"Probably keeps him nearby most of the time, so we won't find him," Lissa grumbled. "Has he ever appeared with anyone else in your dreams?" Her question almost made me jump.
"No," I said.
"That's too bad. Whoever this Sirenali is, the Prophet is hiding him very well," Kooper sighed. "Randl, use your code word to research the Lyristolyi drug in the ASD database. You'll find most of what you need there."
"Are there others that we know who've had the drug?" I asked.
Kooper and Lissa stared at one another for several seconds.
"Only Zaria," Lissa whispered.
Sun City, Le-Ath Veronis
Quin
Randl wore a frown as he joined us for lunch at a popular restaurant in Sun City, the major city on Le-Ath Veronis' light half of the planet. Le-Ath Veronis rotated on its side, keeping half in darkness and half in light.
It kept the vampires safe on the dark half, while tourists and others could safely travel from one hemisphere to the other with ease.
I was happy to get a day out; Justis seldom offered to come with me on shopping trips, although this one was for Randl. Dena, Ardis, Wellend and Brandl were with us at the table when Randl pulled out his chair to join our party.
"What sounds good?" Randl asked as he flipped through the projected tabletop menu.
"The prime rib is very good," Justis said.
"I'll have that," he said, tapping the item.
"How was the—ah—visit?" Wellend asked.
"Informational—up to a point," Randl replied. "Still plenty of mystery to go around, however."
"That's too bad," Wellend said.
Randl
Drinks were brought to the table by two servers who couldn't stop smiling at us—I could easily see they were excited to have the King and Queen of the Avii at their restaurant. It was a tale they could pass on to their friends.
I'd done research on humanoid servers as opposed to robotic ones—the interaction between humanoids and other races was rated far above that provided by a server-bot, even the most sophisticated of them.
Bots were employed at some fast-food restaurants, as Sal called them, but in the better places, those things were relegated to the kitchens, where they peeled and prepped vegetables, washed dishes and cleaned floors and counters.
Many of the best restaurants still did all that by hand, however. Sal had taken me once to Dee's on Tulgalan. The food had been incredible, there, and everything in the restaurant was done by a real person.
The prices were quite high, but worth every credit.
"What are we looking for today?" Pap asked.
"Everything," I shrugged. "I have what I'm wearing, and it really doesn't fit very well."
"I recognize it," he nodded. "It was what you were wearing when you, well. You know."
"Yeah." He didn't add that it fit me before I'd disappeared. It didn't fit now. "I need several pairs of boots, I think," I said. "Along with the other stuff."
The meal was good, although we only engaged in idle conversation. Shopping took longer, and felt more grueling than hours spent working out or sparring with Sal or under his supervision.
I had enough clothing, boots and shoes afterward, though, to do me for a while. When Wellend transported us back to Avii Castle, I found six uniforms lying on the bed inside my suite. Kooper had them delivered while I was out.
He'd assessed my size employing his own power to be assured of a proper fit, and I was grateful. Dress casually for dinner—Justis wants to eat on the terrace, Quin informed me in mindspeech. Your new denim pants and a comfortable shirt will do.
Thanks, I returned. Eating outside sounds wonderful. It did—it was warm enough outside. I'd left the beginnings of a harsh winter behind on Falchan.
Randl, the decoy ships have almost reached Bornelus, Kooper informed me.
Thank you for letting me know, Director. I have something to do before they arrive.
What's that? Kooper asked.
Plant a false reading of life forms aboard each, I replied.
Kooper went silent for several seconds before responding. That's good, he said. Very good. And good to know. We're monitoring the sensors aboard each ship. I'll let you know if they detonate.
Thank you.
ASD Headquarters
Kooper Griff
"Link me to all the readings from the sensors," I ordered.
"Yes, sir," the agent replied via comp-vid. In seconds, the images of all sensor readings aboard three decoy ships displayed on my comp-vid. The life-form reading was non-existent.
Until it wasn't.
