Wine of the Gods 4: Explorers (17 page)

::
Question, hide or run. Head for the gate. I'll meet you there. ::

::
You'd better. There are men all over the barracks. ::

::
Just walk away. I'm stuck at the moment. As soon as I can get to the door, I'll be out of here. ::

The panic stricken t
rader was denying everything including apparently his own name.

She tried to concentrate on a single person's yelling, but all they kept say was "Where is it?"

The one holding her thumped her against the counter twice. "C'mon, honey, where is it?"

"I gave it to t'trada
for t'good books. Which you are trampling and damaging." She tried to minimize her accent, use the right words.

The man pinned her to the counter, shoving his crotch against hers. "You don't want to make us mad."

"Where I come from, we kill rapists."

"What, you think some scummy Native Chief can give you justice? Don't bet on it Honey."

She drained just enough power to make him feel a little weak. "Please put my books into my backpack, and give t'trada t'diamond. That was our deal."

"But the diamond wasn't yours to give, Honey."

"My name is Never. Who do you think t'diamond belongs to?"

"Either Paris Mineral or Devaro Corporation. They'll do an isotope analysis, determine which
world it came from and then they will deal with you."

"Sorry, I have already made a deal for t'diamond."

After some more incomprehensible questions, a bit of shoving, she was taken out of the building and put in a gyp. To her relief the gyp turned toward the gate.

:: Question? Are you out? Free?
::

::
Yes. Something tells me you aren't, however. ::

::
Well, I'm not free, but I am getting closer to the gate. ::

:: All right. My buz is by the training center. I'm going to go check the
gate Schedule, and pick up any information I can about why they jumped you. ::

:: They seem to think they have monopoly rights to diamond trading. I may have tripped over some Merchant's Guild type laws. I'll see what they have to say.
:: Never glowered at the man going through her back pack. Another man had her books, and a third had the big diamond. Apparently trading with these people was going to be complex . . . or of course, Mani had said something about these people sending in the military to take anything valuable. Did they think she was a mine slave who'd stolen a diamond? Too many possibilities, and too little information to base a guess on.

They veered away from what Never thought looked like the road they'd left the Gate Complex on, and took another road. It led to a checkpoint with armed guards, and the gyp pulled up to a long plain building, bare of decorations, but sporting a half dozen guards to escort her and her captors inside.

***

Florian Hastenberg frowned at the quickly accumulating people. They were going to try and take the credit for the capture from him.

Two Native diamond smugglers. Incredibly naive ones, if this woman had actually been trying to barter this big beauty. He rolled it in his pocket, and reluctantly pulled it out and put it in an evidence bag.

The other team had botched their assignment, when the other woman had returned to the barracks instead of accompanying this one to the trading post. He had the only success. The muscle
took her to a small plain interrogation room, white, with one way glass on one side. She was given a seat, and the guards left the room. Only Florian and David Jetter remained. The woman hadn't seemed to even notice when he'd slapped the thoranamin patch onto her back. Of course the med tech had been prodding her, to insure she wasn't having a heart attack, and taking a sample for a fast gene scan in case she had prior offenses. Now she blinked blearily from the door to the mirror, then centered what was left of her attention on them.

The only other furniture was a tall lamp. A
very bright one that Jetter turned on her.

"Now, your name is
Neva Ash? From Thousand Years War?" Florian stood so she couldn't see him in the glare.

She
visibly collected herself and spoke clearly. "Never. My nime is Never."

"Umm, how interesting. And you aren't really from Thousand, are you? We have a miscount, and you and
a friend seem to have just walked out of nowhere and slipped into the worker levee. Let's talk about where you are really from, shall we?" Florian watched every change of expression.

"Now first we want you to tell us how you got here. Then you're going to tell us what your assignment is. And then you're going to tell us all about the rest of your group." Florian studied the faint changes on the beautiful woman's face.

Never blinked. "I am?"

"How did you get here?"

"You arrested me and brought me here."

Florian sighed. "How d
id you get from your world to the Labor School?"

"I grabbed onto the back of t'gyp. It went through t'gate, and we dropped off. We explored around, and saw the labor building eight. T'people unloading were dressed about like us, so we walked over and joined them."

"We don't allow people to walk around loose. Didn't anyone stop you?" Florian wondered if he sounded like a parent talking to a particularly slow child.

Never giggled. "No! We were invisible. Whoa! I probably shouldn't have told them that!" She frowned as she realized she'd said that out loud. Her gaze turned inward.

"How do you get invisible?"

Never hummed thoughtfully, keeping her lips under control while she thought. She didn't react to the question at all. Not a good sign. Her eyes refocused on him, a bit sharper. She should be going further under, not coming out of the drug haze.

Florian tried another route. "So, where'd you ditch your equipment?"

"In my locka. I think Question may have gotten it, though. Sorry."  She blinked, her eyes defocusing a bit. "This isn't too hard."

"What isn't hard?"

"Yah questions are easy. What is t'problem with diamond trading? Is there a guild? Monopoly? What?"

She shouldn't be able to question me!
"You can't sell what isn't yours."

"Why don't you think t'diamond is mine? I dug it up. We have t'permission of t'Land Grant Holda to mine diamonds. So, explain t'problem t'me."

