by P. S. Power
Heather spoke, her blank mask stopping her face from showing anything at all.
"We have another attack, this time in the Chinoise. They have it under control, but we've been asked to come and view some of the things they found... It isn't good. Nearly fifty people dead. I was told to warn you. Darren said it looked like Israel, if that means anything to you?"
Funnily enough, it did.
"Suicide bomber. Crap. I was hoping they wouldn't figure that one out."
Chapter seven
Gwen liked the way her armor looked and the sense of power being in it gave her, but the heat of it she could do without, normally at least. The temperature in the market place they ended up in, which was somewhere in China, at least it would have been if the maps read the same, was cool at least. It made the whole thing a little more bearable.
What wasn't good about the whole thing was that the stench of burnt human flesh was still in the air. All the wounded that had lived were gone, so there was no screaming this time. She'd had dreams about the places she'd been, and that was the worst part of the whole thing. The wailing that came from women and children, or the bellowing that injured men sometimes managed to pull off. There was none of that here, just people speaking what she thought of as Chinese, even if it wasn't called that here. It was more correctly a mix of that language, with Korean and Japanese mixed in, she thought. Not that she spoke much of any of those things.
T.V. hadn't prepared her for that. That smooth blending of things that came from a world far more unified than the one she came from.
"Start a search, if anyone looks too fat, or like their stomach is too big around, stop them. Do it from as far away as possible." She didn't tell them how to do it, since it all had to go through a translator and it would take too long. The people on the scene were actually decent, having gotten the area clear fast, breaking down part of a wall so that no one would have thought to put a bomb near the evacuation point. It was a plan that she was going to steal from them for the Western Kingdom when she got home. She might not really be in charge of anything now, but she could do that, she bet.
The man they took down after that order did seem to have some extra padding in the middle, and for a second Gwen thought they'd really just gotten an old guy with middle age spread starting. Until he detonated. That happened after his head was caved in by a young man that had simply pointed at him from nearly a hundred feet away. It was kind of awesome, in a terrifying way. She needed to learn to do that herself, she decided, if she could. It would be at least as handy as floating around was, no doubt. A distance weapon no one could take away from her. Like having a crin or Force Lance on her all the time.
"Good. Keep a sharp eye. He had a switch in his hand, which triggered the bomb when he let go. If you see anyone else order them to walk away first, to a place no one else is. If they don't... get that man to do whatever it was he just did." She had to swallow, knowing that odds were really good that these were people that had been forced to put bombs on like that. It wasn't fair at all to kill them like that, but they couldn't let others die either. It was a moral dilemma.
Except of course that it just couldn't be one, not for them. Not in this situation.
The plans for what they were going to have to do came into her head all at once and the whole thing made her want to shudder. They'd stolen the energy and power from the attacks away from the people that wanted to use it to open up the void and retrieve the Old Ones, or whatever the real plan was, and now Debussey was using the psychology of fear to get it back. By working things around so that people would constantly be in a state of anxiety, she was going to try and make it impossible for anyone to keep repurposing things.
Worse, by making a new threat, a thing no one was ready for here, she could make everyone terrified for a long time. Months at least, longer if she was pressing the attacks in a lot of places at once.
"Or if she spreads it out, so that anyplace in the world might be hit, at any time."
Fuck. That had to be it, but there was no way to guard the whole world, not at all. No, the only thing they could do now was find the woman and whoever she was working with and kill them before they had a chance to do too much more of this kind of thing. Of course she was in hiding, which meant that Gwen had no way to know where to find her. As for who she was really working with... It was an unknown. Even killing Erin might not do the trick now. Not if her friends were really dedicated.
Crap.
"Alright, let's clear this area and get ready for the next attack. Heather, we need to get back, I'll send a report to Daniel here as soon as I can complete what's going to be needed." She didn't sound pleased with it, and the sweat pouring down her face now wasn't from the temperature, which didn't leave her feeling happy about the whole thing at all. She hated being afraid and it was worse when that fear was for other people that she knew she couldn't really protect.
This was just about the worst case scenario, and Debussey had to know that. It was her way of getting back at her for having claimed that the woman had forced Katherine Vernor to steal her body. Or... well, it really could have been about more sensible things, like getting her plan back in order. The woman wasn't well balanced, but she was both driven and smart. Also a narcissist. She was just so intelligent that she'd managed to hide it from most people for decades. Now it was coming out, big time.
It took half an hour to explain her intentions, and the people there didn't want her to leave, even though she wasn't really doing anything useful at all. It was like she was considered a good luck charm, which was silly. They finally told the woman that was translating for them that Gwen was welcome back anytime. It was said with a lot of bowing. It would have been nice, if the circumstances didn't suck so much.
She clumsily bowed back a little, since the armor wasn't exactly designed for that kind of thing and got back to Park Street within the hour. She didn't even get to climb out of the armor before the telestator chimed for her. Ferdinand.
