Monsters, p.20
Monsters, page 20
part #2 of Gwen Farris Series
The big push now, if they wanted this to actually stop, was to find out who was doing it and taking them out of play. That was up to Bethany, but Gwen was still her assistant, so she should at least find out what her friend needed, right? It was something to do, before she started handling everyone going to Europa later like so much baggage. That had to be seen to as well. She looked around and found one of the groups of four that looked like they were doing something, actually making a lesson plan already, writing it all out. They weren’t the only ones, but didn’t have anyone wearing Westmorland colors in the mix.
“You.” She pointed, a rude thing that seemed to accusing for the situation, so she dropped her hand and tried to smile, a thing she didn’t really feel.
“You’re the team going to Europa tonight. We need to get with the rest of the team, the Ambassador or whoever is going with you. Follow me please.” She walked away, not knowing where to go to for that, finally going over to the King, who spoke in calm tones to someone that was clearly freaked out again. Right at the moment that seemed to pretty much be his job. They waited until he calmed the person down and disengaged the line, which chimed again the second his hand was lifted from the sphere.
He didn’t reengage, waiting for her to speak first.
“Who’s in charge of the Europa mission?” She said quickly.
“You are.” He said back, as if that only made sense.
“I mean who’s the Ambassador, who’s in charge on the ground? I can’t do that. I don’t have time right now. Plus there really has to be someone that actually knows Mongolian or something that can go.”
“Oh… That’s Baron Dartis. Nice chap. I’ll get the contact information for you. We really should let him know about it, if he’s expected to leave today. I haven’t had time yet. Be a dear and do that for me?”
He rolled off a set of numbers and letters from memory, a complex location code that was also the address, Gwen thought, which she had to write down. The pad was just staying in her hand, she decided. She had to go inside to use one of the Telestators there, and then wait for one to free up. The second the bomb threat was over, they’d all gone back into use. That or they had been the whole time. If that was the case, well, she understood the rationalizations used, but it was still idiotic.
People here were being way to brave about things like that for her taste. Not that she wanted them to be cowards, but it would be nice if they’d show just a bit more caution, over all.
Because at the rate they were going, a lot more people were going to be dying soon.
Chapter twelve
The crew sent down to handle the southern event, which was what they were calling the latest attack for now, came back about six hours later, after having searched every building around the event sight. It wasn’t that they’d gone that fast, Heather assured them all when she got back, but rather that it was pretty much in the middle of an open field to start with. If there hadn’t been multiple bombs, apparently put in trash receptacles, it wouldn’t have harmed half the people it did. It was really the third one that did it, the first two going off at different locations, which sent people running away, between two sets of produce stands, ending in an explosion in a bottle neck. In short it was designed to trap people for slaughter like a cattle run.
There were a lot of dead and no one coming back was pleased with how it went, though it sounded like they all did just fine, following procedure exactly. There was just almost nothing they could really do. Except talk about it. That meant Gwen had to do another radio interview before she set out to deliver the Europa crew. It went out over every station again, which would have been great publicity if she’d been a singer or actress instead of just a low level government flunky that really didn’t want publicity or scrutiny for personal reasons.
The questions she was asked were harder this time, the single interviewer kind of forcing their way into the conversation, one that was supposed to have been a simple statement written by the King’s personal speech writer. Count Goebbels looked to be ready to start shouting at the man who ambushed her with questions, but Gwen held up her left hand, getting everyone in the room with her to be silent. Her right was sweating a little on the sphere in front of her, but this kind of thing wouldn’t be helped by dodging the question or sounding put out. That would just make her seem weak and ineffective, which would make the whole government look bad by proxy.
“No, that’s correct, George. Absolutely correct. We can’t be everywhere, and while the number of trained searchers is growing rapidly, it maybe days or weeks before we have enough to handle even the major events of the Kingdom, much less minor ones. That’s why it’s so important for people to learn what to look for themselves and to report what they see. To that end, the day after tomorrow, or sooner if possible, I’m asking everyone listening to tune in for a class on that very topic. You, each of you, might be the factor that helps to save lives next week.” She rolled her eyes, not knowing how to run a class on the radio at all. Telesar. She couldn’t afford to mess that kind of thing up, especially if she was going to talk to everyone in the Kingdom that wanted to listen. The King raised his eyebrows, but nodded to her, letting her run with the idea.
George sounded taken aback.
“Wait, you plan to teach housewives and gardeners to be our first line of defense, is that… prudent? Can such people be trusted to do things that important?” He sounded slightly sarcastic or patronizing, but that was his whole mode of operation, as far as Gwen could tell, so she didn’t take it personally. She stifled a sigh and spoke clearly and as if the whole thing had been planned between them.
