The Mask of Omegon (Gwen Farris Book 6) (13 page)

Getting to the shed where the enlisted
men were being kept was difficult, the thing being guarded. Hendrid, while
great company, wasn’t much in a fight for some reason. Not that he didn’t try.
Empty handed though as he was, all he could really do was get the guards, again
dressed all in red, instead of being half naked like her new buddy was, to fire
at him. Leading them away.

The idea, clearly was for her to
sneak in when they were gone.

Instead, not wanting to run, she
shot them in the back with energy blasts.
This
time she made little red dots
appear, since it was kind of hard to focus. Her eyes were more than a bit
bleary already, from the pain.

“Hendrid. We’re clear.” She husked
the words, forcing herself to sound better.

The door was locked, but when she
knocked, the guard inside helpfully came to open it for them. He spoke as he
opened the door, sounding puzzled.

“Hello! Have you heard the word of
Cthulu?” The man might not have, but there was no time for him to answer, given
that she blew the top of his head off with a burst of energy from her right
hand.

He was the only one in there
however, which made sense when she got inside. There was only one cage, which
was essentially just the front of the shed having bars that had been wedged
into place along the roof. It wasn’t great, as far as construction went.

There was no real door to the thing
either. Just bars that had to be kicked out of place. Without an armed man
there to stop them, they could have probably just walked away.

“Um, guys? I’m going to have to
take you out of here the hard way. Can we… Get someone to guard the door?”

She didn’t know if anyone was going
to volunteer for that. After all, whoever was last out was the one that would
get left behind, if that happened.

Which didn’t stop one of the men
from waving.

“I’ll do it. Get the rest… How are
we doing that?”

“Teletransport. I’m going to leave,
then take you to the Western Kingdom, one at a time. I need to see your faces.
Names, too. Everyone do this, in case I need a reminder. You, name?” She stared
at one of the unshaved men. He had short hair, but half of them did.

“Bill, ma’am.” He was going to go
on, giving his full name and serial number, but that would just make things
harder for her, not easier.

The men went in order then, all
eleven of them. It was Bill that had volunteered to watch the door, and die
fighting if he had to. Thankfully he had the guard’s crin, so he wasn’t empty
handed.

She was still huffing and puffing,
when she got back into the ready room with the Westmorlands.

“Twelve. First up,
Hendrid
.”

The man appeared, causing Adam to
grab him, since he was about to fall down.

“
Rick
.”

The men came in quick order, with
her only taking a break to vomit halfway through. By the end she was blacking
out, of course, but kept going.

“
Bi…ll
.” She managed to get
him in just before she doubled over in pain. The world went dark then, but she
was certain that he was in the room. She knew that since he shot the wall with
a bright green light.

Adam yelled at him a bit.

“Hold! We’re friends! You’re safe
now. Safe!”

She couldn’t see what was happening
then. There were sounds, but nothing else.

When she came to, a short while
later, she thought, she was in a different room. Being settled into a bed,
while Rhonda the healer looked at her leg.

“Crin blast. Aggravated by movement
after the fact. Peter, come and heal this. Are you set to go back out soon?”
That was for her, Gwen thought, not the young man who came into view.

“No. I’m working in two days or so,
as an airship loader. Not going into battle.”

The woman, who had a nicely large
nose and silky brown hair, nodded at her.

“Good. You know what to do Pete.
Close and make sure there’s no infection. Then use alternatives.”

The boy, who was still only
fifteen, nodded.

“Got it. Let me get in here. Gwen,
I’m going to have to touch you, is that good for you?” He looked at her like
she was in any position to say no.

“You’re just trying to get fresh
with me, using the horrible leg wound as an excuse, aren’t you? I know how you
are.” She didn’t sound that weak, for all her leg was killing her.

The kid winked at her.

“That’s it. Exactly. So, what do
you say?”

If Rhonda was scandalized it didn’t
show, then the woman had left the room. Probably to help the others that had
come in. There were about twenty of them. Most from different locations. Many
had been tortured and beaten for a while.

So she faked a smile.

“Do it. Just know, I didn’t put on
my cute underwear, so no peeking.”

He didn’t, cutting the trouser leg
off with a pair of scissors. Which meant that Gwen owed Leslie a pair of pants.
Not that she hadn’t known that already. The second she’d been shot the idea had
hit the back of her mind. Then, she could handle that. It was cheap even, as a
cost for twenty lives. Or even one.

Peter didn’t waste a lot of time
healing her. That meant there was pain involved in the process. It wasn’t that
the kid didn’t have skills, just that he was forcing her to heal faster than
her body could take. Nearly so. That meant the wound stung, but when he was
finished the pain was largely gone. Not that she was totally healed. She got a
bandage, which was basically white gauze wrapped around her right thigh, if
gently.

The boy smiled at her then and
patted her arm.

“There we go. All right, I need to
get back to work. Try to rest for a bit? Don’t use the leg too much? You have
access to a healing bell at home?” The term was a new one to her, but she
nodded, getting the idea. It was a machine that made sounds and put off healing
energy. It presented as pure quackery to her, but it actually seemed to work.

“Yes. I think we still have one
around. I should probably check in with King Ferdinand before I leave. If Adam
hasn’t?”

“How do I know? I mean, they
should
run all their actions by me, but do they? Nope. Not even a briefing at the end
of the day. I tell you, Miss Farris, this is a wickedly hard job at times.” He
was playing with her, but still stood and gave her a hand up.

“Rest. You don’t have to do it here.
Will you be at Park Street tonight?”

