First Posting (The Directorate Book 4) Read online

He tapped a sagger. "Move. Swap with Ape there." He shifted the second pusher over one. "Now start again."

  It wasn't good, but it was a lot better.

  The senior administrator cocked her head. "All right. Do that again with the other three teams."

  He only had to switch two people between teams to get workable compasses. Shifted people around the compass to compensate for their natural inclinations. Got a whole lot of dirty looks from two men ousted from their dominant North positions.

  "Interesting. I tend to kick the people to conform, not shift them around to where they fit better." Senior Administrator Kael eyed him.

  "Less kicking required, this way." Ra'd shrugged.

  Kael looked at Olli. "The Governor of Vista is begging for help with the riots. You game?"

  "Oh yeah. Ra'd fit in nicely. We're ready for field work."

  ***

  The Secure Gate Area was a small city, so Paer figured she shouldn't have been surprised that the ER was so busy. Pain killer spells, debriding, anti-infection, anti-inflammatory spells. And always, sanitizing.

  It was a week before she got off early enough to even think about dinner with Ebsa. The guards hauled them off halfway across town to where they probably wouldn't be seen and gossiped about.

  "Well." Ebsa looked glum. "I'm at least working regular hours now. I need to arrange for martial arts lessons, and range time. And, well, maybe fencing. It's all the ambitious peons talk about."

  Paer nodded. "The higher you get, the more they expect you to fence." Are you resigning yourself to the bureaucracy, Ebsa? I always envisioned you in the field, I know that's where you'll be the happiest.

  "Well, hopefully I will never find myself in that position. But as a way to stave off dying under an avalanche of paperwork, well, it'll take care of three nights a week. And more important, I can keep my field certs up-to-date."

  Paer relaxed. That's better. "I've signed the lease for an apartment, moving in a couple of weeks. Maybe it's time to look at stables around here, too."

  "Oh yeah. You could bring Crystal, wow the local show scene." Ebsa grinned. "And there's a way for me to deal with a fourth evening every week. Riding lessons."

  He met her gaze innocently. "On horses."

  She sputtered, and the guards snickered. They'd all seen the vids from her internship. Fortunately from the "black box" cams of crawlers, and thus not too close up, nor well aimed. The circle of people who knew who was in those insane recordings was thankfully small.

  Paer tried to glower. "I'll see if I can find a stable with both advanced and beginner lessons." But she felt the smile breaking through. Ebsa is not going to suddenly change into someone I won't recognize. Won't love.

  Chapter Four

  24 Rajab 1404

  Alpine, Vista Colony

  Vista was hot.

  A world with no icecaps, a high sea level, its main economic activity was the export of fresh, high-quality seafood.

  The former explained why the largest city was high up in this world's equivalent of the Alps, the latter was enabled by the new corridors that stretched from there to twelve major fishing ports. Bringing the catch to the gate on the coastal plain below Alpine. A permanent gate, now.

  The riots had started as protests against the sudden redundancy of a large part of the working population. The corridors were changing everything. Suddenly the small truckers could go from a small fishing pier to the market in Gate City, or to any of the other colonies. No need for refrigerated cargo ships, nor dock workers to shift the frozen cargo onto trucks for the trip from the port to the gate. Special delicacies need not be flown to the gate . . . The cascade of effects had shaken the World.

  The local Chief of Police eyed the eight of them dubiously. "It's not the tribes. The people who stuck to their traditional lives are doing fine. It's the Multitude and Halfers who moved here for the jobs who are madder than hell about the corridors. Ninety percent of dockworkers laid off and there just isn't anything else for them to do. It's been a year . . . They won't go back because they put all their money into homes here that they can't sell, even for pennies on the rial. We've got large ships that can't find a cargo to carry anywhere. The business managers just walked and left the stockholders with bankrupt companies . . . And most of the rioters' pensions involved stock in all the big shippers. I understand their anger."

  He glanced out the window. "But it's been a year. And now they've started lighting fires."

