by Ward Wagher
“And a good morning it is!” Roma cried. “How are things, Glenn?”
Foxworth looked at Roma suspiciously. “About as well as can be expected, Sir. I have not been able to replace any of the castle guard, since we haven’t paid the last batch yet.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Glenn. Things have a way of working out.”
“And why is that, Sir?”
Roma shrugged his shoulders and grinned at Foxworth. “I just have a feeling things will work out to our advantage. Let’s give things a few days and see if the situation improves. If nothing else, there should be the monthly stipend from my brother coming through.”
Foxworth turned his head and looked at Roma out of the corner of his eye. Okay, what is our idiot prince up to this time? I wonder if it has anything to do with that toll collector he just hired.
“Very well, Milord. Since you seem to be in a good mood, I’ll leave you to your day’s work.”
“Thank you, Prime Minister, and you have a great and wonderful day too.”
Foxworth eased out of duke’s office, and then trotted down the corridor to his office. He spoke to his secretary as he trotted through. “Please hold all my calls for the moment.”
He tapped out a number on the keypad of his desktop comm unit.
“Montora Castle.”
“This is Prime Minister Foxworth. May I have a few moments of the margrave’s time? It’s important.”
“Please wait, Sir. I will see if the margrave is available.”
Foxworth sat at his desk and drummed his fingers on the top.
“Why do I suspect I won’t be glad to hear from you, Prime Minister?” the voice suddenly came from the comm.
“Someday, Margrave, we must have a general conversation just to pass the time. Unfortunately it won’t be today.”
“Not again!”
“Indeed. Our mutual friend was disgustingly cheerful this morning. I discovered he had just hired one of your former toll collectors.”
“Zidowisc?”
“The same. I thought this was a bit of information you might find useful.”
“You have no idea, Prime Minister. I thank you.”
“There is little else I can do, is there?”
“You have been most helpful.”
“Very good, then, Margrave. I trust your day will be uneventful.”
“That is my desire.”
Frank disconnected and then tapped in a number.
“Ciera.”
“Still in Cambridge, Hai?”
“Yes, Skipper.”
“The duke has just hired Oscar Zidowisc. Foxworth said the duke was very cheerful.”
“I’m on it, Skipper. As soon as I locate him, I will let you know.”
“I think you are going to have to stay on him, Hai. This doesn’t sound good.”
“Agreed, Skipper.”
“Good. Thanks, Hai.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Hai Ciera quartered the streets of Cambridge. The charge on the accumulators was weakening and he had nothing to show for his efforts. He pulled out his hand-comm and dialed a number.
“Vos.”
“Justin, have you got a car with a charge on it? I need to swap with you for a while.”
“There is one here at the starport. What’s going on?”
Ciera looked out the window as he drove. “The duke just hired a toll collector the margrave ran out of town the other day. I don’t know what he is up to, but we’re concerned. I’m trying to track him down so I can keep tabs on him.”
“I’ll meet you at Rutledge Square,” Vos said. “I can be there in ten.”
“Great. I owe you big time, Justin.”
Vos disconnected and got up from behind his desk. He stepped from his office and went behind the counter of the FBO. The receptionist looked at him curiously as he grabbed the keycard to one of the vehicles.
“I’m going into town for a bit,” he explained.
Ciera pulled over to the curb behind Vos and got out of the car. Vos got out of his car and walked around to the sidewalk, where Ciera met him.
“Here you go, Hai. Is there something else I can help you with?”
“What I need is manpower, not to mention more vehicles.”
“Let me get this one back to the starport and get the accumulators recharged. My personal car is there and I’ll come back into town and do some looking as well. Do you have a pic?”
“I don’t know if that’s wise, Justin. The local gendarmes are used to seeing me snooping around and pretty much leave me alone. If they spot you, it could be trouble.”
“Let me take that chance. I think with the cops not being paid for months, they are not going to be too aggressive about anything the duke doesn’t like.”
“You may have a point there. Let me forward a pic to you. I’ve never seen him before myself, so it’ll be the blind leading the blind.. Stay in touch.”
Ciera climbed into the freshly charged ground car and began moving. He pulled out his comm again. He dialed the number for the keep at Montora Village.
“Montora Castle.”
“This is Commander Ciera. Is the margrave available?”
“One moment, Sir.”
Frank came on the line quickly. “What news, Hai?”
“Nothing so far, Frank. It’s like he dropped into a hole in the ground and covered it up after himself.”
“Do you think he is still in Cambridge?”
“I don’t see how he could have gotten out of town so quickly. He had a horse and wagon, according to Foxworth.”
