The Mask of Omegon (Gwen Farris Book 6) (5 page)

The guy nodded.

“That could be. You’re a fine
looking lady, so a man might do a lot to get your attention. That… The man that
does those is a local. Tomas? Moore, I think. He came by originally to make
sure that I was selling his work. Which I already was. It’s decent quality. That
be him?” There was chewing on the end of his pipe, along with a serious glance.

“That
was
the name I was
given. He’s young looking? Pale skin, brown hair and eyes?”

The older man nodded.

“That sounds about right. Good. I’d
hate to think someone was selling you like that. Especially after the hard
knocks you had recently. All of it. You deserve nice things for a while.”

She took a deep breath, nodding.

“I hope that happens. Thanks. I’ll
go and read these then. Research. I didn’t even
know
that I had a comic
book, a graphic novel, until last night. I hear that it’s basically, um,
adult?”

That got another chortle, but the
man didn’t try to grab the thing back.

“Oh, that it is. Still, there’s
worse. At least it tries at a plot. I can order more for you, if you’ll be
around for a few weeks? The complete line? Let me know.”

She nodded, walking away. After
all, she might well need more of the things. Her lips felt funny, after kissing
him, even if it was just on the cheek. That hadn’t been a big deal however.
Hopefully it really would let him have a good tale for others, some day.

After that she walked back to her
room and started to read. With Tomas’ work happening first. Those were… Not
bad, if she wanted to be honest.

The art was good. Black and white
inside the covers, but well drawn. The words were a bit old fashioned seeming
and forced, and Omegon, who was a rich gadabout by day, seemed to fight things
that were a
bit
more serious than beetle blight.

Most of the time.

The mask he wore was the same
however, which was interesting to see. There was no explanation as to why
however. Not in the two issues she had. Those were both thick however, holding
complete stories in each one.

The Gwen Farris Investigations
nearly got her to pass out.

There was a bit of a story, but it
was mainly her doing some incredibly graphic things with her assistant, Bethy
West. They did it… Pretty close to
everywhere
. Using toys, fingers,
tongues and in a few cases a handy man or two in order to create variety.

“Which makes what Tomas did seem
far
more sensible, suddenly. Even what
I
did fit the character… Talk about
confusing for the poor guy.” She blinked a few times, wondering if the man was
ever going to buy her as being herself now. The real her, not just playacting.

Then, smiling, she read the scandal
sheet. The Scan. That had some data for her. For instance,
they
knew
that she wasn’t actually dating Ferdinand.

Also that people from other
realities had been coming to visit them. That was interesting to see.
Especially given that they had the name that went with the drawing right. Zack
Hartley. No photo, which the rag
did
have in places, but it really did
look a lot like him.

Nodding to herself she read the
whole thing. Then set it aside. She had more important things to get ready for,
like a date.

Gwen cheated a bit, calling Baron
Harrison directly to check on Tomas Moore. The man seemed to be what he said
already, but she really did need to be careful. The Baron actually coughed a
bit at first, when the name was brought up.

“Tom Moore? Works in legal… I
think. I’ve never had a problem with him. Do I need to look into this? I can
have him removed from his position if you need?” The man sounded deep,
blustering and a bit worried. Then he’d gotten called to the telestator to talk
to Gwen Farris. Who was investigating things for the King. A situation that she
was being pretty open about at the moment.

“Probably not? He seems to be well
and truly in the clear. This… It wasn’t a real case. I think that I was sent
out to get me back into the world, most likely. Still, checking things out
doesn’t
hurt anything.” Then, blurting a bit, she went on. “I’m also thinking about
dating him. So…” She felt bad, checking up on the guy for personal reasons, but
there was an exhalation from the other side of the device she was in front of.
She was using the one at the hotel, which was old, but still worked pretty
well.

The five dull lead colored balls,
each a bit bigger than a grapefruit, sat on polished wooden dowels. The voice
came from the air, between the outside two spheres. The inside two picked up
the distortions made by her voice and passed it along to the man on the other
side of the system. It didn’t plug into the wall though, being more like radio
that way, she thought.

The Baron sighed then and his voice
came across in a much friendlier manner suddenly.

“Ah! That
is
better then.
You’ll want recommendations for him? I don’t know that he has family in the
area, but I can have his direct superior connect with you? I must say, I’ve
only heard positive things about the man. A very good worker, conscientious and
rather polite seeming. Yes… I can have you contacted there? It won’t be but a
moment. Let me…” The line went dead suddenly. People there didn’t say goodbye,
since that could become a curse, if done incorrectly. A magical thing that
caused you to die, or never see them again.