“Of course they can.” Was the man not paying attention? He’d already announced publically that the team that went to Peru had been led by her mother. She wasn’t even a proper housewife. The butler had gone too. Not a gardener perhaps, and Winslow was sharp and well trained, but it still had to look pretty tame on paper.
“Don’t undersell the people of our Kingdom, and don’t let anyone else do it for you. Every man, woman, and child here is a valuable asset, worth as much as anyone else in the world. I hope that everyone will make a plan to sit in on the lesson. It should last about an hour, but be information dense, so be ready to take notes. Get your friends and family around for it too if possible and help each other study.”
She had to hide a smile, since she knew it had to sound crazy, telling people to take notes on a program like that. But it was important, possibly critical given what little they had to work on. People needed to know this kind of thing, if only to make them feel like they weren’t completely powerless. It would be a good starting point, which could be fleshed out later, once they had enough trainers to go to individual group meetings everywhere.
After that she had to arrange the trip to Europa, which she was apparently paying for out of pocket. She’d meant that she’d just cover the recharging of the spheres, by doing the work herself, but people would need food and a bit of cash to cover everything else that wasn’t provided. The King assured her that it wouldn’t take a lot, a few hundred Mets per person, but that still required getting the funds around. She put a quick call in to the Vernor’s solicitor and asked if it would be possible to free up that kind of cash on short notice, since it would be about three thousand. That was about the price of a brand new, very nice and high end, lorrie.
Mr. Grimes showed up about an hour later, not only with the funds, but having had it exchanged into the correct currency, a bunch of bright purple bills that looked like monopoly money to her. It was even in ten separate envelopes. The man was incredibly efficient and one of her favorite people in this new place, as well as warm and good hearted. He also had an uncanny knack of figuring out what she really needed to know and just telling her, even if it would be considered rude by most of the people she knew now. He’d saved her butt at least a half dozen times that way so far.
He smiled at her as he handed the funds over.
“Well, worse things to do with your income than support goodwill programs. All the boys at the office are looking forward to that radio class you’re to hold. Things have been tense, but I think that knowing what to do for themselves will help put their minds at ease. I keep telling them that it isn’t likely our personal offices would be a target, but after today, at a public market, well, no one can really trust that, can they?” He spoke to her softly, but Ferdinand walked up next to him and listened as he went on, nodding in agreement as Grimes spent the whole time staring right into her eyes.
“Have you given any thought to asking for school teachers to come in and learn these techniques specifically? They could spread the word to their classes, have the parents and community members in after hours and so on. I don’t know how to arrange that, but it has to be easier than starting a totally new organization to do the same thing, and we already know that teachers are capable of both learning and passing information on. It’s what they do as a career.” He had a considering look on his face and jumped when Ferdinand spoke, not having realized anyone was there it seemed.
“That’s… a very good idea. Miss Vernor, could you see to that? I suggest starting with a class of a few hundred teachers in each area and letting them disseminate through the schools from there.” Without saying anything else or waiting for an answer, he turned and walked back to the chiming device that was set up about fifty feet away without explaining anything else to the new person he didn’t know.
Gwen nodded.
“I guess the answer is that I hadn’t thought of it, but that it’s what’s going to happen now.”
Grimes smiled, looked at the back of Ferdinand’s head and then looked back to her, his face a little rueful.
“Your new boyfriend?” The words had a humorous edge to them that wasn’t a part of the man’s normal character. Not that he didn’t have a sense of humor, but he normally wouldn’t tease her about something like that. He hadn’t before at least.
She shook her head.
“Nope. We just met the other day. Nice guy so far. You did pick up that he’s the King, didn’t you?”
The older man looked over at him, glanced around at the people in combat armor and then flipped his palms up carelessly.
“I did rather wonder. No one knows exactly where he’s staying, after the attack on the palace. If he wasn’t on the Telesar each day people would be suspecting the worst, no doubt. Gwen…”
The words got her attention as the older man leaned in, looking at her in a slightly odd fashion.
“I heard about the broken engagement… if you need anything, please let me know. I’m here for you. For your parents too, of course.” He looked suddenly bashful, which was also something she hadn’t seen on the man before. It was cute. He was too, in a slightly gray and older way. If Katherine had been just a little older she’d have made a play for the guy. Or, more likely, she’d have bothered daydreaming about it. As it was she couldn’t even really do that without feeling bad for the Vernor’s, even if she did kind of think he was cool.
“Thank you. It means a lot to me, especially coming from you. Now, I don’t want to be rude, but someone just managed to get me involved in yet another project. It’s a great idea, but when I call you in a few days, screaming about it, I expect you to step up and help. No complaints either.” She managed a look that she hoped was sincere and didn’t look like an angry scowl. Since he smiled back, only a little pained, it was probably close enough.