“Well, stay on it. This makes me very nervous.”
“You and me both.”
“Wendy wants me to take her for a walk in the village, but I’ll have my comm with me.”
“Right, Skipper. We’ll find him.”
Daphne is embarrassed.”
Frank looked at his wife as they strolled through the village plaza. “Daphne embarrassed? Our Daphne?”
“She has decided our former toll collectors were siphoning off even more of the revenue than she estimated.”
“And this is based upon what?”
She smiled as one of the little girls in the village trotted up and handed her a flower. She patted her on the head. “Thank you, Sweetie.” The girl trotted off again. “Based upon the uptick in the revenue in the past two weeks since Major Boodles’ people have manned the stations.”
“In some ways it’s surprising,” Frank said. “That kind of graft requires a degree of organization I wouldn’t have thought Hercules and Oscar capable of.”
“What are they doing now?”
“Oh, the major sent a drone out to take a look at Hercules’ crew. They have begun building a camp. That’s pretty smart too. They don’t know exactly where they are, so they are taking care of food and shelter.”
“So you are now admitting you underestimated them?” Wendy gave him a broad smile.
He stepped a little to one side and bumped her with a hip. She didn’t move far, for she was a solid lady. “I think we would be wise to keep an eye on them, but Hercules Jones is no threat at the moment. Now, Zidowisc high-tailed it to Cambridge, I assume he tattled to Guilietto. That we will have to pay attention to.”
“Has Hai talked to his sources?”
“Hai is out looking for him. No news as yet. I’m not too worried about Oscar by himself. It’s when I get these calls from the prime minister, I start taking things seriously.”
“Would he come out here?”
“Who? Oscar? I don’t know why he would. Most of the Regiment knows what he looks like. He wouldn’t get far into the valley.”
Frank looked around the plaza as they walked. Nesmith followed unobtrusively. Most of the spring flowers in the planters were blooming and it looked like a decent number of tourists were in the village. “People seem to get a little nervous around the troopers from the Baltic Regiment. Probably a good thing they stick to their encampment mostly.�
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“I can understand that. And I have had enough of guns and things for a while.” She leaned into him and squeezed his arm. “I had to learn there were some things I simply cannot do.”
“I cannot tell you how delighted I am to see you getting back on an even keel. You had me frightened.”
She squeezed again. “Thanks for staying by me. That first night was awful.”
“Amen. Speaking of which, here comes the Father Riggs.”
The little priest marched across the plaza with purpose in his step. “Oh Margrave, may I have a word?”
“Of course, Father. Anytime you need.”
“I was planning some special meetings in the village church and I discovered I needed your permission to bring in a special speaker.”
Frank glanced at Wendy and then looked at the priest again. “I assume you have talked to the seneschal about this?”
“Yes and he told me you had the final decision.”
Funny, I didn’t know that. I’m still learning things about this place. “What kind of meetings are you planning?”
“I wanted to have two weeks of meetings in the evenings and present the gospel.”
“So you want to just have somebody preach? Why can’t you do that yourself?”
“The village is used to hearing me. I thought someone different might catch their attention.”
Frank smiled. “You are not talking about snake handlers and dervishes in the plaza?”
Riggs looked shocked. “Of course not, Margrave! What do you think we are? No, we just want to tell people about Jesus Christ and how He can save them from their sins.”
“I’m just pulling your chain, Father. Go ahead, I know you are a careful man.”
“Thank you, Margrave. The Right Reverend Morgan Campbell is coming through from New Stockholm. He has agreed to preach for us before he begins his vacation here. I would be grateful if you could attend.”
Frank shook his head. “I am not sure I could do that without disturbing your meeting…”
“Oh, the people would be delighted to have you attend.”
“As you know, Father, I am not really comfortable in those kinds of meetings…”
He was about to say something more when a large insect buzzed by him. He raised his arm to swat at it when Wendy gave a loud cough. He looked over at her to see that it wasn’t an insect, but a sleepy-dart had whizzed by him and embedded itself in her throat. Rather than immediately going to sleep, her eyes were wide open as her legs started to collapse under her.
She swung around on the arm hooked in Frank’s arm, but he could not get a grasp on her. Riggs stepped around to get her other arm and they eased her to the ground. Nesmith had his pistol out and was scanning the plaza. “Margrave you need to get down.” He pulled his radio out. “Code Six, Purser is down. We need backup and a crash cart.”
Frank cradled Wendy’s head in his hands. “Who is shooting sleepy darts around here?”
