by Jamie Davis
“If that’s the fake?” Kurt asked. “Where is the real sarcophagus.?”
“It’s at my gallery, locked up in the back safe-room where I keep all of the expensive artwork before it’s released for viewing. I wanted the chance to study it. Many things about it lead me to believe it has some pretty awesome magic or powers associated with it.”
“If it does, why didn’t you have a licensed wizard come and check it out.?”
“Because it is not supposed to be in the country at all. That was why customs was so happy to get their hands on it, or at least on the fake version. It’s a registered antiquity from another country and they were going to return it to its home for placement in that country’s national museum. I hoped that the fake I had created would fool them and I’d be able to keep the original sarcophagus and perhaps make an eventual sale on the backend to a private collector.“
“By backend, I’m assuming you mean the black market.”
“Of course, Kurt, you didn’t think I gave up that little side business of mine, did you?”
“You told me you went straight after the divorce. I assumed you were telling me the truth.”
“I only told you that because you would’ve tried to continue providing me security. We were divorced and I didn’t want you around anymore. I lied to my ex-husband. Sue me.”
The remark stung more than a little, Kurt realized. He had always enjoyed providing security for Clara when she participated in her little black market deals on various pieces of stolen artwork.
That was why he’d hoped she would keep him around for at least those jobs. But then she told him she was giving it up and he let that hope go. Knowing that she had fooled him for these last two years only made him angrier.
Now, because of her machinations, he was stuck here in this world, locked inside a prison fortress with a crazed warlord who was about to find out they cheated him.
Clara was right. They needed to escape tonight. He crossed to the window and examined it.
It had a lock on it and there were bars over the window outside. In addition to the problems just getting through the window, there was a tower in the outer wall directly opposite the window and he looked up seeing the guard standing there. They weren’t going that way.
Kurt turned back to face Clara. “I’m going to figure out how to get you out of here.”
“I said I don’t need your help.”
“You just said we had to get out of here, then you say you don’t need my help. I think you do. You said as much yourself. If you could’ve escaped, you’d have done it by now.”
“All right,” Clara sighed. “What do you have in mind? What’s your plan?”
“I’m still working on that. Don’t worry, I’ll come up with something.”
“That’s what I was afraid of. You’re going to come up with one of your famous ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ plans that are going to be both too risky and too prone to fail.”
“And yet, they always seem to work out in the end.” Kurt realized he’d raised his voice again and took a breath before continuing, settling himself down. “Look, let me go and get the guard to let me out of here. I can explore this place a little and get the lay of the land. I’ll be back as soon as I’ve come up with something.”
“What makes you think they’re going to let you wander around through their little fortress.?” “
“I’ll convince them that I don’t really want you back.”
“What makes you think they’re going to buy that story?”
“I can be very persuasive, Clara. You know that.”
“I remember you can be very annoying. There’s a difference. Look, be careful. The General is crafty and it won’t take much for him to begin suspecting you’re up to something.”
“I’m always careful.” Kurt shot her a big grin. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon with a plan. Be ready.”
Kurt went over and knocked on the door, calling out to the guard. “I’m ready to leave.”
The key turned in the lock once more from the outside and the guard opened the door. Kurt nodded and thanked him as he left the room. He waited while the guard locked the door again.
“Can you please take me back to your boss. I have a proposition for him.”
Kurt fell in step behind the guard who led him back down the hallway towards the stairs. His mind filled with possible ideas for an escape plan. He cast them aside one at a time until he settled on one that might just work.
When they reached the first floor, the guard led Kurt back in the direction of the General’s office. He surprised Kurt when he walked right past it pointing him in a different direction.
Kurt heard the distant crackle of gunfire and wondered if there was some sort of attack going on. This might be an opportunity for escape if the fortress was under attack.
They reached a doorway and his escort pulled it open revealing a large open courtyard in the rear of the central building. A rudimentary shooting range set up on it. Because of the limited range of smoothbore muskets and rifles, they didn’t need a whole lot of space for such a thing.
He stood and watched the soldiers practicing with their targets. The first thing Kurt noticed was they were not very accurate and, as expected, didn’t have very much range.
The General stood off to one side with a familiar semi-automatic pistol holstered at his waist. He watched his men each take their turn at target practice for another minute or so before he noticed Kurt standing in the doorway.
He smiled, which was a bit off-putting, primarily because of the double row of shark-like teeth.
Kurt ignored the momentary uneasiness he felt and walked over to join the General as he looked down the firing line at his men engaged in target practice and reloading drills. An idea occurred to Kurt as he approached the General.
“My Lord, perhaps you have need of something I can provide for you. It appears your weapons do not have the same range or accuracy weapons from my world do.”