The next snag shouldn’t have been a very big one, but it involved a certain Ambassador not realizing that his going with nine other people meant ten in all, and that since the purpose was to take in a training team, that left him with only five slots to fill with cronies and aides. He kept trying for more anyway, as if she was just being difficult, rather than having an actual limit. About twenty. Finally, after about ten minutes of this, Gwen crossed her arms, pasted the phoniest smile ever on her face and contemplated making room on the trip by putting the man in the hospital for a couple of weeks.
“Stop.” Her right hand flew up, palm out, half bent and ready to be turned into a strike to his nose, if he didn’t shut the heck up immediately. He wasn’t an old man, maybe forty, but entitlement poured out of him with every word he uttered.
In short, he was a jackass. Even as she thought the words she realized it might be a tad unfair. He was probably no worse than most nobles. It was tempting to let him know that she’d had the last Baron that had messed with her killed, but held her tongue, speaking only once she’d gotten herself collected enough mentally. Life had been a lot simpler when she could just solve most of her problems with a fight. Of course, simple or not, she’d mainly lost those. She was wining a lot more here, even though she was using words a lot more often to do it. It was amazing what having resources, and a healthy body, could do for you.
“You get to take five people with you, the others will follow in about two weeks. This is an emergency situation, not a simple diplomatic mission. This isn’t about looking good, or seeming important. By taking in the people they need right now, you actually are important. You don’t have to pretend to it this time. They really need you. I understand that a lot of diplomacy tends to involve perception, but for right now, you’ll just have to use the fact that you’re going there to save lives as being enough. You have two minutes to either go and complain to the King and grab your bags to leave anyway or opt out of this altogether. There’s no third choice, because I’m handing out the travel spheres and fund packets then and collecting them up and coming back here after that. I won’t be going twice. Not today. So, please choose what you’re doing here now and stop trying to push me into things that I can't afford to do.”
She didn’t have a watch, but at about a minute and forty seconds she really did start handing things out, even as the man glared at her. He was thin and decent looking, dressed nicely, and wisely decided not to bother the King with any of his concerns, but he really didn’t seem happy about it all. She got that after a fashion, the Ambassador was used to getting his own way more often than not . She even cared about it, hoping he really wouldn’t be too mad later. She was still planning to be back inside an hour. Sooner if she could. Life was way too short to spend on people she didn’t like.
She was planning on taking everyone out to dinner after that. At the Rustic, which was a decent family restaurant that actually served something close to a real hamburger. Well, she couldn’t really take everyone, but Beth, Billy, the Vernor’s and anyone else that wanted to squeeze in to a lorrie until they ran out of space. It wasn’t over priced and stayed open late enough, which was about all she really needed at the moment, personally.
It would take a little more money too, but Grime’s had actually solved that, having delivered her monthly portion early, which meant that she had nearly five hundred mets in her purse. It was a lot more than she’d need for the simple meal, which would probably come to something around fifteen cents per person. Maybe twenty-five, if they all splurged a good bit. The trick would be getting all the transportation they needed.
She decided to leave that to someone else and asked Erica Westmorland to look into it. It shouldn’t be that hard, but it was a problem to solve and could take a bit of savvy to figure out. It was good practice for someone her age. That probably meant it would have been good for her to do too, most likely, being a stranger, but screw that, Gwen decided. It was bad enough having to deal with Dartis. She could pass around some of the other chores, right? What was the point of being in charge of anything if she couldn’t?
Standing assembled on the lawn with bags in hand, a single one for each of the trainers going over, two or three for the other part of the group. Gwen got the needed case from a young man she didn’t know, but who seemed to recognize her and liked to smile a lot. He blushed well too, for a kid with dusky skin and black hair. Handing them out she cautioned everyone to go at once and fully intended to go in first, just in case it was a trap or something. As plans went it was far from perfect, because she couldn’t fight a military force alone or anything, if they were really being attacked. At best she could buy the others time to run. Maybe.
Baron Dartis seemed to think her going first wouldn’t do much as well, and decided to go off plan immediately and just pushed his button without waiting. That forced Gwen to hurry through the next three hand outs and to go without waiting any longer. Luckily it was just a couple of officials shaking Dartis’ hand and saying pleasant sounding things in a language she didn’t recognize at all.
Well, that wasn’t really true, she knew it was Mongolian, she just didn’t know any of it. She had been to Europa after all. For about three hours once.
The man looked at her over his shoulder and then smirked, as if he’d scored some kind of a victory by leaving early. Gwen just held out the box in her hand and got his Teletransport sphere back, her fingers brushing his as she did. His hands were cold and dry, almost papery feeling. Why that was she didn’t know, but his health, well being, and even survival, was his business now. She’d done her part and gotten them there. The rest was up to the others. She still had to recharge all the sphere’s but that wasn’t some kind of huge issue. It would just take some time and effort.
