The Mask of Omegon (Gwen Farris Book 6) (21 page)

Brian chuckled politely at any
rate.

“I see you aren’t going to hide anything
at all. Good thing we have all these questions for you, then. Here’s one. How
do you feel about the street solicitation problem?”

That one was new to her.

“I don’t… Like food carts?” She
honestly didn’t know that one at all.

Brian shook his head.

“Erm, not that. Women and girls
that sell sexual favors in public? It’s rather a problem in some areas.
Certainly we have houses for that, but these freelancers are undercutting the
officially allowed and contracted workers.”

Gwen nodded, to show she understood.

“I really don’t know the issue well
enough to comment on it. In my world prostitution is almost always illegal. You
have places for it here? I can’t… Nope. I have nothing on that one. I’m not
trying to dodge it. I just don’t know enough to really say much of anything
about it.”

If that was too stupid sounding she
didn’t know. It was honest, so hopefully that would help.

The next questions were all kind of
boring. She got to describe her world in detail for the masses however. Then
covered her favorite color as well as what kinds of foods she liked. Then,
surprising her, Brian pointed at the desk in front of him, which she didn’t get
at all. There was a light suddenly glowing, which clearly meant something.

“Ah, we have a live caller. Should
we entertain them, Miss Farris?”

“Sure? Just as long as they don’t
start screaming obscenities over the airwaves.”

Brian did something and leaned in
again. He rocked back and forth a lot as he worked. Bringing his mouth closer
and further away as they spoke. She did it a little, and tried for more, since
now that she thought about it, all the media people had done that while they
spoke. That meant she probably needed to copy it for some technical reason that
she just didn’t get yet.

She thought about that while Brian
set up the caller.

“Welcome! You’re on live with Gwen
Farris and Brian Weathers. Do you have a question today?”

The voice on the other side was
rather matronly sounding. A little familiar as well. Not that Gwen got it. Not
even after the man spoke for a bit.

“Ah, thank you! I was wondering if
you have any thoughts on the Westmorland issue now? You were involved in the
scandal, some years ago, but were gone when the corrections were made. Are you
still working on aiding them?”

Gwen took a breath then and made a
face.

“Eehh. I can’t claim that I’m doing
that much for each person directly. I do work with them and visit a lot. I have
a position with the Special Service. I don’t know if that’s a known thing? I’m
just on my half year break now. It’s far too long, but apparently some people
have to be coaxed to actually do the hard work. Not that it really is. All that
difficult, I mean? You have to be devoted to the task, certainly. It isn’t
painful or anything like that. No more than most cushy jobs.” She meant it, but
Brian scoffed at her.

“It’s one of the hardest positions
we
have
, outside of battlefield work. I think you’re trying to recruit
now.”

She tilted her head. Then made a
considering face. It wasn’t the worst idea in the world.

“Come and join the Special Service!
We have the best armor, and weapons! Join today and get a free crystal pack
capable of running a small clock. Don’t wait, act now. Positions are running
out fast.
Especially
for women… Actually that one is real enough. If
you’re high magic and want to try it, you really
should
. Especially you
girls. It’s hard, but rewarding.” She wasn’t actually trying to get people to
do anything, so changed the subject, chatting with the next caller, a man this
time.

That he sounded so familiar annoyed
her a bit, but he didn’t give a name. That was hardly fair, but she got the
idea. She was supposed to be the one on the griddle that day. It was what the
show was about.

After most of the episode, Brian
had to go over some commercials. Half of which were passed over to her
directly. They were literally just paragraph long sheets. At least the other
man went first, letting her read over the things. It was tempting to let
herself make a hash of them, but real people had actually paid money for her to
sit there and sell their goods and services. So Gwen wanted to do a good job.

That meant going off script a
little bit, though she did it quickly, trying to sound very genuine.

“Mmmm. You know what I love? Candy.
That’s right. One of the best things in this world is your confectionary arts.
Right here in town we have one of the best shops, too. Carmichaels’. Located over
on Fourth and Elm. I’m serious. If you don’t go and get something from them
right now, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Their special this week is maple
fudge… Get down there fast, or I
might
just buy them out before you can
get any. I’m not kidding either. I think that I’m going right after we get off
the air today. I can’t sing their jingle, not without hurting your ears, but
that shouldn’t matter to you. What should?
Candy
. Yeah. That’s the
stuff.”

Brian looked like he was going to
laugh at her, but nobly held it in. She
did
notice that he leaned
forward to turn his microphone off as he fought for control of himself.

“On a more serious note, have you
ever thought about what you’re going to do when you pass away? Johansen’s
Funerary Parlor
knows
what to do. Their friendly staff understands what
it’s like to lose a friend or relative and they’re there to help you. No one
wants to think about what that’s going to mean for the people around them, but
making a point to set things up now will help your loved ones when they need it
most. In these hard and troubled times, it pays to be prepared. That’s a theme
that I’m going to be hitting over the next weeks and months, personally. This
is
part
of making those preparations. Even if you and I fall, or fail,
we owe it to those around us to make that as easy as possible on those left
behind.”

There was dead silence for a
moment, then Brian cleared his throat. Almost comically. He triggered his mic
again and leaned forward.

“That’s very good advice. Thank you
Miss Farris. Remember folks, she’ll be back next week. Both to answer your
disturbing questions and speak about the topics of the day. Fifth day at noon.
Now, stay tuned. I’ll be here until two, when we’ll have the incredible Agatha
Longbranch.”

Gwen got to rub all over the poor
guy again, as she tried to silently get out of the booth. It was probably too
noisy, but as soon as she got outside, into the lobby area, she was waylaid. By
Agatha, not the manager of the place. She’d gone a bit off script for the
commercials after all. She
really
couldn’t sing though. In her old body
that hadn’t been an option really. Now she just lacked the skill. Getting it
while on the air wasn’t going to work for her. Anyone else either, she was
willing to bet.

