Wine of the Gods 26: Embassy

by Pam Uphoff

  Xen pinched the bridge of his nose. "She came here? Of course she did. I'll bet Mom had a fit. I hope they sit on her for a month."

  "Don't discount her stubbornness." Easterly said. "If she said two weeks, she probably means fourteen days."

  Inso and Lon headed upstairs. Two women stuck their heads out of offices and then joined them.

  "This is our in-house library." Xen led them into a large room with more shelves than books. "All our survey reports, plus we're trying to collect history books from every inhabited World we find. Now, you call your World Earth, so we can eliminate notes on Dinosaur Worlds and probably Mammoth Worlds?"

  "Absolutely."

  "And you said you were from 'America', do you mean North or South America, or the United States of America?"

  "United States."

  "Okay. Do you recall a meteor impact in Siberia in 1908 or there abouts?"

  "The Tunguska Event? Couple of hundred square miles of timber flattened? Yep, and the rain of fire in 2159. Burned most of the west coast of North America—a couple thousand white hot meteors rained down during a drought."

  "Yikes! Okay, let's see if this rain of fire is in any of the Tunguska sector histories."

  They attacked the shelves.

  "Who's the President of the World?" Julianne asked.

  "World!" Phillips looked at her in shock. "Oh, don't tell me you have the One World Government thing!"

  "Don't tell me you're mired back in the MAD era, with nations ready to kill each other at the touch of a button?"

  "It's a bit harder to do than that, and we haven't had a war for nearly forty years." Albrecht looked through the index of a book and shook her head.

  "Wait, how about wars?" Xen pulled another book of the shelves. "Twentieth Century. World War One, 1914 to 1918? First use of airplanes in combat. The Red Baron? Okay. World War Two. Surprise attack on Pearl Harbor? The United States of America dropped two atomic bombs on Japan?"

  "World War Three was named retroactively, and encompassed a lot of diplomacy, puppet wars, and MAD." Hanger said. "World War Four, 2001 to 2024. Started when airplanes full of people were flown into buildings full of people. Ended with a nuclear exchange in the Middle East.

  Hanger nodded and took over. "World War Five, started with threats of nuclear exchange in South East Asia, then the South American Quetzals got their hands on some nukes and blew up Bogota, Mexico City, and were barely stopped in Southern California."

  "No, they didn't hit Bogota. Er, that is, that sounds like where our worlds start splitting, apparently." Lon sighed. "Did you have much genetic engineering?"

  "It was outlawed right about then. Actually, a couple of decades before Bogota." Albrecht was frowning. "What does genetic engineering have to do with anything?"

  Deena tapped a chapter in the book Albrecht was reading. "On Lon's Earth they exiled the genetically engineered through gates."

  They all shook their heads. "I've never heard of such a thing, taking such a risk."

  "What risk?" Deena was looking highly amused.

  "Umm, the engineering was said to unbalance the mind. There were some very dangerous people who were rumored to have been engineered." Lancing was frowning. "In the US, they sterilized all the engineered. A World full of the descendants would be some species of Hell."

  Xen scratched his chin. "Well, we call it Comet Fall, not Hell, but Inso has been known to insult us. Now my poor unbalanced brain says we need to look at the Worlds that are close to our gated Earth. I'll take a look, but unless there's something obvious there, it'll be mostly guesswork."

  Hanger eyed them puzzled. "So this Q isn't the only person who can open gates?"

  "Oh, bunches of us can open gates. It's opening them to the right place that's the whole trick, and her specialty. She's got some understudies, but no one who can replace her yet." Xen looked around at the sound of footsteps. "Ah. Mr. Montgomery. Back again?"

  Inso leaned and whispered. "Ambassador from Warmonger Earth."

  "Infuriated. Where the hell are all the rest of the soldiers and what else have you done to them?"

  "As you saw yourself, most of them freaked out and bolted. In their present forms they can eat grass, and there are no predators here, so eventually we'll find them all. Umm, are there additional problems? What sort?"

  The man turned bright red. "Of a, umm, reproductive nature."

