Wine of the Gods 05: Spy Wars (34 page)

Fall
1365

Karista, Kingdom of the West

Lefty bit his knuckle and tried not to laugh. The news was too appalling to laugh about. And even after so many years, the memories
of his own capture by Auralian slavers were still painful and horrifying. He sobered suddenly. "So by the time you left town this Princess of the One had been sent off to the Amma's cousin in the west. Her Oner staff had been sold in the slave market. The Oner Commander of the Amma's army who had been training them in Oner weaponry had been executed. The Ambassador had been emasculated and publicly gang raped. And some 'Priest' showed up and is trying to smooth things over? Good Luck. Poor sod will probably wind up displacing the Ambassador as the Amma's favorite play toy."

The Sooty Duck was busy, so there was nothing the least bit surprising in how close the men behind him were. Of course he was careful to not look around at them. He might not be able to pull off non-recognition. The Earther's were certainly getting an earful.

"Yep." Oscar looked indecently smug. "One trusts they'll be too busy to pull another stunt like the raid on the Gate Camp."

Lefty nodded. "We confirmed the identific
ation of the three men the Oners murdered. They went missing here in Karista, all on the same day. I'd certainly like to find that so-called 'Action Team' and demonstrate the penalty for murder. Of course, that may have been them, in Ash. Good riddance." He took a swallow of the home brew. Good stuff, no wonder the Earthers were regulars. "Anyway, Rufi isn't inclined to take issue with the Earthers over their attack, despite Coo Hasenski's death. So maybe we can actually get some leave. I've got a four year old son who needs his daddy around. Not that you two would understand anything about proper parenting."

"Selano wants us back for more lessons, and we really ought to see how much trouble the Navy's gotten into without us to take care of them."

Lefty nodded. "Yes, we do need a good coastline map. Have you seen the maps the Earther's made from the Oners' satellite data? Oh, of course, you're the ones who stole half of them. That might be a good place to start. Add your data on currents and soundings, locate some harbors . . . " They got so deep into planning the exploration of what both the Earther's and the Oners called Asia, he forgot all about the Earthers at his back.

30 September 3462 / Early Fall 1365

Karista, Kingdom of the West, Comet Fall

There was frost on the grass in the morning. Another month and it would be time to send all his extra horses to the farm for the winter. The bays had worked awfully hard this summer, and were getting thin. If they could listen in on the Oners he'd find out if they were still looking for white and dark gray horses, alone or in a team. If he could work Sombrero and Blue, he could let Blackie and Macy take the winter off, too.

Damien clicked off the recorder, encrypted the message and then compressed it. This was important enough to report immediately.
They dare not break radio silence, and let the Oners know what the Earthers knew. But the boat was due any day now, so they would each have a copy of the whole mess of reports. Hand it over and send the boat off immediately, with as small a chance of the Oners intercepting it as possible. All those wonderfully chaotic intercepts they'd caught, in the unlikely case the Science Camp had missed them. The Westerner's explanation of how their agent had seduced the Oner Princess. The relationship between the Oners and the Amma must be nasty, about now. The Oners had refused to supply bullets for the Amma's fancy new rifles, put their vehicle order on hold and refused to fuel the vehicles already handed over. The One's ability to take over this World had been flushed down the toilet.

And the
Action Team had been eaten by dragons.

He wasn't quite sure what his superiors would make of it, but then they hadn't seen a man turn into a goat.

Along with the intel, it also had all their messages home, instructions to the pay division, updated wills.

He was whistling happily as he walked out to the yard, Andrai on his heels.

"I don't like it when you sound so cheerful! I expect you to behave."

"Da, Auntie, I'll behave." Damien climbed up onto the seat of the bear wagon.

"I mean behave properly!
And speak properly, too. That's yes, not da, like some backwoods . . . Veronian."

Vani and Code had their wagon in motion, escaping the morning lecture. Code was still grinning, even though Solstice wasn't well enough to work. He'd send Code to keep an eye on the mares and yearlings at the farm
, and send Solstice with him to recuperate. He'd been gelded so there was no worry about the mares all getting bred again. Umm, better geld the roan colt soon too, or he'd be up to his eyebrows in foals before he knew it.

Jeinah and Max were talking about marrying. 'Auntie' was making her displeasure clear.

"Yes, Auntie. I'll be very proper, Auntie."

"Humph. I'll believe it when I see it. I think it's the effect of all those Traveler's nags. You should sell them and get some more nice brown horses." Andrai turned and headed back to the house, pausing to nod politely to the neighbor out on the street. "Good morning, Mr. Howard."

Max climbed up beside him and he clicked to Macy and Blackie, steering them out to the alley. "What do you think? The way Bert's hanging around, I think he's sweet on her. Maybe the old biddy will loosen up?"

"Now there's an idea. What can we do to help True Love along?"

"Has Vani still got some of that Temple Water?"

"That would be cheating."

22 Ramadan/
1365 late fall

Fascia
, Auralian Empire, Target World Forty-two

Ajha stood outside the Embassy medical section and looked the priest right in the eyes. "Yes, One Ygti, I do realize that I am the most junior of the Directorate staff on this world. I do realize that I am a Clostuone, not a Priest. But I also realize that pointing out that the local magicians are sufficiently similar to the Prophets to raise the question of whether they might be the descendants of some of Those Left Behind is sensible and logical. Avoiding the question will not change the answer. It will not make them less dangerous. It will not reduce the potential for friendly relations, if we have not destroyed that possibility forever, already."

Priest and acting Ambassador Ygti held out a computer card. "Take your team home. Give this to your Subdirector." His lip curled a bit. "He's young for the position, and new to it. He
chose poorly in sending you here. But then I suppose you're a close relative. All those As and Js. I think Black Point is getting a bit too inbred."

