by Pam Uphoff
The Guards hauled Ajha off, leaving her with the investigator.
"Right. Lady Jowp is under protective custody. No guests apart from the kid. She will be moved as soon as the doctor releases her. In the meantime, please keep her alive. This is her ex. Arrest him on sight. Preferably alive. Xiat? We're going to need an Imperial level warrant for him."
Xiat nodded. "I'll get that moving."
"So. The War Party. The actual members are strewn all over the bureaucracy, and include Arlw and the Ax, who are vying for power, for the leadership. Let’s go talk to Lady Jain about her daughter, and incidentally speak to her husband, who made that phone call just after checking Ajha's room on the night of the ninth."
"And the Ax. See if he's ruthless enough to kill his own son to advance his position." Xiat shook her head. "Sometimes I think I've been in Paris too long."
The investigator's eyes crinkled. "And here I thought you were with the Western Region."
"Well, I'm Central Region, but as such we get all the Imperial level stuff. I get sent everywhere there's a problem in the western hemisphere with Imperial implications, that the director wants extra people on. That's why I saw so much of Poppy, in Caracas."
"Were you sent here, or did you just happen to be handy?"
"I was coming anyway, and then there was this horrible spate of pre-cogs and dreams. Maddeningly indecipherable, but all having elements of something starting, or starting again. They could all be about the third Alternate Philosopher, or a big political gambit."
"Or both."
"Yeah. In fact, I'll go check in and see what's new." She closed her eyes in pain. "What my boss is going to say . . . "
"Orgies in the mud, eh? With handcuffs? Don't recall seeing that in your file, Princess." Subdirector Izzo sounded amused.
"It’s a recently acquired taste. Have you caught up to the latest? A failed attempt to poison the Third Philosopher? The instrument failed, took the poison herself, but we got to her in time. Protective custody as a piece of the evidence chain. We're pretty solid on the Udzi assassin. Ifbo Neartuone. We're giving him line to see where he leads us. We need to pick up Uzga, third Minister of Labor, which is going to take a warrant with the President's signature."
"For?"
"He supplied the poison and the emotional control of the woman who was supposed to deliver the poison. She's so informed us."
"Right. I'll run it by the Director and get it to you soonest."
"Thank you, sir."
"You can stay away until the snickering stops. I don't need blood on the carpets."
"This week has been too strange for me to even kill anyone over. Have there been any new precogs?"
"Millions of them. With the Third Alternate Philosopher out, apparently all bets are off."
"Right."
***
"No sign of contamination, Lady Kiaj." The man had the head-covering of his environmental suit off.
Xiat stood by as the hazard team cleared out of Kiaj's home. I should have thought to do this. She followed her aunt inside. "I'll pack and move to a hotel. There's space available now, and you can get your house back to normal."
Kiaj looked around, then walked into the kitchen. "Oh, if you want. The boys packed and left for Paris before the . . . cleaning people arrived. Good Grief, they've thrown away everything edible in the entire house. It looks like no one lives here. I think I'll call the painters before I fill everything up again. Maij went back to her restaurant, with the girls arguing about which of them is going to be Ajha's cook. It seems so strange, Ajha, with all the authority of a Philosopher. Not that his mind hasn't always gone off on strange tangents, but generally he went with them, and I'd just hear an abbreviated version a year after everything was settled. Now he'll be living an hour away, with money pouring out of his ears, and saying crazy things on the vid. Honestly, I was afraid to turn it on after last night."
Xiat squeezed the bridge of her nose. "I'm never going to live that down. Never."
"Maybe you should marry him, dear. People don't gossip about what married people do. Oh, good, here's Jain and Fibber." She bustled off.
Xiat collapsed in a chair. Marry? Ajha? "No. Absolutely not. I can handle the gossip." She got out her comp and started checking people and tickets. Ifbo was already back in Paris. Whipper and Mushy were apparently in San Francisco. Was Ajha going to hire them? Ewmo, Orc and Yukky were enroute to Paris. Ask Me had just arrived there. Echo was in New York, where he worked for the Regional Authority.
