First Posting (The Directorate Book 4)

by Pam Uphoff

  Snort. "For this?" A quick splash of power. "Go ahead."

  A gentle pull to give her room to align the two parts of the bone with light telekinetic touches, then she crystalized calcium carbonate across the break to hold it. "There you go. And a generalized anti-inflammatory and quick-healing spells . . . And the head nurse is glaring at me for not taking you into an examination room, which are all full anyway."

  "Go ahead. Thanks for fixing the hand. I can wait on the rest, and I need to . . . see my boss."

  "Right. Let yourself heal before you get into another fight."

  He started to grin. Winced and put the cold pack back to his lip.

  The head nurse shrugged. "Safer than being alone in a room with one of them, but it's still not the right way to examine a patient."

  "Sorry. Actually he's a friend I've known since high school. But anyway, who's next?"

  Three patients later Paer suddenly wondered if that had been his Action Team with all the critical injuries . . . No, he was too relaxed and happy. Nice to see actually, I guess I can stop worrying about his Team having a bad effect on him.

  The flood of patients abated, and peace returned to the ER.

  Paer was called into one of the consultation rooms.

  "I really hate to send you away." Doctor Agre looked exhausted. "You're a gem. But you need broad experience. They need Medics on some special projects, and . . . well, I see from your grin that you think any assignment across must be wonderful, so I'll put you into the rotation of medics coming and going from across assignments. Have fun—and for the One's sake, come back."

  Paer almost kissed him. But that wouldn't be professional. And on her first break, she took a deep breath for courage and called Ebsa.

  "Ha! You beat me. Congratulations! Any idea where you're going?"

  "They said something about special projects needing medics, but nothing specific."

  "Hmm, there are several big projects out there. Now all I need to do is break loose here. And there was a sort of accidental encounter that actually has my hopes up."

  Chapter Seven

  7 Nicholas 1404 yp

  None of them died.

  Ra'd was detained as soon as he was discharged from the hospital.

  Senior Administrator Kael's voice was ice over fire. "I don't care about excuses. I'm in the middle of a crush, trying to field enough people to keep up normal activities so that trained and experienced teams can be tasked to watch the Helios. And now you've sidelined one of my best teams." The fire was starting to break through cracks in the ice. Steaming.

  "They'll be out for at least three weeks, and I'll have to add a new man. Get them all worked up. You stupid traitorous prick. We're having to throw together scratch teams of over-aged paper pushers for the less dangerous assignments, and risk people's lives on their lack of recent experience." Her fists clenched.

  "So you can accept six months detention and loss of seniority or you can take it to an outside criminal court." Nasty grin. "Your choice."

  An outside court . . . and what? Test the old laws about what a Warrior of the New Prophets of the One True God can do? They don't even call Warriors that any more. Warriors of the One. Short and sweet, and no way am I going to appeal to that abomination.

  "I accept six months detention and loss of seniority."

  ***

  Subdirector Idro bared his teeth. "I don't like getting flack from the Ministries about my personnel. They hold the purse strings. And I really don't enjoy them dictating how I staff my section. The Minister of War thinks I should transfer you to something more dangerous."

  Yes! Please!

  The subdirector glanced at his comp. "A and E are begging for experienced field agents, no matter how out of date, dragging them out of their desk jobs and throwing them back onto teams."

  Yes! Yes!

  "Lots of empty desks in HQ these days. Go fill one."

  Ebsa's heart sank.

  "Report to Administrator Invi." He flipped a chip across the desk.

  Ebsa managed a smile and graceful exit.

  Stopped by the barracks to change into his suit . . . decided to hell with discretion and grabbed the kelp tie.

  Administrator Invi huffed out an irritated breath. "Bad enough I'm losing so many people, now they think subbing in a problem child is going to help me? Can you do anything useful?" He tapped at his computer. His frown faded . . . turned into a thin smile.

  "Would you look at that! All your team certs are up to date. I promised the Senior Administrator three warm bodies for teams, and you are now one of them." A few seconds tapping. "So, why don't you just call it a day. You should have new orders in the morning—I'd start packing, if I were you."

  Ebsa managed to get out of the office before the grin broke loose.

