“By the way, Evella, you were using the alyen's services on Space Station RES, right?” The second man gave the woman a hard stare which she ignored, along with the question.
“That explains a few information leaks,” he added. “You must learn to be more careful when it comes to answering queries put to you by a clever man-whore, woman! Did you not realize that he was pumping you?”
Evella merely wrinkled her nose, and turned to the first man.
“If you manage to trap him,” she said, her eyes suddenly animated, “can I have the whore for my amusement, Geof? You owe me a chance to have a bit of fun, husband. You always have low-class women at hand to pleasure you when you're bored with me. But I'm not allowed to play with any of the citizens, and there have been very few suitable slaves about, lately.”
“You're not allowed to maul male citizens because your tastes in 'play' are on the crass side, Evella,” the man she had called Geof replied coolly. “But yes, we can give you the whore—if you agree to control yourself so as to not damage him too much. At least not until we have the girl securely in our hands, working for us. After that, why would I care what you do with him?”
**
“Coryn,” Jillian interrupted a story about Joe's home world Paxic IV with which her husband was entertaining the table. “Look over there at the three people who are just leaving. Don't they look familiar—at least the couple? I'm not sure about the other man.”
Coryn turned to glance in the indicated direction as Joe sputtered into silence. His wife's tone explained her rudeness; Joe knew Jillian well enough to realize that she had seen something significant.
“Oh hell!” Coryn exclaimed. “Geof and Evella Copoz, I believe. Or that's what they were calling themselves on Space Station RES, where they booked the services of the most expensive alyens and alyenas, every time they visited. He's pretty highly placed among The Organization's Elite, in the second highest tier, I believe. What are they doing here in Trahea Port? They must know that anything that they might try to pull off here won't succeed. Everybody's on the alert for their kind!”
He watched the threesome go, trying to etch into his memory the looks of the man he was unfamiliar with, knowing that Jillian was doing the same. Once the three were out of sight, he relaxed into his chair—at least somewhat—and shook his head.
“I got stuck with that woman a few times; apparently after the first time I serviced her, she started asking for me. It was useful; she talked, wasn't at all careful. But there was a price: she liked her sex rough, rough on the alyen, that is. Mind you, it cost her—or her husband—too; I wasn't going to put up with that kind of shit for small change. If I hadn't been an Agent, and pumping her for information, I wouldn't have tolerated her for any amount of money.”
“Damn, Coryn, are you saying that you took abuse on the job?” Joe asked, sounding angry and incredulous. “That's got to be beyond the pale!”
Coryn shrugged.
“If it hadn't been me, it would have been one of the younger, more easily cowed alyens. And I knew how to get her talking about what she knew about the goings-on in The Organization's top echelons. One of the other guys started calling her Evil Evella, and the name stuck; that's how we always referred to her—behind her back, of course.”
“Did you know about this sort of thing, Jill?” Joe asked his wife.
“I did hear stories during my days in the Academy,” she answered. “I didn't have the personality to work undercover as a sex-provider, so I was never briefed on the requirements for that job. But I did understand that the alyens, and the alyenas could refuse assignments which they considered objectionable.”
“Of course we could,” Coryn agreed. “Only, if I refused a difficult assignment, then one of the less experienced alyens would end up with it. He would get less information from Evil Evella, at a much higher cost to his health, both mental and physical. Granted, spies are hardly the paragons of virtue; telling lies is an intrinsic part of the job, for one thing. But, we do care about our colleagues, and those of us in the sex-trade made an effort to look after one another. Once you were a veteran you took on more of the difficult work, leaving the easier cases for those who were still learning the ropes.
“I had been in the business for a good while when I first encountered Evil Evella. I figured that I could handle what she was into. And I did, and got information from her for The Agency—quite a lot, actually; she really was careless, besides being arrogant. Mind you, she's one thing about the job which I don't miss at all!”
Sarah had grabbed Coryn's hand when he had began to talk about Evil Evella, and now found that she was squeezing his fingers tightly.
