“Bugs have to be picked off plant leaves,” said Roge, who had entered the room to hear Jillian’s last comment. “And the bugs have to be brought to the chicken coop, or whatever they call that place in this Settlement, so the hens can eat them for the protein which will produce the eggs we eat for breakfast. I admit that I’m sick of feeding the chickens, and haven’t eaten a single egg in the past weeks, because I can’t get the image of the hens pecking at the bugs out of my mind.”
“Want to hear what I think of the Settlement’s irrigation project?” Stu asked. “If we’re airing grievances this evening, that is. It sounds like we are.”
“No, we’re not,” objected Sarah who had followed Stu into the room. “Unless we can turn your grievance into a possible way to get The Mission moving.”
“Is Sarah chairing this meeting?” Roge asked curiously.
“Not really,” Sarah replied. “It’s not that formal a gathering. It’s just that something that Joe said while we were discussing the fast disappearing mechanical supplies on this ship gave me an idea which, I think, needs to be explored, and, possibly, refined. You see, we are going to have to replace all the vehicle parts that Texi and we have been using up, fixing the Settlement’s space ship, and its flyers and flits. I hope that everyone realizes that. Unless we’re planning on taking permanent residence on this world.”
“Yeah,” Joe seconded. “It’s not safe to travel around the galaxy without spare parts. The second, if not the first lesson they teach you when you sign on as an apprentice mechanic.”
“Is that something you want me to bug Elli about?” Jillian asked. “To get her to talk to Roland, so he gives some of us the permission to go haul in spare parts?”
“Sort of,” Sarah said. “Joe pointed out, with some irritation, that the sleek ships sharing the gravel expanse with us, are, no doubt, travelling between this planet and a more civilized one, and therefore have easy access to what we need. Couldn’t we, or the Settlement, trade with them for the parts? And my notion was to brainstorm to see if there wasn’t a way to use our need as a method for getting inside their Facility for a look-see.”
“Hm,” said Stu. “I have heard it said that the little, dark-haired snip from Laurentia had a working brain in her head.”
“Don’t call Sarah a snip,” snapped Jillian immediately, fully awake now. “She’s a grown woman, a bright, talented one, at that!”
“My wife rushes to the rescue,” said Joe, grinning, “of a bright, talented, grown-up woman who does not need rescuing.”
“But, Stu, watch your mouth,” Jaime said mildly. “I realize that the local men can get a little sexist, and crude, when they’re out of the Elders’ or the older women’s earshot. But there’s no need to emulate them, especially here, aboard Hera’s Hope.”
“Just playing my character,” Stu protested.
“Let’s not get into sniping at one another,” Sarah said. “I wanted you all here at the same time so we could do some brainstorming.”
She was a little shocked at herself for having taken over the meeting, as, indeed, she had. Dian and Jillian were grinning at her; apparently they enjoyed seeing her assert herself in a leadership role. Joe, Jaime, and Texi were listening to her thoughtfully, and Nance looked like, as far as she was concerned, when an amarto-sensitive woman spoke authoritatively, the universe was unfolding as it should. Only Roge and Stu looked at her dubiously; they probably thought that if one of the women was going to take charge, the one to do so should have been Jillian, who actually was a professional Agent. The Witchy women, Kordean or not, did not have the authority of an Agent.
“Should we try to get the Settlement people to help us approach them?” Dian asked “After all, the vehicles that are eating up the spare parts belong to them. Some of them may have more of a relationship with those people than the Elders realize.”
This was interesting, coming as it did from Dian who had been busy on the farms, doing work details involving physical labour, with different groups of people. She may have heard gossip, and Trahea-bred, knew how to separate the valuable nuggets from the dross.
“That sounds like a promising line of thought,” Sarah said. “Care to elaborate?”
“One of the women in whose company I often get to shovel shit has a big mouth, and a bigger chip on her shoulder,” Dian explained. “That’s why she gets the manure detail pretty regularly, and why the new woman, meaning me, gets to partner her on the job. I was annoyed, until Jaime pointed out that if the not-lady was a talker, I could learn a lot about the unofficial goings-on of the Settlement by listening to her. And I had figured out a long time ago, in Trahea, that what really goes on in a place is not necessarily what the powers-that-be think is going on.”
