by Pam Uphoff
"Ouch." Trev muttered. "Not that I don't understand completely."
Vee grinned, then forced a frown over his face. Xaero wondered which Royal Family members warranted such reactions.
W'ufda shook his head. "It looks bad. This Apru dumped Blozolli on you, you get Blozolli off, Apru dumps L'azlod on you, you get him off, you show up at Sun Town without cause, let L'azlod go, then you help with the other thing, other fugitives from there contact you, capture you—except you always escape, and you're perfectly willing to rip your Uncle's files and throw him to the police. Is there an explanation?"
"If Trev and company had just left my nephew tied up in the Misfit's Haven when they left, I probably wouldn't have worried about anything thereafter." She felt Trev shift in protest. "As to why and how I showed up at Sun Town, we—as in me and a DMS officer listening to DMS pickups, heard that evil Traveler order Blozolli to take Raelphi to 'The Resort' and they then disappeared through the metro dump which conveniently had the monitoring devices completely disabled on the gate they entered from and the gate to the ramp to the surface. First thing I did was check all those old surface locations they tried to develop thirty years ago for something that would be called a resort. Sun Town rather leapt out, so I went to check it out first. Perfectly simple logic." She thought further. "I don't know how the Mad Scientist zeroed in on me, unless it was either my association with Trev at the charity ball, or the news coverage of Blozolli's trial. I suppose it could be both." She shrugged. "Ask him when you find him. I suppose he may have seen me with Trev, recognized Blozolli's lawyer and drawn the inference that I was in on the conspiracy. Certainly everyone else seems to be doing the same." She hoped she sounded exasperated rather than whiny. "Even the ones who know that I know Trev's a Good Guy. And what are Blozolli and L'azlod saying?"
W'ufda twinkled. "They both say that Traveler is the supreme leader and guiding light of the efforts to bring down the Government. Well, L'azlod had a bad reaction to either the vater pollen, the stun or the combination, so in his case it's mostly drooling and mumbled cursing, but the gist is clear."
Trev snorted. "They haven't a clue who I am?"
W'ufda's grin widened. "L'azlod refers to you as a traitorous bastard—he may think you're in the same spot he is."
Trev sniffed. "Excellent. Blozolli asked me once if I was related to L'azlod. I denied it. Over emphatically, of course. If they keep thinking along those lines so much the better."
After some pointed looks from both his boss and his bodyguard, Trev peeled himself off the rock and allowed himself to be chaperoned out the door.
Xaero made a rude gesture at the door. "Kidnap my nephew and expect me to sit around twiddling my thumbs like a Sweet Little Trufem? Fat chance." Of course, if I'd stayed home all that Space Base and Icy Body stuff wouldn't have happened. Trev would have kept Raelphi safe until the police arrived and, maybe even disarmed the guards, so there wouldn't have been a shootout. She rubbed her muzzle in irritation. Four Imperial Guards and eighteen other people had died at Space Base. Is it all my fault?
She went back to her word-by-word recollection of every exchange she'd had with or about Blozolli. After an hour the program slowed a bit and she typed "Wait till I'm finished before you rip, please, you're messing up my comp," and continued with the program working properly. She broke for dinner, resumed, then sent as much as she had to Trev before crashing for the night. Playing with the cops was definitely bad for the beauty sleep.
***
It being a holiday, Xaero went shopping before heading for the office. He wasn't a Dry Scale, but Trev obviously needed to carry a knife. There were a lot more people at the office than she had expected on Venus Day, a couple of dedicated clerks scampering about, and shortly after she arrived, a call from Sbozoi asking her to join him and Apru in Apru's office.
They were hunched over Apru's comp.
Apru glanced up as she came in, then dropped his anxious stare to the comp. "My comp was ripped yesterday." He whispered.
Xaero sat down and studied the two older men. "What have you done?" she asked. "The DMS was all over here yesterday, why? Why did you ever have anything to do with Blozolli?"
"We haven't done anything!" Apru protested. "Blozolli was just a client. Really, I'd only met him once, he was more like a friend of a client"
"We don't do criminal defense." Xaero pointed out. "Why didn't you just send him to D'roe, C'mut and H'tow. That's the usual procedure."
