Pulled to the Dark (The Siriena Series) (40 page)

"You could pop there and pop somewhere else?" Sally asked.

"If I had somewhere to pop, yes. But it would have to be a place I knew. None of you can pull me there."

"Would you have to know the place?" I asked. "Or a thing at the place?"

"I haven't tried that," she said. "I don't know. But I would have to own the place or have permission from the rightful owner."

"I've never been anywhere in the palace area, just these towers," I said. "Perhaps a test would be appropriate.
" I turned to Andrea. "May I have permission to pop back and forth?"

"Of course," she said.

I popped to my bedroom and grabbed the comforter off the bed. I popped back. "Someone take this somewhere I've never been, and
Renea
, can you give me temporary permission to travel there?" I paused. "I've made love on this comforter enough times, if this is going to work, this should be sufficient."

Renea
turned to Kelly. "Kelly, you may have free roam of my
house
. Please take that somewhere and set it out. Do not tell anyone here where you put it."

Kelly collected the comforter and stepped out of the room, opening and closing a door behind her. She was gone several minutes, during which time we made small talk. She came back and said, "I put it somewhere in the
house
."

"May I,
Renea
?" she nodded. I popped home,
then
started thinking about the comforter and the things Petra and I did on it. The first time I got a false jump into Petra's arms, which surprised everyone.

"Oops," I said. "Sorry."

I popped out amidst the laughter and tried again, this time without so much thinking about Petra.

And found myself in a bedroom. On the bed in front of me was my comforter. I looked around at what I presumed was
Renea's
bedroom. It was actually fairly simple but tasteful. There was a picture of a man, women, and two children on the
night stand
. I picked it up as well as the comforter and popped home, then back to Andrea's tower. I dropped the comforter and handed the picture to
Renea
.

She stared at the photo for a moment. There were tears in her eyes. "My daughter, her husband and children. I'll never see them again." She stood up and hugged me. "It worked."

"It worked," I said.

"We have one option, then," Petra said. "All we need is to get one of us somewhere to buy or somehow claim a home, then come back here and collect personal items. We can all port there, even Kelly and
Renea
, as long as it's ready and we don't wait too long."

"Run away and cede the castle," Andrea said. "Then do it a few more times until we're so far from here Vincent would never be able to find us."

"I do not consider this a sure fire solution," Petra said. "Felicia had an orgasm on that comforter only a few hours ago." I blushed. "Her memory of it may be especially strong. We don't know if it would work after a week or a month. And we don't know if
Renea
can do the same thing."

"Was it
a good orgasm?" Beth asked me.

"Can we stay on topic?" I asked.

"I think the quality of the orgasm might matter," Beth said. "Maybe a good orgasm is more powerful than a bad one." We all stared at her. "I'm just saying," she said, grinning at me.

"So we have one option to pursue,"
Renea
said. "And we can formulate a few plans for enacting it. What are our other choices?"

"Kill Vincent," Petra said.

"I like that plan," said Andrea.

"Before we go down that path, I need to ask a question," I said. "Sally, if we discuss killing Vincent, is that conspiracy to commit murder."

"Yes," she said. "Although unless you actually kill him back on Earth, no one is going to know. It's not like any of us could report it without visiting the psych ward, and if our conversations are always here, I don't know what the rules would be for jurisdiction."

"I am unwilling to propose murder unless we try diplomacy at least once more," I said. "But I am not willing to accept a solution that requires
Renea
and Kelly to die. And that is what is on the table here."

"So that's option two," said
Renea
.

"Bribe him," I said. "Pay him off."

"We tried," said Petra. "Several million dollars. He wasn't interested in even discussing it."

"Bribe him with the castle if he lets us leave," I suggested.

"We offered that, too," said
Renea
. "But we should offer it again. He may be more willing to discuss it now that our forces are deeper and the cost of taking the castle is higher."

We went around and around. Finally I said, "Jeremy and Vincent both have a fatal flaw."

Everyone turned to me.

"Pride. I bet they both would love a little revenge on me. Can we use that?"

"No," said Petra. "Whatever you are thinking. No."

"I was thinking of a wager."

No one said anything right away. Finally
Renea
asked, "What sort of wager, Dear?"

"I don't know," I said. "But if it involves humiliating me, they might take it. Jeremy certainly would. Vincent might. He certainly loved being an asshole to me."

That received some discussion that didn't go anywhere.

"Let's go back to option one,"
Renea
said. "Ideas?"

"One or two of us could try to sneak out and buy a cottage somewhere," Andrea said. "That might be difficult without speaking the language, but if started out right away, we might be able to get far enough from the castle that Vincent won't realize where we were. He could spend months still focused on the castle."

"Or you could get followed and not know it," said Petra.

"We don't speak the language, either."

"
Bindi
does," Kelly pointed out. "We could send him." She paused. "He's kind of sweet on me. He might do it to save me."

"Or he could go straight to Vincent," Sally said.

"Everything is a risk," Kelly said. "We could offer to make him very wealthy. Give him enough gold to buy a cottage someplace. It doesn't need to be a lot. I'm sure I can explain enough for him to understand what we want."