Nance giggled.
“You do learn that in Trahea,” she said, and earned a smile from the Circle Witch.
Even Stu and Roge were paying close attention, now.
“There are, I gathered from the woman’s rude comments,” Dian continued, “at least a couple of young women in the Settlement who have what the gossip termed ‘boyfriends’ among the Facility workers. If I can find out these girls’ precise identities from this irritating work partner of mine, Sarah, do you think that it would help?”
“Good grief, Dian!”
Jillian had sat up to gape at the Circle Witch.
“Here you have been spying like mad, while putting up with a female misanthrope! While I’ve been whining about having to do boring work with a bunch of boring women! Who’s the Agent here, anyway? I’m totally embarrassed!”
“Mind you,” laughed Dian, “I haven’t had to put up with Elli making sure that I behave! I’ve been sassing my shit-shovelling partner left and right, believe me. She’s not an obedient, God-fearing woman, and, in her presence, neither am I!
“But what do you think, Sarah? Could we make use of these girls?”
“Find out their identities by all means,” Sarah answered. “We’ll decide if, and how, they can be useful to us, once we know who they are.
“In the meantime, does anyone have any other ideas?”
Sarah was quite amazed at how much the mood inside Hera’s Hope had suddenly improved. Everyone had grown animated, and a spirited discussion about possible ways of getting to The Organization Facility took place.
They were still at it, about an hour later, when the ship announced that more people were arriving. (Jaime had thought to take the precaution of turning the vehicle’s “doorman function” on). Roland and Elli had come, accompanied by a party whom the ship brain termed a “stranger”. Everyone shushed his or her neighbours at the announcement, and the lounge settled into a silence, broken only by quiet, innocuous comments. Sarah, who had been on her feet in the middle of the room, settled into an empty seat beside Nance.
“Well, look who has come for a visit,” Roge said, when Roland entered the lounge, trailed by Elli and a short, skinny local, a man of forgettable appearance. “We sure haven’t seen much of you.”
“Yeah, the Elders have been monopolizing my time,” Roland responded. “I was starting to worry about it, wondering if there wasn’t something behind it. But Elli and I thought that it was time to introduce to you our—The Agency’s—man here in this Settlement. Team members, meet Jeb.”
He went on to attach names to faces; Sarah, looking at the non-descript man’s sharp eyes guessed that he was doing some memorizing, and would remember each one of them, henceforth. From the expressions on some of the faces she could tell that a few of them had already come across him, although, clearly, no-one had suspected his clandestine identity. His nondescript looks and demeanour were, no doubt, valuable assets in his trade.
“Jeb has some important information to share with all of us,” Roland said. “You see, he is the person through whom we stay in contact with the Agency Headquarters. We are, at the moment, dependent on his connection, since it was deemed too dangerous to use Hera’s Hope’s com for that. After all, it’s not very likely that a ship of a rebe
llious religious sect would be equipped with extra-fancy electronic systems.”
“But some nobody who joined the Settlement at an earlier date would have such equipment?” Stu queried dubiously.
Jeb grinned at him.
“You wouldn’t believe the secrets I keep,” was all that he said.
Sarah recalled Matty Harmiss on Space Station XER, and his disconcerting ability to ignore security systems there. When she had asked Coryn about it, at the end of their adventure, Coryn had explained that Matty was what was known as a “born Agent”. Following in his parents footsteps into Agenthood, had made it possible for him to get implantations which people who joined the Agency as adults could not tolerate. At least that was how Sarah had interpreted Coryn’s scanty explanation, and it likely was just as true of Jeb. He was older than Matty had been when Sarah had known him, but still looked to be in his twenties; it was hard to know how far into that decade, since he seemed to be the very epitome of “the everyman”.
“And we’re just supposed to accept that,” Jillian sniffed. She looked as dubious as Stu did.