They didn’t even say things like
see
you soon
. Technically that would have been all right, but it simply wasn’t
the habit. Feeling a bit bemused, Gwen didn’t know what she was supposed to do.
Take her hand off the central sphere, of course. That would end the call on her
side. Then, she had no idea what was supposed to happen. Things didn’t really
work that quickly there. The hotel would probably come and get her, if anyone
got in touch asking for her presence, of course.

Just as she was about to walk out
of the space, the device chimed. It was a pretty sound, that was like a soft
bell. Nothing jarring at all. Moving back to the device, she touched the middle
ball, which turned the thing on. If she were making a call herself, the button
on the top of the base would need to be pressed first.

A female voice came across the line
then. It really did sound like she was standing right there, if invisibly.

“Telestator operator, I have a call
for Gwen Farris?” The woman sounded doubtful for some reason. Like that wasn’t
a real option.

“Speaking.”

The woman snorted softly. Her words
were correct however.

“This is from Barrister John
Dempsey?”

“Thank you. I’m ready.”

Again, there was a soft snort. It
was a bit derisive sounding, to be honest.

“Hello? Miss… Farris? Baron
Harrison asked me to call and give you a recommendation for young Tomas? I can
do that, of course.
Wonderful
fellow. A very good prospect, if you’re
interested? Hard working, sober and healthy.
All
the traits a lady could
ask for in a gentleman friend. Here in the office he’s saved our court cases
more than once, by dutifully standing in the snow waiting for signatures in the
early morning cold. A marvelous man!”

She smiled, since it was
probably
a cultural thing. She’d called to be a creepy stalker and so they’d assumed she
was just doing her due diligence. Like any normal young lady might. Then they
used the chance to talk their boy up, so that he’d get in good with her. The
Baron had seemed ready enough to do otherwise, before she’d mentioned the
dating part of things. Then he shifted so hard it had probably caused head
trauma.

“That all sounds impressive. I
should set up with my mother and friends to get in touch with him, shouldn’t I?
Going the other way? I don’t really know how that’s done here.” It was the
truth, but the man laughed, as if it were a joke.

“Oh, that would work, I think.
Still, it’s up to him to do that, just as it’s your part to contact his people.
Tomas is a good man, however. Truly. Rest assured of that.” He seemed to be
running out of kind things to say about the fellow, so she nodded.

“Got it. Thank you, sir.”

“Not at all a difficulty, I assure
you, Miss.”

Then the line broke. Which given that
the man was at work, simply made sense. Poor Tomas was probably going to be
teased about her now. Then again, they might not mention anything to him at
all. After all, the
Baron
wasn’t going to chat with an office man all
that often. Tom had mentioned something like that already. His boss may, or may
not, depending on what kind of person he was. These people tended to be closed
lipped about a lot of things, as far as she’d ever seen.

Giving the matter a bit of thought,
she decided to take a list of names and numbers for him, if he showed up for
their date. That he might not… That was kind of the most likely scenario. She’d
met the man in a cave, then pretty much played into what had to seem like
insane game playing to his mind. Having read what was in her comic book… Well,
she’d really done things almost perfectly, given that.

If he really thought that though,
then
Beth
was a slut. Going around doing things like that with random
men in the woods. A person could call her that too, but she didn’t think that
would actually work for her. After all, she’d only done anything with
one
man. Anything real. She’d kissed Christoph, of course. They’d been engaged at
the time however.

Then, thanks to Katherine running
off to betray everyone in the world, he’d gotten married to someone else.
Worse, she sounded
nice
. Like she was a good person. The kind that Chris
actually deserved, not being her at all. On top of that, she was pregnant. Or
had been. They might have had the child already, given the time frames.

So Gwen had just stepped back. Even
if she could have insisted that they get divorced, ruining three people’s
lives, instead of taking her lumps like she was supposed to.

Like she
deserved
to, for
not being stronger. If she’d killed herself before Katherine could act, things
would be better now. It wasn’t like she hadn’t thought about it before.

She ate lunch at a different place,
teletransporting herself to a small town that she’d never been to before. That
meant eating at what was basically a lunch counter. She was still served
several courses of food. That was almost always the way things were done there.
So she had a small sandwich, apple wedges, and carrot strips. There was a dip
for those, which was made from oil and vinegar. It wasn’t inspired food, being
too bland, but it was filling enough. She wasn’t eating to reward herself or
anything.

Just to kill time and try to make
sure she gained a bit of weight.

As it was she’d gained about
fifteen pounds and
still
could pass for anorexic back home. In her
world. Or could have, back when she’d lived there.

