Strangers and Lies (3 page)

These guys were paying attention and the General actually took notes and rather politely asked if it was allowed for him to contact her about the project. It was clear that he was pretty close to clueless about what girls would need or want. It wasn't that bad really, since they'd just use what the boys were doing as a model for it all.

"Except that the girls will get basic self defense and weapons training too. I don't know if your boys will be getting that, but if they don't it's going to make the war games later in the week a bit awkward, isn't it?" She was joking but all the men looked horribly shocked, except Adam, who nodded, as if it just made perfect sense. Then he was a Westmorland and if there was a non-sexist group on the planet that was it.

"Brilliant. Yes, a bit of competition never hurt anyone. We should definitely do that."

The room was silent after that for a long time, but Gwen had a strange feeling that she'd just opened a much larger can of worms than she'd planned on and that Adam was helping her dump them all over the nicely carpeted floor.

It wasn't until much later in the day, feeling incredibly bored already, when the telesar chimed for her. That part was great, since there was a small and rather pleasant tinkling of bells when it happened, rather than a harsh ring or a song that she didn't care for, like so many cell phones were programmed for. At first she wondered if it was a wrong number or something, since no one had called for her from the government for weeks, but it turned out the be Count Goebbels, the communications minister or whatever the King called him that week.

"Miss Farris? I have some rather troubling news..." He sounded pretty worked up, his voice coming from the air in front of her, from between two of the telestator globes, which looked like dull metal grapefruit on polished wooden sticks. The device had five of them, and to keep it working she had to put her right hand on the center one. It wasn't really needed, she'd discovered, just a way to prevent the Crystal pack from being accidently worn down. Take your hand off, on either side, and the line would cut automatically. It probably also kept the conversations from being too long.

"Is... there something I can do?" For a second she wondered if it was going to be about her idea to have the boys go up against the girls in a war game at their little camp thing, but the men had actually warmed up to the idea when she explained that they could use it to get the boys to try harder and that the girls would almost certainly throw the game, if it looked like they were winning too easily. After all that was
their
culture, so Gwen doubted they'd be able to get them to do otherwise. Then they could manage mixed teams, with small, but gender divided, units for the next one. It would keep things interesting and give the kids a chance to meet some people of the opposite gender without it being too improper.

The Count however wasn't calling about that, but rather something far more sinister sounding.

"It's... Well, some children have gone missing from Worthington. It might be nothing, but a group of men was seen moving them into the back of a lorrie and driving off, which is very unusual. There are three of them, two girls and a boy. We don't know that this has anything to do with Doctor Debussey or her cronies, but..."

"
When
?" Her voice had to have sounded at least a little panicked she realized, since the man on the other end of the conversation didn't answer for a few seconds.

"Beg Pardon?"

"
When
were they taken? Is there any chance that it was by a relative or someone known to the kids? Were they arguing or fighting as they got in to the lorrie? Do we have a description of the vehicle and can we track it if we do?" One of the troubling things she'd found was how slowly these people did things here. If she was only getting this call a week later...

"Ah... Seven hours ago, I believe. Normally we wouldn't mention this kind of thing, but if the Doctor is involved, they might be sacrificed. I don't know about the rest, but I suppose I could get that information for you. Would you like me to contact you with it?"

It was her turn to be silent for a moment, finally shaking her head.

"No. I'm coming to you. Or at least to Worthington. I need the Westmorland Detectives, all of them that can be spared, along with armored Special Service and Con-sev. We don't have time for a lot of playing around on this, we need to move fast."

She was almost tempted to break the line right then, so she could get in touch with people herself, but it would mean a lot more and probably be faster if the Count did it. Ferdinand should be in on this one too, she decided, saying the words out loud.

The man gasped, "So you do think this
is
related to the terrorism we've had?"

That nearly got Gwen to lie. She didn't know what the rules here for things were, as far as missing children went, but she decided to go with the truth as she saw it. The Count knew who she was now after all.

"I don't know. Honestly, it probably isn't. If we don't find those kids within twenty-four hours there's a ninety percent chance they'll be dead however. They're probably being raped right now, so excuse me if I get all heavy handed and demanding. We don't have a lot of time to lose or debate this." She sounded nearly mean when she said the words, but the man didn't wait long at all.

"I'll see to what you need then! I'll send someone for you as soon as possible. Out." Then the line broke. It was a strange way of getting off the device here, since most people just hung up, but it was efficient. No one said goodbye here at all.

She'd actually pinned Heather down about it and learned that it was due to a very old superstition that telling a person goodbye could mean that you wouldn't see them ever again. It was what you said as you lay dying, not a thing to use day to day. Only in the Western Kingdom however, everyplace else was more normal that way.

Running she managed to grab an old duffle from her room that had some carefully packed clothing in it, as well as some survival rations and a knife. She also took her special crin and PC, the small force producing weapon that Charles had given her to use. She should have had it on her already, she realized, but that, being armed all the time, was a new thing in her life and half the time she still forgot to do it.

Then she ran to the front yard, meeting Mrs. Vernor, Ethyl, in the front door, a young boy in Westmorland blue standing in front of it, holding a Teletransport sphere out toward her.

"Ma'am? I was told to get this to you. Sorry about the delay."

"Not a problem. Mom..."It was what the woman had asked to be called, since she was, in fact, Katherine's mother. It was still better than
Ethyl
and really, kind of a habit now. Everyone knew who she was, but it was a sign that Gwen was on their side, to anyone listening. It was just the truth after all, she'd back them as if they were her people, so everyone that was hating on them could suck it. "Can you get our friend here something to eat or drink? Then a quiet place to work, so that he can recharge his sphere."