“Actually,” Sarah interjected, “Coryn would accept it, Jill. It just so happens that I know that.”
Jillian gave her a hard stare, then shrugged her shoulders.
“Thanks for that, Sarah,” Roland said. He smiled. “When he briefed me on this Mission, he told me not to underestimate the intelligence of the Witch-women. There’s a lot more to them than just amarto-sensitivity, is what he said. Which is not to take anything away from those on this Team who don’t have that talent.”
“The latest word from the Headquarters is that we may have to speed up your operation,” Jeb said.
“News that at least some of you will welcome,” said Elli, with a pointed glance at Jillian who grinned back at her unrepentantly.
“That’s understandable,” Jeb commented. “This place is not exactly the most exciting place in the universe. Of course, it’s not; The Organization would never have put their prized laboratory in a busy place.
“However, what has happened is that the Hounds who were on Kordea have noticed that some persons have disappeared from Trahea. One Sarah Mackenzie, for example, who, they believed, was hiding in plain sight, by working for one of the Main Street merchants.”
Nance began to giggle.
“They haven’t figured out, yet, that I’m not Sarah!” she exclaimed.
“Which may be good for me,” said Sarah, “but dangerous for you, Nance. Of the two of us, you look more memorable.”
“But maybe we can use their mistake, somehow,” Nance objected, while Texi slid a protective arm around her.
“Spoken like a true Agent,” said Jeb. Then turning to Roland he asked: “Can we hire this lovely lady on permanently?”
“She’d have to be willing to leave her home world, at least semi-permanently,” Roland replied with a laugh. “She’d still have to go through training, no matter how good her instincts. And that would mean a standard year on Space Station ASC. Could Texi handle that?”
“Texi could take Space Ship Mechanics’ training on ASC,” said Joe. “That’s what I was doing when I met Jillian. It’s a really good Training Centre, and everyone, everywhere needs ship mechanics, including the Trahea Port. And Texi easily has what it takes.”
“Okay, now that we’ve planned Nance and Texi’s life out for them,” Jillian said with an impatient laugh, “can we hear the rest of the message from the Headquarters? Jeb... please?”
“Of course. What apparently happened is that Coryn Leigh was attacked by the Hounds on his way home from the local watering hole in the Trade City, taken somewhere, and pumped full of truth serum.”
“What?” Sarah could not help gasping.
“Relax. He’s okay. After the Port Security and the City Peacekeepers had been hunting for him for hours, he suddenly surfaced in a shady alley in Trahea proper, drugged senseless. He had a nasty, dirty cut on the back of his head, and his body was bruised. And he had the marks of having been tied up at wrists and ankles.
“He’d been pumped full of truth serum—a lot of truth serum, according to the Trahea Port medical personnel. But apparently the Hounds didn’t get much out of him, in spite of the massive dose of the talkie-med. He’d said that the Hounds had asked him the wrong questions; that was why he had been able to evade them, and blame everything, including the release of the moon Lina, on the Circle Witches.
“And, he had said, the Hounds are very nervous about the Witches; they see them as being powerful beyond belief. Frightened, and at the same time, desirous of grabbing for themselves all that power that they believe the Witches to command.
“There was a meeting of the Circle Leaders, and Coryn, as soon as Coryn was allowed out of his bed in the Port Infirmary, and the word from that meeting to the Agency Headquarters was: don’t pull The Mission Team out, as Director Marcues had contemplated doing, but get the word out to its members that it’s probably better to act sooner, rather than later, always depending on what’s possible.”
“So, let me get this right.”
Sarah found that she was keen on burying herself in the details of The Mission. Thinking about Coryn having been beaten up by The Organization Hounds was too disturbing. They could have killed him! Why hadn’t they? Because it wasn’t worth their while, when they were searching for bigger game, meaning one very talented, three-quarters Terran amarto-sensitive?