Down the hall, a door opened, and a Medgicia
n escorted Idre and Egto out. "As I suspected, the imprint is too deep for me to remove. They need to be treated by a specialist, at home."

"Thank you, Doctor." Ajha inclined his head to the Medgician, bowed to the Priest. "We'll be aboard the next train out."

The Priest sighed. "And still arguing with everyone?"

"Stating possibilities, sir."

1366
Winter Solstice

Karista, Kingdom of the West

"I think we actually did it." Lefty took the chair the General pointed at.

"So the Earthers are just hunkering down doing nothing and expecting nothing for a couple of years?"

"Yes, sir. Apparently they elect a President just like Scoone does, and this is election year, during which no one is going to commit to anything major. And their intercepts of Oner radio communications confirms that the One are in complete disarray in Auralia.
The execution of their military commander and the . . . treatment of their Ambassador, followed by the loss of the Action Team, they're spooked. And they are quite sure the two who got away were mentally influenced. They're being sent home for evaluation. So we just have the Post Head here in Karista. We can watch the three Earthers, and try to find the Post Head, who is probably Cuffi's 'Mousey' and hopefully have plenty of warning before they try something again."

"And if all else fails, I'll send Oscar and Bran back to Fascia. Excellent. Why don't you take some leave? You won't even have to spend time in transit, any more. I'm going to have to talk to the Auld Wulf about making more of these corridors. They'd be an amazing ad
vance in transportation. They’d change the whole world."

I was born and raised in California, and have lived more than half my life, now, in Texas.

Wonderful place. I caught almost the first bachelor I met here, and we’re coming up on our thirty-third anniversary.

My degree's in Geology.
After working for an oil company for almost ten years as a geophysicist, I “retired” to raise children. As they grew, I added oil painting, sculpting and throwing clay, breeding horses, volunteering in libraries and for the Boy Scouts, and treasurer for a friend’s political campaign. Sometime in those busy years, I turned a love of science fiction into a part time job reading slush (Mom? Someone is
paying
you to read??!!)

I've always written, published a few short stories. But now that the kids have flown the nest, I'm calling writing a full time job.

Other Titles by Pam Uphoff

Wine of the Gods Series:

Outcasts and Gods

Exiles and Gods (Three Novellas)

The Black Goats

Explorers

Spy Wars

Comet Fall

A Taste of Wine (Seven Tales)

Dark Lady

Growing Up Magic (Four Stories)

Short Stories:

Lost Boy

Mall Santa

Writing as Zoey Ivers

The Barton Street Gym

Chicago

Comet Fall

"It's a telescope." Lefty whispered.

"A huge one." Question cleared her throat. "There's no one in here, probably because it's daytime. So we don't need to whisper."

"Yeah." His voice was low anyway, and he prowled and poked. "Wish there were more books."

"They keep a lot of information on these computers of theirs." Question eyed the thing sitting on a desk. "Never and I didn't get far enough into learning their machines for us to use them."

"Huh. I remember what you said, and they had them at Gate Camp too." Lefty found a pad of paper with scribbled notes. "Wish they had better handwriting." He set it back exactly where he'd found it, and prowled further.

"There's not much back here. Do you think we could hide and watch?"

Question nodded. "We could duck out of sight, not have to use light warping. Then they wouldn't be alerted to us by any static."

"And if they do come back, we light warp and maybe they w
on't realize what caused the static. We'd better tell Dydit and Never though, or they'll be down here figuring we need rescue." Lefty looked a bit absent minded for a moment.

"Right." They settled down comfortably, taking the paper pad again, and amiably argued over the various possible meanings of diagrams and scribbles. As the day faded they replaced the pad and moved to their nook to hide.

Footsteps crunched on gravel. The voices of the approaching Earth people were clear in the thin mountain air. ". . . set up that sweep of . . . "

"Turn in these preliminary results. . . "

". . . whole thing pinned down . . . "

". . . time if they want to try . . . "

The main door opened for a pair of men.

"It's just a matter of time, they must see that. They have to do something." The speaker was a rotund figure, young and earnest looking.

"Don't bet on it. Some politicians live to emote all over disasters after they've happened. After all, they've been ignoring us for almost seven years now." The cynic was taller and thinner, with blond hair cut short. Older than the first one, but still in his twenties.

"I know. But if we don't warn them, try to do something, we're no better, are we? Now, the sky is clear tonight. We'll be able to extend our data six days further. If the circle of uncertainty continues to shrink, most likely it'll exclude a strike, and we can forget the whole problem." The fat boy turned to one of the desks and the computer on it.

"Or at any rate put it aside until the next chunk of Hygiea, be it comet or asteroid comes along." The cynic punched buttons and the long strip on the roof rose then slid aside. The whole dome rotated, and then the telescope swung to point out the open strip.

The fat boy was tapping away at the desk in front of the computer. Apparently the pattern of his finger movement meant something specific. Rather like a really finicky spell.

Rectangles midway up the walls lit slightly, bright specs like a picture of the stars, and then red circles.

"All right, here are the projected probability circles. Ninety, Ninety-five and Ninety-nine percent probabilities of a strike if the asteroid's orbit has put it in any of them, right now."

"Scan's complete, overlay them." The cynic said.

The faint spots of stars blazed suddenly and a faint comet filled and overflowed the inner circle.

"Well, that's it." The fat boy pushed back from the desk. "A ninety-nine percent chance that the lead comet of that sub-group will hit this planet in six months. Good thing it's a small one. The next two perihelions after will be really interesting."