Shadow Zone

by Pam Uphoff

  "Umm . . . are you . . . exploring?"

  "Heh. No, I'm head of electronic intel. I've got bugs all over, over there. Laser relays through the gate here, a batch of translators both here and back home. Hob's running the electronics for me." He grimaced. "There's a pack of Action subdivision's people here. Half and half support and field ops. They're out looking at military posts. Inventories of weapons, and reporting troop movements. To my surprise they haven't lost anyone yet."

  Ebsa eyed the gates. "Nor been tracked back here, I hope."

  "Not so far. The Army's got a single company guarding the gates, and mostly rotate their officers through to give them a look at the enemy.

  "Then . . . nine days ago? Something like that. The army went through and blew up their gate mechanism. Now I understand why. Kidnapping college students for merge victims." Ajha hunched his shoulders.

  Yeah. I get the horrors at the idea, too.

  Ajha swept his gaze across the five gates. "It's a wonder we're still undiscovered. I'd prefer to close half the gates."

  Ebsa looked from these gates back up the road to the gate to the One World. "They're within three kilometers of all our gate assets?"

  "Once we've finish the permanent facilities, they'll take down that gate and open one a hundred kilometers away. Or that's what they say. I think they're insane, and should do it now, no matter how inconvenient for the builders. Senior Admin Wxxo and Colonel Ypxe agree with me. But three weeks ought to relieve our nerves." Ajha eyed him. "I hope. You left the meeting yesterday before I could talk to you. I gather you were part of the group that freed the students and captured those Helios officers. Tell me about it."

  "Ra'd and I were across on a dinosaur world—guess which one—with a science team. We, umm, well, with the help of Nighthawk—a Disco rep there to open a gate—well, we captured them."

  "I briefly joined the interrogators. They were pretty beat up." Ajha headed for the end crawler.

  "Survivors of a Triceratops stampede. Mostly."

  "Ah." A little smile tugged at the side of the older man's mouth. "And the gate beacon?"

  "Nighthawk has some dimensional skills and can utilize bubbles. She scooped the whole thing up, and we did likewise with the Helaos prisoners."

  "Surely not just you three?" Ajha snickered at his nod. "The subdirector wouldn't tell us how they'd been captured. We've all been speculating about whether it was the Army or the Directorate that had the small army across. Oh my. Just you three young punks."

  "Umm, yeah. The exploration team was a thrown together group of desk jockeys who'd never been across, two delivery drivers, that icky Clostuone, and the guy in jail for assaulting his own team members. Needless to say, they didn't expect us to encounter Helaos. I don't . . . Ajha? Why did they have those students there? On that world?"

  "It was the second most likely world that Helios might merge with. Q said they were probably keeping the students to use in the early stages of the merge, a shadow zone, if they can get their magnetics stations working. Toss them in to merge with other Helios, so they have some soldiers who can come and go without instantly merging with whatever is on the other world." Ajha hunched his shoulders. "The One World was the third most likely target. Yeah, that got our attention. Now that that has been ruled out, the stress levels have plummeted."

  "I'll bet . . . umm . . . do they also have Oners captive on the other world?" Ebsa nodded at the fifth gate.

  "Not that we know of. Fean and I, and Xen and Q have been over there regularly, and we haven't seen any prisoners, nor facilities for holding them. They're building facilities over there. Very finicky about the placement. We think they're replicating the infrastructure that they want to survive the merge. But . . . most of the population has emigrated to an empty world. Pity they didn't do that a hundred years ago."

  "Ah, but what's killing three worlds full of strangers, when it can rejuvenate you?" Ebsa shook his head. "Glad we grabbed those kids. Once the Dino World was eliminated, they may have decided to cut their losses. Or moved them to the next target. Good thing we happened by."

  "And now the Helaos don't have a gate, so whoever's there is stuck there."

  Ebsa nodded. "Both on their home world and couple hundred soldiers on the Dino World. I'm glad we got the kids out of there."

  Ajha laughed. "Marooned them! And then they rewarded you by making you the sole cook for too many people. I swear there must be a requirement to have a lobotomy once you hit a certain grade level."