  Ra'd sorted through memories. Nighthawk . . . All fire and darkness in a gorgeous body. Dangerous and smart. Mine. He stuffed those memories away and concentrated on things she'd said. "Have you talked to Disco about the problems they've caused? At a minimum, they may be able to move ships and the large trucks through the gates inside bubbles to sell on other worlds. Locally, if they widen the corridor entrances, the larger trucks can run between towns, even if not through the gate."

  They all looked at him like he'd lost his mind.

  "That's not actually anything I'd expect from an Action Teamer." The Chief of Police got his boggle under control. "Right this moment, I need those riots to stop."

  Ra'd shrugged. If you don't want to reduce or eliminate the causes, then the riots will be right back, as soon as we've gone. But that's your problem, not mine.

  Olli nodded. "We need to see where the riot starts, so we can spot the agitators who are firing it up, not the idiots leading the riot after it's gone rabid."

  The Chief had plenty of pictures of the rioters.

  Ollie shook his head. "Those are just the stupid chumps. Do you have any wide angle crowd shots of the rallies that cover the start of the riots?"

  The Chief eyed him. "We arrested the speech-makers. Over and over. There's always some fool who'll stand up and talk. The current one is the head of the Dockworkers' Union."

  "That's why we need the crowd shots. There will be agitators."

  The Chief frowned, but set them up with a room and vids of all the rallies.

  It was easy to pick out the hotspots, the areas of the crowd that heated up, yelling agreement with the speaker, shaking fists over their heads. They got pictures and started comparing them, from riot to riot. And found the same faces over and over in the hotspots.

  "Thirteen people, that we can see." Olli smiled at the prints he'd hung on the wall.

  "Is someone else running it all? Priming the speakers?" Ra'd eyed the faces on the wall. Angry, hating . . . or faking it? "Can we run these through any facial recognition programs from Interior? They may be homegrown, but they sure seem to know what they're doing."

  "Professional agitators?" Evil grinned. "How do you find them?"

  Pixy cracked his knuckles. "And what are we going to do to them?"

  Uxte paced. "Do we have to catch them in the act of committing a crime? There's nothing there but shouting."

  "Inciting violence?" Olli cocked his head. "Well, you know, there's a reason they call us Action Teams. We'll break up into pairs and take on four of them at tomorrow's rally in Tannay.

  Tannay was a miserable little town. Huge docking facilities for the large freighters. Brought through the powered gate piece-by-piece at great expense and assembled here. Worthless now. Empty.

  As were the streets.

  "Population four thousand. Now. A year ago it was fifty. Mostly working the port. There's villages up every inlet, anchorage for fishing boats . . . now the fishermen sell straight to the truckers. Who take the corridor, then the gate home and drive to the company in Gate City they have a contract with." The Mayor looked around. "All the native dock workers packed up and went back to their tribes. Everyone else is trapped."

  Olli looked around. "I'm surprised the agitators are coming here."

  "For the spectacle. It'll be on all the news feeds." Pixy told him. "If they riot."

  "Oh, you'll get your riot. They may well burn the whole town down."

  The man looked so depressed Ra'd figured he might well be hoping it would burn. Which would make
the news Empire-wide. Especially since once it got out of control there would be deaths. Women, children, the brave firefighters and police . . . all played up for all the pathos they can evoke. They can make dealing with Comet Fall and Disco look bad. Make the President look bad.

  I think I'm going to have to get a bit rough with these people.

  The speech was about the same as they'd heard in the recordings. About how they'd trusted the government and the companies when they'd taken the risk of coming here. Bringing their families and making a home . . . Then they were betrayed . . .

  Pixy grinned and shoved into the crowd.

  Ra'd followed, trusting the man to have spotted an agitator. And yes, there the man was. At this point just occasionally yelling "Yeah!" Just getting the people around him to nod, to start following as they were led down the emotional path and away from thought.

  Pixy bumped him, not even looking at him, frowning over the crowd at the speaker. "He's going to get people killed."

