Earth Gate (Wine of the Gods Book 17) Page 11

  Tech? Sure, call it that if you must. But what equipment they use appears to be strictly mental. Magical.

  Jaime echoed Captain Orobona's salute and they were dismissed from the general's office.

  Captain Furnace was easy to find. He was parked firmly in Orobona's office.

  He looked quite appallingly young, and with the twenty years exile, Orobona quite clearly had seniority.

  "My people are experts in the language and the culture. We can infiltrate anywhere."

  They won't believe in mind readers.

  Orobona scratched his jaw. "How many people do you have? Bring them here, no, wait a bit." He glanced at Jaime. "Go see if you can find us a larger working space. Then tell Hamza to bring his people. Let's meet in three hours. I'm going to call the moles—and hopefully not burn them."

  It was easy to grab a suite of rooms in the former guest wing of the Palace for their exclusive use. There was plenty of room. The men who'd married locally and had kids had almost all moved out, once they'd realized that the new command was not going to enforce any sort of discipline as regarded the treatment of the children of the marooned Earthers. The return of the old Earther opinions of "natives" had been a bit of a shock. The old hands hadn't taken well to their wives being treated like whores, and the oldest of their daughters were almost seventeen. Better all around to live in town and just come to the Palace to work.

  Jaime laid claim to Corporal Harbin's abandoned apartment—the eight rooms at the end of a hallway—and drafted a couple of strong backs to move furniture.

  Hamza and his group had been cramped into a corner of the old harem. They all perked up at the thought of both new digs, more people and action. They willingly hauled their own furniture and files the length of the palace and up two flights of stairs.

  The captain must have caught the Karista moles at just the right time. A messenger brought a reply in just half an hour. It confirmed the native possession of advanced gate tech, and pinpointed where they needed to look.

  Jaime read over the captain's shoulder, while the others filed in.

  Paul Hamza, back to being a lieutenant, had three women in his intel group permanently. He'd also brought along Kenton. The whole group had been to Karista, done the rounds of high society parties. Failed to notice anything close to the power needed for gates. The ten newcomers included four young women.

  Jaime made a mental note to grab all the adjoining or nearby rooms available. Although Captain Orobona will probably want to stay closer to the General.

  "Our goal is to acquire the advanced gate technology. Nothing else matters all that much." Orobona leaned his elbows on the table and eyed all the newcomers. "I know you don't believe in magic, but you'd better realize that these people, with their genetic engineering have mental abilities that come close enough to magic that you might as well call it that." He looked at the universal scorn on the new faces. "I won't harp on it. You can figure it out yourself, or not.

  "But those are the people associated with this 'gate tech.' So we need to infiltrate the specific sub-culture of the so-called magic users. They are in several areas." He nodded toward Jaime. "Our diplomatic missions to Karista have identified several definite magic users. Now that we're back in touch with Earth, and especially since we have air transport, we can push harder, maybe grab one of more of the known magicians. But kidnapping, in the middle of a city could be dicey."

  Orobona rolled out a map. "There is a more vulnerable place of interest. There is a small town called Rip Crossing. As you see on the map, North Merica is quite different. Repeated heavy bombardment from space activated an old spreading ridge right through the mid continent and across the pole. This is the Old North Road. It crosses the continent from east to west, and is said to be over a thousand years old. The spreading ridge is a long rift valley with geysers along the entire length, locally known as the Rip."

  "And Rip Crossing is where the road crosses the Rip?" Furnace asked.

  "Yep. We need to recce there. If we don't have any luck, we'll go to a place called the Crossroads." He pulled out a large scale map, and checked coordinates from the message. "Here. Across the mountains from Rip Crossing. This is apparently their gate experimental area, and is under guard, but not highly secured. We need to know who among these magic users has knowledge of their gate tech. Then we'll need to figure out if we can kidnap one or more of them, or their equipment. If Crossroads is too heavily guarded, we'll backtrack and take this secondary road down to the Village of Ash. Ash is said to have a large group of women who call themselves witches. And then, ten miles south, there's what they call the Wizards' School."

  Jaime broke in then. "It might be useful if we got several youngsters, half natives, to infiltrate this wizard school. I . . . have a pretty good idea who to approach about that."

  Orobona nodded. "It may be time to push a bit on that. That might be the best place to start. You could figure out who is who, and who is associated with the gates. Except . . . well, they know you. You can't go. Collect a few young men who might qualify. I'll OK it with the general and see if I can get them some air transport."

  Jaime nodded. Reluctantly. Because if they really can read minds . . . All born here, who can honestly say that they're Auralian. And perhaps with Kenton in charge, and the only one who knows the purpose of the mission.

  The captain looked over at the rest of the intel group. "However, for us, focusing more directly on the gates . . . " He leaned back and eyed the new comers. "There are numerous theories floating about, including one that their genetic engineering includes something that is crucial to their gate tech. So we probably need to take both physical tech and at least one live body." The others were nodding.

  "So. Let's talk about taking a first look. Possibly in Karista, possibly in Rip Crossing. How are we going to identify the magic users? And then get them alone, preferably away from any other people."