The House chimed and admitted the investigator.
"Well. All my suspects have run away, except for the Ax. I've moved Poppy and Jay. I've run out of things to look for and people to interview."
Xiat nodded. "I think I'm going to head back to Paris, and see if I can shake anything loose there. I'm afraid I'll have to leave the Ax for you to investigate."
Imgo and Arja were walking through with what looked like their wives' entire wardrobes. Moving back in?
"Is the Ax a suspect?" Imgo sounded surprised.
"Hard to say." Xiat shrugged, opening her barriers just a tad. "This Third Philosopher ascension of his son's wasn't predictable, and if we're not looking at a blown play in the Game, then I can't think what it is. Of the satellite of young men surrounding this affair, Ajha's about the only one without an alibi. And we can't touch him. If the Ax keeps his cool, we're through. File Udzi's murder as unsolved and move on."
Imgo looked disturbed. "I see."
Arja just grunted something about "Logical" and staggered off toward the downstairs bedrooms.
Xiat frowned. "Where is Uncle Ajki?"
Jain hustled past. "He's moved in up there, with Ahvi and the Ax. I can't believe he'd turn his back on his sister like that."
"Oh, don't be silly, Jain, they're just plotting something." Kiaj glared at the investigator. "Not a murder. Ax isn't that crude."
"Bah. You need to get out of the doldrums, get over that man, finally! And get a life."
"Honestly, you two, and your Game. I'm not ever going back to it." Kiaj walked out tapping numbers on her comm. "Tuyq dear, my servants have all run away after the turmoil of the last week. Very sensible of them, but I do need a cook and at least one maid, do you know of anyone who's available? Oh, and you wouldn't believe the state of my cupboards! One of Ajha's insane staffers decided . . ." She walked out of hearing range.
"Good luck, Investigator." Xiat headed upstairs to pack.
Chapter Twelve
20 Shawwal 1407yp
Black Point Enclave, West Coast of North America
Ajha was cheered to find the Fiend had returned. Alarmed to see she was hiring staff already. "This is Hail, your new secretary. Home and office are all settled. Now, this timeline of yours, all about our relationship to Comet Fall. I think it's a great idea. I sent it off with Enda—yes, Dan-the-no-longer-drunk. Everyone who knows you is jumping in to help—and he reports that Ambassador Never sent him with it to Xen, because there were some big chunks missing. We all know that when we invaded them, they cut off our access and two companies of infantry went to the One rather than surrender and possibly give the enemy information. Except, according to Xen, the regular troops had kill implants and our own officers killed our own soldiers then killed themselves. We're going to have to have physical evidence of that, his word just won't fly. And it wouldn't hurt if we could recover some of the dead Action Team's equipment, either."
Ajha shook hands rather distractedly with the good looking brunette. "Hail, welcome to the team. Hmm, would the recorders still be in working condition after fifty years? Perhaps I should go ask, myself." He glanced at the Ecclesiastical Guards. "It would get me away from the poison."
"Poison?" Captain Wrlo stiffened.
"Poppy crushed the pill she was given, and took about half in a glass of wine. In all the confusion, well, after Poppy said that, I went back to make sure no one accidentally got the rest of it, and couldn't find any such thing anywhere. The maids said they di
dn't even go in the room, that possibly being a crime scene and all."
"So someone on that side of the conspiracy slipped in and cleaned it up. Or kept it for future use. I ordered a chemical hazard team to clean up your mother's house before anyone moved back in." She turned away, tapping at her comm. "Now, you were using some of these people as investigators, One knows why. Do you want to keep them?"
"Whipper and Mushy. I'll talk to them. They're actually quite good, when the information you want can't be gotten nicely."
"Nicely? What are they doing?"
"Orgies and bar crawls. So as to not tip off the opposition. I don't even know what they do, for work."
She sighed and shook her head. "You've just got to stop fixing us wild and dissolute Oners."