“You've never spoken of that before,” she said, biting her lip.
She realized that the words sounded almost accusatory.
He gave her a long look.
“Why would I have?” he asked. “Everyone lives through unpleasant experiences, for whatever reason. Besides, it's over and done with.”
He pried his hand from Sarah's grasp and placed the arm around her shoulders, instead. He grinned wryly.
“It does sort of throw cold water on the attitudes of the fellows—and there are plenty of them—who think that being an alyen on Space Station RES is some kind of a dream job,” he added.
“Hell, just try telling Kyle that,” Joe muttered. “Every time he has the occasion to talk about you he complains that 'some guys', as he puts it, 'have all the luck. And what does Coryn see in that black-haired chit?'”
“Hah!” Coryn burst out laughing. “We met him on the way here, and he actually wolf-whistled at Sarah! Maybe that'll put an end to his bullshit-peddling for a while!”
“Kyle will have to learn to watch his mouth if he wants a girlfriend,” Texi opined. “The smart women are put off by sexist prattle.”
“Amen,” said Joe. “Though I do remember talking trash myself, on occasion, before Jillian straightened me out.”
“I'm still straightening you out, sweetheart,” Jillian said. “And probably will be clearing out Paxic IV mannerisms from your repertoire for years to come.”
“Some woman will, sooner or later, see Kyle's heart of gold, underneath the crap,” Coryn said lightly. “She'll teach him a few things, just like you, Jill, have taught Joe. And he'll turn into a model spouse who will wonder why he walked around sounding like a sex-starved idiot.”
The banter about Kyle eased Sarah's tension somewhat. There had been something about the trio whom Jillian and Coryn had fingered as Organization people that had disturbed her, and Coryn's tale about Evil Evella had upset her equilibrium further. Of course, his comment about it being the past had been correct. Evil Evella and her companions had nothing to do with her and Coryn's present, or with their future. But....
“Coryn, Jillian, one of you is reporting the presence of those three Neotsarians to Port Security, right?” she asked.
“I can do it right now,” Jillian replied immediately, pulling out her personal com from her evening bag. “I wasn't going to ruin the dinner with it; I meant to wait for the first private moment I had. But if you're feeling uneasy, Sarah.... You're the Witch. I take your intuitive leaps seriously.”
CHAPTER THREE
The Guru Johannes and the Greencat caught a ride from Ferhil Stones with Coryn when he left Sarah there.
“I could have stayed longer,” the Guru explained, when he asked Coryn if he and the animal could get a lift to the Port. “But my good friend, here, has trouble with the daytime heat.”
He caressed the cat's sleek fur as he spoke.
“We'll go back to Altec III, and see how everyone there is. The Confederation Government has offered to help the settlers there, did you know that, Coryn?”
“No, I didn't know that. Are they facilitating travel?”
“That's one of the things being done,” the Guru replied. “Also, there are offers of training, and schooling, I understand.”
“The Settlement people will be able to get th
e their ship's repairs finished then, without any further help from Sarah and Joe,” Coryn commented. “The two of them were wondering whether it would begin mouldering again, now that their expertise is not there anymore.”
The topic had come up during the other morning's dinner, as had the ignorance about the basic facts of life which some of the Settlement girls had displayed.
“You need not worry about that vehicle,” said the Guru. “Nor of any of the others.
“And tell that prickly, but intelligent, and compassionate Jillian Ashton that she need not fret about the young girls in the Settlement, either. The women in my town decided to descend upon that one, and to give the Elders some lessons on how to bring up girls. The last I heard, the Settlement women had welcomed them with open arms.”
Coryn, at the controls of the flit, threw his head back and laughed.
“Come into the Office for a few minutes, and tell her yourself,” he said. “Jill will love it!
“By the way, when are you leaving? If you need a place to sleep at the Port, I believe that we have spare beds, once again, in the Official Residence. I'm leaving for Space Station ASC in hours, but my replacement, Fiana Marsh, is a very gracious hostess, in spite of her pregnancy.”