She nodded.

“Sure? Unless something comes up.”
That was her life in general, so she didn’t want to promise anything specific.

Peter nodded at her, then patted
her on the shoulder. It wasn’t taking liberties, but for the world they were in
it was a clear sign that the boy kind of liked her. As in, wanted to have sex
with her. She thought. Truly, she wasn’t certain on that score. Gwen also
wasn’t going to ask. After all, he was only fifteen. That meant he needed to
seek out women in a younger age bracket than she was in.

Limping out, the worst of the pain
already gone, she moved down the hallway.

That took her to a room where Adam
Westmorland was standing in front of a telestator. Next to him were several
others. One of them had her dress on.

Leslie looked good in it, so Gwen
winked at her.

“I’ll get you something to replace
these? Keep that? Sorry about the damage.”

The woman shook her head.

“That was… Dangerous. Brilliant
work, but not exactly safe. Going in like that.”

The voice from the magical device,
this world’s oversized and cumbersome cell phone substitute, hissed a bit. At
first. Gwen realized it was a sigh, if a stressed one.

“Miss Farris?” Ferdinand sounded a
bit
annoyed with her, which was probably fair. Rushing in like she had,
alone, was stupid. She knew that one.

“Here.” She waited for the dressing
down, but that didn’t come.

Not even a little bit.

“Thank
everything
! I was
told you took injury? That… Well, none can doubt it was a brave act. I’d say
foolhardy, except that you succeeded. Next time try to take a team with you?”
There was a bit of real worry in the words. As if she didn’t have a lot to make
up for. Even if it meant dying to do it.

Twenty lives wasn’t a bad start,
but it was only that. Katherine had created a debt too big for anyone to ever
pay back. The only thing there was that almost no one seemed to think that she,
Gwen, was supposed to take care of that part. No one else really could though.
Kat Vernor wasn’t even allowed to try. Gwen got that part. The last time she’d
been given any freedom at all, she’d used it to first try to kill her mother,
using hired assassins, then managed to escape and betray them all to the
Europans.

If the woman had just moved away,
things would have worked out better, but she was too good to get a
job
,
or anything so mundane. In the entire world, the girl could have run anywhere.
So naturally she went to the people that wanted to kill the same people that
Katherine hated. Her friends and family.

Gwen’s anyway. Kat didn’t seem to
have many friends left, after the last few years.

“Hopefully there won’t be a next
time for that. It was… Stupid of me. I know that. I just didn’t know how else
to get everyone. Which… I know that we’ll have to leave some of them behind. I
just…” It was too hard to do that. Worse than killing them would have been.

She’d killed people to get those
men free, which didn’t bother her. Not even a tiny bit. That part was hard to
understand for her. Those Europan guards had just been people. She didn’t hate
them, even if they were keeping the good guys like they were. Not even for
killing them. It was war. That was the game. That was probably the big part of
things for her.

A large part of her brain, in deep,
thought that she was playing a game. Possibly on a computer. For most of her
life she’d lived in fantasy of one type or another. That meant death wasn’t
real to her. At least if she didn’t know the people first. That would be
harder, naturally. The others were just bodies. NPCs that colored the background
of her world. Non-player characters.

Which was probably more than a
little bit insane.

The King spoke gently, sounding
pleased enough for the day.

“Good work. When will you be
available for the next group? I can have files sent over immediately.”

Gwen nearly started to explain her
schedule, but then shook her head.

“Let me know when we have that and
I’ll come in for it. I’m going to be on the Peregrine working for the next few
weeks, but I can come and go from there. I’ll make sure Adam has the contact
information?”

The older man, dressed in blue,
much like she was at the moment, glanced at her and twitched a little bit. It
was a thing that she didn’t understand really. He didn’t love her, most days.
This was about work however. He might not be perfect, but he wasn’t lazy, or
unwilling to deal with someone he hated if that’s what it took to get the job
done. They were trying to save lives. Adam wasn’t petty enough to have a
problem with that. Even if it meant dealing with her.

Still, she started to leave then,
annoyed, if not trying to show it. Before she got to the door, the old man
spoke.

“Is that a good idea? The effort
today was… Nearly legendary. Gwen is injured. Even my people need to rest a
bit. I understand not wanting to leave anyone under the boot, but should we
risk such resources? There are perhaps ten people in the world who could have
done what took place today here. Burning them into insensibility won’t aid us.
We might wish to husband our resources carefully.” The words sounded nearly bold,
even if the man was turning gray as he spoke to the king that way.

The device made a noise. More to
the point, Ferdinand did, away at the palace.

“I’ll take that under advisement,
Adam. It’s good to know that we have your aid if needed, Gwen. Even in war we
must sometimes stand back, as hard as doing so is. Please rest for now. There
are things in the works that might need your attention, if you have time for
them. I’ll bring those to you, if it becomes needed?”

It took her a moment to work out
that the man was probably trying to put her off for a bit.

“Sure. Like I said, I have some
projects of my own. Oh! Is this line secure?” That was a movie thing from her
world, but surprisingly Adam nodded.

Ferdinand answered out loud
however.

“It is. Do you have something?”

“Doctor Professor Grainger.
Radiatives at Western University. I… Think we can have the things that you and
I talked about, if we can bring him into the program. It’s a risk. He’s
willing. Reluctant, thank goodness. No one should
want
to know that kind
of thing. I hate to risk him, but it might be needed. He’s one of the best in
the world in his field.” Maybe
the
best, from what she’d heard.