Sbozoi scowled. "We'd taken some financial advice from a friend, and felt that he should get personal attention."
"From a patent lawyer?" she asked. "Some friend. Are we talking about L'azlod, the other odd client you dumped on me?"
"It was an excellent opportunity to advance your career, dear." Sbozoi said.
"No. I'm a patent lawyer, not a criminal defender, and you know it." She leaned back and glared at him. "Did L'azlod tell you to get Blozolli an incompetent lawyer to ensure he'd go to prison?"
They both gawped at her. "How did you . . . " Apru shut up when Sbozoi punched his arm.
"L'azlod tried to kill Blozolli shortly after I got him off." Well, L'azlod had been up to something else, actually, but it would do as a bludgeon. "And when he was prevented and arrested, you sent me in again. Had you suddenly gained a conscience? Or had you just decided to distance yourself from L'azlod?"
"But, dear Xaero! You were brilliant with Blozolli! I knew you could handle L'azlod's case as easily." Sbozoi twitched a bit. "Have you heard from either of them?"
"No. I think they're in hiding, and I think the DMS is going to dissect the Firm looking for them." She leaned forward. "Financial advice, you say? What sort of financial advice?"
"Just what Biotech companies to buy or sell, and some companies, quite large ones they advised us to short." Apru said. "We didn't know they were selling company secrets."
"And I still don't understand why the shorts." Sbozoi put in. "I lost money on them!"
Because they weren't destroyed along with a couple of million lives, dear Uncle!
"I think you had better start looking out for yourselves, right now." She said. "Talk frankly to the DMS. Give them all the details. Make yourselves valuable witnesses instead of the fall guys L'azlod was setting you up to be."
"But, but, we could be disbarred." Sbozoi said.
"My political career would be over." Apru added.
"Early retirement under a cloud beats prison." She returned, bluntly. But they looked unconvinced and she left them to wrestle with the reanimation of their atrophied ethics.
She keyed up a report on the conversation and sent it to Trev, then turned her attention to the Biotech negotiations.
Chapter Six
When she finally dragged home, she found a note from Trev asking her to come to the Double Moon. She moaned, thinking wistfully of another hot soak, but headed out anyway. Her hand on the doorknob, she paused.
Was she in for more rough stuff with a time traveling Mad Scientist?
Going back in time.
Changing things.
She reversed back to her closet. Her heavy versa suit was so conservative it would fit in anytime in the last century. She wrapped her Dryscale belt with the two knife sheaths around her waist, under the stiff, heavy fabric. She sliced the lining of the side pockets so she could get to them, and then, hmm, she had all of her Grandmother's old jewelry. She pulled the boxes out of the safe, they were buried under . . . oh, perfect! Her coin collection. She pulled out the most valuable of her very old coins and placed the wrapped antiques in her vest pockets. Then the slightly old coins, nothing special, just mint sets but they could be spent without a problem. She took all the high denominations, then turned to the jewelry again. Not the best pieces, but the old gold pectoral would be valuable if she needed money, without being so valuable she'd have to produce proof of ownership to sell it. Sensible plain shoes. Hmm, a scarf to coordinate with the suit. Sometimes scarves were popular, sometimes not. She'd take one, no,
several, and a large clasp, some pins . . . Trev was going to laugh his spines off when he saw her, but sand if she wasn't going to be prepared.
The coins made the vest sag, so she dug through her purses, nearly antiques in themselves, she hadn't used one since her Dad bought her her first briefcase, until she found a small nondescript one she could transfer most of the weight of her coins to. She felt odd, with the shoulder slung purse instead of her briefcase. The scarves and clasps went in too. She checked the mirror and decided she actually looked pretty good. She hunted down the boxed knife she'd bought for Trev and added it to the load. Just in case this is romance, not business. Then she grabbed her most recent backup crystal and headed off.
***
When she got there, they were all hunched over maps and history books. "We're trying to figure out when and from where M'kabon might strike." Trev told her. "Look at this." He trailed his fingers across the map from the north end of the sprawling Imperial City, across the map to a nearly empty point midway between the line of towns along the southern border and the Space base.
