03. Gods at the Well of Souls (26 page)

"All very well, Colonel, but what do you get out of this? What's to stop you  from just eating me and becoming ruler of the world yourself?" The colonel was ready for that one. "For one thing, I don't want to be ruler of  the world. I think it would be far too much work to be fun. Much better to be an  adviser to that ruler and have his ear when needed. No, sir, I don't want that.  But you see, all my life I have taken orders. All my life I have served  governments and cartels and bowed to Don Francisco this and General Hernando  that. It's been no different here. I do their dirty work, I cover up their  mistakes, and still I am dependent on others. I am a man of modest and humble  beginnings. The army of my native land on my native world saved me from poverty  and starvation. I worked my way up, doing whatever was necessary, whatever could  advance me. I did not have the relatives, the connections, or the old military  school ties that counted. Finally, with the air corps, I managed to attain  basically the level I am at again here-but I was still subject to miserable pay  and the whims of my superiors, always with the sword at my neck. One of  those-those high-and-mighty generals could in an instant declare me dangerous or  push me aside. When I got here, I had certain unique qualities and experience  and managed to achieve this level rather quickly, but I am still the servant,  the outsider. I am not a native. I can never be at the top." 

"What do you want, then, Colonel?" Taluud asked him with growing interest,  wondering if he could trust any of this. 

"I want to be the grand leader of Leeming, the most supreme general and  president for life. A modest position of power compared to what you might attain  but more than enough for me. There are certain-characteristics, if you will-of a  Leeming that have the potential for me to live a very long time and for a part  of me to live on almost forever. Within my own land I would be absolute ruler.  You would have all the rest." 

Taluud thought it over. Maybe the slime was telling the truth, maybe he wasn't,  but Gen Taluud hadn't lived this long without being able to judge when a fellow  as unencumbered with morals as he himself told stories like that. Besides, he  could always get the bastard fried if it looked wrong. 

"Very tempting. Colonel. Very tempting, indeed. But we're missing one thing to  make such a deal, and that's this what's her name. We don't even know where she  is or, at the moment, what she is." 

"I know. Both from the computers and from the medical records of those curious  doctors. She is an anuk, a very large wingless bird. They were quite proud of  her; the genetic remake was so complete, she is said to be capable of  reproducing-as an anuk, of course." 

Taluud's cigar almost dropped from his fingers. "A what? A bird? How big a bird  do you mean?" 

"Oh, a meter, give or take a bit. About this high, I would say." A pseudopod  shot out and hovered in the air. 

"Why, that lyin', double-crossin' bitch! I'll fry her ass for this! Nobody does  this to Gen Taluud!" He picked up the communicator. "Get me Campos. Now! No-wait  a minute! Go over there and pick her up-personally. I want her here in ten  minutes, you hear?" The communicator slammed down. 

"I gather you already know the location of our quarry," the colonel commented.  "How convenient." 

"Yeah, maybe. Seems to me she said she'd given it away to someplace, but I can't  remember. Don't matter. She'll tell me anything I want to know soon enough." The communicator rang, and Taluud picked it up. "Yeah? What! Well, what about  the other two broads? Them, too? Shit!" He looked back at the colonel. "They  flew the coop! All three of 'em flew the coop! Like they can hide from me!" "I would not underestimate this Campos. I have information that on the old world  Juan Campos was in some ways an equivalent to you here." 

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but he ain't got no control. I never trusted guys who got  to be big because their father was big. You work yourself up, you don't have to  prove nothing." 

"My point exactly with my own case," the colonel noted. "We agree on a great  deal, sir. I believe this could be an excellent partnership." 

"The zoo!" 

"I beg your pardon?" 

"She gave the bird to the zoo!" 

A few calls brought the news that the zoo, too, had someone missing. He was back  on the communicator again. 

"Look, how tough can it be? Three broads and a bird the size of a teenage kid.  You put the word out. Naw, they probably are outta here by now, maybe on a  ship-check all the docks and passenger and cargo manifests. Also check the  trains, border controls, you name it. They got to be somewhere, and I want the  'where' and fast, hear?" 