She very nearly asked him to call back, so that she could think for a few damn minutes before having to give a report, then actually said the words. If a little more politely.
"Give me ten minutes and call back, I need to think and get out of this armor." It was rude, since the man was the King and that actually meant something here, but the voice answered calmly, not even sounding ticked off. He was a good guy that way.
"In ten, then." The line broke instantly, which meant she had to move quickly to get into new clothes, one of Katherine's old tan work outfits. Even at that she left him waiting, talking to Heather who was more than a little stiff with the man. Impressed it sounded like, even though they'd met half a dozen times that Gwen knew about.
When she traded places with the still armored woman, her gray form shifting to the left as Gwen's hand replaced hers, she made a soft sound, clearing her throat.
"Sorry about that Ferdinand. It was suicide bombers. The raw terror of a person being willing to kill themselves... We need to point out that they don't have a choice. This isn't about ideology, but mind rape. Do you think the press will go with calling it that? We need to shock people and point out how evil Debussey and her cronies are being. This isn't clever, which is what the bad guys have to be thinking. It's an invitation to war. A real one. We need to make it so hard for her to do anything, anywhere in the world that she has to scramble just to get a safe night's sleep." There was an answering noise from the device and a soft cough in the background.
"I don't know, Miss Farris. Mind rape might be a little much for the public. Should we push them in this time of crisis?"
The breath Gwen took was shuddering, real fear and a pervasive sense of illness running through her then.
"Yes. We have to take these people down and we need everyone in on it. The next time they try to take someone, that person needs to be willing to fight to the death knowing that they might be used for this kind of thing. They'll probably die too, but the second these freaks decided to do this, every man
woman and child that might be taken is already dead. I... This is so screwed. We have to work as one team now. Can you get with Goebbels and get the word out? There will be fear now, but we can help people mask it a little, with anger and honor." Or hate, but she wasn't certain that couldn't be taken and used as actively as fear. She didn't know much about how traditional magic worked, but that would have made sense if it were all a movie.
She kept going, her voice softer.
"Honor is my choice. Something that will let people face their fears. You should talk to them and explain it all."
The man didn't say anything, just breaking the line suddenly. It was abrupt, but she didn't think that her words should have angered him at all. Looking at Heather she took her hand off of the central sphere of the device and made a face.
"Did I say something wrong?"
The Westmorland had her helmet off and her strawberry blonde hair tied back with a dark blue ribbon. Her face was a bit flush, slightly glistening.
"Not that I heard. It was probably something else. We should stand by, in case we're needed, and work out that plan you talked about. What can we do though? If people are going to show up and explode like that... It could be anyone."
It took a few seconds to remember what all those television programs on the topic had in common, but she tried to hurry, seeming like she actually had a real clue and wasn't just making things up.
"They have to cover the bombs, so tend to wear heavy coats and clothing, even if it doesn't fit the weather. If you see a person that looks warm and overdressed, with a large stomach, you need to get them away from any crowds. It will make life a pain for poor pregnant women that just don't have a lot of clothing options, but we have to suspect them too. Other than that, people just need to be on the lookout and remember to get away from problem areas if anything happens." There was more, things like check points and all that, but they really couldn't stop random targets from being hit. "We need to train and arm school teachers, hospital workers, that kind of thing. If anyone acts funny and won't go away from innocent people we have to stop them as fast as possible. Like that man did earlier. He was a bit fast, but correct this time."
Then there was precognition and things like that. Telepathy could be beaten using the new mesmerism, if you didn't have a person in a controlled environment with a Westmorland or someone nearly that high powered at least. Precognition was their best defense, but no one had managed to really use it very well so far. They needed a program for that. Maybe a call in center where people could report things. It wasn't going to be easy to put together, but a tip line sort of made sense, didn't it? So far she hadn't heard of anything like that here and even in fictional programs it nearly never worked, but if people were getting strange dreams or something...
It was going to be a disaster.
Every grandmother that had a "feeling" would be calling and they'd be having them, not able to tell fear from actual information. Still, it would make people feel included, so it might be worth doing anyway. Get volunteers to do the work and all that. Run the best things past a single Westmorland with proper training? It would be a hard sell, she figured. Maybe a stupid one. She decided to call up Adam and see what he said. The man pretty much seemed to want to slap her back to her own world most of the time, so if he didn't like it, that would let her off the hook.
Without warning she turned her head and stared at Heather.
"Um, did Darren talk to you about Debussey?" It was the kind of thing he'd forget to do, she figured. At least that seemed to be the way he did things with her.
"Not really. He said that he had a line on her location, but nothing solid right now. She keeps changing locations at irregular times and mainly staying in Europa, to make it harder for us to hit her. They still won't let us in there."
Of course that's what he'd have found important.
"OK. Well, it turns out that... In the reality that he and I come from she was our mother. She had kids here too, and gave them up for adoption. Both Westmorlands. Obviously one was Darren, the original one from here. Probably why he traded out with Billy when that little thing happened."
The woman went very still for a bit, her eyes going wide.