“Gwen! You were fabulous! I nearly
didn’t recognize you.” She winced, then shook her head, smiling. “No, I won’t
even take it back. That sounded… Professional. Entertaining at the same time.
Perhaps a trifle raw,
perhaps
, but no one will doubt your honesty. Raw
in this case means close to being off color. You
did
warn people away.
Not that it ever truly works. I wager that we’ll get a few complaints!” She
smiled though and patted Gwen on the arm.

She screwed her face up a bit and
then shook her head.

“I hope I wasn’t offensive to
anyone. I just tried to let people know the real answers as best I could. Now,
not to just dash off, but
I’m
going to go get some candy. That maple
fudge sounded good, didn’t it?”

The woman chuckled a bit, but
seemed positive about the idea.

“It did! The shop isn’t far either.
Just down the street a bit?” She pointed, but it was one that Gwen already
knew, having seen it in passing.

That had been years before, but it
was enough for her to get off to the place. She waited for Agatha to move to
her next task, then teletransported to the sidewalk next to the candy shop. The
place was brightly colored. Almost as if it had been decorated by Gypsies that
had taken a lot of acid before they started painting the place. It was mainly
blue and red, with liberal use of orange and yellow for the trim. There was no
line out the door at least, yet, which meant she could dash in and get some
things to take back to the Peregrine. As far as she could tell adults didn’t
often eat candy in the Western Kingdom.

It wasn’t impossible, but it hadn’t
been served at dinner or anything like that. Then, it wouldn’t have been. The
place smelled delicious at any rate. There was definitely maple in the air.
Chocolate as well. Behind a large glass counter there was a wonderful array of
treats. Behind the colorful display, a young woman stood, smiling. She was
dressed in all red and yellow, with a bright, multi-colored apron over the top.
After a moment her eyes went very wide.

“Gwen Farris? I… Didn’t think you’d
really be coming… Father! Come quickly.” She didn’t sound upset, but a man
dashed from the back of the place, rather rapidly.

“What’s happening? Did something…”
The man smiled when he saw her, even if she
was
dressed like a dock
worker. It was kind of handy, actually, since she had a few mets in her pocket
that way. Normally she would have been stuck, not having her bag with her.
Instead she had twenty or so, she thought. Gwen had no real clue what things would
cost, but looking at the trays of treats she saw that a serving tended to cost
one or two cents apiece. There would be about twenty people on the ship, so she
counted things up. Not everyone would want something, most likely. Then, some
of the men could eat a whole lot, so that needed to be accounted for.

“Hi! I’m going to need an
assortment of things? It’s for twenty or so people… Call it five mets worth?”
That might not be enough, but she could get more if it was needed.

The people there were helpful,
polite and easy enough to get along with. Even the next few people that came
in, were. It wasn’t until her order was almost ready, filling four fairly large
boxes with fresh candy, that the place filled with people. A lot of them. The
space wasn’t huge, so there were bodies going out the front door of the shop.

Two of them were reporters of some
kind. At least one of the men moved in and stuck a microphone under her face.
It could have been that he was just a hobbyist of some kind, she supposed. That
had never come up though.

“Miss Farris! I’d heard your
advertisement for this place, but we didn’t expect you to really come. Is the
maple fudge good?” The guy was laughing a bit, but the girl got her a sample
and brought it over. Gwen got ready to pretend it was the best thing ever, no
matter what it tasted like.

It was like a small bite of sweet
heaven, however.

“Oh, gosh… This is really,
really
good. Hey, um, can we get some for everyone here? I’ll pay for it. You should
all try this.” Hopefully that wasn’t going to take more than twenty mets.

Interestingly, the proprietor of
the place took her lucre for what she was taking away, being it was a business,
but not for the samples. Then, a lot of people paid for a pound of the stuff
after that, so it was probably worth it for them. They actually ran out of it,
before she left. Not that other things weren’t going fast as well. Thankfully,
she’d gotten there first.

That meant, when she
teletransported to the Peregrine’s hangar she had lots of things to share. It
was before the first wagon got there, so she was able to stow it in a room.
That was Gloria’s space, but the woman smiled about it, instead of taking
offense.

“Good idea. Now, let’s go over
shifting the crystal. Everyone should be here inside an hour. Come on, Curly.”

The work after that was fairly
steady. The crystal pack for the ship came in on a loading wagon, but it was a
very
heavy one, the charged crystal weighed in at several thousand pounds, which
meant using the loading cradle. That was a heavy rope net, on a small,
magically powered crane. That was made of brass, at least on the outside.

Groundling, dressed up a lot like
she was at the moment, if in a darker brown jumpsuit, was the one that worked
the controls on it. The men, including Tom, got to do the heavy lifting, which
went flawlessly. Then, no one had greased the corner of it or anything moronic
like that.

This time.

The man that had done that,
apparently only once, was the one that had been left in Europa. Given they were
at war, that probably wasn’t a thing that was comfortable for him.
If
he
were still alive. She was willing to bet that he wasn’t really. That Groundling
and Gloria had dumped that a-hole over the ocean when he’d tried to take
liberties with the cook.

If it had been anyone else, other
than Darnell the screw up, Gwen would have wondered if they’d been trying to place
a spy in the country. Even at that… Not Darnell, perhaps, since he really was
an unreliable clown. Someone that looked a bit like him could have been put in
that way. Europans were pretty open about what they thought of as taking
liberties as well. If the guy had only been trying to talk the cook out of her
skirt, that wouldn’t be thought of anything all that bad, there.