The Fiend (Wine of the Gods Book 13)

by Pam Uphoff

  Two nurses, looking nervously toward the back of the big tent. A central aisle, beds half screened by curtains on either side. A guard at the end. Fean walked quietly back. The guard was standing beside a bed . . . Ajha, unconscious, a primitive gravity fed IV . . . badly injured, or are they keeping him sedated? Fean eased around the guard, and wished she'd taken more than the minimum medical and medgician requirements. She squeezed off the control on the tube . . . Then swallowed and started ripping the tape off that held the needle in place. The guard frowned, stepped toward her. She hit him with the stun, grabbed his jacket and jerked him toward her so he fell beside the bed, not out into the aisle . . . A voice from the front, a query in the tone. She pulled the needle. No time to be careful. She stepped out and stunned the first nurse, the second . . . trotted forward and stunned the man at the front desk. Back to Ajha . . . she blinked and backtracked. The man in the next bed was Ned whatshisname, the handsome rebel. Also unconscious, with an IV.

  Fean checked that Ajha wasn't bleeding out from her hasty needle removal, then returned to Ned. "I really ought not interfere with local problems."

  "Wha . . .?" Thud crash, Ajha staggered through the curtain and braced himself on the bed. "Oh. Got him too?" He blinked around, eyed his bleeding elbow and stuck a finger on it. "Unplug him, too." He staggered away. Fean ignored the thumping while she more carefully pulled out Ned's needle.

  Ajha reappeared wearing the guard's pants and jacket.

  "Let's get him out of here . . . umm, we'll need transportation."

  "Got the car."

  "Supplies."

  "Got 'em."

  "Money."

  "Got some."

  "If you are trying to impress me, it's working." He leaned to examine the bed's legs, and clicked something. The bed rolled. They shoved it all the way to the front door. Dragged Ned, who was starting to twitch, off the bed and nearly to his feet. They supported him from each side, walked him out to the car and managed to get him into the back seat. Ajha grabbed the juice and drank.

  Handed it to her. "Drink more. You may need to do most of the magic for a bit." He staggered around to the drivers side.

  "You have got to be kidding."

  "No. I drive, you throw spells."

  "Crashing won't do us a bit of good." She scrambled into the seat as he started the car. "The front gate is that way, turn right on the road."

  "Right." He threw something between a salute and a wave at the gate guard and turned left onto the road.

  "Ajha!"

  "We'll get out of sight, then turn around and with an illusion, go back. Can't hurt."

  "Other than slowing us down?" Fean cast a glance over the seat back. "Why is it taking Ned so long to recover? You snapped right out of it."

  "Engineered genes. Oners are good at detox." They drove around a gentle curve, and Ajha slewed the car around. "Now let's see if I can . . . "

  "No. Stop a minute." Fean grabbed the fruit juice and hopped out. Took a swig, wet her fingers and drew the symbols. Rusty old farm car. Rusty old farm car. No I am not singing it.

  "Nice! Can you make us look like a couple of old women?"

  Fean drew on her own forehead, then Ajha's

  Ahja drove them right past the farmhouse and encampment.

  "Boss, are you feeling alright?"

  "Better, but I feel like I've had a dose of methalformaline or something. I doubt it was deliberate, more likely a side effect of the sedatives."

  "Ah yes. So . . . " Fean squinted into the setting sun. "What do we do now? We've got all night and until noon until the gate. And we've got a rebel in the back seat. What are we going to do with him?"

  "Yeah." Ned sat up and leaned over her shoulder. "What are you going to do with me? And where the bloody hell are we? This doesn't look like Wyoming. And you don't look at all the way I remember."

  "We're in Texas. Yes, we're disguised. Fean, how much money do we have? Ned needs a vehicle of some sort, a map and enough cash to get home. You're going to have to lay low for a long time—and the Nazi's have that place you took us all wired up. You're going to have to start from scratch."

  "Yeah I noticed that. When they played the recordings and asked me ever-so-nicely to explain what happened." He snorted as she pulled out the stolen wallets and started extracting bills. "Please tell me you took those off their dead bodies."