I held my breath and counted to ten before blowing it out again. Not only were there life-form readings, but those life forms appeared to be moving about each of the ships.
How the bloody hells did Randl accomplish that?
Whoever told him that his power wasn't like that of a warlock or wizard hadn't been lying. This was far outside those parameters. More than ever, I wanted the name of the person who'd trained him to do these things. In all the records in the ASD and CSD archives, there'd been no reports of power wielders doing this level of wizardry.
I borrowed Sabrina's idea of creating echoes, Randl's mental voice informed me, as if I'd actually asked him that question. I've taken real life-form readings from other ships and duplicated them aboard your decoys, that's all.
That's genius, I began.
Thank Sabrina, she's the real genius. I'm merely adapting her idea to fit our need.
May I have a meeting with you tomorrow? I'd like to discuss plans for the Conclave.
Yes. What time?
Ten bells tomorrow morning?
I'll be there.
He didn't know it yet, but I had a meeting on Campiaa with Teeg, Wyatt, Dormas and Tybus at ten bells in the morning. Randl would be joining us.
Randl
In the past five years, I'd been taught not to reveal my thoughts in facial expressions. Kooper was taking me to Campiaa; I knew it the moment I met him in his office at ASD Headquarters.
He grinned at me before folding both of us to Teeg San Gerxon's private study. Wyatt, Jett Riffler, Dormas and Tybus were there, and wise men that they were, didn't outwardly register their surprise at my unexpected arrival.
Good to see you, Wyatt sent.
He didn't add that he worried that I was truly dead, like so many others did. Good to see you, too, I replied to his mindspeech.
"Please, sit," Teeg San Gerxon, Founder of the Campiaan Alliance, indicated chairs for Kooper and me.
"I have three decoy ships about to enter Bornelus' orbit," Kooper announced after he sat and made himself comfortable.
"I thought you were sending," Teeg began. "Ah," he said after a moment's consideration. His eyes turned toward me, then. "I take it this is at your advice?"
"Yes, Founder," I dipped my head to him.
"Call me Teeg. Nothing's changed, Randl. How soon will we know whether the trap has been sprung?" He turned back to Kooper.
"I'll get a message from those monitoring the situation," Kooper replied. "Now, who, in your opinion is among the most vulnerable of the attendees, so I'll know where to place undercover agents?"
"Cloudsong," Teeg said immediately. "They've only been members of an Alliance for a short while and are still coming out of their isolationistic shell, so to speak. I know Revalus can mostly protect itself, but I worry that the Prophet will view it as another new world with little knowledge of how to protect itself. It could be vulnerable for that reason alone. I have a list of six others," he passed a comp-vid to Kooper. "Jett will provide additional guards, but you have access to—shall we say—more talented agents than he does."
"If they're armed and professional, that's all we need," Kooper said absently while thumbing through the list on Teeg's comp-vid.
An alarm went off on Kooper's comp-vid, then, and I stiffened.
The Prophet's army had just boarded the ships, and all three exploded at once.
Chapte
r Three
Founder's Palace, Campiaa
Randl
Lunch was brought to us, after which we viewed the images recorded and sent by the vid-cams aboard the decoy ships until they were destroyed.
Only brief images of ten enemy soldiers boarding each vessel were recorded before the explosions occurred.
Whether the men died or were pulled away at the last moment, we had no idea, although Kooper was considering it a temporary victory.
"We've made our challenge, I think," Jett Riffler said after watching the images a third time.
"Has security been increased at every space port in both Alliances?" Wyatt asked.
"From the moment Randl told me Bornelus was a trap," Kooper confirmed. "They've been warned to watch for anything unusual, and to double and triple check every ship coming or going."
"What about freighters and passenger ships in the shipping lanes?" Teeg spoke his fears.
"All have been warned that there may be an increase in attempted piracy, and that their lives could be on the line as a result," Kooper said. "I assume you've gone over every bit of Campiaa, to check for irregularities?"
