Strangers and Lies (7 page)

"Oh? Why do you think that?" Gwen went teasing herself, which wasn't something she'd done a lot of in her life. "Do you have a crush on her? You're about the same age..."

Billy... made a face. Kind of disgusted, but let it clear after a few seconds.

"No... Gwen... you
do
realize that she's you, right? Who you would have been if you were born in this world? I thought I mentioned that already..."

She rolled her eyes, but didn't let the shock show. Of course Billy would forget to mention that kind of thing. It was his way it seemed. Anything that might be useful to her at all... He just forgot to tell her for the longest time. She tried not to be irritated by it.

"Nope, you seem to have forgotten that part."

"Oops?" The scarred man said blankly, as if he'd accidently spilled some water on a vinyl table cloth.

Forcing a laugh she shrugged.

"Kinda an oops moment, yeah. I can see you saying that."

After Billy explained it all, the whole thing made sense, in an awkward and kind of backwards fashion. Daren and Heather had been twins, born more or less at the same time that Gwen had been. A little earlier than that, according to the records that had been stolen by a certain maladjusted person that was sitting across from her. Not that she wouldn't have done it too, but it was kind of frowned upon. Most of the Westmorlands never even
thought
about peeking, since they weren't allowed to. Her brother wasn't one of them though, for all that he kind of had the job.

"They didn't know, Heather and Darren. Kind of like how we didn't, so it parallels that way. Same mother too, and my guess would be same dad, since I looked enough like Darren to fool everyone when I first got here, except for the scars. So I figure that odds are, Heather is you. The real one I mean, not the mess mom made of you back home. So, excuse me while I go barf, instead of sleeping with her."

Something clicked in her mind then, based on the barest of hints from months before.

"Um, Billy, do you know who our
mother
is? Here I mean?" She didn't want to know for certain, but there had been a hint already and she really doubted that it was going to turn out to be a coincidence now, was it? It couldn't turn out to be someone nice like Ethyl Vernor or anything like that. No, that would just be too much fun. That probably couldn't be allowed.

He nodded.

"I'm almost positive I told you
this
already. Erin Debussey? Dead ringer for mom. Identical. Different name, since she was Christine Cavendish there, but it's her. Why? Do you think that has something to do with why you're here? It could, I suppose, since she was so closely involved in forcing Katherine to steal you from our world. Heh. Well, it doesn't matter. I killed the bitch once, I can do it again." There was a smooth sound of peace and certainty in his voice then, as if it was a very good plan and that there would never be a need for another one. He had a problem and a quick death would solve it. Done.

"I can get behind that. Just for what she's been trying to do here. Bringing back those Old Ones to destroy everything. I wonder why she gave up her kids. I can kind of see
our
mom doing that, since I didn't fit her plans at all, but Erin seems... I don't know, like she would have done a better job at being a parent, somehow."

Billy shrugged and stood up, pacing.

"Doubtful. She's a narcissist and a genius. That's not a great combination. My guess is that she decided Daren and Heather were just in the way and she got rid of them as fast as possible. There might be an Andy around too, our older brother? I didn't find him in the records, but then, I didn't look too hard. It only occurred to me to check Heather out after I saw Debussey. They kind of look alike, around the eyes. Same nose too."

Gwen didn't see it, but it was probably there, if the records honestly said that. It was sort of hard to wrap her mind around. Did that make Heather her sister? Or... No. Maybe something else? For now she wasn't even certain she should tell the woman. It might just make things more difficult later, if they had to execute Debussey or something.

Billy walked from the room and didn't come back, which wasn't a surprise, since he did things like that. The shock came about five minutes later when Count Gobles and Ferdinand walked into the room,
alone
. The Special Service detail that followed the King was there of course, just standing outside the room. Or at least they had better be. If not then Gwen was the only protection they had at the moment. She stood, since neither man looked to be in a very good mood. If she had to fight, it would work better if she wasn't overwhelmed while lounging. Sure, it was paranoid, but just in case, she did it anyway.