Wendy drew two shuddering breaths and stopped breathing. Riggs looked down, then put his ear to her chest. “Sweet blessed virgin, her heart’s stopped! Can you do CPR?”
Frank nodded numbly.
“Okay, support her neck to keep the airway clear.” Riggs yelled across the plaza, “Get a doctor down here!” Then he started the chest compressions. After every eight, he would stop and Frank gave two quick breaths in her mouth. Nesmith was hovering over them with his gun out and making rapid circular scans of the area. Frank worked mechanically as the world seemed to recede. He was starting to feel dizzy and it seemed like there were pinpricks on his arms and legs.
“Stay with me, Margrave,” Riggs said. “I need you with me.”
Frank shook his head to clear it. “I’ve lost her.”
“Don’t say that. Stay with me.”
Several of the villagers in the plaza had run over to them. They stood there, but said nothing.
In about three minutes a regimental aircar came screaming in to the plaza. A four man team erupted from the car and ran over to where Frank and Riggs worked on Wendy. They quickly removed equipment from the cases and set up.
“Okay, Father and Margrave, we can take over.” The two corpsmen slid into place with the smoothness of professionals. The other two stood guard.
There was a scream from behind them. Yasmin Gris ran across the plaza. “Not Wendy! Oh, no!”
Riggs jumped up and walked quickly to Gris. “All we can do is pray at this point, Mayor.”
“What happened?”
“Poison dart, I think.”
With a whine, one of the electric trucklets came to a stop beside them. Blakely, and Eden jumped out. Four of the castle guards jumped out of the back.
“Margrave, what happened?” Blakely said.
Frank stared down at Wendy. “It was just an insect. I heard it and then she coughed. Just an insect.”
Blakely looked at the priest. “What is he talking about.”
“She got hit by a dart. We thought it was a sleepy dart.”
Blakely pulled his pocket com out and punched a number. “Major Boodles, we have somebody running around with a dart gun. He got Wendy. Can you get a team out to close the area down?” He listened for a moment. “Right. We don’t know. It doesn’t look good. Okay. Thanks.”
Nesmith pointed to the four castle guards. “Start quartering the area. Look for someone you don’t recognize as from here. Look for the air gun.”
Nesmith whirled suddenly at the sound of running. He checked his swing as he recognized Daphne pelting across the plaza. “I just heard! What happened?” She stopped and stared down at Wendy. “No!”
Frank was watching as a very sober corpsman looked up at him and shook his head. Yasmin Gris began weeping again, and Daphne bent over in wrenching sobs. Frank just remained there on his knees.
“Come on, Margrave, we need to get you under cover,” Blakely said. He grasped Frank’s arm, but Frank didn’t move.
“It was just an insect.”
“Frank, we need to go.”
“No. We have got to get Wendy more help. It was just an insect.”
Riggs got in front of Frank and grabbed both arms. “Margrave! Listen to me. We lost her. The corpsmen will bring her to the keep. Now we need to get you out of here.”
“No! She will be fine. Get something for the insect sting. Wendy, can you hear me, honey? Wendy? You’re going to be all right.”
“Come on, Frank.”
“No, we’ve got to take care of Wendy.” He started thrashing around. “Let go. I. need. to. stay. here.”
Riggs looked around at the corpsman and pointed to his head. The corpsman nodded and opened his bag. He connected an ampoule to the air syringe. He got to his feet and slipped behind Frank. Frank appeared not to notice the hiss of the medication going into his arm, but he stopped talking.
“Thanks.”
“It won’t put him out, Father, but you should be able to walk him back to the keep. I need to take care of the… body.”
Another aircar screamed into the plaza. By this time some of the tourists were coming out of the Inn. Major Boodles jumped out of the aircar and ran over to the group huddled over Wendy.
“I cannot believe this! We lost her?”
The corpsman nodded. “Poison of some kind, I think. I had to trank the margrave.”
Boodles dropped to one knee to look at Wendy. He stood up again with tears running down his face. “Whatever are we going to do now?” he said to no one in particular.
“I assume you want an autopsy?” the corpsman asked.
Blakely grimaced. “I don’t want it, but we need to find out what the poison was. Father, I assume you can make funeral arrangements after…”
“I understand,” Riggs said. “I will take care of things.”
Frank spoke in a monotone, “I do not know what to do.”
“We’ve got to get him back to the keep,” Blakely said. “Eden, give me a hand.”
Gerry and Eden each took an arm and gu
ided Frank to the trucklet. They strapped him in the passenger seat and Gerry climbed in to drive.
Nesmith pointed at two of the guards. “You and you; go with them. I need to coordinate the search.”