Wine of the Gods 26: Embassy (25 page)

They all got lessons in the cultures and governments of Comet Fall, One World and Warmonger Earth before a worried looking group of people escorted the infamous Q through the gate from Comet Fall. Raven and the black haired girl from the Tavern were both in the group.

Hanger eyed Q, pale beneath naturally warm skin tones, and then the taller-broader-muscular-older version of Xen hovering over her, and leaned toward Inso. "Xen's sister, right?"

Jiol snickered. "Pretty obvious, isn't it? And yes, that's their father looming, and their mother on the far side."

"I'll be fine. Old Gods, I'll let you guys do the work, okay?" This Q was apparently not inclined to recline on her couch and be babied. She walked over and shook hands firmly. "Sorry about the delay. Did Xen drag you through the histories? Could you locate a split?"

"They're in the Tunguska group. Middle of WW five, their Bogota got blown up, Warmonger Earth's didn't." Xen told her. "Apparently much less genetic engineering, sterilization instead of exile, but there are a few loose genes around. Captain Hanger's a mage."

"Well, we know where to start looking then." Q walked over to the nearest empty arch. "If you have a preference for which arch, we can move the gate later. It's a pain in the ass, but even Xen could manage to drag one across the plaza in fifteen minutes or so." The siblings exchanged grins.

"Now, we need to know where on your World you'd like the gate put. No guarantees, I'm not at my best today, but I might as well try to get it on the right part of the right continent."

"North America. East Coast, somewhere around DC, for the diplomats, I suppose?" Hanger looked at Albrecht, who nodded.

"Andrews Air Force Base, southeast of DC, or Fort Meade northeast. Perhaps."

Xen's father looked surprised. "Those existed fourteen hundred years ago."

"Err, no sir, two hundred, roughly." Phillips looked confused. "Fourteen hundred years, that'd be like, the ninth century or so."

"Interesting. The Oners have a theory that time doesn't flow at the same speeds everywhere—until they are linked by a gate. If your Earth split off before Earth's first gate it may have experienced time differently. I'll have to see what the Astronomers think of that. Now, let's see about a gate." She sat down cross-legged and closed her eyes.

Her father, Xen and five other people who hadn't been introduced all sat as well.

"Don't disturb the hippy meditation." Julianne led them off a dozen meters. "The Earth's gate apparatus has a dedicated 50 gigawatt powerplant and involves superconducting magnets and deforming magnetic fields. It employs eight thousand people. It opens temporary gates, that collapse as soon as the power is cut."

"Our Earth—what they are calling Warmonger Earth these days—attacked these people twice. One elderly mage with a bad heart died in the first battle. I believe that and nearly killing Q last winter are the only casualties we've managed to inflict upon them." Lon shook his head. "Warn your government that these nice, but somewhat zany people may still ride horses and carry swords, but they are none-the-less extremely powerful. And seriously worth getting on your side. My poor World hasn't even realized they're in a hole yet, let alone considered the concept of 'stop digging.' It's embarrassing."

Inso and Jiol had sat down with the others, but Inso huffed angrily after five minutes and stood back up. "I can't feel a thing. A couple of them seem to be doing healing diagnostic sorts of things, but even trying that doesn't do me any good at all. All I see is the sad state of my liver."

Lancing grinned. "They can probably fix your liver."

"They already did. Now I'm working at getting it back into the shape I'm used to."

"See the Earth? And how it cuts across all of these?" Q's clear voice brought all their heads around. "I think the one we're looking for will be down there, in the direction the Earth is diverting from."

One of the men they hadn't met spoke up. "What are those shiny lines on that one?"

"Corridors. And see this crimp? That's where a gate used to connect. It'll smooth out over a couple of years. I think that's a very good prospect. Now Mom, Dad, go catch some cones."

Inso cussed and brought out a small pocket comp and started pecking away. "Go catch some cones." He muttered something about cursed Fallen under his breath.

"Spying." Lon said. "It's no use even pretending that those of us that serve with the Fallen aren't learning everything we can. I expect your Earth will send a couple of people. We live in terror of the Arbolians sending some of their version of policemen."

"The thing is, the Arbolians are also an Exile World. They have essentially the same genes as the Fallen. We're going to purely hate it when they learn how to gate like this." Inso scowled. "And I've heard that Xen changed the genes of all those kids he fathered on One, so we can't even raise up a crop of gaters."

"I think I'll seduce him before I transfer back home." Jiol kept a straight face as Inso glared.

"Let's put it right where the old one was." Q said suddenly. "There seems to be a bunch of people there investigating and on guard and so forth. Orion? A shield, in case they start shooting, please."

Hanger narrowed his gaze at the brilliant spark in the arch. It spun out larger and filled the arch completely. He nudged Albrecht. "What do you see on the other side?"

"A bunch of soldiers scrambling around and pointing guns this way." Albrecht walked forward and pulled out her badge and held it up to the gate for a long moment. The people sitting around were stirring. "Can I pass through?"

"Yep. Go see if this is the right World." Xen stood up.

"It is. There's my boss, beaming from ear to ear—whoops, he got it under control. Scowling at me. "

"May I come and introduce myself?"

"Umm, give me a second to explain things." Albrecht stepped forward and disappeared, and Lancing and Phillips followed.

Hanger stepped back onto the same asphalt topped road he walked nearly three weeks before. He subdued an impulse to kiss it.