  "Re . . . oh. Dear me. Did Q toss a sex change spell on some of the soldiers too? That's a bad one. It has to work completely through, which takes three months, before it can be reversed, which takes another three months. Have your troops troop through here in three months and we'll fix them up—so long as they aren't pregnant." Xen looked innocently at the red-faced ambassador.

  "The last few men you've . . . morphed said there were problems among the goats out there."

  "Oh dear. Goats can be a bit . . . Well, as I said, you can send unarmed search parties out looking for them, before the problems get any worse. And don't worry, the changes are just physical, not genetic. If any of the goats have babies they'll be just as human as their parents. Hmm. I'm not actually sure what they'll look like. They'll be genetically human."

  The ambassador gritted his teeth. "The Geneva Conventions, in the sections dealing with POWs specifically mentions preventing rape among the prisoners."

  "Are you really citing the conventions, again?"

  The ambassador reddened further and stomped away. A young woman named Nighthawk swooped in to deliver keys and tell them how to find the little cabins, the privies, the baths and the dining hall.

  Albrecht eyed her dark skinned beauty and relaxed a bit.

  "It's these insane Fallen." Inso said. "They think there's something wrong with having everything in the same building. Comes from having never invented the flush toilet, I expect."

  "We have flush toilets, thankyouverymuch. It's horribly unhygienic to have it right there where you're brushing your teeth and how can you enjoy a long hot soak in the same room? Eww!" Nighthawk made a face.

  They argued amiably for a while, with Xen stepping out to change another goat into a naked and embarrassed young man.

  Hanger shivered. It looked so convincing.

  And it kept happening, off and on for the two weeks. He got used to people coming and going from various gates, accepted that some people had purple hair and skin tones not otherwise found outside of morgues. And that the Arbolians had a 'Major God' who looked to be half warthog with illusions all over his skin like pictures of the surface of the Sun, complete with drifting sunspots and plasma loops.

  They all got lessons in the cultures and governments of Comet Fall, One World and Warmonger Earth before a worried looking group of people escorted the infamous Q through the gate from Comet Fall. Raven and the black haired girl from the Tavern were both in the group.

  Hanger eyed Q, pale beneath naturally warm skin tones, and then the taller-broader-muscular-older version of Xen hovering over her, and leaned toward Inso. "Xen's sister, right?"

  Jiol snickered. "Pretty obvious, isn't it? And yes, that's their father looming, and their mother on the far side."

  "I'll be fine. Old Gods, I'll let you guys do the work, okay?" This Q was apparently not inclined to recline on her couch and be babied. She walked over and shook hands firmly. "Sorry about the delay. Did Xen drag you through the histories? Could you locate a split?"

  "They're in the Tunguska group. Middle of WW five, their Bogota got blown up, Warmonger Earth's didn't." Xen told her. "Apparently much less genetic engineering, sterilization instead of exile, but there are a few loose genes around. Captain Hanger's a mage."

  "Well, we know where to start looking then." Q walked over to the nearest empty arch. "If you have a preference for which arch, we can move the gate later. It's a pain in the ass, but even Xen could manage to drag one across the plaza in fifteen minutes or so." The siblings exchanged grins.

  "Now, we need to know where on your World you'd like the gate put. No guarante
es, I'm not at my best today, but I might as well try to get it on the right part of the right continent."

  "North America. East Coast, somewhere around DC, for the diplomats, I suppose?" Hanger looked at Albrecht, who nodded.

  "Andrews Air Force Base, southeast of DC, or Fort Meade northeast. Perhaps."

  Xen's father looked surprised. "Those existed fourteen hundred years ago."

  "Err, no sir, two hundred, roughly." Phillips looked confused. "Fourteen hundred years, that'd be like, the ninth century or so."

  "Interesting. The Oners have a theory that time doesn't flow at the same speeds everywhere—until they are linked by a gate. If your Earth split off before Earth's first gate it may have experienced time differently. I'll have to see what the Astronomers think of that. Now, let's see about a gate." She sat down cross-legged and closed her eyes.

  Her father, Xen and five other people who hadn't been introduced all sat as well.

