necessary to serve as your fist. Some feel that we cannot simply leave. They wish to remain to crush the force that was used against us so that other groups not so fortunate in protectors and friends are not so ill-used.”

Boris commented before Bethany Anne could respond, “This is not loyalty to the government but instead a statement of faithfulness to you and your goals. There is some love for the concept of Russia and the land that we have cared about for so long. But a Russia that is under an iron fist is more likely to look elsewhere for blame and will cause trouble. Keeping a presence here will help to keep Russia from being crushed under the weight of the political agenda, stupidity, and greed. It will contribute some control over the troublemakers.”

She looked at him, considering. “Are you volunteering to stay and lead them?” she asked. “If they swear an oath to me, they are welcome to come and damn the other consequences. But if some wish to stay I won’t stop them if you honestly believe it will help and they are working under a leader they, and I, can both trust. Otherwise, the consequences can go fuck themselves. I could care less.”

Boris shrugged, “I swore to serve you as best I could here, on this world. If some of my people wish to stay and aid me in that, then I would welcome their assistance. Especially if we can have additional medicine before the combat is joined this time.” He said the last with a grin. Bethany Anne looked at him carefully and sensed the truth, or at least his belief in that truth, behind his words.

Bethany Anne started pacing, “Okay. I have two other conditions, though. Everyone under the age of sixteen is going. Anyone too old to assist you is going. Those are not negotiable. I won’t leave people to be slaughtered.” She stopped to get a nod from Boris that he heard, “The second is that you are now responsible for Russia. If there is an UnknownWorld problem you need to find it, you need to take care of it. Ask for help if you even might need it.”

Boris looked at her thoughtfully. It was evident to him that she had some reason to trust him so much. Then he remembered the aura of fear that Michael had given off the night that they fought. The other abilities that Michael was rumored to have.

Boris nodded “I accept. I suspect if I did not, and Russia became a… problem you might resort to extreme measures. That might not be the best solution.” He said it with a smile, but Aiko and the two Elites tensed. John waved them down. It wasn’t disrespect, it was a statement that the best solution wasn’t always a hammer — or a rain of Pucks.

She returned his smile and shook her head. “I doubt I’d do anything too extreme — at least across a large area. The government might find itself losing a few obstreperous members, though.”

Boris shook his head. “Unfortunately, here in Russia, that would only focus anger on the West. Perhaps with catastrophic results. The reflex reaction of most Russians would be to decide that the West was assassinating our leaders. Whoever took over would likely ride the emotional wave of anger to advance their control and agenda. Even if the new leaders tried to resist, the popular pressure might become such that there was no choice.”

Bethany Anne pointed to him and said, “See — I knew you were the right person to be in charge of this area.”

Boris looked at her concern evident on his face and put up a hand, “As long as someone else looks after China. I want nothing to do with that ratfuck.”

Captain Janna Dmitrievna was really pissed off. Her mission for Russian military intelligence had started simply enough. Infiltrate Nashi, find out any armed or militant formations that might be recruiting. Report back. When her reports indicated that radical factions were developing in the Nashi, it earned her a promotion and orders to organize and lead a more comprehensive infiltration of those groups.

That was when she found out that military-grade equipment was being diverted to the factions and that they were training on company and battalion-sized operations.

Then Janna learned that a reinforced company was being sent on an ‘internal removal’ operation against a town known to be populated by White Russian descendants. It was the Nashi’s political rhetoric that there were only Russians. No Reds, Whites, Greens or other factions. That for Russia to be strong, unity was needed.

Nashi in and of itself wasn’t an issue. It was the fanatics that joined this armed wing, the NVG, that were a concern. They were careful in their recruitment. It had taken three months to get a single person inside, out of the thirty people she had assigned to the operation. But something had leaked to destroy her information sources. She’d been told a week ago that the agents’ covers were blown, that they were in the cold.

Within hours of Janna’s finding out about the problem, the NVG were moving against a small town in Siberia. She had no contact with half her operatives since then, not even on tertiary channels. Her only hope was they had scattered to their individual safe sites. She set up a rallying point for the remaining operatives that could be contacted since her first duty was to them.

She also felt a responsibility to do what she could for the town under attack. They were Russians. They had been loyal. There was no reason to attack them purely because of their ancestry.

