Wine of the Gods 26: Embassy (20 page)

"What do you mean we can't arrest him!" Hanger shook the newspaper under the Chief's nose.

"The Feds want to follow him home, find out where he's from."

Hanger sighed. "Right. I understand that, but I really, really want this Harold Bender afterwards. We've got him cold for two rapes and felony theft."

The Chief nodded. "As it happens, the Feds called about two seconds after you'd hung up. Right. Tapped. I wouldn't bet they aren't listening now. They told me they were tracking one other man and three of the women that exited with the men. We'll be meeting with them in two hours."

The Fed in charge was an interesting fellow. Jack Danzinger. "I went to several of the suspect's readings. I swear they didn't write those books themselves. Their research is too thin for the depth of understanding in the books. I think they're hawking best sellers from other universes. And no doubt selling stolen merchandise in other Universes, which would explain why not a single piece of jewelry was ever recovered from the raid."

He cued his comp and a map replaced the five faces on the wall. "This covers a two county area in upstate New York. The red star is the house that tunnel connected to, the blue stars are where we've lost our suspects." He nodded politely toward Hanger. "Using Captain Hanger's methods we located two tunnels. They both came out inside the same State park, just a few hundred feet apart." He cued the comp and got a montage of pictures around a detailed map. "It's a bland, ordinary spot that has no views, no hiking trails or picnic spots. We've spotted cameras around, and have hopes of catching one of the two that are still out making the book signing rounds.

"We've brought you and your people in, Chief, because we don't want to enlarge the pool of potential leaks, but we need a bit more manpower."

Masters and Lancing swapped looks, and Hanger caught the Fed's eye. "Will we be on site, at this park?"

"No. They seem to be very good at spotting people. All of our breaks have been through electronic surveillance, so we'll be two miles away, and follow on quickly. Two of the women are scheduled to arrive in New York tomorrow, with limo service to this hotel." He backed up to the county map and tapped a blue star. "We'll be watching them along the route, and hopefully have not misjudged what they will be doing.

"Now, if they are going to another World, as I've hypothesized because of these books, things could be odd. I recommend you pack a wide variety of clothing, as we know nothing about climate or culture on the far side. They may simply have another tunnel to another part of our World. We won't know until we get there. If you're game, be here at eight am tomorrow."

It was a quiet ride back to headquarters. He handed over all his work to his overloaded comrades and headed home.

If the suspects were coming and going from a remote location here did it imply that they were using a remote location there? He opted for in between, something not exactly rugged, but not out of place in a forest. With a change of footwear, it would be unremarkable on a city street. He packed for layering in case of extreme cold, which gave him lots of options on style. Toothpaste, toothbrush, hairbrush. Was he insane? Probably. Everything fit in a backpack, including all the extra ammo. And the granola bars and the canteen.

With the Feds, they packed into eight large black cars and headed north. Hanger stifled the first thing that came to mind—that they were going too fast to be a funeral and were thus either going to be assumed to be an Arab sheik with entourage or a bunch of feds on the way to a raid. He diverted himself looking around at the eclectic group. Five men, including himself, two women.

The gorgeous Mino caught what was probably a dubious look and grinned. "I'll leave—so long as you promise to follow them into the Ladies restrooms."

"Uh, how about I just assume you are an expert and treat you as such, as soon as I scramble my manners back into some semblance of what my momma would expect from me?"

Her grin widened, brilliant teeth against a warm dark skin. "That works. Want to join the betting pool? The options are that we'll wind up stranded on: A tropical paradise. The Kremlin. A parallel earth very similar to ours. A world with dinosaurs. A world where magic works. Or a UFO in orbit around Earth. A hundred bucks, to get in. Winners split the pot, payable when we get home."

"Hmm. Let me think. Magic? Now that would be fascinating. I don't think the Tropical Paradise, the Kremlin or the UFO would have access to the novels, so I've got to say 'parallel Earth' is most likely. Umm, but magic. Damn. All right. I'll donate my hundred to the Feds, and bet on Magic."

She snickered. "Most of the money's going on Parallel Earth. I'm Sommer Albrecht."

"Chris Hanger. This is Mark Lancing and Greg Masters."

"Ah. You're the one who found the first tunnel. How did you spot it?"

"Well, after the forensics team said the windows hadn't been opened in months, I suspected a hidden door. I closed the curtains and turned off the lights, and there was a tiny crack of light. I peeked through, did not see the bedroom next door and decided to err on the side of crazy."

The five feds nodded. "If it hadn't panned out you'd have gotten a reputation for timidity, or over-imagination. I'm John MacKinnion." The intros circled the vehicle, and then the speculation. The Feds even had the completed forensic tests, and could satisfy Master's frustrated curiosity.

"Semen from eight of the eleven men, generally more than one of them had raped each of the victims. At any rate, they sorted out the raiders' samples, and blood stains from the two they injured in the tunnel mansion.

"Lots of rare alleles, they don't fit any racial or cultural profiles, not a single one of them. Six of the regular chromosomes had whole sections added to them. They all had a section added to either the X or the Y chromosome, sometimes both. There's a lot of speculation about the new sections and the rare alleles—whether they are natural or artificial."

"I gathered that the Feds talked some of the women into carrying to term."

Albrecht nodded. "Just five babies, the other women were horrified by the idea, and aborted. Every single one of them got pregnant, including an older woman who was post menopausal. The babies were all adopted by families in our circle of influence, so to speak. My brother who's a chemist with the FBI and his wife adopted twin boys. Pretty, healthy, happy." Albrecht shrugged. "There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with any of the children."

