Guardsman

by Pam Uphoff

  “Ambassador Ipti?” Everyone turned at the deep voice.

  Lucky Dave blinked. He recognized Xen Wolfson from the hospital and from pictures . . . but the man felt like nothing whatsoever. Is that an illusion he’s projecting from elsewhere, or really good shields?

  “Please contact your government and be sure they actually want to start cross dimensional criminal sprees. I realize that kidnapping children is a way of life for the One. But we really dislike it here.” He eyed Ra’d, then Lucky Dave. “And I thank you both for your restraint today.”

  The Ambassador growled. “What about their kidnapping raid?” His glare switched back to Ra’d.

  “Ra’d didn’t, nor Nighthawk. Izzo? Did you order any of your people . . . No? Well, Ambassador, I’ll keep investigating, but the pool of people who could open a gate, pop through, and see the Bag of the Prophets—and thus retrieve it quickly and quietly—is limited and I suspect I’ll run out of suspects quickly.”

  “They could have used that gate.” Ambassador Ipti pointed off behind himself and to the right.

  “And flown and driven from Paris to Bangladesh, er, India, and back?” Wolfson shrugged. “Possibly, and with a really good description of Lucky Dave’s location, wandered around for a few days and found the bag, then travelled all the way back. Ordinary police work should uncover the tracks of anyone coming and going by that route.”

  Izzo frowned. “I wonder about your rebel former priests, myself.”

  The pyrotechnic priest glared. “It wasn’t Izpo, he went straight back to Tyrant’s World. We watch for that traitor.”

  Izzo started faintly. “Izpo? I never actually heard the name of the man who spread the joy juice all over your Makkah.”

  A snort from Wolfson. “A relative of yours, Izzo?”

  “Well, I have two uncles who were taken for priests. Could have been, or just the usual coincidence of these name codes.” Izzo shrugged, but there was a suggestion of a smile on his face.

  That had all of the Whirlpool Oners glaring suspiciously at Izzo. Who just shrugged. “I’ve never met either of them. If there’s any more I can do for you gentlemen? No? Good.” He turned and sauntered away.

  As he followed, staying between Izzo and the Whirlpool Oners who were angrily confronting Wolfson, Dave heard Izzo’s low-voiced question to Ra’d. “Did you really have nothing to do with that?”

  And Ra’d’s answer. “I obeyed your orders to the letter.”

  “I . . . see.” Izzo dropped back and turned to Ambassador Ashe. “Ashe, let’s have a little chat. Ra’d? Give Lucky Dave the tour.”

  “Good idea.” Ra’d gave a razor thin smile. “Want to meet my family?”

  ***

  Nighthawk was a tall elegant woman, beautiful, by her complexion part African, by her nose, Xen Wolfson’s daughter. Glowing with deep power.

  “I’m glad to finally meet the legend.” Her eyes twinkled. “Ra’d has been entertaining the kids with tall tales.”

  “Umm . . .” Dave glowered at Ra’d.

  “Show the poor man around and bring him home for lunch.” Nighthawk snickered. “I, of course, have also heard all about you from my half-sister, Crazy Redhead Number Two. Stealing cars. Dear me!”

  “Umm . . .” Half-sister? What does Rael think of that? Dave threw his hands up in the air. “Gah. You modern people are all insane.”

  Ra’d laughed and led him up to the roof of the Empire embassy’s tallest building to point out the sights.

  What had started as a few embassies surrounding a central plaza had grown mostly to the west, toward the ocean on the horizon. “Anyone building to the north was assumed to be Oner allies—note the lack of large buildings beyond the embassy. South was Earth allies. Only the Purps came close, and even they stayed a bit west, in what was generally considered neutral territory. Arrival built next to Comet Fall, and nothing’s been built east of them, nor east or southeast of Disco.”

  “It looks like they’re running out of Neutral Territory.”

  “Yes, now they’re spreading out north and south, but staying west of the original plaza.” Ra’d pointed. “The pink granite building down there on the northwest diagonal road is the only large thing anywhere near our embassy. It’s the Comet Fall Hospital. And down the southwest road, the white building with wings all over is the public library. Each world sends history, culture, government propaganda and whatever, and all the other worlds faithfully copy and analyze it all.”