"You were never dissolute. Just arrogant and dangerous."
She beamed. "Thanks boss. Right. Let's go visit some graveyards."
They left the rather bewildered Hail to look into ordering office furniture and set up equipment.
They took the train to San Francisco, and a corridor to the Gate Complex.
"Remind me to point out to the War Party how useful the corridors are, how valuable."
"They know that, they seem to think they can capture a few slaves and make all they want." The Fiend shook her head. "The Princess school needs to send their students out once a year to beat the crap out of these armchair generals and convince them that the highly magical are controlled only by themselves. Slaves with that much ability cannot be controlled."
Ajha drew an audience, and the puzzled gate security hastily checked with their superiors, who confirmed that the Third Alternate Philosopher could go wherever he wanted to go, including through gates with his guard detail and staff.
The gate to Embassy was a permanent one, set up to be walked or driven through. The energy gulping temporary Gates the One created used aligned tracks on either side to move large volumes of material quickly.
"Not to mention the cost savings of the Fallen Gates." The Fiend stepped through and cast a look around, the guards half on her heels, and half on Ajha's.
Pressure he hadn't realized existed evaporated from his mind. "Now look, we're just doing a quick bit of fact checking, we don't want . . . " He sighed. "Never mind."
An old man in a business suit was hustling down the steps of their embassy building. He must have been down on the ground level for something else. And felt Ajha.
"I thought I was closed up enough to not attract attention on the street."
"Oh, yes, One, you are."
Ajha nearly recoiled as the man grabbed his hands. "Oh, a Priest."
The Eunuch nodded. "It works better this way, to have someone who can feel the Fallen, and stand up to them, if necessary. Read them . . . if they get careless. I am Imha, assigned here to assist the Ambassador and keep the One informed." He tried hard to glare at Ajha. "You teach them too much of our fighting styles."
"And I learn much. We know they can fire up, speed up. We, hopefully, won't be taken by surprise, not expecting that, now. If you will excuse me, I need to confirm some things about our history with the Fallen."
To his dismay, he was also collecting the attention of the Fallen, the Arrivals, the Arbolians, the Purples . . . We are all related. All children of the Prophets or Those Left Behind.
Across the plaza, Xen Wolfson trotted down the steps of the Disco building and strode down the sidewalk to where the Comet Fall Ambassador was waiting at the foot of the steps to his embassy.
Ajha led his entourage over to them. "Ambassador Negue, I need to see the sites of the two battles, and if possible, collect some of their old recording equipment."
"Of course. Xen? Why don't you take him? Them?"
"Yes, sir." Xen grinned at the eleven guards. "Please keep all weapons holstered. I'll take you through the Gate, then teleport the entire group to a spot close to the battle thirteen years ago, then we'll go to the spot where we buried the Action Team, forty years ago. The first site is in our experimental gate area, under guard. We will be arriving at a tavern, frequented by the local troops. Do not overreact to their presence."
He turned and walked across to the Fallen gate. The termini of the gates had to be kept a safe distance from each other. Right now they were offset in three rings around the kilometer square plaza. Some physicists were concerned about the effect of so many in so small an area. The Fallen were considering shifting them all out to a more distant loop around the growing city.
"You're going to have to have tram runs and all sorts of civilized things, pretty soon."
"I know. Growing pains. Hiring a city manager and staff is under consideration." Xen stepped straight through his gate, and Ajha followed, in a crush of guards.
They'd changed the arrival spot, since he'd last been across. Now it was paved and landscaped. Instead of the circular enclosure, two more distant walls would allow defenders to concentrate a cross fire into the arriving area. Xen led them a few meters away and sudden they were on a different paved street, in front of a colorful steep-roofed building. Ajha remembered it well, from another location.
A couple of blue-and-gold uniformed fellows lazing on the porch jumped to their feet, then shook their heads and relaxed.
Xen looked surprised, though. "What are you guys doing here?"