"Sun Town? You think he might come and go from there?"
"The Specials just sneered at the idea, they said it was in DMS hands and he'd avoid it at all costs." W'ufda sounded a bit put out, and Xaero decided the Specials must have been extraordinarily rude. "They seemed to think he will come and go from somewhere inside Imperial City."
"Except he thought L'azlod was going to destroy it, and removed his equipment." Xaero said.
"Exactly." He huffed a bit.
Trev tapped the book he was reading. "I think the 3859E assassination attempt on Emperor Fortrali would be a possible change point. All he has to do is hop off his time machine a couple of hours ahead of time, and call Imperial Security to institute a major change."
"Would it be major, though?" W'ufda asked. "They only wounded the Emperor, even though they did kill the Royal Consort. Our Empress, Crown Princess at the time, Faltela was married," he shot a glance at Trev. "Recently and expecting her first." He leaned back, disturbed. "If he pulls this off you might never be born, just a little change, and a kid born thirty-three years later could be entirely different."
Xaero pondered the possibilities. "Would he really go that far back? It would affect an awful lot of his personal history, too."
"I sincerely hope not." Trev said. "Something more recent . . . if my Grandfather had died a couple of years earlier, before mother progressed to Wisdom, the Councilors might have been so well dug in, running things for the 'helpless' Trufem Empress, that she'd never have shaken them, like she actually did." He shot a look at Xaero. "Of course, you hadn't been born then either, so we should very definitely stop them, no matter what anyone thinks of my mother's policies."
"No kidding." Xaero looked back at the map. "So the Specials aren't checking Sun Town."
"Not that they've told us, so we're going." W'ufda said. "You three because you are all familiar with it, and me because I'm in charge."
Trev muttered something that sounded close to "having fun." W'ufda sniffed dismissingly.
"If you wish to come, Miss Xaero." W'ufda amended. "Trev seems to be having vapors about letting you out of his sight, plus he did mention that since we'll be on the surface, we should have an expert along."
Xaero thought about spending the next few days preening her spines and waiting to evaporate into a historical possibility that didn't happen and immediately volunteered. "When shall we leave?"
Trev eyed her bare legs appreciatively. "Do you need to pack your boots and knives?"
She produced the knives and then disappeared them. "I came prepared to hunt the nemesis to the ends of time and space." She intoned. "Afterwards I'll write a really hokey book about it."
"It would raise the quality of our product immeasurably," Trev told her. "We've got masks and oxy, shall we go?"
"Yes, and bring the history books, just in case we need to do some before-and-after comparisons."
"Did I mention that you are a little scary? I really meant terrifying." Trev said stuffing books into a pack.
"She certainly seems to believe in planning ahead." W'ufda said. "Dare I ask what you are bringing along, Miss Xaero?"
"In theory a lot of useless weight. Specifically a chunk of my coin collection and stuff that could be used or sold, in case I somehow ended up in the past." She hesitated. "As much as I'd like to wear my boots, they get odd looks even now. Twenty years ago they'd be odder, seventy years ago they'd have people calling the police about the Wild Dry Scale wandering the streets."
Vee hoisted two large shoulder sacks. "Masks, oxy, food, water and weapons. A cart will be waiting for us at Daeda, with some more people."
Xaero refrained from asking about his feet. They weren't going to be walking. She hoped.
***
It turned out to be two carts and an extra five Dims at Daeda. They all saluted W'ufda and claimed to have been sent by a Colonel K'ceral, whom Xaero gathered from context was W'ufda's boss.
Vee drove one of the carts, having covered the route multiple times. The other cart followed. Not that the route was complicated, it involved driving as close to due north as the terrain allowed for fifty thousand strides, then due east until Sun Town was sighted. Vee and Trev both claimed to recognize the larger rock formations along the route.
Trev keyed something into his comm as they mounted the last low ridge. "In theory that just turned off the automatic alarms along this path. The Dims onsite hadn't reprogrammed the motion sensors the last time I was by."