Guru Johannes shook his head.
“I believe that I'm booked on the same mega-liner to ASC as you are. I had Witch Alta, who handles the receptionist duties at Ferhil Stones, do the booking since she's much more experienced with the communications technology than I am, and she told me when she was done, that not only had I been routed through Station ASC where the Agency Headquarters is, but that you would be travelling on the same ship.. When I marvelled at the coincidence, she said that it was not anything of the sort, but simply due to the fact that there never were many ships picking up passengers, or goods, at the Trahea Port. Most of them were simply getting maintenance done, in order to continue their journey safely.”
Coryn was amused to note that Witch Alta had been curious enough to check the list of passengers getting on the liner at Trahea Port, when she had done the booking. The Witches often behaved as if they had no interest whatsoever, in the doings of the Terrans, even of the ones living in Trahea. However, that had been changing since the Lina-caper, as the Neotsarian attempt to interfere with the anomalous moon, Lina, was commonly known. Jaime, the brilliant Terran scientist, and now the Head of the new Institute of Kordean Studies, had added his expertise to the knowledge of the Kordean wise women, to foil the attempt, and that had affected the greenhoods' attitudes.
“That's about how it is,” Coryn said. “For the longest time we, the Terrans, had little interest in this planet, and Kordeans were contemptuous of us in return. I've always marvelled that the Port has managed to keep a large maintenance staff at a pit stop its size, when Terrans did not want to come here, and most Kordeans had no interest in leaving, even temporarily, like to study space ship mechanics. Joe Ashton claims that it has been done by training the locals to do all the flit and flyer maintenance; that leaves the ship mechanics free to concentrate on the space-going vessels. But he also thinks that there should be a training facility for ship mechanics at this Port, and I agree with him.”
“But you haven't lobbied for it?” the Guru asked.
“I haven't had the time,” Coryn sighed. “And with Ry Marcues turning into an officious idiot, I have no idea when I will.”
“Did he tell you why he is so interested in talking to you, face to face?”
“No.” Coryn shook his head. “Basically, he just pulled rank on me, and insisted that I show up—he wanted me to leave right away, but I was not about to abandon Sarah without notice.”
He sighed again.
“Sarah suggested,” he added, “that I could leave the Agency job while remaining as the Chief Liaison Officer, but I worry that if I do so, I'll end up outside of the Agency loop. To keep Sarah safe, and the Circle Witches aware of what the Agents find out about the Neotsarians, I need access to inside information. The Agency is under no obligation to share their knowledge with a Diplomatic Corps Employee, but as long as I'm an Agent with the responsibility for the amarto-angle, I have to be told about any developments concerned with it.”
“Is there any known reason why this Marcues has turned so difficult?”
Coryn took a moment from sliding over the Kordean thermals with the flit, to glance at the white-haired man. He looked perfectly relaxed, merely satisfying his curiosity. However, Coryn did not believe that for even a moment. The Guru Johannes was a smooth operator, and, the Agent suspected, could access information in ways even more esoteric than those of the Witches.
“Jillian thinks that Marcues is envious and jealous of me,” Coryn replied with a shake of his head, “and Jillian is a sharp observer of people. But, even if she's right, harassing me makes no sense. I'm Marcues' underling just as much as anyone else in the Agency; my successes are his successes. He gave me the control over the amarto-angle, for which I'm grateful, since it has been my ticket to a higher profile, and led to the Liaison Officer role—and also to falling in love with Sarah. But gratitude takes you only so far, especially when it starts looking like the person you have reason to feel grateful to, starts to throw obstacles in the path of performing your duties.
“I'm not happy saying this, but what it has begun to look like to me is that Marcues is strewing boulders in my path, the very path he pointed me onto, and I don't know why he is doing it.