  As he waited for the elevator, he overheard a man on his comm. " . . . found someone else so I can stay . . . " Ebsa looked over. A pudgy man was beaming as he talked.

  Good luck all around! He pulled out his own comp, to pass on the good news. In fact, Paer's home packing. I'll drop by early and take her out to dinner so we can both celebrate. Maybe Ra'd's in town and can join us.

  Teams! And maybe someday we'll all get Across together.

  Chapter Eight

  9 Nicholas 1404 yp

  " . . . deserve every second of it, and be damned glad you aren't where I can explain it to you in person! You are a Warrior! The next time someone threatens the daughter of a Prophet. Just. Kill. Him." The call from Isakson ended with an angry slap.

  Ra'd winced . . . and hoped he wouldn't tell Qamar. It didn't really have anything to do with her. He handed the phone back to the jailer and turned back to his cell.

  The Team has probably dumped everything of mine in the trash. Good thing I put my father's Bag of the Prophets in Ebsa's car. I don't care if I lose everything else.

  It took two weeks of calisthenics and running circles around the small yard before he broke and requested com access.

  There was a message from Ebsa waiting for him, just a day old. He opened it, and found Ebsa's and Paer's faces, both grinning like idiots.

  "I've pissed off my boss so badly they've thrown me into A and E!" Ebsa was practically glowing over the phone.

  Paer echoed his expression. "And I've got a new assignment. It's across, but I don't know where, yet. So, I'll have another boss to convince that I'm a damned good medic. I'm going to tackle this assignment at full speed. I'm going to impress the One Hell out of everyone."

  Ebsa grinned. "And I'm going to do the same, especially if I really do get onto a Team. I ought to find out something tomorrow morning."

  They swapped grins. "So we've all made it. This is where we start."

  Ra'd stared down at the message.

  They don't know.

  He clicked off and handed the phone back to the jailer.

  Excerpt from an upcoming publication

  Surveillance Camp

  Pam Uphoff

  Chapter One

  29 Emre 1405 yp

  Gate Town, North America

  "All right, add your luggage to the pile, including all comms, computers, or recording equipment, and check in so we know who is or isn't here . . ." The man at the desk finally glanced up and trailed off with his mouth open.

  "Paer. Medic." Paer smiled hopefully. She'd deliberately dressed in field khakis, trying to look serious, and hopefully wouldn't be too underdressed for the occasion.

  An organizational meeting for a camp across. Across, as on a world on the other side of a trans-dimensional gate. The young man got his mouth shut and looked down at his list. "Right." A bit breathless. Swallow. "I didn't realize they meant the Paer."

  Paer winced. "Don't worry, I'm just a medic, now. Nothing special." Please just pretend I'm not the daughter of the President of the Empire of the One.

  "Right. Well, we're budgeted for two doctors and some yet-to-be-determined number of assistants, but right now, you’re the entirety of the medical staf
f assigned to us. Umm, so, well, go on in and take a seat." He checked her name off the actually printed-on-paper list. She eyed the box behind him. Molecular disintegrator. Holy One! Just how secret is this meeting?

  She pulled all her electronics out of her pockets and shoved them in her suitcase. Included the watch that had had some special capabilities added to it.

  She walked in and stepped to the side of the entrance to take a good look at the room. Or more to the point, the distribution of people already here.

  Three military officers, front and center. Older men in suits beyond them to the right. Behind them, a double clump, eight men in each, with the edgy auras of Action Teamers took up the right side of the seating area. Back several rows back behind the military contingent, three men and two women, all young, all in nice business attire. Drat, should have worn a suit. I'd have fit right in.

  To the left, in front, a gray haired man in civilian business casual, with four other, younger, men.

  Paer shrugged and strolled down to the third row, and sat behind Business Casual, half a dozen seats from a very professional looking young blonde woman.

  The woman looked over, looked her over, and curled a lip at the khakis . . . then her eyes widened, and she nudged the woman beside her and said something.

  No guess necessary to know what she just said. The young suited group all turned and gawped at Paer. Paer tried to study the empty stage, blank screen. Gave up and let her gaze sweep up the room and settle on the youngsters. She gave them a friendly nod.