  "Meh. This actually puts me in about the right place to be useful, if there's a problem, another problem, with the Helios."

  "And where Paer is posted." Ajha's forehead wrinkled suddenly.

  "That too. And yes, I've met that batch of analyst friends of hers. Had the pleasure of beating up Offe in the dojo, all friendly-like, with a judge and all."

  Ajha winced. "Hopefully they'll get over it."

  "They're your staff, aren't they?"

  "Yep. Well . . . They theoretically answer to the actual head of Intel. But he thinks he's above boots-on-ground-sleeping-in-the-wilderness duty. So they answer to me first."

  Ebsa shrugged. "No doubt they'll be rude about the cook. Don't worry, I'll feed them anyway. Obvious rudeness has a tendency to backfire."

  Ajha sighed. "Yeah. If any of them get too bad, I'll have a reason to send some of them home. They're all reasonably good data handlers, but hardly anything special—other than in their own minds."

  "We're in the field. Hopefully they'll all realize that messing up out here has repercussions." Ebsa followed Ajha into the crawler, and looked around at all the screens and computers. "Damn. Hob must be in techie heaven."

  "Yep."

  When he emerged from the shower, all the analysts were grouped around the recorders.

  Off straightened. Stiff backed and appalled. "You? You can't be an analyst!"

  Ebsa nodded. "Nice to see all of you again. No, I'm usually X Team, but right now I'm the camp cook, here to rescue you from the vendos. See you at lunch." He nodded politely and stepped down out of the crawler. Looking up the road past all the crawlers to the gate home, he spotted another crawler headed toward them. Battered and dented . . . flakes of darkish paint, or maybe those were singed leaves. Surely not. It backed into the space at the northern end of the row, and settled in. Ebsa strode down to it. Yep, the old reliable Junkyard.

  Ra'd grinned as he opened the hatch. "Couldn't find a tent. Acty sent the old Junkyard back to the spare parts yard. Maintenance took one horrified look and said it was barely fit for spare parts. So when I got this assignment and your message, I asked our new supervisor and he authorized me to take it. Cheapest sleeping accommodations available, he said."

  "Excellent." Ebsa stepped in and thunked his armful of clothes into the washer. Eyed the gun safe. "I don't suppose . . . "

  "Oh, well, I unloaded the safe before it was turned back in. Acty kept what he needed. And then I totally forgot to take the rest back to the armory. And I didn't want to leave them in an empty warehouse." Razor sharp smile.

  Ebsa laughed with him. "So we're an order of magnitude more dangerous now. So . . . I'm the camp cook, what are you?"

  "Intel Agent. At first it didn't say, then 'the camp manager' sent that I was to report to the Head of Electronic Intel. Do you know who that is? They don't give names out, back home. 'Opsec' they say . . . Why the grin?"

  "Ajha. Opposite end of the camp. Brace yourself, though. He's afflicted with five baby analysts, and they're just ever so important."

  "Ugh." Ra'd looked him up and down. "You're walking around unarmed again, aren't you?"

  "I'm the cook, not a guard." Ebsa looked at Ra'd's stubborn body language, sighed and turned to the safe. "I could stick that short 10mm under the buffet table." And of course Ra'd managed to keep his 20mm.

  "And a pistol."

  "Stunner."

  Ra'd sighed. Loudly.

  "Oh kay. To copy your archaic term, which probably actually means so
mething obscene." Ebsa picked up a 9mm, belt and holster. "Most heavily armed chef on the world."

  Ra'd snorted. And handed him extra magazines for both. "I'll go check in with Ajha." His gaze lingered on the weapons, but he only took a pistol. And three full magazines.

  Ebsa got busy adding good stuff to the soup base, slicing the hard rolls and stuffing them with three different combinations of ersatz meat and cheese . . . taped the long gun underneath the cold buffet table.

  Technically, there's no reason the Helios couldn't pop through the gates and attack us. Just because they're unlikely to detect them magnetically, and we've got illusions over the far side, so they can't see them, doesn't mean they couldn't discover them. Follow an Action Team, or Military squad to them. But somehow I think it would be the soldiers defending us, not the cook.