"Have you been leading him on?" I asked. "If he figures out you're with Andrea, he might change his mind."

"He already knows," Kelly said. "But I've been kind to him, and I think he cares."

"Do we trust him enough to come up here and talk to us?"

Renea
, Andrea and Kelly looked at each other. "Kelly, would you bring him here?"

While she was gone, the rest of us discussed the option. None of us felt that good about it. Erika finally said, "Kelly has spent time with him. And I get the impression you only hire people you trust. So why are you second guessing her now?"

That ended the conversation. Kelly returned a minute later leading a somewhat cautious
Bindi
. He walked into Andrea's tower and seemed awed. When he saw Petra he pointed to her and said, "French fry lady." His accent was thick, but I understood what he said.

Petra laughed and nodded.

Kelly poured him a glass of wine. "Wine," she said. She picked up her own and drank from it. He tried it and seemed to like it.

"
Bindi
," Kelly said. "Vincent wants to kill me." She drew her finger across her throat in emphasis. "Vincent wants to kill
Renea
." She walked over and drew her finger across
Renea's
throat."

"Vincent not kill," he said.

"Vincent wants to kill," Kelly said.

"Yes,"
Bindi
said. "Vincent wants. Vincent not
kill
.
Bindi
help."

"I trust him," I said immediately.

"It's not your life on the line, Love," Petra said gently. I didn't respond.

"Well, it's my life on the line," Kelly said. "And I trust him."

Renea
stared at Kelly and
Bindi
for a minute. "Erika is right. Hire good people and trust them. If Kelly trusts him, then I will. Kelly, can you explain what we need?"

It took a while to explain. He didn't understand why.

"Should we demonstrate?" I asked. "It might startle him."

"May as well," Kelly said.

"Andrea, it's your tower," Petra said.

Andrea nodded and walked over to
Bindi
. "
Bindi
," she said. "This tower is mine." She crouched down and patted the floor, then put her hand to her chest. "Understand?"

Bindi
pointed to the glass in Kelly's hand. "Glass is Kelly." He pointed to his own. "Glass is
Bindi
." He pointed to the tower. "Tower is Andrea."

"Yes." She walked to the wall and made a door. Then in the outer wall she made a window. "
Bindi
," she said. "Watch." Kelly brought him over to the window. Andrea descended the stairs and moved out into the courtyard where
Bindi
could see her. She waved, and he waved back. Then she disappeared and a couple of seconds
later,
reappeared in the tower.

Bindi
gasped, staring out the window. "Where Andrea?"

"Here," said Andrea.

He spun around, gaping. He pointed back and forth.

It took more explaining, but in the end, he understood what we wanted. Travel for a week in any direction and buy a house for Kelly. Lay out Kelly's comforter in the house. It took more explaining, but we were able to determine how much gold he would need.

"I don't have it,"
Renea
said. "Not in local currency."

"
Kruger
r
ands
," I said.
"There is undoubtedly a gold dealer in Minneapolis who can sell us
Krugerrands
."

And we had a plan. Monday we would buy twice the amount of
Krugerrands
than we needed.
Bindi
would leave immediately after. He would get as far as he could in six days and buy whatever cottage he could buy, in Kelly's name. On the seventh day, Kelly would transport over and claim it, then if it worked, invite the rest of us.

We hoped it would work.

"Now, about diplomacy and a wager,"
Renea
said.

Monday at ten AM, I stepped into the office where I had worked just last summer. I was dressed very professionally and much better than I had when I worked for Vincent. People recognized me, and I said "Hello" to old cowo
rkers. "Is Vincent around?
" I asked. "I wanted
to talk some business with him.
"

He made me wait nearly an hour but ushered me into his office and closed the door.

"If you kill me," he said. "The entire office will know it. You'll never be safe on Earth again."

"I have no intention of killing you, Vincent," I said. "That would be murder."

"It wouldn't be the first time," he said.

I didn't respond to that but instead said, "I came to ask you what it would take to get you to leave us alone."

"Nothing much," he said. "The castle should be mine. It was my father's, and it should be mine. And
Renea
doesn't deserve immortality. If you give me the castle and
Renea
spends a few hours at a party at my house, I'll let all the rest of you leave."

"She'll die," I said.

"With any luck," he said.

"You can't take the castle," I told him. "You might be able to take the courtyard, but you couldn't take the towers, and as long as we hold the towers, we can kill anyone you send after us."

"You have clearly never heard of siege weapons," he said. "People have been destroying castles for a very, very long time, and I have all of history to draw on for advice, plus modern materials. Are you familiar with a ballistae?" I nodded. "Imagine making one in a modern machine shop with steel torsion springs."

"That won't punch through three foot rock walls."

"No, but once we use the trebuchets for a while, there won't be any rock walls. The ballistae are for any defenders still standing." He paused. "But here, I have a photo around here somewhere. Perhaps you might care to see it."

He actually had a photo. He showed it to me and took great delight into describing it in detail.

"Your operators won't live long enough to use it."