"The brass figured we were perfect for guarding the area. Garit can make us practice charging through Gates and so forth, while we're hanging about. Need help?"
"Probably not. Is Harry in?"
"Yep, got back yesterday."
"Excellent. That'll probably save us a lot of work."
Ajha caught on and explained to Fiend and the Guards. "These are the cavalry with the magical horses. Very handy, that was."
"I heard about that, but didn't understand what the horses actually did." Captain Wrlo shot a glance at a pair of riders trotting down the street.
Xen waved them over, and the horses demonstrated their ability to form a flexible physical shield around themselves, and levitate over rough ground.
Ajha tried hard to not laugh as the guards lowered their mental shields enough to talk to the animals.
The disturbed guards finally followed Xen into the Tavern.
The Fallen was talking to a dark old man, who was pantomiming looking through absolutely nothing. "Ah, here you go. This is probably what they need." He handed over nothing, and Xen took it from him and walked to the big central table.
The Fiend was staring at the old man. Ajha grinned. She didn't believe me, about the Old Gods. He decided to not further disturb the Guards, and watched as Xen dumped his nothing onto the big round table. A pile of rolled belts with weapons removed and everything else left. A glittery cascade of micros.
"These were the officers'. We don't even know what the little things are for, but we collected a bunch before we buried everyone."
"Couldn't you tell?"
"No. I was still pretty green and anyway, full of holes and recuperating at home. The troops just took guesses at 'machines' vs 'decorations.' About two years later, we located One World and infiltrated to try and figure you lot out. We're still trying."
Ajha sorted out memory chips, mini recorders, communicators . . . even a larger field records camera. "May we take some of these? Most of these little memory chips will be personal stuff, logs, journals, letters they wrote and later sent home."
Xen exchanged looks with the old god.
Harry nodded. "Take it all. I've got another two bubbles with stuff taken from the common soldiers. Do you want to shift the bodies home, is that your custom?"
Ajha bit his lip. "I'll leave that in the hands of the authorities. Are they buried near?"
"About two miles north. You'll see the mounds on the right side of the road."
Large mounds. Two hundred soldiers.
Ajha looked at the field camera, triggered the playback. They watched the miniature massacre soberly, looking up occasionally to spot the real locations. When the Gate disappeared,
the situation became hopeless, and the officers started tapping at their communicators, and the soldiers started dropping dead. More than one tried to shoot their own officers. They failed. Then the officers turned their weapons on themselves. He switched it off.
"Father says he's got the equipment they took from your Action Team, as well." Xen sounded a bit quiet. They'd all seen how much blood he'd shed, in the battle here. No doubt he'd lost friends here, for the battle hadn't been that one-sided until the end, when the Fallen reinforcements arrived, and the Oners ran low on ammunition.
One of the Guards ran a scanner over the mounds, then they walked back to the Tavern and through a corridor to the village of Ash. A near replica of the Tavern had been built on the spot, and the Old Wolf, the God of War, waited for them on that porch. Again with a bag of nothing. They ordered lunch, and dumped the Fallen's gleanings. No field cams, but a few micro recorders that together could be used to reconstruct what had happened. Laser pistols, heavy old things with massive power storage.
"We were always puzzled that they sent so few people." The god didn't look much older than his son, until you looked in his bottomless eyes, and saw the length of the history that formed the man that stood before them.
"Eighteen trained killers?" Ajha shook his head. "We had a census of the village, so few grown men, so many women and children against those trained killers. Their plan was to go in quietly and start cutting throats. They figured they'd eliminate half the adults before the alarm was raised. Instead they got eaten by a pack of teenagers. We had two observers who escaped, you see. Not that their superiors believed their story. Poor fellows were in therapy for years and they still couldn’t quite dispel the belief that there really had been dragons . . . did a dozen teenage girls really turn into dragons, rape them, kill them, and then eat them?"
"Nine of the girls were dragons, the rest mostly witches. A few mage boys. Three boy dragons, but they ran away when the girls started changing. They knew about dragon mating habits."