Tremble in the Dark: A Gwen Farris Novel (23 page)

"Ma'am?
Miss Farris?" He said it in a way that nearly had her wishing she'd used
an alias to sign in. Well, no help for it now, was there?

"Yes?"

"The
Telestator... I... The man said that he was the King?"

Gwen
nodded. That just made sense, didn't it?

"Well,
might as well get this done. Shall we?" She didn't know where the Telestator
would be kept, so just followed the man. Everyone else trailed along, because
naturally Bethany did and...

Well,
the rest probably just didn't know what else to do, did they?

For
that matter, neither did she.

Gwen
decided that, if she was in trouble, the real kind, that Ferdinand wouldn't be
calling her at all. It would just be a hit team of armored Special Service
coming through the door of her room, probably while she slept. That meant she
was almost certainly not in that kind of trouble, so she decided to try and act
like she wouldn't be in any at all. That worked.

For
about three seconds.

"Ferdinand!
How wonderful to hear-"

"Shut
your mouth, Miss. I. Am. Not. Pleased." There was an edge to his voice,
and the sound of shifting from the room he was in.

The
Telestator she was at had the air of a thing that was old and had been well
cared for, but still was less than perfect. The quality of the signal was weak,
and Ferdinand sounded different. His voice not nearly as rich and full as it normally
was. There were scratches on the wood of the table, and while it had been
treated with a scented oil recently, it wasn't stained.

That
was what Gwen's mind turned to, while she waited for the man to either say
something, or for her own anger to rise enough for her to start her own bit of
shouting. She didn't like to be bullied, and King or not, if he tried, they'd
be in a fight.

She
spoke, her mind just providing words, expecting the man to insist she just take
his abuse.

"The
bullies, the people that attacked me,
they
were never pleased either. It
didn't make them right. Just evil. I know you aren't used to hearing things
like this, but I don't
care
if you're pleased or not. You're doing
something bad, and no one here can stop you. No one can even call you on it. So
if you want to have me killed for what I said, then do it. If you've paid any
attention at all, you'll know that I don't really fear death all that
much." Her right hand stuck out at just below her own shoulder height, on
the central sphere, her palm was dry still. That wouldn't last forever, but for
now she felt...
fine
.

There
was a small puff of breath from between the silver globes in front of her. No
one spoke for a long time. Whole minutes passed in fact, and she nearly
wondered if the connection had been broken. That would be strange, but could
happen, if the operator decided that no one was on either side of a call.

"Do
you really think I'm as petty as all that, Miss Farris?"

She
shrugged with one shoulder and let her head shake a bit. "Honestly? No.
But you didn't call me up to suggest that you wanted to go out on a date, did
you? So, you want to bully me. It's all that's left. I'm not one of your subjects,
not really. At best you're my boss, and I can simply quit, unless you plan to
use the whole of your military to try and stop me from doing what's right? And
don't you dare try claiming that it's a matter of National Security! You let
children be tortured, because it's easier to control them that way, and they
don't get a choice in the matter. Now that people know..." She just
stopped. After all, her talking had never made much of a difference back in her
own world. Why would it here?

"The
program is over seventy years old-" She cut the King off, not bothering to
look around and see if Bethany had a PC at her back. She really didn't want to
know.

"Which
is sixty-five longer than it should have lasted. Look, I don't know what the
reports told you, but I did mention that doing that, using the Westmorland
Protocols, on adults that volunteered was different. I Think that-" Now it
was her turn to listen, it seemed.

"No,
that's the problem Gwen, you didn't think. You thought you saw a problem, and
jumped in to fix it, without bothering to see if I had a plan in place already.
We can't leave the Western Kingdom vulnerable to our enemies, especially
now
.
Doctor Debussey was one of our people. So were half of those involved in her
diabolical scheme. When she took out the capitals of the other lands, it was
the same to those people as if
I'd
ordered it done. The only thing
standing between us and total war is the knowledge of the others that the
Westmorlands won't allow our destruction. Now you've given our own people a
reason to think that what we've done to them is wrong. Do you think that no one
will consider that a reason to end the program? How will we defend ourselves
without them?"

She
wanted to pace, but couldn't, so dared to look back at Beth, who wasn't holding
her at weapons point at all, but was looking at her with crossed arms. The
others all just looked to be in various stages of shock. Poor Clara was
actually pale and looked ready to pass out. Sally seemed... diffident.

Gwen
sighed, trying not to sound as bitchy as she felt.

"Weren't
you paying attention?
I
can rework your program, to work on adults.
Volunteers. Maybe at least. If not, well, I know you don't put the kids into the
hardest training until they've matured a bit, around twelve or fourteen. Even
if you have to do it then, you can get volunteers." She wanted to add in a
sarcastic duh, to the end of it, but didn't.

He
was the King after all.

"People
won't volunteer for that. We tried that, at the beginning. Less than two
percent of the population can rift, even in potential, and the actual amount is
less than that, since the correct abilities have to be present and merely being
powerful isn't enough. The odds of that small group of people being willing to
die for their country is vanishingly small."

She
wondered about that. Wouldn't anyone be willing to risk their life, to protect
those they loved? She was willing to bet that they just hadn't really tried to
get volunteers in place for it. Not once some no doubt clever man with
sociopathic tendencies had decided that powerful little orphans would work
best. They weren't wrong, but working best wasn't the same as being the right
thing to do.

She
ended up shouting that at Ferdinand, who was busily giving as good as he got.
After about half an hour of that, the man sobered, managing it before she did
and got her to be silent by clearing his throat.

"This
isn't helping. The damage is done, and even if you think me a bully over it,
I'm not best pleased, Miss Farris. I can only hope that you'll come up with a
plan to protect us, because at the moment, I haven't a clue what to do."
He sounded very worried about it too.