  "Don't disturb the hippy meditation." Julianne led them off a dozen meters. "The Earth's gate apparatus has a dedicated 50 gigawatt powerplant and involves superconducting magnets and deforming magnetic fields. It employs eight thousand people. It opens temporary gates, that collapse as soon as the power is cut."

  "Our Earth—what they are calling Warmonger Earth these days—attacked these people twice. One elderly mage with a bad heart died in the first battle. I believe that and nearly killing Q last winter are the only casualties we've managed to inflict upon them." Lon shook his head. "Warn your government that these nice, but somewhat zany people may still ride horses and carry swords, but they are none-the-less extremely powerful. And seriously worth getting on your side. My poor World hasn't even realized they're in a hole yet, let alone considered the concept of 'stop digging.' It's embarrassing."

  Inso and Jiol had sat down with the others, but Inso huffed angrily after five minutes and stood back up. "I can't feel a thing. A couple of them seem to be doing healing diagnostic sorts of things, but even trying that doesn't do me any good at all. All I see is the sad state of my liver."

  Lancing grinned. "They can probably fix your liver."

  "They already did. Now I'm working at getting it back into the shape I'm used to."

  "See the Earth? And how it cuts across all of these?" Q's clear voice brought all their heads around. "I think the one we're looking for will be down there, in the direction the Earth is diverting from."

  One of the men they hadn't met spoke up. "What are those shiny lines on that one?"

  "Corridors. And see this crimp? That's where a gate used to connect. It'll smooth out over a couple of years. I think that's a very good prospect. Now Mom, Dad, go catch some cones."

  Inso cussed and brought out a small pocket comp and started pecking away. "Go catch some cones." He muttered something about cursed Fallen under his breath.

  "Spying." Lon said. "It's no use even pretending that those of us that serve with the Fallen aren't learning everything we can. I expect your Earth will send a couple of people. We live in terror of the Arbolians sending some of their version of policemen."

  "The thing is, the Arbolians are also an Exile World. They have essentially the same genes as the Fallen. We're going to purely hate it when they learn how to gate like this." Inso scowled. "And I've heard that Xen changed the genes of all those kids he fathered on One, so we can't even raise up a crop of gaters."

  "I think I'll seduce him before I transfer back home." Jiol kept a straight face as Inso glared.

  "Let's put it right where the old one was." Q said suddenly. "There seems to be a bunch of people there investigating and on guard and so forth. Orion? A shield, in case they start shooting, please."

  Hanger narrowed his gaze at the brilliant spark in the arch. It spun out larger and filled the arch completely. He nudged Albrecht. "What do you see on the other side?"

  "A bunch of soldiers scrambling around and pointing guns this way." Albrecht walked forward and pulled out her badge and held it up to the gate for a long moment. The people sitting around were stirring. "Can I pass through?"

  "Yep. Go see if this is the right World." Xen stood up.

  "It is. There's my boss, beaming from ear to ear—whoops, he got it under control. Scowling at me. "

  "May I come and introduce myself?"

  "Umm, give me a second to explain things." Albrecht stepped forward and disappeared, and Lancing and Phillips followed.

  Hanger stepped back onto the same asphalt topped road he walked nearly three weeks before. He subdued an impulse to kiss it.

  ". . . cow when he realized you hadn't gotten tossed through with the rest." This must be Albrecht's boss.

  "Looks familiar." Lancing looked around in satisfaction, and pulled out his phone. "I think I'll call my wife."

  Hanger considered his lack of anyone to call, and then dialed the Chief of Police. Miss Brown, his snooty aide, answered, as always. "Hi Brownie. Hanger. Tell the Boss I'm back, but don't know when I'll be reporting for work, ditto, Lancing. Has Master checked in?"

  The pictured swung wildly and settled on the chief. "Yes, Master's checked in. What have you been doing for the last two weeks?"

  "Liaising with the Dimension Cops. I've got names for most of the raiders, they want them just as much as we do. The Universe just got very . . . " a large hand swiped the phone out of his hand.

  "Stop that. Every news outlet in the World is out there listening in on everything they can." Inspector Danzinger looked his normal self.