"Twice," Jett sighed. "And we're still looking. We don't have an abandoned nuclear waste site, or a city destroyed by a nuclear accident—Campiaa was solar-powered from the start. That doesn't mean we don't have difficult-to-reach places that would be ideal hiding spots for the enemy; we have drones combing those sites and transmitting data to CSD Headquarters."
"I have Quin going through images," Kooper sighed. "In fact, she's buried in images as of this morning. Anybody who's in charge of anything the Prophet could target is on that list."
"Do you have the information I requested on Vrak—the original, anyway?" I asked.
"I sent that to her. I'll send a copy to you when we get back to Le-Ath Veronis. I think I'll put X in charge of Cloudsong. As far as the list goes, I think they're the most vulnerable world that the Prophet could target. Besides, there's enough talent on X to get any of you elsewhere in a hurry, if it's necessary."
"Agreed," I nodded. My senses had pinged the moment Teeg said Cloudsong earlier.
Avii Castle, Le-Ath Veronis
Quin
I had enough images to look through to keep me busy for days, with barely enough time for meal breaks and sleep. My wings drooped about me as I considered yet another face on my ASD-issued comp-vid.
"Hi, baby."
"Mom?" My head jerked up immediately when Zaria appeared before my desk.
"I can help with that pile of images," she smiled at me. "If you'll help me first."
"What can I do?" I stood, the comp-vid on my desk forgotten. I'd help because she asked and not for the promise of a return favor.
"I need your healing skills," she said. "We need someone, but first, he needs us."
"When?" I asked, suddenly sounding breathless. This was important; I could almost see it in my mother's eyes.
"Now, and in the past." Her reply was cryptic.
"I will give whatever you need," I said.
"We need your best healing," she said. "Come. It's time we rectified a wrong."
ASD Headquarters, Le-Ath Veronis
Randl
"I'm sending one more agent with you to BlackWing X," Kooper informed me when he folded me back to his office. "He's a veteran agent with fourteen years' experience, completely trustworthy and has success in the field tracking down and eliminating security threats. He's an uncanny judge of people, too, and is very accurate in detecting a lie when it's told."
"His name?" I felt it was prudent to know who'd be sent to the ship with me.
"Vik Roth," Kooper replied. "At least X's ceilings are high enough that he won't have to duck his head when he walks through the ship."
"So—he's tall, then."
"We see eye to eye," Kooper laughed. Kooper was quite tall, and many were forced to look up to him. Most of the time, he secretly enjoyed that. "This will bring the crew's number to twelve, and I figure with babysitting Cloudsong's King and his advisors, you'll need an extra hand."
"Because you may be pulling me off the ship regularly," I said.
"I knew you'd see that," Kooper nodded. "It's true. You'll be in high demand, and Jett has my permission to contact you for special circumstances, too."
"All right. I like Director Riffler. He's a credit to his people and his work."
"Teeg and I think so, too. Look, go spend some time with your father. I expect you back here at eight bells tomorrow morning. Vik will be here, too, and you'll both report to Captain Trent aboard X."
"Thank you, Director," I said.
"Don't thank me. We're going to wear you out with this Conclave business."
"We'll see about that."
Hotel Chessman, Le-Ath Veronis
Vik Roth
I shut my packed bag with a sigh, remembering Zaria's words to me fifteen years earlier.
I also recalled what she'd done for me—she and Quin.
I'd been prevented from committing a heinous crime; one I'd have extreme difficulty reconciling since I'd survived it, thanks to Zaria's interference.
I'd taken a mortal wound, too, in the process, but Quin had healed that and many other maladies I'd borne through the years.
My appearance was changed, as was my name, but inside, I knew who I was. I also knew what I'd been saved from, and I would forever be grateful for that. For so long, I'd limped along, feeling mostly useless and a burden to those who knew me.
Now I had purpose and hope—both gifts from Zaria. I also wore a small, gold medallion around my neck, that she'd also given me. I intended to repay her as well as I could, by doing my best in the coming months.