Then without waiting at all, she pushed the button on the top of the device, not really certain where exactly she was going to be coming out. It turned out to be an office building, a large and rather plain wooden thing. No one was waiting for her, so she ran to the hallway, just in case anyone else was going to be coming in soon. She hoped so, but it might take hours to get the people here around. She wasn't really certain that anyone else would care about this overly. Not until after the kids were dead and gone at least.

"I'm Gwen Farris, who do I need to speak to?" It sounded strange, even to her own ears, just standing in the rather large hallway, the floor under her feet dull and dingy, compared to most of the places she'd been lately. Then rich people made things shine, or at least they hired people to do that for them. Dingy didn't mean poor here though. It meant that she'd gone to a place where people actually worked for a living.

It took two repetitions of the words to get action, but finally a man in a striped brown and blue suit stuck his head out of a door down the way. He was about thirty and looked a little soft, but wasn't fat at all, just normal. He waved a bit, getting her attention.

"Miss Farris? I'm Special Con-sev Agent Barley. We're to work out of my office on this?" He didn't sound certain of that, making it almost sound like she was being asked if that was the case, rather than telling her where to set up.

She ran with it, walking toward him quickly.

"Nice to meet you. We need to arrange transportation to the site of the kidnapping, the child theft, and speak to anyone that might have seen anything. Just as soon as the Westmorlands get here. I hope they're coming at least. Has anyone contacted you about that?"

The fellow was a little flushed and seemed to be sweating more than the relatively cool temperature of the place really required, but he nodded, looking at the open door of his office as if someone would be coming in at any moment. It took a bit, but she finally understood that he wasn't waiting for the people to come through it, he was afraid that he was going to be accused of taking liberties with her. It was a pain, but she went and stood in the door, as if waiting for the others to get there.

He relaxed almost instantly then.

"We can be at the location in about forty minutes. I have transport standing by. It's only a wagon, horse drawn, I can arrange for something nicer, but it will take time..." He looked like he really wanted to, even if she was wearing Special Service clothing and not a fancy dress.

"No time for that. Besides, we might have people in armor with us." She spun to look at the man, who had sandy blond hair and blue eyes she noticed. Really, if it weren't an emergency she would have noticed that he was kind of cute. She wasn't that picky, of course, but the idea did get her to smile, once she remembered to. It was pretty far from being flirtatious, but it was better than the scowl she was pretty certain had been on her face before that. "I'll go wait outside the transport spot, if you could make certain we can move out directly? I don't know how long this will take but the second people get here..." Before she could finish the thought Beth walked out of the room down the hall, followed by two others, both in armor, right after that.

Both of the armored forms were in pearlescent colors, one a light blue and the other a nice off white. It marked them as Special Service, but also as
not
being Westmorlands. That was strange, since it meant that a third of the Special Services' non-Westmorland force was in the building with them. There were only nine of them in all.

 Gwen waved to them and then motioned into the room to Barley.

"Good. We need to get out of here and to the site. Agent Barley will update us as we travel. By wagon, so we need to move, now."

If the urgency seemed out of place, no one commented on it. Beth looked at her crin for a second and then down at the strange box she was carrying, which was one of the new forensic units that Doctor Professor Grainger had invented. It was kind of like a magical version of finger printing, but was more useful than that, if they could find anything to get a reading off of. Before she could ask if this was all they were getting Bethany started walking down the hallway, as if she knew where the stairs were.

The others followed and Barley ran a bit to take the lead, which made sense.

Beth took a deep breath, then spoke, making certain she sounded in charge and almost military. The words were a little clipped and short, but then, she was probably in charge of the whole thing. Gwen was just her assistant after all. She didn't seem upset though, simply busy.

"I wasn't given a lot of data on the situation, missing children? I was tasked with assessing the problem and then making a report, to decide if we need more resources for it. Do you think that's needed at this time?" The words were for Barley, not Gwen.

The man, who was nearly as tall as the armored forms, meaning he was over six feet, paused for a few seconds and finally just briefed them, starting to walk quickly towards the stairs. That would take a while, since armor didn't go down steps easily. On the good side that meant that the Agent had a nice long time to explain it all, going first, which, even though he didn't know it, meant he was volunteering to break the fall of the others if they stumbled. It didn't sound like a big deal, but the people were heavy right now and it wouldn't feel good at all to have one of them on top of you. She took a position behind them and Beth was behind her, since she had the sensitive and expensive equipment. Gwen knew what it cost personally, since she'd paid for it. Otherwise it would have taken years to have them available at all.

Barley called back to them, having slowed a bit once he realized that the armored people were simply not going to hurry. Short of jumping and levitating to slow their fall, they couldn't.

"We don't know much, a large black lorrie with a driver and two other men stopped on the street and grabbed the children. They weren't related. The girls were taken first, and then the boy, when he ran to aid them, it seems. Brave of the chap. Several street vendors saw it happen, but didn't act in time to prevent it. Scared no doubt, since in Worthington the only people in private lorries are noblemen and their people." He waited for the others to catch up, turning to call out suddenly as someone seemed to be trying to move up the stairs. "That won't work, sorry there, we have armor coming down. Best to let us past first. Sorry." He sounded it and the men in the door, all with mustaches and striped outfits like Barley's, if in better colors, pulled back, muttering something that didn't sound impolite at all.

People here just didn't worry about things like that very much.

Beth didn't say anything for a while, which could mean anything from her not wanting to call in more help, and wanting Barley to say so, to her thinking so deeply words just weren't going to come for a time. Finally, after a few minutes of slow stair descent, they hit the front of the building, which, as promised, had a wagon out front, with a driver standing next to it, patting one of the two horses.

Gwen spoke then, since she didn't have time for playing around and had asked for help, but understood that a few kids off the street might not mean that much here. They probably wouldn't have back home either, not having anyone important to speak for them.