  Dave snickered. “I wonder how many people that keeps employed”

  “Tens of thousands. Anyway. We’ve now got housing developments and schools. A fire department, and we’re arguing about a city police force. The current option is ‘whatever Disco agent shows up does whatever he wants to do about it.’ Which usually involves kicking someone off the planet.”

  “You like it here, don’t you?”

  “Yes.” Ra’d waved at the view. “This place is fascinating, and it just keeps growing. Mind you, Nighthawk’s a big piece of why I want to stay here. But I really like the size of the Multiverse and the sense that we can all talk and trade and not attack each other.”

  “Damn, you have grown up.”

  Ra’d laughed. “You think I was fierce before Rangpur? You ought to have seen me after we arrived, crashed head first into the One, and . . . well, the first year was tough. And may I say that I’m delirious with joy that you rescued Dad? I thought I’d abandoned him to die.”

  “Huh. Yeah, sixteen years of thinking we were dead. Well, Jadida married, but not Umaya. How about that other One World? Have you met yourself?”

  “Yes. Heh. A little brother and another sister. Another Umaya. They’re all pioneering, not quite from scratch world—a lot of buildings went through intact—and doing well. I haven’t checked on them lately, they may be ready to return to civilization. I suggested to that Nicholas, that he wait at least a year and make sure he’s on top of his game before he seriously thinks about returning to that One World.” Ra’d grinned. “And I told him, if he wanted to at least talk to the Whirlpool priests, to start by talking to Ebsa, and then to their government, before he got close to that mess in Makkah.”

  “There’s probably no one there he knows. Although Jeb was there . . . did you ever meet him? Head of the diplomatic corps?”

  Ra’d shook his head. “We moved to Riyadh when I was eleven.”

  “Well, he and Emre were the only . . . old timers there. On our One World. Who knows who’s there on that Whirlpool One. This is hideously confusing.”

  “Yes.”

  Lucky Dave took a slow survey. The hills rose to the east, higher mountains faintly visible beyond them. Light reflected off something on a hill . . . “There’s a building of some sort, on that hill.”

  “Your eyesight . . . they call that the Kids’ Lair. A batch of teenagers from Comet Fall live up there, they come down for school and work. They’ve got several corridors to various places. Xen and Q keep an eye on them.”

  “So . . . this father-in-law of yours. Impressive shields. I couldn’t feel him at all, down there. So he’s a healer and a warrior?”

  “He’s what the Comet Fall magic community calls a baby god. The God of Spies and the Master of the Multiverse. He’s both as strong as any of the prophets, and a great deal better trained in a whole lot of different magic. He’s got the dimensional talent, and can make both gates and corridors. And teleport.” Ra’d grinned. “Yeah, and I like him. C’mon, I’ll introduce you to the kids.”

  Ra’d led him behind the looming cubic black building and into a decorative garden, more ridiculous than most, with a completely artificial canyon with a fancy arched bridge and a running stream at the bottom of the landscaped sides.

  “Do they recirculate the water, or waste it for esthetics?”

  Ra’d chuckled. “Recirculate. Relax. The Comet Fall magicians do things like this, or the plaza out there themselves. For the fun of it. No peasants laboring under the hot sun for their overlords, and
no taxes used for it.”

  Dave sighed. “Sorry, growing up in wartime, I’m used to austerity. And in India . . . beautiful palaces and . . .”

  “Starving peasants. Yes, I remember.”

  Ra’d strolled along beside the canyon. “This is a restaurant. Then the school. And a barn for the horses. Let me show you the horses, as school’s not out for lunch yet . . . Oh, never mind.”

  A small form shot out of the school door and threw herself at Ra’d.

  “Oak? May I introduce Lucky Dave ibn Daiki?”

  Big brown eyes widened, as the girl shook back two long black braids. “Really? Lucky Dave!”

  Dave snickered. “Yes . . . although your dad may have exaggerated a bit.”

  Her lips tightened as she shook her head. “Not my Daddy. Mommy says he’s pattyloggy owl nest.”