For three days she’d been traveling, knowing the NVG would beat her to the town. Bracing herself for a massacre. When she passed an abandoned militia base, it was apparent that combat had taken place there. She pulled off the road, got off her motorcycle and looked around. She recognized at least two destroyed APCs and a couple of wrecked military trucks. It looked like mortar fire damage.

Which side had mortars?

She needed to go into town and gather more intel. Getting back on her motorcycle, she rode forward into town. As she approached the edge of town, she was waved to halt by one of the local police.

Shit.

Things did not look good if the police had sided with the NVG. She slowed down, thinking to turn her bike around and head back. Maybe try to infiltrate after it got dark, or go back to her team and see what they could do as a group. As she slowed down, three men rose from concealment pointing their rifles at her.

Shit on a stick. She was screwed.

One of them shouted, “Turn off your engine, get off your vehicle and keep your hands in sight.” She quickly estimated the odds in her head and decided that her best option was to comply and attempt an escape later on. They were not likely to know that she was in intelligence since she carried nothing that was distinctly military. There was definitely a better chance of escape than dodging bullets from three assault rifles. Following their instructions, she got off the bike and waited.

Deciding to be as non-threatening as possible, she started to shaking slightly, as if in fear. One of the men slung his rifle and approached cautiously, keeping clear of the other’s line of fire. He gave her a professional pat down, and she was glad that her sidearm was hidden in the bike saddlebags. That would have been a giveaway to what she was and caused her more difficulties. Then she was handcuffed.

The man who had waved her down had been talking to someone on the radio, and a police car was quickly approaching from town. It looked like the NVG had lost whatever disagreement had occurred between them and the townspeople. That meant, logically, that the NVG had been staying at the old military base that she had passed. It also meant that the mortars had been used by the townspeople. Shit, again.

Talk about your intelligence fuckups.

What information she had been able to access before being dumped in the cold had shown maybe forty or fifty active mercenaries living in the town, supplemented by an equivalent number of retired mercs. At least half of the active ones could have been away on operations. So seventy-five professionals, and maybe another hundred or so former recent conscripts had been her estimation. Not the battalion with indirect fire that she estimated would have been needed to attack the base without suffering massive casualties. And from the looks of the base, there was a well-armed, well-trained militia here that the local military intelligence had not picked up on.

The police car pulled up, and she was put in the back with a uniformed police officer next to her. “Take her to Boris,” was all that was said as she was put in the car. She wondered who this Boris was. The Chief of Police was not named Boris. The only person of note by that name in the town was a mercenary. Well, THE mercenary she supposed, although the file was somewhat confusing. It had a history going back to the fifties, but the photo of him dated only a couple of years in the past showed a man in his thirties. He was known to have trained all the other mercenaries currently active from this region, but the file included no details on where he had received his own training.

As the car drove off, she saw one of the four there take her bike towards a nearby barn. It was evident to her they were manning a rather subtle checkpoint.

At least her clothes and equipment wouldn’t get wet.

There was a knock on the door. Boris looked towards Bethany Anne and spoke, “They would only interrupt now if they felt it was something I — I mean we — should look into.” He turned to the runner. “Inform the meeting of the proposed Czarina’s conditions. If they agree, get the elders to organize the volunteers. Make it clear I have final approval on any who volunteer, and they will have to be fit in order to serve. The Czarina would have my head if I accepted anyone who could not provide a contribution with a good chance of survival.” Bethany Anne nodded at his last comment. “Enter,” he said more loudly, as the runner headed to the door.

A police officer, one of the retired mercenaries, entered the room. He said “We brought in a woman approaching the town. Considering the timing, I felt it was suspicious enough to bring her to you. No one else unexpected or from outside the locality has arrived today.” He saluted.

“Let’s see her. It’s probably nothing, but the timing is odd. I can make sure she can’t hurt you in any way,” Bethany Anne said.

The woman entered the room. She was tall, about five feet eleven inches tall. With long blond hair and pale skin, her face was strong with Tartar features, displaying an exotic beauty. Bethany Anne felt Boris tense beside her. She looked at him and saw his face, never normally very tan, was whiter than usual. His expression wasn’t giving anything away. In fact, he seemed to have frozen it into one of non-expression.

