by Pam Uphoff
Edge trotted up the stairs.
Apde, usually called Ape, wandered down to the kitchen and opened the fridge. "You're out of beer again!" Obviously a frequent visitor.
"Ha!" A faint reply from upstairs. "That usually doesn't happen until you're on the way out!"
Ebsa checked out the various doors. Closet under the stairs, bathroom. Beyond the kitchen, a small patio. Dim with two-story high walls on three sides. On the far side, a door to what was probably a garage.
"Bedroom upstairs, I suppose." Ra'd was looking around, too.
Wedge shrugged. "Dunno. I don't swing that way."
Ra'd raised a contemptuous eyebrow and strolled back to the front door.
"Here in the city, I'll bet it cost a mint. Why not just rent an apartment?" Ebsa looked up the stairs as Edge trotted back down.
"Owned property appreciates. I'll sell at a profit, so in the long run it will have cost me less than nothing." Edge was now dressed in the height of male fashion, shirt and vest. Tight pants with a sheen to them. "Now. The eight of us are going to walk down four parallel streets. We will randomly pick someone to tail, and we'll walk back and forth and all around her, without her noticing that she's under surveillance. Because none of us will watch her for more than a couple of blocks."
Her? Why not some man? Ebsa eyed the Action Trainees. Half of them grinning. Their reputation is such that I really don't like this. But however they titillate themselves, they won't rape anyone. Here.
"So form up a compass. Let's tune in and then go."
Azko had been deemed too young for this exercise. And, of course, no women. So Ebsa found himself in the southeast position, and Ra'd reluctantly took northeast, directly down current from Edge. Ebsa, between Ape and Wedge, was somewhat buffered. Not that he knew either man well. He barely knew the names of the three across from him. Ohhe "Oh Hey," Oblu "Blob," and Amqu "Mac."
A quick spurt of energy circled, just enough to get them to barely merge. Then Edge absorbed the energy and they dropped hands. Walked out and boarded a tram.
Ebsa had to fight to not mirror every twitch and scratch the others made. He dimly understood that they were doing most of it to test the newbies. Could they link well enough to drift off a few hundred meters? Could they stay separate enough, individual enough, to not make a spectacle of themselves in public?
He felt clumsy. Forced himself to stay on the tram as Blob and Mac stepped out and strolled off down the side street.
A block later Ra'd followed Wedge off. Then Ebsa got off and merged with the crowd of pedestrians on the walkway. He could feel Edge behind him and drifting to the right. He made himself break step, and the awareness faded a bit.
:: This far away from each other, no one will notice. Staying in step is the easiest way to maintain contact. :: Even Edge's mental voice was sneering.
Ebsa let himself fall back into step. And then he could feel the others.
:: Mark. :: A doubled mental vision from Mac. A woman in a red dress. Brown hair in a short professional cut, briefcase. Heading toward them.
:: Cross the street, turn left. I stay here and go straight ahead. ::
Ebsa looked at the traffic, as he headed for the curb . . . no wait, that had been Wedge ordering Ra'd to cross the street.
:: Cross at the next intersection. :: Edge to him, this time.
Spaced out as they were, they had an eye on the woman for a dozen blocks, until she entered an office building.
By the third woman, Ebsa and Ra'd didn't need specific orders. They spread out wider, handed off surveillance easier . . . And between one step and another, Ebsa fell out of the group and staggered over to lean on a wall, his whole head throbbing in waves of agony, while his vision did weird things to the light. For what felt like an eternity.
Blob walked up out of the rainbow aura surrounding his tunnel vision view of the world. "There you are. Good job. Let's go eat."
Ebsa made it the three blocks to the diner they were apparently all headed for, despite jagged flashes of light that strobed in time with his screaming brain. He ate and drank whatever was placed in front of him and the throbbing settled slowly down to merely painful.
Ra'd steered him back onto a tram, and into his room. Where he could finally pass out.
Pounding in his head . . . no, wait. This one was exterior. He rolled out of bed and staggered to the door. Winced as the tapping restarted. Opened the door and narrowly missed getting punched out by a girl.