  “Uh . . .”

  Ra’d snorted. “Pathologically honest.”

  “Ah. That I believe.” Dave looked down at the child and shook his head. “I’ll take a lucky guess. Are you five years old?”

  She squirmed a little. “Sort of?”

  “The kids spend a lot of time in bags, when both Nighthawk and I are busy. By the calendar, she’s ten, and Fox is almost six.” Ra’d looked back down the sidewalk, as a second, smaller child galloped out. “Or three. Depending on how you count.”

  “Yeah.” Oak bounced and grinned. “We’re waiting for Poet and Ezra to catch up to us.”

  Ra’d grabbed the boy, hefted him like . . . an experienced parent. “In the meantime, I was about to introduce Dave to the horses. He’s never met any Comet Fall Smart Horses.”

  Dave turned his head at the click of horseshoes on pavement. A trio of loose horses, in dark chestnut, bright chestnut, and a bay with splashy pinto spots.

  “Smart enough to open gates and escape, I see.”

  The bright chestnut snorted. :: As if anyone here would lock us in! ::

  “Oh . . .”

  The pinto snickered. :: Rael’s told me about him. He doesn’t look funny. ::

  Dave turned back and glared at Ra’d, who had a knuckle stuffed in his mouth to keep a grin from turning into a laugh. “You should warn people.”

  “Some people can’t hear them. They don’t believe us and think we’re trying to fool them, with a really stupid joke. And keep right on believing they’re just well trained.”

  Dave eyed the trio. “So . . . did these Disco people genetically engineer all of you?”

  The dark stallion eyed him . . . and sent a picture . . . a lab, men and women in white coats.

  :: New Gene, who designed a lot of the Tellies, designed us. When the Tellies heard they were shutting down the animal labs, they bubbled us, and the puppies. I was one of the six yearlings, and there were three foals. Four puppies, Lord Hell’s original Hell Hounds. ::

  A skitter of pictures and memories, a batch of teenagers . . . Could that be Dad? . . . Hugo? An amazingly young Nicholas . . . This horse knew them all!

  :: There are a lot of us now, we’re sort of like Oners—mostly weaker because we interbred with ordinary horses and so forth. But we’re finding each other and every generation is getting stronger, even as we keep spreading the genes around. ::

  Dave nodded. “Yes, we foolishly call people upcomers, as if we weren’t all part multitude too. But what about ordinary people? How do they treat you?”

  A sigh from the pinto. :: Like horses. Sometimes not very well, but on Comet Fall we’re fairly valuable until we get old. :: She rubbed her head on the dark horse. :: I was away from Smart Horses for a long time, before Rael found me, and took me to Ash. ::

  “Ash is Comet Fall’s center of magical training.” Ra’d put in. “Most of the horses there are at least half-smart horse. Not as many talkers as I’d expected.”

  The dark horse nodded. :: They need plow horses, not magic friends. A lot of us move Across to Rip World. It’s a colony that a lot of the Ash people moved to, so almost everyone there is magic—humans and horses. :: He lifted his head and looked behind them. :: Like this batch of kids. ::

  Apparently school was out for lunch. A horde of children, laughing and running, heading, more or less, for the restaurant.

  “At least the school’s down to a decent size again.” Ra’d pointed across the fields. “Embassy now has five elementary schools and two high schools. Now that they’re building houses here, a lot of the people who used to commute from their home worlds have moved their families here.”

  “How recent is all this?” Dave looked around. A single city, in the middle of nowhere.

  “Two years for the high schools. Before that, all the teenagers were in here with the little kids. Or do you mean Embassy? Thirteen years since Xen invited the Empire and Earth to come and just talk to each other.”

  “Just . . . out of nowhere.”

  “Yep.” Ra’ chuckled. “I’ll show you where to hunt for the first news vids. There was nothing here but a big black building, the plaza and fountain, and a grid of graded roads through untouched grasslands.” Fox wiggled and Ra’d set him down, turning to see Nighthawk dodging kids as she walked up to them.

  Dave could hear, or maybe feel, her quick exchange with the horses, as she bent to hug both kids.