  "Sorry, no, they were just stunned."

  "Von Kolbe?" His voice turned gleeful. "You lifted Von Kolbe's wallet?"

  "Of course." She split the money and handed him half. Thought about it and handed over even more.

  "Damn. Wait, pull in there." He pointed at a well lit parking lot. No, a car dealership half full of a wild assortment of vehicles. "If they have something cheap . . . "

  Ajha pointed. "How about that motorcycle? Cheap to fuel, easy to take cross country if you need to."

  "Yeah."

  Ajha parked in line with the other cars, concealed from the road. "Fean, turn him into a clean shaven blonde, for a bit. With clothes on."

  Fean dipped her fingers in the juice and scribbled on his forehead.

  "What?" Ned stared down at himself and gawped. "It wears off, right?"

  "Right."

  They gnawed very rare steak with their bare hands and Ajha poked around the car while Ned dickered. Ajha rolled up a blanket from the trunk, and Fean shed her stolen over garb. Three military trucks cruised by. The last one turned into the lot and cruised through, checking all the cars. Ned—blonde, in wrinkled cowboy clothing—watched them cautiously. Fean scooted closer to Ajha. And focused on the unnoticeable spell, just in case the illusions weren't convincing. The soldiers drove past. Looking right through them. The truck veered back to road and drove away.

  Ned came back grinning. "I feel weird, my bare ass sticking out of a damned hospital gown, and nobody noticing a thing." He tried, and failed, to squeeze into the pants Fean had shucked. Ajha dropped his and put Fean's on. At least he could fasten them. Ditto Ned.

  He took the blanket roll, a sack of edibles . . . "Damn. Who are you people? Where are you going? Are you coming back? Are you some sort of rebels from, from . . . where?"

  Ajha grinned. "We're going back to where we came from, and we'll probably never return. Good luck Ned."

  The man shook his head and walked back to his motor cycle. Roared off into the dark.

  "So . . . I think we should just stay right here for awhile." Ajha tossed his steak bone off into the vacant field behind the car, and stooped to splash his hands in a puddle. He grinned at her expression and climbed into the back seat. As far as she could tell, he fell asleep.

  Fean looked around looked at her hands, filthy with steak and fruit juice. She splashed them in the puddle. They weren't what her mother would call clean, but they were close enough.

  She stayed alert through two more inspections of the lot, thinking unnoticeable thoughts. When army vehicles ceased whizzing past, she nudged Ajha. "This might be a good time to go."

  He yawned, and squinted at the eastern horizon. "Right. Unfortunately our friends weren't very conscientious about keeping the tank full. Let's go find out how early gas stations opening around here."

  Early enough. But the sun was up when they drove south out of Victoria.

  "Five hours to get back, even with the horrible roads, we shouldn't have a problem. Right?"

  "Right." Ajha squinted. "Surely they don't have road blocks on every road out of town?"

  There was an army truck parked across the road. Four soldiers, stopping traffic. There were two cars ahead of them. People arguing about their rights and they didn't have to allow themselves to be searched . . .

  Ajha's fingers drummed once on the steering wheel. Then stilled.

  The army truck backed out of the way and the first car drove off. Ajha moved them up a car length. The small open truck ahead of them got only a cursory glance. Ajha pulled up to the solider. "Show me your papers."

  "Umm, Fern, that stun spell?"

/>   She started with the furthest soldier.

  "What? The soldier leaned into glare at Ajha.

  Fean zapped the next. The third soldier snapped around at his buddy dropping, and threw himself down to the ground. She hadn't even had time to throw another stun. Ajha's head was in the way of the man in the window. But he punched the man, knocking his head up against the window frame. Shoved him, opened the door and rolled out.

  Fean leaped out the other side. The man in the ditch had his gun out, aiming at Ajha. She threw the spell. The pistol snapped. Ajha cursed. Thumped the man on the ground. Fean ran to shift the army truck off the road, in fact ditching it looked like a good idea. She jumped out, leaving it in gear, to lurch . . . wherever. Ajha was dragging her first victim off the road. With one arm. A red blotch was spreading across his other bicep. She bolted for the car. Behind it, a car was backing up rapidly. Doesn't want to get involved. Will they call the police, the Nazis?