“The Hounds have this crazy idea that I had moved into Trahea to pretend to be just a regular Kordean gal, working for a regular Kordean merchant. So when that gal disappeared, they figured that one Coryn Leigh, the Kordean-Terran Liaison Officer had spirited her somewhere else, because he wasn’t about to take the chance that the Hounds would abduct her, after they had seemingly figured out who she really was. So they—shall we say?—forced him to answer some questions. He told them something to the effect that only the Circle Witches knew for sure where Sarah Mackenzie might be, and the grillers got all frazzled. How were they supposed to deal with the bloody Witches for crying out loud; hadn’t those women just recently blown to smithereens the beautiful plan to threaten them with an intolerable fate, unless they agreed to turn their abilities to Organization use?”
“And the Circle Eldests are of the opinion that we should try to break apart whatever amarto-power they do possess while a lot of them are frustrated and confused,” added Dian. “Marlyss is getting daring.”
“She doesn’t have much choice,” commented Jaime. “Sounds like it’s time to take chances. Not doing so would be the more dangerous alternative.”
“Well then, the first order of business is to get into their Facility, and find out what’s what, and where,” said Sarah.
She wanted to bury herself into the details of the problem at hand. So as not to dwell on the fact that Coryn had been abused by the Hounds. Not that he mattered to her. He had stayed on Kordea to protect some other woman, after all.
“Dian will have to pump that miserable work partner of hers—what was her name anyway?—for the names of the girls with Facility boyfriends,” said Jillian. “And then we’ll have to persuade them to take some of us to this building to see if we can’t buy or trade for some spare vehicle parts, which we desperately need.”
“You’ve come up with a plan of action already?” Roland’s eyebrows were up, again.
“We were busy working something like that out when you arrived,” Roge told him. “Sarah was leading the pack.”
“But of course,” said Jaime, grinning at Sarah. “She and Dian are a couple of impressive Witches; I happen to know, having been mentally present when the Lina-trap was released. Sarah’s capable of taking charge of any situation, and so is Dian.”
“Which is one of the reasons why it is essential that we be in on the sneaking into the Facility,” said Sarah.
“Not so fast, Sarah.” This was Roland. “I think that we ought to reconnoitre, first.”
“I need to be in on the reconnoitre,”
said Jeb. “I have what amounts to a photographic memory, so I can bring back the schematics of as much of the place as I can get into.”
“If you take me with you,” said Nance coyly, but grinning while patting Texi’s hand, “I can bat my eyelashes at whatever Hounds are there, and get you in to see plenty.”
“Hey, Nance, come on,” protested Texi. “That sort of a thing could turn nasty!”
“I’m a working Agent, right now, just as you are, sweetie,” she responded. “That means taking the odd risk.”
“You can come along, Texi,” Jeb promised, “so long as you don’t let on that you’re married to the lovely charmer, here. We need someone knowledgeable about the needed parts, anyway.”
“I’d actually be better for that,” Joe protested. “I’m a trained ship mechanic; Texi only does flyers and flits. I know what ship parts we’re short of, as well as those for the other vehicles.”
“So give Texi a list. Make it a paper list, in duplicate. Texi has been working in the Settlement while you’ve been buried inside the ships.” Jeb had apparently taken over this part of the operation.
It made sense; he was the one who had been in the Settlement the longest, and would have the best idea as to what was normal behaviour among the locals. Very likely, Sarah thought, that, given the names of the girls with the “boyfriends”, he would recognize them at once. And help The Mission people approach them.
*****
“How did you find out about our relationships with the Neotsarians, anyway?” asked Suse, the older of the two damsels that Dian’s work-partner had fingered quickly enough, when she had discovered that the black-haired young woman was actually interested in what she knew.
Nance thought that the girls looked frighteningly young for the kind of “adventuring” that they were indulging in. It was probably a good thing that Jillian was not involved in this part of the operation. She would have wanted to grab the girls into a protective embrace, and spirit them off to school somewhere!
“Zuzu gossiped,” Jeb said shortly. “To someone who took the trouble to listen to her.”
Love and Intrigue Under the Seven Moons of Kordea Page 17