That had been weird, when she’d
gone back. The world there was incredibly different now. The times didn’t match
up for one thing and it was over a hundred years later than when she’d left.
After the zombie war. Apparently that was both a real thing and had started the
day
after
her body had died. Killed by Katherine Vernor. Murdered. The
idea was still insane, but when she’d gone there everything had been very
different. Her old home was gone. So were most of the people.

Eaten to death a century before.

The rest of the place was pretty
much not recognizable to her now. It was nice, for one thing. Pretty. The
technology was futuristic on a level that barely had made sense to her. So
she’d come back after a day there. To a world where she should have been
shunned and reviled. Where she honestly expected to be killed.

Then, clearly, she had a bit of a
death wish still. No one could doubt that.

Well, no one that lived inside her
head could. Katherine wasn’t going to speak on the topic though, since if she
did, Gwen would cut her off, as for her daily fix. Possibly by just teleporting
straight up in the air and refusing to fly out of the move. Not that day. She
had a date. Killing herself right before it would be rude, she had to think.

Even after she was stood up would
be a bit too dark for her to go.

That would probably scar poor Tomas
for life, if she wasn’t careful. There was no real reason for him to even show
up, of course. Not that she wasn’t going to go down to the lobby and wait at
six, made-up and dressed for a walk in the park. Eagerly standing there, while
nothing happened.

She got herself ready, showering
again first. Then she did her hair and makeup, several times each. She wasn’t
great at those things, but had enough practice to manage to put her hair up in
a twist that looked all right, she figured. Her makeup was actually better,
since that was more like painting, which was a thing she’d had classes in back
when she was in high school.

So, at six, promptly, she was in
the lobby. Her life flowing out of her as she waited for a person that wasn’t
going to come. At about three after the hour Tomas came into the space
regardless of her plans, looking bright and cheery. He even had a small
arrangement of flowers in his hands. Then he locked his eyes on hers.

“You’re here! I wasn’t certain. Um…
here?” He handed the bunch of flowers over to her, seeming a bit bashful
suddenly.

For her part, she nearly cried. No
one had ever given her something like that before. They were lovely. Daisies
with little white flowers mixed in with them. Dried ones in with the fresh. Wrapped
in very thin green paper. Meaning that he’d probably spent cash on them. She
smelled them, but didn’t get anything from it that way.

“These are
wonderful
! Now, I
was promised a romantic walk in the park?” She smiled, holding the flowers,
since they were going with her.

Mainly so she could show them off
to the world. Someone had thought to give
her
flowers. Gwen wondered if
making a sign saying that would be too obvious. Which it would be. So she held
the things and started to walk to the door. From there she had no clue which
direction to go. It turned out that she needed to head to the right.

Tomas smiled at her, ducking his
head a bit.

“I don’t recall promising
romance
.
I’ll be lucky not to trip over my own feet.” Then, playing, he pretended to do
that. It was cute.

Gwen nodded.

“Hey, it’s a date. Romance is how
men prove they’re willing to jump through hoops for a girl. You knew that
right? Not that I expect a band to be playing or anything. I wasn’t really
expecting the
flowers
, so this is a good start. That and some hand
holding will probably work. This time.” She tried to fight smiling, which kind
of worked.

Especially since she had to
force
a smile most of the time still. Her early life had made that kind of thing physically
impossible. It wasn’t a thing that she would ever do easily. Except that, here
she was, doing exactly that.

At a man.

A real one, who wasn’t even her
teddy bear.

They
sauntered
since there
wasn’t much to do when they got to the destination. That meant they were able
to talk as they did it. Mainly about the weather.

“I hear that we might have rain
soon? Then a warm spell. It’s June, so that isn’t unexpected.” Tomas spoke
gently, but in very general terms. At least until they got to the park itself. It
was nice enough, and had trimmed grass, as well as real flowers. Not as nice as
the ones that she had in her hand, clutched next to her little purse.

It was her turn to say something,
so she scrambled a bit, then smiled. She did have a few things to say, after
all.

“I picked up a couple of your books
earlier? Omegon. They’re good. Different than I expected.” More words and fewer
pictures, for one thing. Almost like a short novel that just happened to be
illustrated, rather than what she was used to seeing.

“Oh? That’s… I was… Working on the
script for the next book, last night. I know that a grown man playing like a
child is…” Then he shrugged. “Though, you seem fine with that? I was… A bit
shocked, last night. To find you playing at Gwen Farris like that? Do you…” He
seemed embarrassed and was clearly trying to ask if she went around sucking off
all
the men she met.