"Oh. My." She didn't speak for a long time, then shook her head as if trying to deny it all. "Poor Billy. Poor you! I'm so sorry Gwen. Is that why she managed to have Katherine grab you from your world? The link to her own children? That can be a powerful thing. I wonder if it was on purpose."
That got a shrug from Gwen.
"We don't know, it might have been. It... actually makes a lot of sense. I kind of hope not. If Katherine Vernor was forced to take my place by Debussey, then... I have to feel really bad for her being stuck in my body. I don't even know if she's still alive. It was way easier to put up with when it was all her fault, or maybe done by mistake in a panic. I suppose that's a bit much to ask for now, isn't it? A bit too coincidental?" She took a breath, not wanting to drag the whole thing out any longer, since that probably wouldn't actually help.
There was a pause anyway as the woman nodded her head, commiserating with her.
"I can see how that might be. Do you need me to do anything?" It was one of those things that people said when situations got strange, but what could she have done?
"Not really. Um, so... " She nearly didn't say the next words, but Heather didn't need it all dumped on her suddenly later either. There just was no good time to tell a person that their mother was a world killing psycho. "Anyway... it turns out that you and I are the same person from different worlds. Billy broke into the records, because, you know, he's Billy. That kind of means that Erin Debussey is your biological mother."
She didn't know what she expected the Westmorland to do, deny it, or break down maybe. What she did was smile a little and then nod once.
"That's rich. Makes me feel lucky that I was given up then. So what do we do? Use the link between her and I to find her? We'll need a team for that. None of the Westmorlands is really trained for that, it will have to be done with traditional magics." The words were a little slow, but hard at the same time. "Bit of a mistake, forgetting that. I wonder if she really did, or if Debussey just didn't think that we could pull it off? I'll get on that. We might need your help, but..."
The woman smiled and shook her head a little.
"Sorry, so what does that make us? Sisters?"
"Um, close enough I think. Cool, don't you think? I mean if I was going to have one of those, I would have wanted it to be someone incredible like you." It was true, but sounded a little overdone when the words came out.
Heather laughed.
"So true! I get to have you, so I guess that means we both win. Thank god I never slept with Darren then. That's mainly down to him being so strange though, nothing else."
They didn't get a chance to chat about it, since Ferdinand started speaking to the room, the telestator not even chiming first. Apparently you could do that if you were the King.
"We have an announcement ready to go first thing in the morning. Would it be alright if we don't include you Miss Farris, Count Goebbels feels that, given your latest activities and notoriety it might be best if you aren't there for it." There was diplomacy in the words at least.
For her part she didn't really care, public speaking wasn't exactly her favorite thing anyway.
"That's fine. I'll be working at the airfield tomorrow, loading cargo and doing deliveries, if anyone needs me for anything."
That got a few moments of silence.
"I understand. Do you think that airships will be a particular target?" The man muttered something, his head obviously turned away. It was followed by a soft gasp.
"Yes. Trains too. Eventually at least. I'm just going in because a lot of people have been joining the Air Navy lately, since they have the needed skills. We need to get the Students Service in to load for us, at least the older kids, once break starts. They can guard the places too. Camp out on site." She was joking about it, since the k
ids really didn't need to lose their vacations, but the King muttered something else then. Then, without saying goodbye he broke the link again.
No one else got in touch with them, so they sat down to dinner and ate with the Vernors after that, a serving girl standing by to run messages for them if anyone tried to get in touch. Normally you didn't answer during meals, but in emergencies, or if the King himself was going to call, it kind of made sense.
Robert seemed tense however and spoke to her in a low voice after Heather and Peter settled at the far end of the table.
"Ethyl mentioned that you plan to visit the airfield in the morning?" For some reason this didn't make him sound nearly as pleased as he might have been. Mrs. Vernor didn't make eye contact with her either.
"That's right. Probably working cargo unloading, or whatever is needed. Then, when the Peregrine gets in, if there's no emergency, I was going to see about doing a run with them. Maybe see if I can get in as the engineer's assistant. Work my way up that way." There was a hard look to his face then, and a slow nod, followed by a hiss.
"That... There was an article today that suggested that we haven't been treating you very well so far. Not just Ethyl and I, the entire Kingdom. The idea seems to be that we should have coddled and cosseted you more. I can't say that it's wrong. After all, throwing you into dangerous situations like we have been... It isn't what I would have allowed Katherine to do." He seemed nearly ready to order her not to do it, so Gwen shook her head a little and smiled.
"That's my fault. I need to do a better job of letting people know what I'm doing and that I'm in charge of my life, not you and Ethyl. Even if I am using your resources and funds for it. I'll try to get on that first thing in the morning. After work at least. Maybe make the angle into something about the need to work together, and pull our own weight, rather than me needing to rest or whatever I'm supposed to be doing." The thought came that she was probably expected to melt down and sob a lot. If so the people thinking that could go blow themselves. She needed to keep busy now.