  The Agitator glared. Shifted away from him. Ra'd stuck his foot out and got it stepped on.

  "Hey! Watch where you're going, jerk."

  The pissed-off agitator shrugged and muttered something that might have been an apology.

  "What did you just call me?" Ra'd loomed at him. Since the agitator was also a Oner and a few cems taller it only worked to make his temper snap.

  The fool punched him. Ra'd blocked and popped him in the jaw at the same time he tapped him with a weak mental spell. Sleep. The man's eyes glazed as he sagged.

  Ra'd grabbed his arm. "Oh, One bloody hell. C'mon, let's haul you out of the crowd so you don't get trampled."

  Those nearby shrugged off the encounter and let them steer the woozy agitator through the crowd. Past the little medic station and into the waiting paddy car.

  :: Shall we go get another one? ::

  They got six, before the other agitators caught on and started moving away. The team fanned out, leapfrogging to keep an eye on the agitators without being spotted themselves.

  Ra'd eyed the black van. He walked around to the driver's side, and leaned on the hood. "You know, this looks just like all the stereotyped surveillance vans in the movies. Weird. You'd think, in real life people would put a bit more imagination into it, wouldn't you?"

  The driver muttered something as he checked his mirrors before he got out. The side doors slid, and two more people climbed out.

  "So . . . who are you lot working for?" Ra'd started smiling as they started looming. "I'm a Directorate Agent, and I'd like to see some ID."

  "Oh? And you think we're just going to hand it over?" The speaker glanced over his shoulder as the remaining seven agitators trotted up. Turned back to Ra'd and punched him.

  Ra'd saw it coming and stepped back enough to remove most of the force, while still insuring that the punch landed. "Naughty. Now you are under arrest . . . "

  "Get him!"

  They all piled in, interfering with each other. Then Evil started taking them out from the back, Weirdo hit them from the side . . .

  Well, it was a bit of exercise.

  The speaker from the riot bolted around the corner. "What the hell do you mean we're blown?" He nearly skidded as he took in the situation and started backpedaling . . . bumped into Pixie . . .

  And a bit of humor.

  The riot spun down in confusion, with the abandonment of the speaker.

  Then paperwork.

  The speaker was the head of the Dockworkers' Union, the rest were all residents of the home world. Azteca, Mexico Division, North America, specifically. No travel documents, which made it illegal gate travel for criminal purposes.

  The Team handed them over to the imperial justice system, with all recordings and statements, and headed home.

  Kael briefed them a few days later. "They were professional trouble makers, technically registered as a Security Company, providing guards, pre-hiring investigations and so forth. They've been accused of causing trouble for their clients' competition. In this case, they were making out like bandits. They took money from several large companies, several large investors, and the War Party."

  "Triple dipping? Good racket while it lasts." Olli looked impressed.

  "Four companies and three separate investors." Kael snorted. "And not one turned them down when approached."

  Pixy whistled appreciatively. "And then they met us."

  "Indeed. The shipping companies thought they might be able to get their facilities torched, and collect insurance. The investors thought the government might bail them out, and the War Party wanted to make Orde look bad." Kael shrugged. "I'm only surprised the Isolationists weren't there too, pointing out the evils of Disco's Corridors."

  "What about the speaker?" Ra'd asked.

  "They recruited him. One of the men in the van broadcast 'we're blown, retreat' to their comm net. Ujko had a receiver in his ear, and when he spotted all his new buddies leaving the crowd, he panicked and ran for the van. The locals are prosecuting him for inciting a riot. They won't get a conviction, but they'll inconvenience him enough that he won't do it again. Probably." Kael shrugged. "In any case, that was a good job. Team Twenty-nine is released for all duties. You'll be doing short jobs from here, then rotating into the Special Projects so those teams can get some home leave. Dismissed."

  That worked out very well. I got to snark, and beat up a few people who deserved to be beaten up. Prevented what might have been a deadly riot. Why was I so worried about this team?

