Tremble in the Dark: A Gwen Farris Novel (40 page)

Because
then they just didn't get a choice.

Beth
watched from across the room, and finally nodded.

"Thank
you, Rhonda, Gwen looks much better now. We have a meeting with the King and
the Marduk in a few days."

"Oh!
I heard about that. I'd love to see that. All those important people in one
place. We haven't been told who's supposed to be going yet. I imagine it will
mainly be Special Service?" There was no sense of wheedling from the woman
at all, and that meant Gwen could like her without feeling too bad about it.

It
was always nice, knowing that people were pretty much what they seemed.

"I
can get you an invitation. It would be good, to have a healer show up, I think.
We're supposed to have a lot of rifters too. Some detectives. Maybe some people
from data management? Darren and Kelvin?" She let her eyes gleam a little.
Darren was what her brother, Billy, was called in this world, and if she didn't
make a point of inviting him, no one else would at all. He was a bit odd.

That
was the group agreement, even with the Westmorlands, and they all found her
perfectly charming. She thought. Except for Adam, their leader.

Gwen
was hardened to the idea that most people didn't like her, and had been for
several decades. It didn't really hurt her feelings that the one man didn't
like her all that much. There were probably a lot of people that cursed her
name each night before they slept. Or, maybe not. She hadn't been hit with
anything like that as far as she'd known. No one was universally loved though,
were they?

Rhonda
didn't gasp, or stop working on Gwen, she just nodded a little, clearly using
deep focus, but not in a truly conditioned work state. She was working hard,
but still able to speak, if slowly.

"That
would be good. I don't want to bump anyone else however. Treats are few and far
enough between, especially for the rifters. People don't want them to be in
public that often."

She
didn't go into how they managed to hide some of them, getting them out of
Central for a while now and then anyway. That was normally for training.
Military duty or things like that. They were spread out a bit that way, which
just meant they were always close enough to different points in order to do
their duty. Or at least someone would be. Not that blowing themselves up was really
needed most of the time. It was probably why they had so much cross training.

Gwen
tilted her head.

"Manly,
can you work up a program to teach Peter basic healing skills? If that won't
stress him magically too much? I know he's supposed to be resting for a while.
He'll need to be training almost every day, doing something or another, for the
time being."

That
got the man to grab the healer before she could leave, pulling her into the
next room over to chat. Normally that would be improper, since they were a man
and a woman, but that was, Gwen finally got, why they all had the same last
name. So that they could do whatever work with each other they needed to,
without others trying to hold them back from it, because of social convention.

Not
that they didn't go at it like bunnies, when no one was looking. It was a
little bit disturbing to think about, so she just sat for a bit, resting and
watching Peter, enviously. Lucky him. He got a whole hour of that.

She
finally made herself stand and thought about what was needed next. It was, she
knew, time for her to make a call to Christophe, and, if possible, check in
with Cordell. Bethany had been in touch with him daily, but that didn't mean
the two had been discussing the making of running shoes.

Which
reminded her of something.

"Right.
We should go and visit with Doctor Professor Grainger and his students. Unless
someone else already has?" She didn't know. It could have happened, but it
had only been a week, which could be considered moving too fast, here. Especially
if you didn't have any proof and were just trying to get information. "For
that matter, I don't suppose that Carter Palmer and Sally Kiers have provided
any information that would help us find out who they've been working
with?"

Her
pretty blonde friend looked away, and Clara, who had until recently been
selling her behind to all comers, shook her head, already in the know.

"Both
dead. Sally found a sharp bit and slashed her wrists, and Palmer just died. I
was told he willed himself to death. All the others picked up have killed
themselves too."

At
least Bethany tensed and made a bit of a face about it all.

Gwen
just looked at her, wondering what was up. If it had been that important, then
they wouldn't have told Clara at all. If it wasn't, then why not tell her? She
nearly asked when Clara, helpfully, went on.

"They
said not to tell you, because their... Protcles?" She glanced at Beth, who
provided the correct word automatically.

"Protocols."

"Right,
them. Well, they say that if a person is in heavy training, they aren't
supposed to be told bad news, if it can be helped, so that they won't worry
about it. No distractions."

Gwen
thought about it for a moment and then took a deep breath and relaxed.

"I
can get that. I wouldn't want that hanging over me when I was facing torturous
pain either. Okay, so we need to find what other leads we can. We'll start at
the University, since that's all I've got. Do you have anything Beth? Any bit
of information that I haven't thought of?"

"Some.
Did you notice how muscular those men were, on the train? I've been looking
into that..."

Gwen
let her head slowly slide to the right, thinking.

"I
did, I figured that it was compensation, for people with low magical ability.
They all moved well too, like fighters. Or really huge dancers, but I didn't
think that last one was very likely."

Bethany
smiled and then shook her head a little.

"It
took me three days to track that one down. I should have just asked you. Here I
was thinking how clever I was being to notice how over developed they were.
Wrestlers. There's only one group that also develops their bodies like that in
the Western Kingdom. The Greek-Roman style fighters." She gave Gwen a
knowing look, but didn't add anything.

Greco
Roman wrestling was a thing that Gwen had never studied back home, outside of
books, in case she ever had to fight against a person using those kinds of
techniques. It was an incomplete style, but they did good work with submission
holds, joint locks and chokes. No kicking, and they generally had weak skills
in punching too. That didn't mean it wasn't effective, it just had some areas
that could be exploited.