Paer was frowning at him. "You missed the morning run. Even Ra'd was slow. What did you do to yourself? At least you're dressed . . . " her voice trailed off.
Ebsa leaned on the door jamb and looked down at himself. Same clothes as yesterday. Including shoes. "I think I may have overextended myself yesterday." His voice echoed oddly inside his head. "I think . . . I'm going back to bed." He swayed off the supporting architecture and wobbled back to bed.
"Are you hungover?"
The voice was very close.
Ebsa opened an eye. "You aren't supposed to be here, you know?"
Snort. "I have two bodyguards who would probably come to my rescue, although from the glares they may think I'd deserve to be raped by a drunk."
"Go away. This is magic, not alcohol."
Sniff. Retreating footsteps and the click of a closing door. Time crawled.
" . . . no one else is!" Paer sounded angry.
And something smelled really good.
"Ha, that got your attention."
Paer set a tray down on his desk and he staggered over and drained the juice and wolfed down everything else.
The remains of the headache faded, and he blinked around at the roomful of people.
Professor Ivy snorted. "The surest way to tell a hangover from an energy drain is the response to food. Now, what caused this?"
"Team exercise yesterday, trailing all around downtown." Ebsa looked wistfully at the glass but it was empty. "What time is it?"
"Noon. You missed my class. I was coming to ream you, but apparently I need to talk to Arvi about his choice of Team Leaders and training them to not damage their team members, and how to recognize when they are doing so. Go back to bed. See you tomorrow."
He stepped between bodyguards and out the door. Paer snorted. "Give me the tray. So, this is how to get a day off?"
"Not recommended. I'll have to find something a bit less painful, next time I feel like sleeping in."
Snort. "See you tomorrow. Don't make me come and get you."
"No way, my reputation couldn't take it."
Snort. Shifting movement as the guards ushered her out.
Peace and quiet. Ebsa eyed the bed . . . then headed for the shower. Maybe he could still make the Latin class.
Chapter Twelve
24 Hija 1402 yp
The next compass they formed felt odd.
He felt the others so much more strongly. Ra'd and Azko straightforward, one fierce, one uncertain. Edge complex, powerful, but twisted somehow. An advanced power stage or something wrong?
Ebsa blinked. :: Is that what power levels feel like? Increased complexity? ::
:: Why does it twist like that? Should it? :: Ra'd was somehow using Ebsa's changed perception to also study Edge's aura. He sounded wary. Or worried.
:: It's something we look for, in Action Team trainees. :: A sneer from Wedge. :: You've got a tiny bit, Ra'd. We'll have to nurture it. ::
:: Ebsa, you're stronger than a Clostuone ought to be. :: Blob maybe? The individuality was starting to smear.
Edge frowned. :: Yeah. What the hell did you do to get so complicated feeling like that? You have a kid, don't you? ::
:: Umm, well . . . not that anyone has ever told me. :: You've got to watch those street orgies . . .
:: What! ::
:: Oh, man. I've got to start working on internal shields. ::
:: Orgies? Bull. :: Ogly snorted.
Wedge eyed him from across the Compass. ::I don't believe a word of it. How do you lie w
hen we're in contact? ::
:: By telling outrageous truths. It was really only one orgy. ::
:: That's beyond outrageous. :: Icty—City—was East, to his right. :: How can a Clostuone be so strong? ::
:: Vitamins. ::
A mental slap that, under the circumstances hit everyone. The merge softened, but didn't break. No one retaliated, which could have gotten painful.
:: I have a high count, just, unfortunately, overlapping holes.::
A snort, and the merge deepened a bit. The twists oozed across from both sides. Ebsa stiffened inner shields, tried to push the twist away.
Azko's scientific curiosity flowed through. :: It's the unbalanced rape genes that cause the twist, isn't it? ::
:: Not rape genes. Just ambition, aggression, initiative, drive . . . ::
:: Lack of discipline, lack of control. Unbalanced. Undisciplined. Twisted. :: Ebsa put in.