She
nearly snorted again, but throttled her reaction as much as she could, and took
a deep breath.

"You
don't have to make
any
changes yet. I don't think that the current crop
can be retrained at all. That gives you fifty or sixty years to figure out what
else to do. I..." She stopped, because she actually
had
an idea. A
radiative device that would rift. It would have to be huge, like a giant
Teletransport sphere, but she was willing to bet that could be made and put to
use. Maybe even remotely. For a moment she almost didn't mention it, since at
least at the moment rifting took a life. She'd wondered why it had to, the
entire time she'd been in this new world.

The
difference was that she was used to thinking of such things as bombs, and the
people of the Western Kingdom thought of them as individuals. Westmorlands.

"I...
Might be able to give you something that will make it so you don't need people
for that. Along with a training program for volunteers, since it's clear that
they're the best force you have. We aren't talking about it over a line like
this. Even if it's secured. Can we get together and chat?"

"Fine,
tomorrow. I'll send people to collect you-"

"Don't
be silly, I'm working on a murder investigation, and we're traveling by rail
because all other kind is too dangerous in this area. I don't know if there
have been fluctuations in magic this far away," She looked back and the
man at the counter flipped a palm up.

She
kept watching him until he spoke.

"Some,
minor disruptions. Flickering lights and the sound on the Telestator isn't the
best right now. I don't know if that means anything?'

She
turned back to the device in front of her, and tried to firm her voice up.

"Right,
so that's not worth the risk. Besides, I need to come up with a good plan that
will both work and not be
too
powerful. There's already an imbalance of
power in your world. I don't want to make it worse. Justice is hard to come by
when one person or group has all the clubs." She meant ones that would be
used to hit a person over the head, which Ferdinand got, she was nearly certain.

"Then
when?" The man still sounded like he wanted to spank her. Not in a kinky
fun way either. Not that she thought of that as fun, never having tried it.

"Ethyl
Vernor is having a party in about three weeks. I can get you and Count Goebbels
invitations. For that matter we'll be sending them to the rest of the world
leaders. I doubt they'll actually show, but you and I can be there and chat.
Christophe Aubrey is coming." She remembered the engagement and felt a
trickle of warmth moving into her cheeks.

"Indeed.
Congratulations on that. I also heard that there was some misfortune, in
regards to his secretary? A death curse? You managed to break it, I was
told?"

She
laughed a little. It wasn't really funny, but being congratulated after all
they'd been saying was weird. Like she'd been arguing with a friend that didn't
really want her to suffer, even if he was a bit peeved at her for a few
minutes.

"Yeah.
It was less than fun, but Manly Westmorland doesn't take half measures. He's
going to be invited to the party too. Along with as many of the rifters as want
to come. We're having Martin Cordell in too. He's actually not so bad, once you
get to know him, and once he realized that Beth might be a
person
too,
and not a pampered princess in her ivory tower that wants him dead."

There
was a pause, "really? How interesting. I'll see you there then. How is the
case going?"

Looking
around, she realized that the man wouldn't expect much yet. They weren't even
on the scene at all.

"We
need to collect more data, but we've gotten some good information already.
We've even been trying not to break the law, left and right. It's slowing us
down, but we at least need to be a little certain that something is going on,
before we take action. That all comes from Beth, because I don't know the law
at all. You understand. Different world, and so on."

"I
do. It's one of the only reasons that I had you tracked and contacted, instead
of whisked off to Brandenburg to answer for your crimes. I do hope that your
plan for a replacement system is good, Miss Farris, or else we might yet have
to see you in a cell."

She
snorted. It was relieved, rather than anything else.

"
Good
?
No, it's
horrible
and shouldn't be needed at all. It's just better than
what you've been doing. I don't suppose I could get you to make an announcement
that you're backing us in this? Maybe explain the hardships that the
Westmorlands have been put to? Just mentioning that they've been abused isn't
going to be enough for some people to change their minds. So, if you could see
to that, it would be useful."

There
was a dark chuckle from the air, but it had waves in it, that weren't part of
the King's speech at all, but a sign of equipment breaking down. Or stopping.
Like the power fluctuation. She knew because the lights flickered in time with
it.

"Well,
I
do
live to serve, Miss Farris. I'll run the idea past my advisors.
Until we next speak?"

"Until
then. I think we're going to have an outage here-"

The
room went dark. She sighed and wondered if anyone knew what to do at all. The
magic didn't go out very often she was willing to bet.

"Candles.
Beth, can you go into your... Telepathic state?" That was her strongest
one, and she could punch through null radiatives without too much problem at
all. Really, Gwen just wanted to make certain it wasn't an attack.

Normally
Bethany was silent unless asked a specific question while in her telepathic
mode. This time there was a soft whisper instead.

"I
don't hear anything." There was no particular inflection at all in her
words. Then, there wouldn't be. She wasn't scared by the idea that her powers
didn't work, she'd just keep trying, until told not to.

"Fine.
Not a problem. Back to your regular state then, please?"

It
was still dark and was going to be for a while since they didn't keep candles
at the hotel. They were a fire hazard and the glow lamps normally just worked.
Even things like storms just meant closing all the windows tight. These people
didn't know what to do about a power outage at all.

Bethany
found her, and gripped her upper arm in the dark. The voice was recognizable
though, thankfully.

"I
got nothing at all, Gwen. That shouldn't happen, even if it's a null
field."

Gwen
knew enough about magic to have that one down. Null radiatives actually drank
in power, keeping most people from being able to use magic. Westmorlands were
strong enough to punch through that adding enough power to do that. This was
something different. It was...