She'd
seen some of those techniques used here too. Oddly enough, from her fiancé. She
didn't say that out loud, since a lot of people might well have that kind of
skill there. It wouldn't help to draw attention to Chris, not in a negative
light. He had enough of that to be worried over, after all.

She
waited, and Beth finally went on.

"So,
I found the center that they work out of, which is in Banksburough, near the
Eastern edge of the North train line."

Gwen
wrinkled her nose, not having much of a clue where that was. Why would she? As
near as she could figure that would be somewhere in Minnesota? She got up
without speaking and went to Robert's study, with the other two traipsing
along, leaving a very content Peter alone in the room they'd all been sitting
in. He wasn't going to miss them after all.

It
took a bit, but after invading the otherwise private space, she managed to find
a decent map and get Bethany to point out where she meant. It was a
lot
further to the North and East than she would have figured it to be at all. In
Canada, or where that was in her world. When it was pointed out, she realized
that it was nearly in Aubry too.

"Fuck."
Beth blinked, and Clara actually hunched in on herself, defensively.

She
explained, trying not to seem upset by it all.

"Christophe's
place borders on this area. He also practices the right kind of wrestling,
which means he might know-" She was cut off instantly by her friend who
went wide eyed.

"Oh?
He might know the people involved? We have to report this at once, since he
might be in danger!" She ran out of the room so fast that Gwen was left
staring at the brown wall, behind where she'd been, for a few seconds before
very carefully putting the rolled up map back in its tube and walking after
her.

The
other woman followed her, looking far more scared than she really needed to,
and they found Beth hurriedly talking to Adam Westmorland, who sounded pretty
anxious about it all, himself.

"At
once. I'll set a new Special Service watch, if he'll have them. I need to get
word of this to the King directly. Good work. Even if it's a bit light on
facts, we can't take chances with the nobility." The way he said it
sounded pretty brainwashed.

It
was going to be a problem.

Of
course, it was very circumstantial, wasn't it? The Western Kingdom didn't have
a lot of fighting arts at all. There was a bit in the military, and some basic
boxing. It was about that, plus one or two wrestling styles. If you wanted to
learn to fight without a weapon, those were your options, so it didn't mean all
that much. She hoped. Really, Chris probably had studied them all at one point
or another, given his interest in the area. As a nobleman he could be a target,
so it made sense for him to practice things like that.

She
went over that in her head enough that it seemed correct, by the time Beth was
nearly off the Telestator. Gwen called out, so that Adam could hear her.

"Beth
and I will head over to the club in the afternoon, unless you have someone else
that you want to send in for that? We were going to follow some leads at
Western University, in the morning. Other than those, I don't have anything to
add to the investigation at all."

There
was a moment's silence and when the man spoke, he sounded hard and bitter.

"Why
don't you take the University, and Bethany can do the club. I'd rather not wait
on the situation."

That
actually made sense, and she didn't
need
anyone to hold her hand in
public really. Still, she probably knew more about that kind of thing,
wrestling, then Bethany did, and Beth was the one that had telepathic training.

Of
course she had Peter too.

"How
about Beth and Clara Take the University, and Peter and I go to the club? He
can read minds, and we aren't going in to interrogate anyone. If things are too
hot, we'll pull out immediately. It's probably nothing anyway." But if it
was, Bethany and the other Westmorlands would be a bit handicapped in figuring
out that Chris had anything to do with it. She hoped it wasn't the case
herself, true. If it was, well, she'd be able to look at it for what it was.

It
wasn't as if they were in love or anything, but how many times was anyone that
cute going to even notice her? He was young, had clear skin and was only a
little funny looking around the edges. Thin, and with good muscle, but his ears
and nose were just a bit too big. So, pretty much perfect. In her life exactly
four men had actually mentioned that she might be suitable for something other
than dying a gruesome death, probably alone. Or, well that wasn't fair, but not
a lot of people had ever said nice things about her.

One
of those was Darrick Westmorland, who thought that she'd make a decent member
of the Special Service, at least after she'd won him over. Then there was
Kelvin, who she was nearly certain actually wanted to sleep with her. It was
tempting really. He couldn't get her pregnant and would be more skilled than
she was by far. Then there was an airship crewman, named Givens that had
flirted with her, and Christophe. Only
one
of them had ever mentioned
marriage at all however.

That
meant she was, for the time being predisposed to like Duke Aubry a lot more
than almost anyone else in the whole world. So if he was involved in
slaughtering innocent young women, then she was going to have to...

That
part was
harder.

He
was a Duke, which meant that only the King or a
group
of other nobles
could really outrank him. If he wanted to kill people, that was probably just
going to be pushed under the rug. His men wouldn't even be blamed for it, for
the most part, since they were just following orders.

That
left very little for anyone to do about the situation, except hope that if it
was really taking place, it could be stopped. When she'd found that a Count had
been raping and killing little girls, she'd killed the man, but had to fake a
suicide, claiming that, once caught, he insisted on it. Along with the two sworn
servants that he'd been forcing to help him do it.

It
had been a bit messy, but in the end it had been pretty close to what had
happened. The man didn't fight her, and his servants actually asked to be put
to death, rather than face trial. It was only later that Gwen had understood
how honorable they were really being. After all, they
might
have been
put in prison for it, but the Count wouldn't. Since that was the most likely
case, and no one would believe that they weren't acting on official orders, the
two men probably would have walked again too.