  And the cook needs to attend to business.

  He got out his comp and pulled up a requisition form. I'll need regular deliveries of various types of bread. Fab bread just won't do. At. All. Both fresh and frozen vegetables and fruit. . . I wonder if I can get away with real steaks? Only one way to find out.

  Chapter Seven

  25 Muharram 1405 yp

  Scrublands Base, World EH 2946

  Ajha looked around at the knock at the doorway. "Ra'd, excellent. This is Tayc, Hioz, Amsi. Wpxa, and Offe. Ra'd is officially Wqlw Withione Makkah, right?"

  "Yes. I prefer Ra'd." The young man nodded to the other as his eyes swept the room. "So, you're head of Intel? What do you need me to do?"

  "Heh. No, I'm head of electronic intel. I've got bugs all over, over there. Laser relays through the gate here, a batch of translators both here and back home. Hob's running the electronics for me. Both the military and action subdivisions are over there physically spying." He grimaced. "Blowing things up. Not that it didn't need to be done, "

  Ra'd nodded. "I . . . am not impressed with the amount of security, for so many gates, so close to home."

  "The colonel says he's trying to get more troops, but high command is massing them elsewhere, at a different gate 'where they think they be more likely to be needed.' Heh. So we're half the Intel effort against Helios."

  Ra'd shrugged. "At least they didn't quit altogether when they became confident the One wasn't in the path."

  "Indeed. At the moment, I want you to do a bit of catching up on what's going on, in Cannibal HQ." Ajha looked around . . . Fean pointed and he stepped over to pick up his mini comp. "Here are the files with the maps, synopses of what our ears are picking up, links to the full translations, and analysis. Feel free to share with Ebsa." Ajha noted Ra'd's flick of glance toward Offe. No doubt Offe had reacted to the mere mention of Ebsa's name. Jealousy plus political ambitions thwarted. One save me, this is why I hate large field encampments. Worse than home, where there's enough space and other people to get away from the bickering.

  Ajha drummed his fingers. "Even with translation difficulties, it seems that they have started alluding to something, but never actually saying anything they wouldn't want overheard. The question is, are they going behind their superior's backs for some reason, or do they suspect we have them bugged?"

  The kids stirred. Five of them. So young, so arrogant, so clueless about how little they have to be arrogant about.

  "Well, they know someone's gated there and blown up their gate mech. They've got to be on the alert. And looking for our gate." Ra'd was clearly thinking . . .

  Military background. Must be the son of a soldier, no, an officer. He thinks tactics. Or maybe he's just a war gamer. I really need to ask someone about him.

  "So Fean and I are going to take good long look across tomorrow. Probably for a week. Hob, you'll be in charge here." He bit his lip, eyeing Ra'd. "Hopefully you won't have to come rescue us." The young man nodded, looking reluctant, but not arguing. One! I'd nearly forgotten what it's like to work with someone who will follow orders. "Once you're familiar with the situation, I'll take you across to see it all in person. We'll leave after lunch and be back for dinner, tomorrow." He hesitated. "I have a spell, from Q, that stabilizes the chromosomes in your body, and reinforces your personality, in case of merges. I've pretty-well covered everyone in camp, may I put it on you?"

  Ra'd nodded. "A wise precaution, under the circumstances."

  He wafted the spell that direction. "Since I'll be taking you through, the next time Q is here I'll ask her to personalize one for you. For now, the gates to Helios are numbered one through four, left to right. Or east to west, if you prefer. The fifth, most western gate is the world they will come the closest to. We'll be heading out gate four, which is the one nearest the line of their old magnetics stations."

  At the pavilion, Ajha was surprised to see Ebsa chatting away with the Earthers. Six "observers" who spent more time observing the Oners and the Fallen than they did the Helios. Of course the Fallen, well, the Disco personnel from Comet Fall usually just popped in to drop off reports, and left again. Not a single one stationed here.

  Wonderfully aromatic soup in serve-yourself tureens. Plates with sandwiches, sitting on beds of ice.

  Ebsa was replacing the sandwiches as quickly as they were disappearing.