The General pulled the pistol the guard took from Marci from the holster and held it out for Kurt to see. “There are a few of your modern weapons here. We get them on occasion from our forays into your world or from the occasional visitor to our side. In order to gather more weapons, we need to have money from your world which we don’t have.”
“Cash is good,” Kurt remarked. “But it is not everything. You must have precious metals or gemstones here in your world. The right person could help you transfer those commodities to my world and then convert them into cash you can use to buy anything you want.”
“And who might that person be? You?”
“You know I am experienced in transiting gateways. Part of that experience comes from transporting goods, services, and people from one place to another. It is my business to help people like you transport goods and services back-and-forth between your world and mine,”
When the general smiled again and Kurt realized after a few seconds he was staring at the teeth and jerked his eyes away. This brought out a hearty chuckle from the General.
“I think that we may be able to do business, after all. Yes, there are some resources. We have precious metals and such that could be traded. But I would need to know for sure that you were the one to be trusted with such a task.”
“Perhaps, General, you could show me where you have these materials. Once I see what kind of precious metals and gems you have, it will help me determine their value and give you an idea of what I can get for you in exchange. I can provide you with weapons far beyond the quality your man are currently using.”
“Excellent. I would like that very much. Having new weapons along with my possession of the sacred relic will give me an advantage over all the other area warlords. With it, I can take control of this entire continent.”
“If you manage that, sir, then you can declare formal relations with my government on the other side of the gateway. They will have to parlay with you and you will come to them in a position of strength.”
“That is true. That is true, indeed. I want to discuss this more but I must remain here while my men complete their drill. In the meantime, I will have one of the guards take you to my factor. I believe you’ve met him and call him Cat? He can give you the information you need on what resources we might have available for trade.”
“That is good. Perhaps after I’ve talked with him, we can meet up again and finalize the details of our arrangement. I would like to take Clara and go back to my own world so that I can begin making arrangements for the transfers.”
“I am fine with you going back, but you will go alone. I have taken a liking to Clara. I have decided that for the time being, she will remain here with me.”
Kurt didn’t say a word. He knew the general was testing him, waiting for him to object to the breaking of their deal. That would give him an advantage over Kurt and any future negotiations. Instead, Kurt just shrugged.
“You can do with her what you wish. I was obligated to try and come to bring her back, but after talking with her upstairs just now, I remember the reasons why we are no longer married. If you want to keep her, I’ll not argue with you. I might even offer a warning to be wary of her womanly ways.”
The General laughed. He clapped Kurt on the back. “I like you, Kurt Carter. Women can be unnecessary encumbrances to men of power like you and me. It is good to see you share my feelings on such things. Why don’t you come back after your talk with Cat? Join me for dinner later and we can discuss final arrangements for our other potential business arrangements.”
The general beckoned to the guard standing in the doorway. The guard came forward and leaned close while the General whispered something. Even though it was whispered, Kurt could hear it, or at least most of it. His comm implant enhanced his hearing a little bit. The problem wasn’t hearing what was said. It was in understanding what was said.
The General spoke in a language Kurt couldn’t understand. The guard nodded after a few seconds and looked at Kurt before pointing at him to follow. Kurt followed the guard back inside. It was time to see if he could pull off the plan coming together in his mind.
Chapter 16
Cat’s offices turned out to be part of his apartments in the fortress. On one side of the room was a large bed and dresser. On the opposite side of the room were a desk and table. Both were covered with papers and stacks of books and ledgers. He looked up as Kurt walked in escorted by the guard.
Cat stood and smiled at Kurt. “It is good to see you made it, Kurt. I wondered for a while after our conversation if you would decide to leave your former wife in our care rather than risk your life coming to get her.”
“I have to admit, Cat, there were a few moments when I had second thoughts. It turns out the General has taken a liking to her. I should warn him against getting attached to the woman. Still, I think he’ll figure that out in due time. In the interim, your boss and I discussed entering into a business arrangement to provide you and your forces with modern weapons from my world. He led me to understand that you were dealing with some pushback from other local warlords on your plans to take over things around here.”
“There has been some resistance from the villagers in the area. We have been ruthless in our attempts to hunt them down, but have been unsuccessful in tracking the largest of the groups. They seem to be very adept at hiding as well as setting up ambushes to trap our forces in situations where they have all the advantages. We lose many good soldiers when that happens. That is why the General would like to fight back against them with superior firepower. If you can truly provide us with weapons from your world, that would be something of great benefit to us. I have to wonder, though, why you’re being so generous and offering to help us?”
“It is not generosity at all. It has to do with wealth and riches. I am a businessman and, given the proper incentives, I will enter into a business arrangement with the right person. It appears to me that you have a need I can fill. I believe this can be mutually beneficial to both of us.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“The General mentioned you have access to resources like precious metals or gemstones. Is that true?”