  "Sir, they're talking diplomacy, trade, us assigning people to the Dimension cops and so forth. Might as well let everyone know and get the culture shock over with. May a representative of the dimensional cops—I'm afraid they acronymed to Disco—come through?"

  Danzinger and the other Fed swapped looks. Albrecht must have just got to about the same point.

  "One. One single person."

  "Right. I'll go tell him." Hanger gritted his teeth and stepped back into the whirlpool. The group on the other side had broken up into chattering groups.

  Inso came down the steps, a familiar file in hand. "Don't forget the Whores de Combat. See you around."

  "Oh, good. Xen, they said one person could come through."

  "Righto. Now watch me turn into a diplomat." He led the way through the whirlpool. "I'm quite good at it, honestly."

  Albrecht introduced him around, and Hanger spotted a fully tricked out tech vehicle. "Can you scan these? We figured the computers would be incompatible so we printed everything."

  The young Fed inside eyed the thick folder and looked over at, probably, his boss and got a nod. "Right. Rap sheets and reports. Umm, hot stuff, eh?"

  Hanger nodded. "Yep. They know and do not love our raiders. There's only a few of them we don't have names for, now. Unfortunately that includes one of the older ones that we think could be their leader. They are a criminal gang from a World called Comet Fall. The Fallen, as they're called, have like, a natural affinity for multi-dimensional stuff, and a few of them can make gates. One of the few has gone bad."

  Albrecht led Xen and the Feds over, and they started looking at the raiders' pictures and information.

  "These places they are from?" Danzinger tapped a page.

  "Countries on my World. The Kingdom of the West and Verona are roughly a third each of North America. The Cove Islands are a large string not unlike Hawaii, but closer to South America. Auralia—central and south America—has recently fractured, we don't actually know which areas these four women are from originally. Only this one fellow is a complete unknown." Xen pulled out a sketch of a dark haired man.

  "We have semen and some blood and tissue samples from their raid in DC, and our raid on their house here in New York State." Danzinger said. "Would that be of any assistance? We shot your unknown fellow—very strange DNA."

  "Probably means he's another Comet Fall wizard, but yes it would help."

  Danzinger leafed through the next five files and stopped at the last. "This fellow—Duke Kil
e Rivolte—we didn't see him in either encounter, but this is the fellow that owns the holding company that bought the publisher and recommended those pirated books. I talked to him three days ago. Mister James H. Faraday. I think it's time to see a judge about a warrant."

  Xen looked thoughtful. "May I come along? I, umm, understand about corridors and gates and some odd effects that we lump under the convenient name of magic, although of course it's not."

  "As an observer. Well to the rear." Danzinger eyed him.

  "Yes sir."

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  1 Shaban 1401

  Paris, One World

  "Inso passed on the DNA sample for identification." Rael flashed the gene charts on the wall screen. "The geneticists are throwing fits. Because this is undeniably Princess Rior, lost and marooned on Comet Fall over twenty years ago. But she's had genetic engineering. Added the Comet Fall Power genes, among others. And according to reports, is passing as male."

  "A trained Princess."

  "Yes. And her Princess School records show that she concentrated on both mental influence and battle magic. She—or he—is very dangerous. With spotty Comet Fall genetic changes. Three power collection genes." Rael sat back and stared at Urfa. "I know you want to keep me as your big surprise, but when they find this person, I'd better be there. I know how she's been trained."

  Urfa rubbed his face. "I think Ajki's about got the spy mission to Purple set up. So you won't be a secret much longer. Rael . . . Dammit, don't get yourself killed. Please."

  "I'll do my best." She refrained from throwing in a giggle. "I trained to be able to beat Princesses. And damn near anyone else as well."

  Urfa nodded. "Well, don't forget that nasty slice spell of yours. I'm not sure but I'd rather have her dead than alive. I suspect she could be difficult to keep arrested."

  Rael nodded. "Especially if we don't get the whole gang. They've managed one prison break already. I don't see any need to see if they'd try a second rescue."

  Urfa leaned back with a dissatisfied grunt. "At least they've got Quicksilver back. I know they don't have many gate makers . . . but all this depends on a single person? Now that's scary."