"I admire the way you move on things," the colonel said approvingly. The communicator signaled, and Taluud grabbed it. "Yeah? Well, you get movin' on  this other thing. As soon as you find 'em, you get a dozen of your best men and  meet me. We'll go after 'em personal. Then we pull the plug. Hear? First we want  them girls. Period." 

"What was that about, if I might ask?" 

"Your buddies from Agon are here. They're in the capital right now, armed with  lots of information on certain political types, and they're gonna have a pretty  free ride by tomorrow. The rats are deserting the ship up there and fallin' all  over themselves to be helpful." 

"My-'buddies,' as you call them. I assume this is the centaurs, the Erdomite,  the Dahir, and the Glathrielian girl?" 

"Yeah, yeah. Them and that holier than thou Kurdon, too. I knew we shoulda made  him have an accident years ago! Well, that's what I get for bein' a softy! No  more!" 

"This-bird. It was well known?" 

"Yeah, around here, anyways. It was so weird-lookin', anybody who saw it  remembered it. Shit! Right under my nose! Right under my fuckin' nose!” "If even the more common elements in your own organization will remember it even  slightly, it is serious. And she was last in the zoo, too ... Probably on  display. That means even more will remember. Honest, upright folks. We will not  be too far ahead of them, I fear." 

"Maybe not. But if it's always ahead, I'll settle for a few steps. The only  one's gonna laugh at the end of this is the one who winds up with the bird,  right?" 

"I would say that was a fair statement." 

"Then we get there first." 

"What of these other two females? Might they be with Campos? How much of a  problem might they be?" 

"They're all looks, no brains. Campos was the one with the looks, brains, and  guts. I don't know how she even got the other two to go along, but they're dumb  enough to fall for a lot of stuff. Well, I'll fix all three of 'em when I get a  hold of 'em!" 

The communicator signaled. "Yeah? What? Oamlatt? That's on the border with  Mixtim! You sure she crossed over there? Absolutely positive? Yeah, well, it's a  lead. Let's get on it. We got anybody in Mixtim that's handy? Shit. Well, it  shouldn't be brain surgery to find information. See what you can find out, if  you can find anybody there who remembers a second woman, or a big bird, or  whatever. Call me back." The boss turned to the colonel. "Mixtim." "Problems?" 

"One of the girls-not Campos, one of the others- arrived this morning. I said  the other two weren't all that bright. She made a call back here just so's her  sister wouldn't worry about her. They're sure she went over into Mixtim at the  Oamlatt border crossing. It's a rail intersection and trade center. Makes  sense." 

The communicator buzzed. 

"Yeah? A black pony? That don't sound like no bird!" 

"Wait a minute!" the colonel said in an urgent tone. "Ask them if the pony had a  horn on its head." 

"Hold it. Did the horse have a horn on its head? How do I know? Stickin' up, I  guess." There was a pause. "It did!" Taluud looked over at the colonel. "Okay,  it did. So?" 

"The other one. She's taking both of them with her!" 

"You get to work on the Mixtim side. See if you can get any information on  trains and such. I want to know where they bought tickets to, hear?" He pressed a button on the communicator, then redialed another number. "All  right, we're on 'em. Have your team meet me at Central Station. Call ahead to  Oamlatt and make sure we have supplies for a long trip and the fire-power we'll  need that'll work there. Yeah, Oamlatt. They went into Mixtim, and we're gonna  have to go get 'em. You meet me at the station after gettin' that set, you hear?  I'm pullin' the plug." 

He looked at the colonel. "You like bugs?" he asked. 

"Depends. Raw, boiled, or fried?" Colonel Lunderman responded.\ "Everybody's flown the coop," Kurdon told them. "It was to be expected, but I am  still disappointed. At any rate, we've broken the main connection for this  entire region for quite some time, and we have enough on the local boys both  here and in Agon that it's unlikely to be restored on a scale like this in the  near future." 

"You mean you've actually destroyed the cartel?" Julian asked, somewhat awed at  the concept. "Because of us?" 