Tomorrow, I'd meet another agent, and we'd be transported aboard BlackWing X, one of a secret fleet of pirate ships operated by the ASD. The ship would bear a disguise while we made our way to Cloudsong, the newest member of the Campiaan Alliance.
I hoped the King wasn't as paranoid as many of the records said. That was difficult enough to deal with, without a nameless enemy walking through his door unannounced.
Kooper Griff said the other agent could see through most disguises, and read whether an obsession was placed on someone, in addition to dozens of other troubles infecting them.
I'd also been informed of the problems dealt with during the Conclave ten months earlier—in fact, those problems had precipitated the rescheduling of the Joint Alliances meeting.
My stomach growled, reminding me it was time for dinner. I headed for the door; there was a restaurant downstairs that served good steaks. One of those was in my near future.
Avii Castle
Quin
I had a very short list of images to consider, thanks to Zaria. I was tired after our trip to the past and back again, but Zaria had saved me many days' work by tapping my comp-vid and providing a list of names and images that needed my attention.
The others, she'd said, were fine for now.
"Time for dinner—stop working," Dena walked into my study, rustling her multi-colored feathers. It was another way to scold me for spending so much time on this project—or so she'd thought.
Zaria had brought me back to the moment after we'd disappeared, so to Dena, it appeared as if I'd never been gone.
In reality, I'd been gone for several hours, so this would be a long day for me. I didn't mind. Time with my mother is always a blessing, no matter what form it takes. She and I, however—we had a secret to keep, now.
"I'm hungry," I said as I stood and folded my red wings against my back.
"Good. I hear they cooked your favorite noodle and mushroom dish."
Randl
"Send messages when you can," Pap said. He and I were having dinner together at Lissa's beach palace. It was good to have a meal with him only, so we could talk freely. In my pocket, I carried the coin from Vogeffa II—soon enough I'd handle it, hoping to find information in it from the past.
Pap had a gold coin like it in his pocket�
�from my mother. It was older and more worn, but he'd held onto it all these years as something to remember her by.
Perhaps I'd ask to examine it one day, to see if I could find images of my parents in it.
"I'll send regular messages, I promise," I told Pap.
"I'll write, too, but my notes will be boring," he grinned.
"Pap, boring sounds great. Tell me all about the boring stuff. It'll be welcome, I assure you."
"I know you won't be able to tell me much, once you get there," he said. "But tell me how you are anyway."
He wasn't saying it aloud, but he was terrified I'd disappear again—or be killed, as he'd believed during the time I was missing.
"Pap, have you ever considered—well, asking someone out?"
"Hmmph."
"It's been a long time. Having somebody beside you isn't the worst idea, you know."
"I know."
"Think about it, all right?"
"I will."
Pointing out the reality of that lie would only bring excuses, and I could see through those, too.
"Is there anything else?" Our comesula server appeared at Pap's elbow.
Fuck being a realist, I thought. "I'd like a beer, please. Refizani Blue, if you have it."
"Of course."
BlackWing X
Trent
Once Randl and our newest crew member, Vik Roth, were aboard, we'd set a course for Cloudsong. In two weeks, the King of Cloudsong, his assistants and a few Council members would be shuttled to Campiaa aboard X.
As one of seven recent additions to the Alliances, Cloudsong and the others would attend newly-created orientation meetings, to bring them up to speed on Conclave history, activities and best practices on dealing with the politics surrounding a conclave. They'd be approached by special interest groups, although that was an illegal practice in both Alliances. Many times, payment or favors changed hands, but those schemes were often difficult to prove.
BlackWing X, during this operation, would bear Raptor II's name and ID numbers. Devarr, King of Cloudsong, would know little about us, except that the ship was provided by Teeg San Gerxon, since Cloudsong's space station was still under construction and had little in the way of security to protect the King.
MindMage: BlackWing Pirates, Book 2 Page 3