Land Grant Holder. Well cultural information was better than nothing. "You were trading a diamond worth tens of thousands for books worth less than a hundred."

"Othah ways t'buy and trade were not told t'me." Her
accent and grammar were slipping a bit.

"People in the labor school usually don't have gold and diamonds. Trader's alley is good enough. Now, tell me where you were born."

"Ash."

"Is that a city? A state or a country?"

"It's a village. It's in Section Two, Foothills Province, Kingdom of t'West."

The door opened behind her, and she sat up, fighting the drugs.

Florian glared at the interruption. The young Agent's excited eyes and outthrust slip of paper had him frowning. He took the slip and the Agent left without saying a word. Florian noted the increased number of guards outside the door, then dropped his gaze to the note.

The woman is a Oner, DNA confirmed. Greeson.

Greeson. A Special Agent with a reputation.

Oner. A One Worlder.

Holy Shit. Don't blow this, Florian baby, this is your ride to fame and fortune.

He took a deep breath. "Kingdom of the West, you say? Now we just need to figure out which one world your kingdom is a part of.

The instruments on the woman would pickup any tiny change in heart rate or body temperature. Behind the woman there was a strip of lights. A faint arrow pointing up indicated that someone thought this was a useful line to pursue. Had she reacted to the "one world" phrase?

One World agents always committed suicide. Always. Could this be a civilian Oner? A half-Native from one of their colonies being used as a front?
A criminal hiding out in Earth's sphere of influence?

"So, if you aren't from Thousand, which one are you from?
Gloom and Doom? Camelot? Volcano?"

"I know a lot of volcanoes." She looked to be fogging out badly.

Now we're getting somewhere.

"How about that Exstar mining world. What do they call it? Glass Lake? I've heard they've been importing whole villages from a dozen worlds. Are you from there?"

"No. Glass Lake sounds pretty."

"What Earther Company is there? Tell me about them."

"Well, Nelson's a real asshole. And t
'treat Dydit and Lefty like t' idiots. And tey don't believe in magic."

Better hurry before the drugs make her completely loopy.

"What is Nelson's last name?"

"Manrique." Unusual, but Earther.

"What is Dydit's last name?"

"Twicecutt. It's actually a joke, something odd from his culture."

Florian pounced on that. "He's a foreigner?"

"Yes,
a Scoone wizard. Very powerful, now that he's not a goat anymore."

Florian paused.
Unusual drug effect.

"Is Lefty a wizard too?"

"Yes. He's not as strong or well trained as Dydit. He's from Verona. Tat's a different country."

"What is Lefty's whole name?"

"Carwell Lebonift. Lieutenant Lebonift." She blinked sleepily and just sort of melted out of the chair, hooking an elbow over the seat to remain almost upright.

"How long ago did they first come?"

"Umm, we fou Nelson about fo weeks ago. But I heard t'cook say t'only gotten there a week ana have before t'firs spotted us."

"What about the other two, are they from the One World?"

The woman frowned. "Which one is the one? This one?"

"No, we rather think it's yours. Isn't it?"

"It comes firs w'me, but yah seem to be putting some odd umphasis on t'term. I tink I am missing yah meaning altogethah." She was keeping it together pretty well. Obviously trained.

"Oh come now, with genetic engineering like yours, you think you can fool us?"
Florian kept his voice soft and gentle.

Never
frowned and thought that one over, and finally shrugged.

"What world would you go to, to get to
the One World?"

Never frowned at him again. "I don't
understand. What do you mean by t'One World?"

Even sprawled on the floor s
he's thinking about the questions. Can she also lie?

"The One World is a
world that has also discovered trans-dimensional travel. They Worship the One and the elite of their world are called One. Is that your world?"

"Oh, dem. Da empire uh t'one
. Dat was ina book." She was swaying slightly; the drug was about to knock her out, physically, even though she was fighting the mental effects.

"But you know them?"

"Nope. I jus read about dem ina hisry book. Tought dey went away?"

"Has your
world been discovered by people traveling through gates?"

"Yes."

"Are the people who came through the gate wizards."

She scrunched up her nose in bewilderment and shook her head.

"I'd like to meet these wizards. Where can I find them?"

"Waiting for us.
Dydit's going to be pissed." Her eyes rolled up as the lids closed and she collapsed completely.

F
lorian ripped the patch off her shoulder, just under the collar of the orange bodysuit. "We'd better let her sleep it off. We've got plenty of time, now. Has her locker been checked? Run a search on those three names. Has the other woman been captured?"

Greeson stalked into the room and stared down at the woman. "We'll have a detailed genetic analysis by morning. But the fast scan found eighty completely artificial genes, and numerous unknown alleles of other genes. She must be one of the elite, to not have been conditioned to suicide."

"Have we captured other female agents?" Florian asked. He got a keen look from the older agent and a miniscule nod.

"Only two out of the seventeen we are sure of. But they were not taken alive, so we don't know about the conditioning." The Special Agent smiled nastily at the unconscious woman. "By morning we'll have mo
re information on her friends. Then we can narrow down the questions."

Florian snuck a look at his watch. It was already morning, by some definitions. He made a mental note to take a wake up pill with his breakfast.
"I think she's a criminal, on the run from them. Meeting us was probably a shock. Maybe we can persuade her that it was a bit of good fortune, instead."