  She jumped behind the wheel. Ajha thumped down beside her and she hit the gas.

  Their soggy roadside camp was only forty kilometers out of town. If one could fly. By road it was easily double that, if of course, one wanted to call these things roads. They turned and twisted, the tarmac steadily degrading, the potholes widening, deepening and multiplying. At some point the difference between degraded tarmac and gravel disappeared. But as the road bent to follow some old surveyed boundary lines, they had a good look across the flat mashes at their back route. And the vehicles following them. Closing up the distance. Army green. Not the utilitarian trucks she'd gotten used to. These were lower, with large, broad tires. Traveling faster than she was capable of on these roads. Three of them.

  Ajha grunted. "I think I can manage some illusions and distractions, now. But they're going to have to get closer."

  She shot a dubious glance his way. He had his hospital gown wrapped around his upper left arm, and didn't seem to be bleeding.

  "Or maybe I can remote some illusions. That could work."

  "But Boss, we ought to reach the camp in half an hour. But the gate time is, what? Noon to fifteen hundred?"

  "Yeah. Could be a problem. I don't know if I hope Idre has buried the beacon deep or if I hope he's got it on the surface so we can grab it and take it through before the gate destabilizes." He shrugged, winced. "We ought to be able to keep a shield up around the vehicles until the gate opens, and there is an emergency pulse that is supposed to attract attention and get the gate opened as quickly as is practical."

  "Yeah, and how long is that?"

  "Depends on how far they are into a long gate. They won't shut it down and retune for us. So, figure anywhere from two minutes to an hour." Ajha reached for the juice bottle and drained it. Dampened his left fingers and started writing on it. Wincing, holding the arm against his body and trying to move only his fingers.

  "Goody. What are you going to do?"

  "See if I can get them to drive straight at the next turn. I'll need you to stop long enough for me to set this down, right side up."

  "Right, well, I think that's the next corner, up about a kilometer."

  "Perfect."

  He stared at the glass while she hustled down to the corner, and skidded to a halt. He opened the door, reached and set it down. Came back up with a large pebble in his hand. "Go."

  She hustled, dodging holes, and only catching brief glimpses behind.

  Ajha had his eyes closed. She could feel the magic, jumping around, strong, but not steady.

  She finally spotted the pursuing vehicles in the mirror. "Oh, One damn. We're too far away for an illusion to work. They know we turned."

  Ajha shook his head. "I'm trying a physical effect, a distortion of the light as it reflects off the car, like a heat distortion, and a prism. With the tall grasses, the brush, we ought not be very clear to people in a moving bouncing vehicle who can now see the illusion on the bottle."

  Fean glanced in the mirror. The first car shot off the curve and pancaked in the mud. The second skidded to a halt, front wheels off the road, but not enough to trap it. She checked ahead, dodged a pothole, rounded another corner.

  "Well, you got one of them."

  "The other two are still coming." Ajha started "writing" on his new pebble.

  "They won't fall for that again."

  "This is more subtle, it'll just make the turn look like it's about three meters sooner than it is."

  "Ooo! I like it! When we get home, you are going to have to teach me these nasty little tricks of yours."

  "This isn't much different than your illusions."

  She hit the brakes at the corner and he leaned out to place his rock.

  And drove on. "What next?"

  "I strain my reach and see if I can let Idre know we're about five minutes out. Drive as fast as you can, just in case they really are fast responding." He leaned back, and Fean concentrated on her driving. Around the next corner, she glanced back to see only one vehicle in pursuit. Excellent. And I'll bet they're being slow and careful at every corner.

  She cursed and skidded through a muddy spot, had enough momentum and traction to get through and sped up again. Another corner.

  "Stop arguing! Hit the panic button and get everyone in the truck. Tie Madam Song up, if you have to. Point it at the gate. You know the rules, don't stop. If we follow, we may be coming fast."