  ". . . just snob stuff. The office workers try to pretend they're better than field agents, and usually get in the minimum amount of field work that'll get them onto the promotion track back home. Me? I love being out in the field."

  His analysts were sitting close enough to overhear, tossing the occasional scowl toward Ebsa and the Earthers. Surely they knew how real field agents felt about the dilettantes collecting their minimum required points?

  ". . . Love the dinosaur worlds. You wouldn't believe the trouble we had getting tracking tags on some of those critters. Oops, excuse me." Ebsa stepped to the oven and opened the door. The mixed aromas of baking pastry and hot fruit wafted across the drafty building.

  Pies? The boy is baking fresh pies? Oh Dear One! Wxxo's never going to let him go.

  The large oven disgorged eight pies, and Ebsa reloaded it with pies from the fridge. It looked like the fridge was stuffed with them. Then he was back production-lining sandwiches. I don't recall anything about professional cooking on his records, this must be home grown. All this and brains . . . he'd be a massive intel asset. No one would think he was anything but a really good cook. Not that it matters to me, I'm getting back to X Teams as fast as possible. Ajha winced, and refused to admit he was transitioning into management.

  Back at the buffet tables Ebsa was shaking his head. "Nope those are for after dinner. It'll take me that long to get them all cooked."

  Ajha exchanged glances with Fean. "We could wait until after dinner . . . "

  "Boss . . . "

  He sighed. "Right. No pies for the wicked."

  ***

  They walked across, with backpacks, guns, and unnoticeable spells. On their first trip, they'd had a hideous time keeping anyone from noticing their very different vehicle. Since then, if they needed one, they'd simply stolen one.

  The gate attached well away from any activity, this one had three corridors placed near it, covering the east side of the rebuilt city.

  They started with the westernmost, and worked their way through ruins to an outlook that had a good view of one of the magnetics centers. They counted the workers as they left for the day, counted the night shift. In the twilight, with lots of people headed all directions, they mingled a bit, recording conversations, although they'd gotten moderately familiar with the language.

  They left as the crowds thinned out, and worked their way back to their spy post.

  Snoozed through the night and woke to repeat the worker count in the morning.

  "Boss?"

  "Yeah, they got more people. We'll move in a bit, check out the other magnetics centers."

  Five days later it was clear that the centers were staffing up, and today lines of trucks were streaming to the east.

  "There's nothing out there."

  Ajha bit his lip. "That w
e know of. Let's go see what they're up to."

  The Helaos had no magic, so light warps were all they needed to walked down the hill to the road, with no one seeing them. Not that there were ever many people out here in the bleak wastelands. He waited at the edge of the road until the inevitable traffic slow down. They swung aboard a truck, peeked under the canvas and climbed in. It was stacked with crates . . .

  "Ammunition. Looks like they're planning for war." Ajha released the light warp and rubbed his temples.

  Fean nodded. "But who are they planning to attack?"

  "Whoever destroyed their gate equipment. Us, in other words." Ajha pondered. "I wonder if they had another gate, and we just never spotted it?"

  Chapter Eight

  28 Muharram 1405 yp

  Scrublands Base, World EH 2946

  A grinning Paer came by early. "Oh, this smells heavenly! Mind, you, I think you're underutilized as a chef, but after weeks of vendo food I'm not going to complain. Meals were worse than being treated like a barely trained nurse by the doctors."

  "What? You’re a fully qualified field medic, with Comet Fall medgician training!"

  Paer's smile was wry. "They don't consider that a plus."

  Ebsa sniffed. "I knew there was a reason I preferred docboxes to live doctors."

  "Oh? I have a suspicion it involved not having to explain how it happened."

  "Well . . . yeah."

  "Oh, I'm actually here to get meals for our two hospitalized patients." Paer flashed up the orders on her comp. "Heat stroke."

  "Hmm, let me show you how to get customized stuff out of the fab." He opened the control panel and tapped in for special products. It requested his administrator password. He typed in ADMIN. "That's the factory password. I have yet to find a single incident of anyone changing it." After which it was easy to get specialized meals. Fortified soups, in this case.