:: Shut up, Fresher. At least we're only stuck with two virgins.::
:: Interesting compass. A daddy, two boys, and five assholes. :: Ogly, that time. :: Edge, you're supposed to be the leader, and you've got some specific exercises to do. ::
:: Shut up. I am the leader. ::
The compass fell apart. Ebsa stepped away, a bit of an incipient headache building behind his eyes.
Sensei Arvi stomped up. "What is the matter with you? What did you do to be so overstrained."
A shift through the group. And silence.
Arvi eyed them.
Edge cleared his throat. "I kept them in merge too long, two days ago. Ra'd is so strong, and Ebsa so complex I failed to spot the beginning of his energy drain."
Arvi raised his eyebrows. "Right. Ebsa, grab a booster and observe the remainder of the lesson."
The ubiquitous sugary and mineralized beverage tasted good, as it always did when he really needed it.
He watched them reform, Edke taking his spot.
He could see the energy dancing around the compass, up and down, fast and slow.
Ra'd . . . Ebsa studied the compass. Ra'd was the most powerful of them all, the most disciplined, the most controlled. He held a strong inner shield, yet there'd been no problem communicating with him, merging. He was trained, very well, so long ago that he doesn't even think about how to keep separate while still joining. Azko's too young to be in this group. He's going to get his brain bruised worse than me, if they keep working him like this. I wish there was another youngster, so we could do a four square. Or even just a couple or three more Action types, so they had enough for two compasses without us.
That twist . . . I pushed it away without a problem, and Azko's fine. Ra'd . . . seems to be vulnerable. Because he's angry? Or does he have mismatched rape genes? That's a scary thought . . . that they could mold someone so inherently powerful into an untrustworthy brute.
The drink slid from wonderful to boring and his headache faded. He stood up as the girls finished doing whatever they'd been doing and walked over for drinks themselves.
One of the senior women looked him up and down. "Orgies, eh?"
Ebsa blushed. "Was the compass that noisy?"
Snickers.
Paer was blushing. "We were practicing listening in. Really? An orgy, and maybe a baby?"
Ebsa could feel his face heating. "It was more of a wild party. But yeah, there was sex. Lots of it." And the only women there that I ever saw again, I very definitely did not have sex with! And they both had twins. Holy crap . . .
More snickers. Was he leaking those thoughts?
"Yep." The senior thumped his shoulder. "You over strained, and you're leaking like a sieve, just now. Keep drinking, and don't do any magic for a week. I'll talk to the sensei."
So after class his friends all hauled him off to grill.
"Orgies? Really?" Azko was grinning. "Where? Can I come to the next one?"
Heak punched him.
We all get kind of physical after a workout.
"Yeah. I noticed that. Is it just being healthy and feeling good or is it an effect of all the mental work? Maybe . . . Are you all right, Ebsa?" Paer looked worried.
"I didn't say that out loud." He tried to subdue the panic in his voice. And not think.
They all swapped glances.
"Oh." Paer's voice got quiet. "Somehow, before I touched the One Power, I expected . . . nothing to basically change. I thought I'd just be able to, oh, wave my magic wand and do magic. Like in some silly Multitude story."
"I think it's mostly that he overdid it. I don't think we'll always be picking up thoughts like that." Ra'd frowned. "And perhaps we all need to work on shielding harder. I had a lot of drill on that, but even so . . . yeah, after those compass sessions, we aren't automatically pulling our shields up and tight."
The girls nodded.
"We were deliberately taking ours down." Heak blushed. "So we could listen in on the Compasses. It's enough to put me off men for life."
Ebsa bit his lip and glanced at the girls, and away. "Is that why so many Action team women are lesbians?"
Paer snickered. "I doubt it. We also heard you three. So we know not all men are twisted like that."
Heak snickered. "Now about this orgy . . . "
"It wasn't my fault . . . we were rescuing a friend from a drug gang. And I'm not going to mention any names here." Ebsa glanced toward the bodyguards. They weren't police, but . . . "There might have been some minor bribing with a bottle of the Comet Fall Joy Juice."