“Really, I should be staying on Kordea, keeping tabs on Sarah, and all The Organization Hounds and Elites who, lately, seem to have been finding their way to Trahea.”
“Elites?” The Guru sounded surprised.
Coryn glanced at the old man from the corner of one eye. He found the Guru disconcerting; there were times when he seemed to know the contents of other people's minds, and, at others, not be aware of something that he should have heard with his physical ears. Sarah and Coryn had told Marlyss, in the Guru's presence about the three Neotsarians whom they had seen at the restaurant in the Palace Hotel. Coryn had thought that it was important for Marlyss to know about their existence, and had made a point of bringing it up when he had passed (surreptitiously, so as not to irritate Sarah more than was necessary) the responsibility for the student Witch to the Eldest of the Twelve.
“There were three of them in the fancy Port restaurant to which I took Sarah and four other celebrants, two nights ago,” he now explained. “Jillian Ashton and I recognized two of the three as Elites that we had come across, earlier.”
“Ah, yes. Of course. I wonder if they're going to show up on the ship to ASC that we'll be taking....”
Guru Johannes subsided into a silence, and turned to caress the neck of the Greencat which was seated on the flit floor, beside him. (Wedged between the seat and the passenger side front panel, looking imperturbable, in spite of having squeezed into a small space. There would have been more space for her in the back, but she had chosen to settle next to the Guru.) Coryn said nothing further, sure that the man and the animal were communicating with each other. Sarah could communicate with the Greencat, although she had said that these days the animal was much more interested in subvocalizing with the old man, than with her.
“He knows a lot more than I do,” she had said. “Of course he does. I'm just learning the lore of esoteric knowledge; the Guru and the Cat are, in my guess, both Masters of it.”
**
Coryn was in a rebellious mood when he dressed and packed for the trip to Station ASC. He put on a casual outfit for the mega-transport, and refused to pack a suit. Ry Marcues could make of that anything he wanted to. He stuffed his spare clothes into a back-pack, thinking that since Marcues had not spoken of anything except a talk, he should be aboard a liner returning to Kordea within a couple of days. If not—and he had an uneasy feeling at the back of his mind that it might come to that—he could always use whatever clothes washing facilities there were at his accommodation, and purchase any missing necessities.
“Hey, you picked up on Joe's idea,” Jillian, who had heard him, said.
“I think that it's a good one,” Coryn replied. “If the Kordeans did more of the maintenance work on the space-going vehicles, the Port Officials would not have to constantly scramble to attract enough workers from across the Galaxy. And people like Texi could get trained right here, without having to go off-planet.”
“I'll get on it,” Fiana said in her usual, efficient fashion. “I'll talk to the Port Officials, and bring the notion up with Marlyss at our next meeting. I need to talk to her; she has to put her stamp of approval on the plan to send Witch Anya to the Seat of the Confederation Government as the Ambassador from Kordea. We'll add the Training Facility onto Anya's list of items to lobby for.”
“Fiana, we in this office are going to miss you when you take that babe you're carrying inside you, and scoot back to Mallora to live with his daddy,” Coryn said.
“Steph's coming here for the birth, thank goodness,” Fiana said. “He's going to let someone else test Carovan's machines for a while, and....”
“Get his ass to Trahea,” Jillian finished for her. “Of course he has to be here for the birth. He better be mopping your sweaty brow as you push the baby out, Fiana!”
“Good,” said Coryn, grinning at the women. “I look forward to seeing Steph all frazzled. It'll be interesting to see how he gets on with Mora, the Healer. She'll be officiating at the delivery?”
“Both Mora and Dr. Mary Jonas will be there,” Fiana laughed. “Marlyss insisted that I get in touch with Mora, and it sounds from what Mary said, that I'll probably have as easy a delivery as is humanly possible—Mora's that good with her Healer tricks.”
“I know about her abilities, firsthand,” Coryn said. “She made my recovery from the Hound attack which involved a nasty drug, easy. If she can help women birth babies, more power to her.
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