  Then she straightened with a grin. “C’mon over to the house. I’ll show you how us weird Comet Fall people live.”

  The silly little arched bridge . . . appeared to be all a single piece of stone . . . with interesting patterns of crystals . . . “That isn’t actual gold, is it?”

  “Yep. It’s cheap enough on Comet Fall for people to use it to show off.” A flash of perfect teeth against dark skin. “But just on the surface, not all through the stone. Have you met Ambassador Never? She and Dydit made it, on a dare.”

  The kids bolted ahead to a small house, giggling. Dave stepped through the door and the kids were holding another door open, still giggling. He stepped up and . . . looked out on a big room with floor to ceiling glass, glass doors out to a patio, trees to both sides and an unobstructed view of the ocean straight ahead.

  Dave stepped through, a twitch of a corridor passage. Aha! And then he strolled over to look up and down the coast from well up a steep hill. A spectacular view, a beach below with big waves rolling in, stretching out to a rocky point, and the bay beyond. Same the other direction.

  “Now this is a good use for Corridors.”

  They ate lunch on the patio in the fresh air, with the crash of the surf in the background.

  “When I was first assigned here, Nighthawk had the whole house bubbled and the time dilation cranked all the way over to twenty times faster than the outside. So I’d work my shift, do a little overtime, and then pop in here for a week . . . go work my next day shift . . .”

  “That’s cheating.” Dave laughed. “Did your boss ever find out?”

  “Yep, when Fox was born, well, I’d only been here for two months, and suddenly I was registering an almost two-year-old daughter and a new born son. But Oak had been bubbled so much that she was only about six months old at the start. So I got to see all the first steps and the talking and . . .” Ra’d shrugged. “Since I’ve been permanently assigned here, we haven’t used too much fast room. The kids need to go to school and make friends and . . . be normal.”

  “Ebsa and Paer’s twins are coming up on three years old. So we occasionally bubble both kids to slow them down a bit. But now that Oak’s school age . . . that’s a little tough.” Nighthawk reached and ruffled Fox’s black hair. “But they’ve almost caught up with Fox, so we don’t want to slow him down any more.”

  Oak chimed in. “Poet’s fun! She’s my best friend already, and I want her to hurry up and be my age so we can go to school together and do fun stuff.”

  Dave grinned at the little girl. “So you’ve got it all planned out?”

  “Yep. I’m even letting Fox catch up almost to me, but he’s not allowed to get older than me.”

  “Very sensible of you.” Dave turned hi
s head enough that she wouldn’t see the wink he sent Fox. “No telling what trouble a big brother could cause.”

  ***

  So after that exposure to domestic bliss—Ra’d! Of all the men to settle down with a family!—they dropped the kids off at school, and Dave got a tour of Disco Headquarters.

  He’d seen the assembly room in movies, often enough. Or perhaps they used other rooms, it was pretty ordinary. The basement had a few jail cells, empty. Ground floor was meeting rooms in various sizes. The upper level was all offices, also in various sizes.

  And a library with a man reading aloud while a woman typed.

  Nighthawk whispered. “So many of the embassies gleefully mess up any electronics we take inside when we drop by, that we’ve taken to pen and paper notes, and even some reports. So Peter, who can actually read most of the agents’ horrible handwriting and Fire who’s researching Disco while working for us, are in charge of digitizing thirteen years worth of stuff.”

  The man glanced their way . . . and stopped dictating. “Umm, hi. Err, I don’t actually know you, do I? Sorry, you look so much like Uncle Daiki . . . Oh, you’re from one of the One Worlds, right?”

  Dave nodded. Uncle Daiki! “Yes, Dave ibn Daiki ibn William . . . You must be from that very early Earth?”

  “Yeah, I didn’t realize your Daiki was still alive.”

  “He’s not; I spent over a thousand years in a time dilated bubble. Umm . . . I’d heard that you guys were a bit . . . unwelcoming?”

  “Untrusting. So many of their friends and families have died or just disappeared that they don’t trust any outsiders at all. And worry about me being a security risk.” His eyes unfocused for a moment. He winced. “Umm, no, I can’t take you to meet them.”