  Glanced over her shoulder at the clatter of footsteps, the thump of the door closing, the snick of the lock. A green light lit over the door. The door man was feeding his paper into the disintegrator . . . and then she recognized the three people trotting down to the front.

  Ajha, Fean, and Hob. Three-fourths of the best Exploration Team in the Multiverse.

  She couldn't help but grin. Yes! This is going to be an awesome assignment!

  Ajha glanced at the older men in suits. "Omsi, would you like to start?"

  Subdirector of Intel!

  "No point in a pretty intro. Icti? Get up there."

  The other old suited man rose and stepped onto the stage. "And there's no way to make the information pretty. Our physicists and the Disco people all agree that Helios, the Cannibal World, that whole little miniature Universe has slowed so much that the next universe they hit in the right spot will stop them. They will merge and not rip loose this time. This is their last merge. Unfortunately the last encounter spun them off in this direction. We have no certain way to detect what they will hit, and how directly they must hit it to 'catch.' But we have some idea of which worlds they will come close to, and on our original list of twenty some possible worlds they may hit, the One World is the third most likely."

  What I'm Reading

  Mira's Last Dance By Lois McMaster Bujold. The latest Penric installment. Someday I'm going to sit down and read them all in order, instead of months or years apart.

  Larry Correia's Into the Storm. Really, I hadn't realized he'd gone full Steam Punk Fantasy. Not that Hard Magic wasn't close, but . . . Well, another book full of action. I'm halfway through, and there's a sequel, and what's this Warlock Sagas . . . man, I need to keep up. This guy's as bad as trying to keep up with John Ringo!

  To Truckees Trail by Celia Hayes is a meticulously researched story about several families pulling up stakes and heading for California in the 1840's. Based on real people, it's not my usual fare, but I got curious because of family history. If you like westerns, but want a solid dose of reality with it, check out Celia's work.

  About the Author

  I was born and raised in California, and have lived more than half my life now in Texas.

  Wonderful place. I caught almost the first bachelor I met here, and we’re coming up on our thirty-seventh anniversary.

  My degree's in Geology. After working for an oil company for almost ten years as a geophysicist, I “retired” to raise children. As they grew, I added oil painting, sculpting and throwing clay, breeding horses, volunteering in libraries and for the Boy Scouts, and treasurer for a friend’s political campaign. Sometime in those busy years, I turned a love of science fiction into a part time job reading slush (Mom? Someone is paying you to read??!!)

  I've always written, published a few short stories. But now that the kids have flown the nest, I'm calling writing a full time job.

  Directorate School was my seventeenth novel, and first in the spin-off series, of which this is the fourth. I've six more in the works.

  I've got two new books in the Wine of the Gods Universe under way, and then a third "Zoey Ivers" book in the Doors series. And three stories that aren't connected to anything else. So I may try to squeeze in a few more titles before the end of the year.

  I need to find the time to get more books out in print, out to Kobo, Sony, B&N . . . I need to find the time to invent a time machine . . .

  Email pamuphoff@gmail.com to join the mailing list for notifications of new releases

  Other Books by Pam Uphoff

  Wine of the Gods Series:

  Outcasts and Gods

  Exiles and Gods (Three Novellas)

  The Black Goats

  Explorers

  Spy Wars

  One Alone

  Comet Fall

  A Taste of Wine (Seven Tales)

  Dark Lady

  Growing Up Magic (Four Novellas)

  Young Warriors

  God of Assassins

  Heirs of Crown and Spear

  The Fiend

  Empire of the One

  Warriors of the One

  Dancer

  Earth gate

  Mages at Large

  Art Theft

  Triplets

  Sea Wolves

  Bad Karma

  Dark Side of the Moon

  Cascades

  Olympian

  Embassy

  Rael

  On the Run

  God of the Sun

  Cannibal World

  No Confidence

  The Directorate Series

  Directorate School

  A Tale of Three Interns

  Trouble in Paradise

  The Lawyers of Mars

  Fancy Free

  Writing as Zoey Ivers

  YA Cyberpunk Adventures:

  The Barton Street Gym

  Chicago

  Fantasy:

  Demi God