  The new captain eyed all the women. "Charm them?"

  Devvy Tripp grinned. "While you get friendly with the witches? I'm willing to try batting my eyelashes and asking lots of questions. And for kidnapping, well, a romantic stroll in the moonlight would be just the ticket."

  ***

  Jaime Felis looked over the younger men and sighed. Hard to believe it's been twenty years. I'm the old man here, at thirty-eight. And my "little brother" is thirty.

  The rest of the kids were half native, sons of his fellow soldiers. He'd picked them specifically for their glow-in-the-dark attributes. John, Basil, Lenny, Rick, Chuck, and Mike. Their ages ran from almost seventeen to fourteen. Weird how there are so few women with that glow here. Karista has plenty of what they call witches.

  "So. Who wants to infiltrate the enemy, and just maybe pick up some magic lessons or whatever the hell it is we sort of can sort of do?"

  They all volunteered, of course.

  Chapter Ten

  Early Spring 1395

  Desolation Territory, Kingdom of the West

  Teri had lived quietly for over two years. Very educational years.

  Her little place by the Rip River had been perfect for practicing everything she'd learned while she'd been so unfairly trapped back in childhood. Ricardo hadn't wanted her to advance, but she had. And now he wasn't around to raise his own son. Killed by a barely magical prince. Old Gods, she'd been so blind.

  "Just as well he died. I needed to stop depending on other people, designing my life around other people." She eyed the little boy playing quietly in the corner. A year and a half old. The daughter she'd had three years ago had advanced Teri's abilities enormously. The boy had just been an indulgence. The son of the man she had once thought was the whole of her world. The boy is the one I ought to have abandoned. I wonder where my daughter is, what she's doing?

  As a Half Moon, all those transformations Jade had experimented with while Teri watched were now within her ability to do. And she'd paid very close attention to everything Jade had done. With her perfect recall, it had all fa
llen into place quickly.

  Pity she hadn't thought to keep the girl, she could have experimented on her instead of the lizards and the horses. And the occasional miner who wandered by. But she knew her transformations inside and out now, and she'd used them on herself with really terrific results. In fact, she had everything she needed except money to get started with.

  And that would be easily gained through the sale of the horses. The horse Ricardo stole from Rustle, and the miners' horses, all of which had been transformed physically and genetically to be very like Ricardo's horse. She'd had quite a bit of fun designing them to be both beautiful and functional. Only killed one the whole time. It had been interesting, because Ricardo's horse had human genes stuck into it. She'd duplicated the stallion's inclusions and put them in all the rest. If she weren't in a hurry to leave, she'd have bred the mares to see if those human genes affected the horses' brain growth or design. Or maybe the stallion was just a smart animal. In any case she'd be glad to be rid of him, he looked at her as if he was actually thinking about attacking her, occasionally. And she'd had enough of that.

  She popped everything she wanted to keep into a bubble and added Ricardy. She rode into Lucky Strike on Ricardo's stallion, leading the whole string of gorgeous animals. They all had their original colors, and she'd only shifted the markings a bit for esthetics. The horses' skeletons, on the other hand, had been altered to be perfect. They now showed beautiful heads, and arched necks, long legs and strong backs. Powerful quarters. Shiny short coats. They turned heads in the street. Pity the people couldn't appreciate their dense bone and oversized hearts. She herself had a strong illusion up: she looked like a tough old broad. Too tough to steal from, too old and tough to make a pass at, but female, so not someone to brawl with, either.

  "Nice string of horses, there." A man walked out into the street, broad, muscular, bald. Not quite blocking her path, but definitely slowing her.

  As she had hoped, she was only going to be accosted for her horses. "I'm here to sell them, this town have an auction?"

  "Yep, and your timing is perfect. They'll start about noon." He gave ground reluctantly as he gave her directions to the auction yard.

  By nightfall she had all the money she would need to start up business. And a ticket on the stage to Karista leaving in the morning. The only question was, did she want a man tonight or not. It had been months since she'd used up the last miner.

  She looked over the selection hanging around the corral as the last few horses were auctioned and had almost decided against until she spotted the one with Glow. He'd be a wizard or mage, possibly both, he was so bright. She started modifying her illusion, and by the time she appeared in his peripheral vision, her complexion was smoother, her apparent age younger, her hair longer and softer, her clothes richer.

  He noticed. Of course. She was keeping her own glow as concealed as she could get it, so he probably took her for an untrained witch. "Nice selection of animals today." He opened with a nice neutral start.

  She smiled at him. "Oh yes. That bay stallion. Did you bid on him?"

  "No, I've a good riding horse of my own, already. And stallions, well. Even so, I'll admit I was tempted. I'm Deni Oscarson, from Gemstone."

  "Tressa Arbdaut. Originally from Rip Crossing. I'm on my way back to Karista now."

  "Taking the morning stage? I love the corridors, you'll be in the city before noon, even as busy as Havwee gets."

  "Yes. Everything is changing because of them. It will be interesting to see, in another century, how the world has changed. Will anyone live anywhere there isn't a corridor nearby?"