Cat’s smile revealed his teeth again. He probably didn’t know how looking at those razor-sharp teeth bothered Kurt so much. Then again, maybe he did and smiled that way on purpose.
“We have many excellent resources including a load of silver bullion we recently captured from a neighboring warlord. He had the silver in wagons, transporting it from his mine in the hills.”
“I was led to believe you had direct access to the resources yourself.”
“Alas, while we hold great areas of land with agricultural crops, our neighbors hold all of what you would call the hard natural resources. They have the control of the mines and the miners that dig for gold, silver, and gemstones. That is our largest conundrum. We have strong forces in some ways. We are stronger with superior numbers of troops. It is our lack of the resources to take it to the next level that keeps us from ruling over this whole region. That is not your problem, though. You let us worry about getting the payment. Know that we have enough to purchase the first load of weapons. Once we have them, subsequent acquisitions will be much easier. The question I have for you is how long will it take you to get these weapons and bring them back through the gateway?”
“It will take me a week after I return to make the necessary purchases and transport them to the area of the gateway on my side for transit back to your world. As you already know, the gate opens into my world in a rather remote location. If we are going to transport things like weapons, we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves by building a road directly up to the gateway. That means we need to transport the weapons in smaller batches.”
“That makes sense to me. When would you like to go back and begin making arrangements?”
“Tomorrow would make sense to me. For this evening, I would like to get to know you all better, if you and the General don’t mind. I find that business always progresses faster when the two parties understand each other. The General has invited me to dinner. After that, we can prepare what we need and I can leave first thing in the morning.”
“Excellent,” Cat said. “It will give me time to gather the partial payment that you will need to get started. We will make final payment when we see what you end up returning with.”
Kurt nodded and left with the guard. He was led to his own room to wait for the evening meal.
Dinner turned out to be more than a little shocking to Kurt’s sensibilities. The people of this world were obviously carnivorous. That was evident by their teeth. He hadn’t considered what that might mean about the development of things like what he regarded as good table manners.
It was difficult for him to cover up his initial horror when plates of raw meat were delivered to the tables, much of it still on the bone and looking freshly slaughtered. The fresh meat was dumped from the platters and laid out on the table all around him. He sat to the right of the General as the guest of honor. Clara sat a few seats to the General’s left.
As soon as the plates were put down, everyone reached out, pulling in slabs of meat and tearing into it with their razor-sharp teeth. The double row of teeth sliced through meat and sinew alike with ease. To Kurt, it was all pretty disgusting and came close to turning his usually iron-clad stomach.
A tap from his left distracted him from his thoughts.
“Why do you not eat?” The General asked. “This meat is fresh from one of the nearby farms. You can’t get it any better than this in most places around here and certainly not in your world of industrialized food production.
Kurt stared for a moment at the blood-soaked wood surrounding the piles of meat in front of him before he answered. “I’m sure it’s delicious. However, as I’m sure you’ve learned from Clara, we are not suited to eating raw meat in our diet.“
“Ah, yes, I had forgotten that. I had assumed it was just something your weak females did whe
n they ate. I assume you will need to hold your meat over a flame for a period of time until it is, how do you say it? Cooked?”
“Yes, that is the correct word. I’m sorry, if this concerns you, General. It is not my desire to cause you any offense.”
The General waved his hand dismissively at Kurt as he tore huge hunks of meat from a more massive slab in front of him and gulped it down whole. When he swallowed, he turned and smiled with bloody lips at Kurt. “It causes me no offense. It is just a curious thing about your people that I do not understand.”
“Perhaps when you come to visit my world, general, I will be able to offer you meals from my land. I will remember, however, your desire to eat your meat raw.”
The General nodded and smiled as he took another tearing bite of that massive cut of meat in front of him. Someone tapped Kurt on the shoulder and he turned to see a small metal bucket filled with hot coals. The servant reached past him and set it on the table in front of Kurt.
The servant handed him a long-handled knife and left. Kurt realized this was for him to cook his food and he was so hungry that he dug right in. He carved off a piece of meat about the size of his fist. Then skewered it on the knife and held it over the hot coals in the bucket listening to it as the juices sizzled dripping onto the coals below.
Kurt looked around to the left while his food cooked and saw Clara with her own bucket of coals. She, too, prepared a piece of fresh meat over her makeshift grill. She looked over and smiled at him, raising the hunk of meat skewered on the knife in a sort of toast before holding it back over the coals.
Kurt’s piece of meat was soon cooked enough to eat and he took a bite, observing the General and his collected soldiers as they finished their meals. They all consumed truly huge amounts of food.
Kurt wondered if he could use that to his advantage. Carnivores usually took to sleeping off the massive amounts of food they ate, falling into sort of a food coma. Perhaps the same thing would happen here.
As he thought about it, the General nudged Kurt with his elbow.