Ferdinand waved her back down and plopped onto the sofa across from her chair. It was all in fine and slightly shining leather, which squeaked when the man sat. Gobles followed him, a beat behind, sitting in a fashion that was very nearly prim. He made no noise at all, which was odd. He should have. It took a second for the man to come into full focus, since he was a little blurry. Ferdinand was crystal clear, but the Count... not so much. She rubbed her eyes for a few seconds, which did the trick.

Then they just watched her for a long time, not saying anything. When the King spoke, he sounded very upset. Almost as if he wanted to hurt someone. Possibly her. It was hard to tell at first, since she wasn't the best at reading faces. An angry person probably meant you were about to be attacked, life had conditioned her to think that and so far it had pretty much been true.

"I've had the news about Count Kavas and his 'suicide'. It's clearly not the truth. Please tell me what really happened. I can assure you that the news will not leave this room."

It was nice of him to say, but probably wouldn't be the case. Still, she didn't want anyone else getting into trouble for what she did. Before she could confess and throw herself onto the man's mercy, Richter let a huge breath out.

"We
know
what happened Ferdinand. The Con-sev boys found him fouling the young woman and took matters into their own hands. Probably beat the man to death, and that was no better than he deserved. You or I would have done the same thing, if we'd been there. Can't be allowed of course, since it sets a bad precedent, but it was all they
could
do."

Gwen let her mind go still and empty, feeling like what she was about to say was exactly the wrong thing, but knowing that forcing someone else to take the blame for her actions was just as bad. Maybe worse.

"Not... exactly." She paused then, hoping that something more clever would come to mind than the truth. It didn't of course. "The Count's men both spoke against him, telling us where to find the bodies of the girls in the back yard, and I found the man raping one of them in the sitting room, so I know that part was true, no matter what else is found. He confessed and asked me to help him end it. He didn't really have a choice in the matter, but he, and both his men, went out pretty bravely. The Count
had
to be stopped. He told me so himself." It wasn't a lie even, so she stopped there, not giving a blow by blow, until the King insisted, looking like he was ready to punch her the whole time, fist clenched and white, with red showing in places. He even sneered at her when she told the story. It didn't really seem like him at all. He was normally pretty calm about almost everything.

When she finished she got ready for him to order her to prison, since there wasn't much need for a trial, given everything, having just confessed, but he relaxed instead, almost going limp.

"Alright. I came ready to blame the deaths on the Con-sev agents on the scene and have to leave wondering if they're all cowards instead. I admit that there was very little else that could have been done. I suppose we'll have to run with that story about the man honorably killing himself. No one will believe it, but it's better than telling the truth, that our own forces are too weak to do what's needed like that. If people found out that I let them force the job on you, they'd lynch me in the street and put my Uncle in place instead. He'd have done the job himself if he were there. Maybe he
should
be in charge?"

Then, almost as if something had happened when she wasn't looking, the man changed the subject. For a second she wondered if she'd passed out for a moment. The buzzing was intense enough at least.

"The relief program for the Chinoise is going very well. Their Ambassador has asked me to convey that to you personally, and requests that you come to visit and inspect their program soon. Your chosen man, Daniel Chuan, is doing an excellent job I hear. Unfortunately some of our resources have suggested that a much larger terroristic attack is about to occur in all locations. We've been scrambling, trying to step up our protections, but so far it still seems on course. I trust that you'll be available to aid us, if we fail to stop it?"

"Yeah. I'd help before that too, but I guess that I'm still too open to attack, mentally? Just learning some new tricks and haven't even started on that one yet. I did learn to levitate today, so if you need anything placed on a really high shelf, just let me know." She was actually a little proud of the fact, so smiled about it hugely, but the King gave her a funny look, as if she were trying to get him to praise her or something.

Which she was, a little. Instead of mocking her, he gestured for her to stand up.

"Alright, let's see it then? Try to impress me." His face was in a fixed smile, a slightly sneering thing for some reason, even though that wasn't his normal type of look at all. Normally he was really polite all the time. He must be under extra stress or something.