Boris, what is it? Do you know this woman? Bethany Anne spoke directly into his mind. She couldn’t hear or feel anything from Boris. It was as if he’d locked down his thoughts and emotions.

Then she heard a soft whisper from his mind. Still like a calm pond. Repeated continuously, a mantra of desperation.

Gott Verdamnt! Boris tell me what the problem is, or I will find myself ripping off your arm. I am not made of glass. I need to know what the problem is so we can solve it! She practically shouted in his head.

Boris glanced at her and sighed. Then, responding with his thoughts, She could be the sister of the woman I loved a century ago. The one that was executed by the Reds. It took me by surprise is all. Especially since she even smells the same.

Bethany Anne felt intrigued by this. Boris’s devotion to his old lover’s memory was apparent in the effort he had taken to keep his oath to her. His reluctance to explain was reasonable. He didn’t want to poke Bethany Anne’s recent wounds and was trying not to be overcome by his older ones.

Luckily, TOM had a handle on her grief, which Boris had no way of knowing. She had too much to do right now, although she still spent at least an hour a day alone in a pod dealing with all of the unfiltered emotions of agony, frustration, and grief.

Forcing Boris to explain caused him to lose the grip he had held his emotions in. Standing motionless next to her, he was a roiling mess behind the stony facade. It even seemed to affect his etheric signature. I’ve got this.

Bethany Anne turned towards the woman and asked, “And you would be?”

Janna’s mouth opened and then quickly shut before she could speak. She felt a need to answer with the truth. Had they somehow injected her with some truth drug while she was on the way here?

Bethany Anne was intrigued. This woman was trying to resist her command, so this person was someone out of the ordinary. Possibly, she supposed, up to no good. Giving the strange woman the benefit of doubt suggested that she simply had no one here known or trusted. Even with that explanation, there was something strange about the resistance to Bethany Anne’s mental pressure. Anti-interrogation training maybe.

Bethany Anne sighed and issued the command harder, “Look, if you don’t answer me, we are in for a very long afternoon. So you may as well answer. My name is Bethany Anne. Who are you and what is your job?” She supplied maybe fifty-percent more force than she used for Silvens-Werner.

Without realizing she would speak, Janna answered, “Janna Dimitrievna. Captain, Russian Military Intelligence. At least until a week ago.” Externally she managed to keep her composure. Internally she was cursing up a storm.

What had she been dosed with? Fuck. She’d scored high in interrogation resistance, even when drugged. But whatever they were using was cutting right through it. Then she thought she saw a slight red glow from the interrogator’s eyes and felt an involuntary shiver go through her spine.

“And what were you doing here?” Bethany Anne continued.

“I was coming to see if there was anything I could do to help the people of the town against the Nashi vooruzhennye gruppy. They were the group I was investigating before my team and I were disavowed. The last piece of information I received from inside the group regarded this attack. And it may have cost as many as fifteen lives to get. I would not want those lives wasted!”

Bethany Anne’s face softened. “Ah. So you aren’t here to support the attack, and you have, effectively, been fired and left to survive or die on your own?”

“Yes,” Jana replied through a grimace, “though I hope to link up with some of my team. I doubt any of us would make it through a regular border crossing, though. I’m sure our faces are now flagged.”

Boris finally spoke. “My name is Boris. I wonder, are you a patriot, Janna?”

She looked over to the man, trying to put the face she saw in front of her, to the face in the folder, “Explain. That’s a question with many meanings.”

Boris glanced at Bethany Anne with a twinkle in his eyes, “Are you loyal to the people of Russia, or the government?”

Janna glanced between the two and settled back to Boris, “People are more important than politics.”

Bethany Anne laughed, “A humanist who worked in intelligence. I would have sworn we would find an alien out here before that would ever happen.”

Bethany Anne asked the Russian intelligence officer, “What if I told you we are facing a bigger problem for the entire human race? That if you were willing, you could help your country and the people of Russia by helping the world? I not expect you to believe my word without proof, I’ll show you.”

At that point, Janna eyes opened, and she started cursing herself again. Damn, she had seen this woman before. Her brain must be sludge for her to have taken so long to put two and two together. This was the CEO of the company that had sent people into space.