"Because of you we have hurt them, yes," the inspector agreed. "And we have  given two hexes and perhaps many more in the area a breath of fresh air and  cleanliness, which is more than I dared to hope when this began. As to the  cartel, though, no. It is damaged but far too large and too spread out to be  killed. To truly kill it we would need a means to get at the ministers of many  governments, to clean house at the very top. What we have gained is a bit of  local joy and some pride; we have finally hurt them. But destroyed them? Hardly.  You cut off a few heads from this kind of monster, it still has far more heads  than it needs. You cut off all its heads and somehow it grows new ones. Just  winning a battle of this magnitude is incredible, but the war? No. Take it from  a career policeman. So long as there are greedy and power-hungry people at the  top and corruption festers, you cannot win. You play to tie, that is all." It was pretty depressing looked at that way. 

"What about Mavra and Lori?" Gus asked him. "I mean, that was part of the reason  for all this." 

"Yes, it is, and the council is still very anxious to have them. But there is a  limit to what I can do myself, and I am already overburdened here. My main  concern is my own country, as you must understand. If I cannot cure the  worldwide cancer, I can at least try my best to ensure that Agon becomes fully  cancer-free. You will have whatever funds and authority you require and the aid  of any official that you contact. It would be better to work through the locals  on this, anyway. They know their own territory." 

"That certainly helps," Tony told him, "but I gather you mean that we're on our  own from this point." 

"Hardly. As I say, this remains a top priority with the council. You will find  cooperation along the line in most civilized areas, and we now have descriptions  and bulletins going out from Zone to governments throughout the Well World. Make  no mistake-we will find them." 

"I want Campos," Gus said with a low growl. "I want Campos bad." "Then your next stop is Mixtim," Kurdon told them. 'Take the train to Oamlatt.  I'll arrange for Cloptan authorities there to brief you on what we know so far.  After that, you will have to pursue. Please do so. If they are chased, then they  cannot stop, and if they do not stop, they are bound to be seen and reported. If  they do stop, you will be on them. I have seen you all work now, and I have  every confidence in your abilities to do the job." 

Gus sighed and looked at Terry. Damn it, he knew he should stop, but they were  so very close. And for Terry's sake as well as his own, he wanted Campos. He wanted to eat her alive. 

Mixtim 

IN THE ANCIENT TIMES WHEN THE WELL WORLD WAS OPERATED as a biological and social  laboratory rather than simply existing, there was the problem of simulating the  limitations of real planets that would logically evolve such races and  ecosystems. In many cases that meant placing limitations within the hexes on  everything from the losses in electrical signals over a distance or whether  certain levels of technology would work at all. The semitech hexes had the most  variations, but in all such places the great emphasis had been on steam. Mixtim  had a generally flat landscape and a somewhat dry continental climate where the  rains were seasonal and the rivers broad, fairly shallow, and winding. It was a  land best suited for growing hardy crops, mostly grains, but without the  practical use of rivers to move large quantities of harvest from where it was  grown to where it was needed. 

The answer had been a vast network of steam-powered locomotives pulling long  trains of produce to and from major population centers and also to ports of  entry with neighboring hexes, where it could be traded for goods either  impossible to manufacture or not worth the trouble to make within the hex. They  were sleek, fast trains like nothing ever seen on Earth, but they had the  unmistakable sound and fury of the classic steam engine. The network was  particularly remarkable because of the inability to use a telegraph or maintain  the integrity of an electrical signal through the tracks. Nonetheless, they had  a fine safety record, and the trains of Mixtim ran on time. 

In fact, it almost seemed as if the whole population were involved in running or  servicing the trains. While the trains occasionally passed clusters of high  twisted mounds filled with teeming denizens of the insect world, after more than  two hours there wasn't a sign of a major city and the villages they passed were  more likely trade centers and farming communities. On the other hand, there  appeared to be one every time two different rail lines crossed, and there were  an awful lot of rail lines in Mixtim. Juana Campos was counting on that and the  fact that they had little in the way of computers or even written records for  nonroutine shipments. Everything like that was more or less off the book. The natives crammed into cars and resembled festering colonies, but there was  little provision for visiting travelers. On the other hand, the Mixtimites had  plenty of surplus boxcars along every siding, and it was no problem at all to  hook one on for special purposes.