Really it had the feeling of a person steeling themselves for a boring joke or minor event that they were going to have to seem pleased with, even if the whole thing was kind of wasted time. She'd seen the look on sit-coms. Normally when kids were performing in plays at school.

She didn't make him wait at least, just floating up to the ceiling, putting her right palm on the light colored wood there and pushing back a bit, then using the mental control device to fly from one side of the space, which was only about forty feet away, to the other a few times, landing after about two minutes, her head splitting, and totally out of breath. When she set down the men both stood and smiled though, as if it had at least been a nifty show. Hopefully that meant it was worth the price of admission. She hadn't charged them, so giving refunds wasn't going to work well for the bottom line, was it?

When she could speak, half a minute later she took a deep breath and sighed.

"I
know
. Beth and Darren Westmorland both told me that I need to be able to do a lot better, going at least five times higher and doing it for an hour without stopping, but I'm just starting. Hopefully little kids won't be making fun of me on the playground if I ever try it outside." Because, from long experience, Gwen knew she hated that. Kids could be little bastards without even thinking about it.

The King smiled at her and looked off to the side, at the Count, who hadn't said a word.

"Well, Miss Farris, I imagine that as your friends, the Westmorlands might be phrasing things in a way that seems... Different than the reality of the situation. Still, hard work never harmed anyone, did it?" There was a blandness to his words that seemed out of place, but he didn't scold her for wasting his time, which she clearly had been. It would be like her showing the President her finger painting skills.

They had to leave a bit after that and no one came to bother, or entertain, her, for several more hours. She spent the time scrubbing instead, trying to get the grime and filth of death off of her. It didn't come off, no matter how hard she scrubbed herself, but by the time dinner was to be served she felt better. Clean at least, on the outside. She climbed into one of Katherine's big dresses, a thing that was nice but not party ready, and presented herself at the table, her hair still a bit damp, but pulled back to keep it out of the way. She'd put make-up on, because that was what you did in this new world. You made-up your face and kept your hair tidy all the time, if you were a woman. Clothing wrinkle free and ready for inspection all the time too.

No one really seemed to pay that kind of attention to you, when you were with them, but behind your back these people gossiped like it was the national pass time. Meaning they did it in public. Mainly on the telesar, which was basically radio, and the center of their daily entertainment and didn't really care if you heard them talking about you or not.

She hadn't bothered to listen to the thing for months, since one of the prime topics had been
her
, and even though most of the people saying things had been nice enough as far as she went personally, the Vernors had been hit pretty hard, having been Katherine's parents. Even though the official story now was that Debussey had brainwashed her into doing it. After forcing the girl to be her lesbian lover.

Gwen had come up with that one herself. It was a lie, but when confronted with it Erin Debussey had acted so guilty that the whole world had just kind of accepted it as fact. Enough so that Gwen half wondered how much validity there was to the whole thing herself.

The part where Debussey was sort of her cross world mom got ignored for the time being. She
wasn't
her mother and even if she had been, destroying an entire planet for personal gain was wrong. It wasn't something she could just let happen to make her clearly awful mother happy.

At the meal she found a happy enough bit of relief when she sat down, since Merchant Admiral Welk was there visiting and, it seemed, mooching a free meal. Fair enough, since the Vernors could afford it. The man was in his mid forties, in good shape and wearing civilian clothing for once, which looked a little funny on him, since he was almost always in uniform.

"Katherine!" He smiled and stood, his face not falling for several seconds. "I mean, Miss Farris. I hope this latest ordeal wasn't too much for you?" There was a genteel and polite manner to it, which seemed to be heartfelt.

"Um..." She said brilliantly, not having realized that the news of the Counts death would have spread to him yet. Things moved fairly slowly in this place most of the time. "I'm fine. It's good to see you though! I was planning on calling soon and seeing if I could sign on for a tour as a ship's engineer's apprentice or whatever it's called here. Do something useful for a while." She meant it, but the man sat, shaking his head a little.