  They celebrated, and if he drank a lot less than the others and didn't pick up any women . . . no one noticed . . . maybe next time.

  ***

  "Both my parents are dead. I lived in Paris with my stepmother and my baby sister—half sister—until I was accepted to the Directorate school."

  "So who trained you? You're damned good. A bit odd, can't quite put my finger on it." Pixy handed him a beer and sat, put his feet up.

  "A courtesy uncle, a colleague of my father's sort of took me under his wing . . . that's a very poor phrase to apply to a very aggressive person. Under other circumstances he'd have no doubt been an Action Teamer."

  Team Twenty-nine had one of the older warehouses to themselves. Three large vehicle entrances on the echoing large open area. One human-sized door beside them. A row of rooms down the side. Autovends and a tiny kitchen, a communal shower and lavs, eight bedrooms. They had a couple of field utility vehicles, pool table, wall screen, comfortable chairs and tables.

  The new warehouses were larger, and located nearer the permanent gates. No living quarters. Management loved them and grumbled when they were relegated to the older section.

  Ra'd was beginning to think the old warehouses were a well-kept secret of the lower echelons. He'd already moved all his gear here. I need to get to Ebsa's car, get the bag. It'll be safe here, and right to hand. This is going to work.

  ***

  Ebsa got his car out for their second date. They drove out into the country, to a restaurant that specialized in wild caught game. Wild boar, venison, quail, and pheasant.

  And the guards who had followed them in their own car actually stayed outside.

  "The doctors are letting me do a lot, and medgicians keep watching what I'm doing, and then trying to show me how to do it right. But I'm learning a lot."

  Ebsa nodded. "Much though I hate to admit it, so am I. If I ever get on a Team, I'll know all about how much of what to order and the equipment requirements for expeditions . . . But damn I wish I was learning in the field, not at a desk."

  Paer reach across the table to take his hand. "You'll get posted to a Team. Probably before me. Being female, well, I'm more likely to wind up as a medic for a project. I'll just hope your team is protecting it."

  She snuggled up to him on the ride home, and had no problem persuading him to park and come see her new home.

  "Well, the fireplace is fake, but the view is great—for Gate City. I can't believe it took a month for all the paperwork to go th
rough." Paer hauled Ebsa deeper into the apartment. "The dining room and kitchen are small, but check out the master bedroom's view."

  She reached back and shut the door in her guards' faces. Clicked the lock. And watched Ebsa's wistful control slip.

  He met her in a hungry embrace. Broke off a kiss to murmur, "I don't think I've even managed to kiss you properly for a month." And started kissing his way down her jaw line. And resisted not at all when she started unbuttoning his shirt.

  ***

  Coffee break. Ebsa stared out over the Gate Field. Watched the ground traffic weaving and crossing, the lines backed up to go through a dozen of the gates . . . No doubt the Colonies. They go one direction for half an hour, then switch to the other direction. A tangle of traffic on overloaded roads leading to them.

  He started counting the other gates, and got to fifty before one of the bosses stomped out to glare at him.

  "Don't you have work to do?"

  "Sorry, Admin, was I blocking your view? I was gawping at the chaos."

  Arzw scowled. "Damned Fallen Gates. And we get the blame for it."

  "Oh. We're in charge of them too?"

  "Everything but making them. That's out of our hands."

  Ebsa eyed the grid of gate arches. "I can see how we tried to organize them, but the drivers just cut across . . . "

  "Yeah. The experienced drivers know which ones aren't hardly ever used. So they can get away with it, until we get a really good soaking rain." Arzw looked pointedly at his watch.

  Ebsa drained the last of his coffee and headed back to his cube. A map, some scratch paper . . . he had it pretty well worked out by the time he put it on his comp and called down the wrath of the micromanagers.

  "What are you wasting time on, this time?" Chief Huul glared through the doorway.

  "Well, it occurred to me that the original layout of the gates has been overwhelmed by the increased traffic cheap travel has enabled."