"I'm glad to hear that." Hanger shook his head. "Is there any suggestion that this was the actions of a government, rather than the gang it appeared to be?"

"We've modeled and gamed it to death. We can't see any advantage for a government to act in this fashion." MacKinnion shrugged. "If for no other reason than the out-of-control rape and sick humor. Not professional."

"Professional sleazebags. But dangerous ones, with some sort of gas and the ability to create these tunnels. Don't underestimate them even if they aren't a professional army." Hanger warned.

The Feds had rented a small office/industrial space and had screens showing various boring stretches of late fall woods and two showing the front of a hotel from two angles, one hotel lobby interior.

One of the men on duty gave them a censorious glance. "About time. ETA fifteen minutes."

That created a rush on the bathrooms, followed by a crush around the monitors. Hanger estimated there were fifty-nine men and four women crowding for sight of the monitors. His height didn't help him much in this crowd, but he caught the running commentary as the two women checked in, sharing a room. The redhead walked off to the lobby bathroom, and returned, holding her left arm oddly. She followed the other woman organizing both their luggage, and then they were out of camera range.

"It looked like she was holding something small or fragile. She was moving a bit slowly." Agent Albrecht muttered. "Something from that bathroom."

Lancing nodded. In the woods, the brunette woman stepped out of nowhere, looked around and nodded to nothing whatsoever. Luggage started flying out of the air. The woman hauled the first two up the road, she was frowning at the left side, and suddenly nodded in satisfaction and heaved first one suitcase, and then the other into an innocuous space. They disappeared in mid flight, and she walked back for two more cases.

"Red's back in the Lobby." Albrecht pointed out. "Carrying something back to that bathroom."

"Red's in the forest."

"She must have moved one end of the tunnel to their room, to get rid of the luggage, then put it back where they could find it without asking for a particular room." Hanger muttered. "Looks like you do get to search the Ladies room."

Albrecht snorted. "Just for that, I'm dragging you in as well."

They watched as both women walked into nowhere, then Danzinger organized them back into the cars. "The forest first. We'll backtrack when we're done, hopefully as cleanup to a successful operation." The eight black cars split up and Hanger's car was second on the scene. They paid up at the park gate for a day's worth of hiking nature trails, then the driver let them off at the nearest intersection to the area of interest.

They walked along, trying to look like tourists seeing the sights.

John Mackinnon had a discreet pickup in his ear and was evidently getting guidance. Hanger would have just walked past the nondescript spot, just a gap in the trees letting light through. Danzinger was leading another group from the other direction, when MacKinnon slowed down and called for them to stop. "You're the closest, Hanger. They disappeared just to your left off the road.

"Are you sure? I don't remember seeing that bright patch in the monitors." Hanger looked at it closely and his skin crawled. It wasn't sunlight through the trees, it was a glowing circle. "Never mind. There it is."

"Yeah, the trees on that side are different from the ones here."

Trees?
Hanger didn't see anything through the glowing circle.
It looked a bit like it was swirling.

"Mitchell? Hold the other groups until we report back. Let's go." Danzinger led the way and the federal agents followed him. Maybe twenty men in all. Lancing whooped and leaped through and Hanger gulped and followed. They were in a forest of large trees. There was a small clear space in front of the tunnel, and a double-wheel-ruts sort of track that led off to the right. Wide enough for a car if you didn't worry about the paintwork. There was one house in sight, a mansion or maybe a hotel, it was large, with columns and a swimming pool visible as he looked down the hill at it. The trail hit another, more heavily worn, that cutting across the slope before a split turned left to drop through the swale between this hill and the hill with the mansion on it.

They split up, and Hanger found himself in a small group headed away from the mansion. The main trail ended in a small clearing, with another glowing circle. It was about four meters in diameter and as he edged up to it he could see that rather than flattening at the bottom, it sank into a thin trench.

"What are you looking at, Hanger?"

"Can't you see it? It's another tunnel."

Albrecht eyed it. "Yeah, I see it now. I thought it was just some dead brush, but the trees are completely different. Not at all like where we came from."

Lancing walked over, waving a twig. "These are redwoods. Look at the needles." He looked at the circle. "Yeah, that's a different place."

Hanger frowned at them. "Let's be real clear here. I see a glowing white circle. You guys see trees?"

"Yeah. No glow." Albrecht grinned fiercely. "I'll bet that's why you could spot the first tunnel, your vision must be, like a bit further into the ultraviolet than normal or something." She touched her head set. "Danzinger, track ends at another tunnel. We're going to take a quick 360 over there and then report back in."

She turned and jumped into the circle like a ballerina. The other two jumped as well, and Hanger gritted his teeth and followed again.

This was a stunted, brushy, dry forest, winter bare, with some evergreen lower growth. The tops of bare hills were visible beyond them on all sides. A few steps away, a narrow paved road. He trotted out to it and looked both directions. Nothing. No, there was horse manure. And the surface was large square stones. "Damn." He trotted back to the glowing circle and they all jumped back through to the redwoods.

"Anything interesting about the road?" Albrecht asked.

"Square paving stones, horse manure, nothing in sight."

She added that to her report, listened, and nodded as she answered "copied."

She led them down the track, talking. "There are other trails off the one sidetracking the hill, we're going to check out each one, while they check the mansion."

The dirt track split, they kept heading north along the slope, until a side trail led uphill. Another tunnel at the end; the others claimed to see an alley and brick building across it. On the other side Albrecht ordered Lancing to stay by the tunnel, Hanger at the first corner, and Phillips at the second. She was out of sight for just a few moments, then she trotted back, a newspaper in hand. They all jumped back to the Redwoods and examined the paper.