"Did M'kabon come here much?" Xaero asked.
"I never saw him, but I was aware that L'azlod had people in and out while I was gone. My greatest undercover failure was my inability to get any further access to L'azlod's plans. I was shut out of everything except the REM Action."
"Which was what we thought we were after." W'ufda glowered silently. "I have recently found that we were shut out of a lot of intelligence."
Trev pulled the cart into the shed and approached the doors cautiously. "There should be someone on guard." But the covered walks were empty of people, as was the approach to the main building.
W'ufda handed Xaero a comm. "You will stay out here while we check out the building, please." From his tone, it was not a request, but it was also sensible, so she took the comm as well as the sack of books.
"Kindly don't allow the Mad Scientist to change history, Trev. Think of how you'd feel if you came back and instead of me, it was Elissy waiting for you."
Vee snickered, and led the group quickly up the steps and inside.
Xaero checked the controls of her comm, and turned the sound down low. Muttered commands as they maneuvered through the nearly empty building followed. Most of her attention was focused on the unkempt park behind her. She shifted restlessly, and turned the sound down even lower. An out-of-place snap rewarded her attention, and she flipped the comm to transmit only, as she stepped carefully into the foliage.
"Well, well, if it isn't my favorite lawyer." Xaero turned her head to see M'kabon standing quietly half behind a juffer, holding a stunner. Another crack, heralded the arrival of Big Ugly.
"And my favorite Mad Scientist." Xaero said in reply. "Why did you come here? You must have known the DMS had this place."
He snorted. "Correct. Had. Past tense. I used this place for multiple purposes for decades, but always because I knew I'd need it this year."
Xaero hesitated. "I don't understand, why 'this year'? It seems sensible to lay low and try next year."
He clicked his tongue reprovingly. "Well, you did waste your time studying law instead of physics, so I don't expect you to understand. The way it works, the gates are between time and space, in a nice neat geometrical progression. The further back in time you go, the further the distance you must travel. This location is perfect for a seventy year trip to the past and into Imperial City. So it has to be now. If I wait until next year, I'd have to set up out in the desert, with no power source." He shrug
ged. "I hadn't wanted to go so far back, so this was my last ditch location. This is the absolute limit I dare without disrupting my life." He studied her, then smiled happily. "What an idea! I believe I'll take you with me. The changes I'll be making virtually guarantee that you won't ever exist. So you'll be my test subject. If you are back in time when I change it, will you disappear then, or when we return? Or will you persist? In theory you could become an anomaly; sourceless, rootless but undeniably existing. That would give me a great deal of leeway in the future. I could go back as far as I like. Oh yes, you must come with us." He turned to Big Ugly. "Bring her."
As he turned away, Xaero followed, but that apparently wasn't sufficient for Big Ugly. She vaguely heard the zip of a stunner as the world swirled away.
The world pirouetted back into focus some time later. Instead of cute carousel music, it was accompanied by shrieking brakes and then she was dumped on a sidewalk. A brilliant, eye searing red sign "Hell's Surface" attacked her aching brain, then she was jerked to her feet and half dragged into a cart. A stranger seemed to be driving it, but her tongue refused to wrap itself around any appeal for help. The movement of the outside clashed with the spin of her inner world and she closed her eyes until the cart stopped. She staggered out of the cart in Big Ugly's grip and into the building. M'kabon was saying something to someone about "My daughter. Drunk as a Dry Scale, I need a room so she can sober up enough to take home to her mother." In tones of prissy disapproval. She boggled at the thought of M'kabon with either a wife or daughter, but half way down the elevator finally worked out that they were talking about her.
The world spun on for some time, then started poking her brain with a sharp needle once per spin. After a while the needle dulled and the spin slowed. She sat up carefully, then thumped back down as she hit the limits of her tether. Hotel room, generic, cheap, but not too rundown. She was alone. She maneuvered around, and got a hand in her pocket and pulled out a knife. The rope yielded to the obsidian, and she staggered to her feet. There were a number of bags piled up against one wall, Trev's book bag and her purse among them. She picked up the purse and the book bag.