  "Or will everywhere have corridors? Is there any limit to the numbers?"

  They had a stimulating conversation, and sex was better than ever, as the man was quite knowledgeable, with spells to stimulate nerves . . . She made note of what she especially liked, in case she ever had a man mentally enslaved to her again, like the miners. Of course she'd released them after. She wasn't a Black Widow. If the local desert wolves ate those funny acting goats later, it wasn't any concern of hers.

  She decided to have the man's daughter. She'd need a daughter to grasp power to advance further, and this man looked like a good prospect. She prepared to block his haploid spell, but it never came. Arrogant wizard probably bragged about the number of babies he produced. Or maybe the Gemstone people hadn't gotten the word about the spell yet. She shrugged, and climbed out of bed to get breakfast before the stage departed.

  In Karista she'd find out if her transformation spells were as valuable as she suspected they would be.

  Chapter Eleven

  02 April 3512 ce

  Fort Nowhereistan, Asia, Earth

  The new computers from Earth were nice.

  Jaime stared at the screen, stomach in knots.

  Everything he knew about the native magic. Everything he knew about the Kingdom of the West's government. A detailed report of the capture of the gate anchor. A long and hopefully tedious report on everything they'd done here since. A report on his training his own magic . . . with serious understatement of the scope and strength of what he could do. A report on the "magic corridors" in the Kingdom of the West. A report on their plans to learn more about magic using native-born half-Earthers . . . highly speculative. All the other things they had discussed trying. Would they approve? Interfere? No way to tell.

  He saved it all on a chip, and dropped it in a pocket.

  He heard footsteps and stood up, checked his newly issued uniform. I'm probably the oldest PFC in the multiverse. Captain Orobona looked in. "Good. Let's go."

  He handed the briefcase to Jaime. I really ought to have dodged this. Because I really doubt the United Earth Intelligence Agency has forgotten me. The tiny memory chip shouldn't have been detectable, but it seemed to weigh down that side of his uniform.

  He took the wheel of the old gyp down to the gate camp, where they joined General Soeder and several of his officers.

  The general frowned at Orobona. "Not that I think anything will come in while we're Earthside . . ."

  "I'm sure Captain Furnace can handle anything that comes up, sir."

  A faint relaxation of the general's shoulders. He didn't like the idea of putting one of the old hands in charge.

  "Right, let's get going." The general led the way to a line of modern vehicles.

  Jaime counted a half dozen officers, no doubt to deliver reports and answer questions, same as Orobona. Jaime rode shotgun in the car carrying Orobona and another captain.

  He swallowed, and locked his throat, and posed himself casually as the car followed the others into the electric whirlpool that he saw, that others apparently simply looked straight through to see the world on the far side.

  He was whirled, crushed, stretched and spat back out on the far side. On Earth.

  I was born here. But it was never home. No matter how hard I tried. Now I've lived half my life elsewhere. An elsewhere I've tried hard to not belong to, because I always knew I'd be leaving it. Even the Earthers. I always knew they'd think of me as a dirty Native, if they knew I was . . . a dirty Native. I don't know where my home is, any more. I'm afraid to ask where my heart is, because I think it's lost and abandoned.

  The Gate Complex had changed drastically.

  Because of the Oners' attack.

  There were remote controlled gun mounts trained on the street, and no way off the street, lined with concrete walls. What looked like the edges of solid steel walls that could slide out and trap an invader, split an invasion into more manageable chunks.

  They were herded into another controlled stretch, everyone was looked over, then they were passed on and out into streets that almost looked familiar. They left the Gate Complex and sped north on a broad road. The area everyone called Nowhereistan still lived up to its nickname. Actually Kazakhstan, between what had once been the Aral Sea and the Caspian.

  Flat, hot even in the spring. The army base was still ten kilometers down the road, and much larger. F
ortified.

  They were expected. Met at the barricaded entry with an escort, and still got seriously eyed by armed soldiers. They followed their escort to a new headquarters building, and a conference room.

  The flunkies got their officers seated, fetched coffee and were excused from the meeting.

  No big deal, in as much as they'd all heard the information already. But the reactions of the command staff here on Earth might have been interesting. Jaime joined the rest of the enlisted in the coffee room, keeping a bit of attention on the conference room door.

  And a bit more on the fellow in civvies studying Jaime.

  Jaime eased out the door and around the corner.

  "Felis." The man's voice was quiet.

  Jaime nodded.

  "Welcome back."

  Jaime eyed him silently.

  "Gastov. UEIA." He flashed credentials too fast for anything other than an impression of authenticity. "Report."

  Jaime stuffed his hands in his pockets, leaned back against a window sill. "We've been cautious, while our options were limited, but I've got some half-native assets that I'm fairly sure I can get inside the Kingdom of the West's so-called magic community, the people who know about the dimensional tech. I'm going to push a little harder at the magicians in the government. It's all in my report. That and a bunch of other observations, twenty years worth, on this." Sounds from around the corner, very timely. "Excuse me." He palmed the little chip, and left it behind when he pushed off the window sill and walked away.