Heak, Azko, and Ra'd crossed their arms in unison.
Heak shook her head. "That's all just exaggeration."
Azko nodded. "The stuff I tried didn't do a thing."
Ra'd raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"This bottle was the real deal. And it wasn't illegal. Yet. We were in the back rooms of a bar, untying our friend, when things got a bit noisy out in front, where some other friends had been . . . holding people's attention. The rescued friend headed out the back way, being in no shape for a fight, and the other guy and I headed to the front to make sure everyone, umm, exfiltrated safely. He had the bottle with him, and drank some, and shared it. And . . . wow. People were just throwing their clothes off and throwing themselves at other people and . . . wow." Ebsa blushed. "And that is all I'm going to say about it."
Azko eyed him. "Did you keep any of the joy juice? It's supposed to be a von neumanns, you know."
"Must be, it spread like wildfire. And no. I was too busy having too much fun to do anything sensible like snag any of it. Which, since it became illegal about a year later, is a good thing." Ebsa looked at all the skeptical gazes. "Really."
As they split up for various classes, Ra'd and Azko cornered him. "You do realize that if you say anything about us being virgins we'll beat the crap out of you?"
Ebsa blinked. "Umm . . . look, I had that one drunken orgy. Three and a half years ago. By the next school day, I was right back to being the Boy With Cooties that no girl would touch. So . . . I'm not actually in any better, umm, macho state than you guys. My only advantage is that I really do know what it is I'm not getting any of."
Ra'd snorted and moved off.
"And now bloody organic chemistry." Ebsa headed for the physical sciences building.
"You're getting good grades." Azko grinned. "Even if mine are better."
In Intro to Magic, Paer and Heak put their heads together with Nighthawk, to much giggling. The guys tried to ignore them.
Good thing none of them seem the least bit interested in me. I'd hate to have a girlfriend giggling about me like that.
The giggles quieted and they all applied themselves to the test as it popped up on their desks. Pretty straight forward. A few odd questions that had multiple possible answers. He winged it, and submitted it. A few minutes later, a nice high score popped up.
He heaved a sigh of relief. So far so good. I think I can stop being so apprehensive about the Directorate School being too hard for me.
In Martial Arts, Ebsa had a week of solitary workouts—
quickly joined by Azko—then a few more compass sessions, before Arvi pronounced them not suitable for Action Teams and dropped the two of them from the merge work altogether.
Thank the One!
Ra'd was still stuck with the team work. But always came to the early Speed meetings.
Azko graduated to jumping off chairs, and wasn't hardly hesitating.
Chapter Thirteen
6 Shawwal 1402 yp
Ebsa punched the complete button. The comp did its thing.
The last midterm was done.
All he had to do was find the nerve to check his current standings. He gave the system a few minutes to digest the last midterm . . . Told himself to stop being a coward and checked in to his records.
Latin. Three point nine. Drat. Missed it.
Organic Chemistry. Four point one. Yes!
New History of the Multiverse. Four point five. I'm hot!
Introduction to Magic. Three point five. Damn, damn, damn. Well . . . I'm passing.
Martial Arts Advanced Class. A checklist, not a score . . .
Hand-to-hand skills. Solid. Cold Speed, level five.
Firearm skills. Novice, improving rapidly.
Leadership skills. Good.
Personality issues. Moderate.
Action Team. Not suitable.
Information Team training. Highly Recommended.
Exploration Team training. Highly Recommended.
Magic training. Recommended.
He heaved a sigh of relief.
"Mine stink." Ra'd was scowling.
"Eh?" Ebsa peeked. "Yikes. I don't think the Magic professor likes Directorate students."
"It a computer graded test."
"And the professors can change that by up to half a point, at their discretion." Paer hustled up, comp in hand. "Apparently she down checks Directorate student's scores, just as a matter of course. The Head protests, and hopefully they'll pop up a bit."
Heak and Azko joined them. Azko took a look at Ra'd's. "Ooo, you need to stop arguing with Professor Ivy."