  She spotted the truck in the distance, beside the road. One damned kilometer! Was the truck moving? Maneuvering? Not going yet! Please not quite yet! She swerved to miss mud holes of unknown depth. Tried to go faster. Flicked a glance ahead. Was there a halo of light beyond the truck?

  Damn this road, damn this road, damn this road!

  She swerved minimally, to miss another damned pothole . . .

  The truck was moving, sucked into the glowing gate. She drove the car across the verge took aim, was the light shrinking? Damn it she could see the road, the buildings . . . She floored it . . . the car slithered on damp grass . . .

  Bounced, flew, hit the dimensional effect, ripping pain . . .

  The car thumped down on pavement. Fean swerved away from the van facing her, hit the brakes and barely tapped the back of the truck.

  "Ow, ow, ow. Damn, that was the closest I've ever come to getting pinched." Ajha started laughing. "Damn! That was fun!"

  Fean gawped at him. And started giggling.

  Ajha opened the door and walked forward He tossed a salute up to toward the control room, then looked around at the traffic warden hustling down at them. "Do we have a warehouse?"

  "329 B. Get moving, or do you need a tow?" The man's head jerked around as a clearly furious Madam Song, tape over her mouth and arms tied behind her back tried to jump out of the back of the truck, and was hauled back in.

  "Right. Idre? You got that? 329 B. Dan, come with me. We're going to the hospital."

  "What? I'm fine."

  "No you are not. You will either get your alcoholism treated or you are out of the directorate."

  "I, I . . . "

  "Come on." Ajha walked back to the car. "Fean, take us to the hospital, then take the car to 329B."

  "Yes, Sir!"

  Chapter Eight

  20 Hija 1395 yp

  Gate City, North America, One World

  Ajha collapsed into the chair the Subdirector of Research pointed at.

  "You know, if you had actually convinced me how bad a shape those six were in, I would have run screaming from this assignment."

  The subdirector winced. "Well, I did say you needed to be sure to get yourself home safe, never mind them. You were their last chance. Literally. How many of them made it?"

  "Oh, they're all back. Umm, I think if you keep Idre and Egto in no native contact worlds they'll be fine now. Obhi would be better placed in a position to take advantage of his ability to crack strange computer systems, he's quite adaptive. Send him to Earth, if we ever find it. Enda's irregular performances were no doubt due to his alcoholism. He has been frog marched to the medgicians fo
r the cure. I think that should take care of the occasional . . . well. Fean certainly deserves the nickname Fiend. But despite the tendency to eat her teammates, she was quite good. Excellent focus on the goal, and quite lacking in scruples when it came to the means of achieving it. Once I got over her massive ego and vanity I was impressed."

  "Are you serious?"

  "Oh yes. And no, I really don't want to know what she did in her internships to get shoved in with this lot for her first assignment. Now Madam Soen . . . her blinkered focus on the animals and lack of situational awareness hasn't changed a bit, although she may have learned to respect the other team members a bit. She should only be allowed to collect creatures on uninhabited Worlds with several guards armed with stunners for predator protection."

  The subdirector's lips twitched. "Her colleagues at the department of biodiversity were hoping you'd lose her."

  Ajha eyed the man. "If you weren't my favorite uncle, I might suspect that I was on your please don't return list as well."

  "Don't be silly. That's the Director's list. You really need to stop infuriating the man. Although I was delighted to find a World where even you couldn't sympathize with the Natives."

  Ajha bit his tongue.

  Subdirector Ajki produced a chip. "And a nice easy assignment, next. Simply picking up history books, and current events, study the government and the people of six moderately advanced worlds. The new president is interested in trade, not war, One help us. Then back here for a break and workup the reports before heading for the next world. I think six months to a year on each world should be long enough."

  "So, close to three years of nice quiet routine work? Sounds good."

  "Would you like any of your team back?"

  "If we're collecting books, I assume these are civilized, heavily populated, Worlds? Umm, the Fiend would do, and Obji if we need computer expertise, but I think not the rest. Thankyouverymuch."

  The subdirector's eyebrows rose. "Well, grab a week's vacation, then return for the organizational meetings. I think you'll find it challenging, but not threatening."