". . . cow when he realized you hadn't gotten tossed through with the rest." This must be Albrecht's boss.

"Looks familiar." Lancing looked around in satisfaction, and pulled out his phone. "I think I'll call my wife."

Hanger considered his lack of anyone to call, and then dialed the Chief of Police. Miss Brown, his snooty aide, answered, as always. "Hi Brownie. Hanger. Tell the Boss I'm back, but don't know when I'll be reporting for work, ditto, Lancing. Has Master checked in?"

The pictured swung wildly and settled on the chief. "Yes, Master's checked in. What have you been doing for the last two weeks?"

"Liaising with the Dimension Cops. I've got names for most of the raiders, they want them just as much as we do. The Universe just got very . . . " a large hand swiped the phone out of his hand.

"Stop that. Every news outlet in the World is out there listening in on everything they can." Inspector Danzinger looked his normal self.

"Sir, they're talking diplomacy, trade, us assigning people to the Dimension cops and so forth. Might as well let everyone know and get the culture shock over with. May a representative of the dimensional cops—I'm afraid they acronymed to Disco—come through?"

Danzinger and the other Fed swapped looks. Albrecht must have just got to about the same point.

"One. One single person."

"Right. I'll go tell him." Hanger gritted his teeth and stepped back into the whirlpool. The group on the other side had broken up into chattering groups.

Inso came down the steps, a familiar file in hand. "Don't forget the Whores de Combat. See you around."

"Oh, good. Xen, they said one person could come through."

"Righto. Now watch me turn into a diplomat." He led the way through the whirlpool. "I'm quite good at it, honestly."

Albrecht introduced him around, and Hanger spotted a fully tricked out tech vehicle. "Can you scan these? We figured the computers would be incompatible so we printed everything."

The young Fed inside eyed the thick folder and looked over at, probably, his boss and got a nod. "Right. Rap sheets and reports. Umm, hot stuff, eh?"

Hanger nodded. "Yep. They know and do not love our raiders. There's only a few of them we don't have names for, now. Unfortunately that includes one of the older ones that we think could be their leader. They are a criminal gang from a World called Comet Fall. The Fallen, as they're called, have like, a natural affinity for multi-dimensional stuff, and a few of them can make gates. One of the few has gone bad."

Albrecht led Xen and the Feds over, and they started looking at the raiders' pictures and information.

"These places they are from?" Danzinger tapped a page.

"Countries on my World. The Kingdom of the West and Verona are roughly a third each of North America. The Cove Islands are a large string not unlike Hawaii, but closer to South America. Auralia—central and south America—has recently fractured, we don't actually know which areas these four women are from originally. Only this one fellow is a complete unknown." Xen pulled out a sketch of a dark haired man.

"We have semen and some blood and tissue samples from their raid in DC, and our raid on their house here in New York State." Danzinger said. "Would that be of any assistance? We shot your unknown fellow—very strange DNA."

"Probably means he's another Comet Fall wizard, but yes it would help."

Danzinger leafed through the next five files and stopped at the last. "This fellow—Duke Kile Rivolte—we didn't see him in either encounter, but this is the fellow that owns the holding company that bought the publisher and recommended those pirated books. I talked to him three days ago. Mister James H. Faraday. I think it's time to see a judge about a warrant."

Xen looked thoughtful. "May I come along? I, umm, understand about corridors and gates and some odd effects that we lump under the convenient name of magic, although of course it's not."

"As an observer. Well to the rear." Danzinger eyed him.

"Yes sir."

"Inso passed on the DNA sample for identification." Rael flashed the gene charts on the wall screen. "The geneticists are throwing fits. Because this is undeniably Princess Rior, lost and marooned on Comet Fall over twenty years ago. But she's had genetic engineering. Added the Comet Fall Power genes, among others. And according to reports, is passing as male."

"A trained Princess."

"Yes. And her Princess School records show that she concentrated on both mental influence and battle magic. She—or he—is very dangerous. With spotty Comet Fall genetic changes. Three power collection genes." Rael sat back and stared at Urfa. "I know you want to keep me as your big surprise, but when they find this person, I'd better be there. I know how she's been trained."

Urfa rubbed his face. "I think Ajki's about got the spy mission to Purple set up. So you won't be a secret much longer. Rael . . . Dammit, don't get yourself killed. Please."

"I'll do my best." She refrained from throwing in a giggle. "I trained to be able to beat Princesses. And damn near anyone else as well."

Urfa nodded. "Well, don't forget that nasty slice spell of yours. I'm not sure but I'd rather have her dead than alive. I suspect she could be difficult to keep arrested."

Rael nodded. "Especially if we don't get the whole gang. They've managed one prison break already. I don't see any need to see if they'd try a second rescue."

Urfa leaned back with a dissatisfied grunt. "At least they've got Quicksilver back. I know they don't have many gate makers . . . but all this depends on a single person? Now that's scary."

Rael nodded. "How did that other gate experiment work?"

"Well enough. Xen went through the powered gate with the Team, and was able to open a gate back to us without, apparently, too much trouble. So . . . There are other possibilities."

"Just not as handy."

"It doubles the price, but it's still cheap. They've settled for charging us what five minutes of gate time used to cost for every permanent gate. Less than a year and trade from the colonies is booming, prices have dropped, with virtually no cost for gate transit . . . there are bridges that charge higher tolls than we're charging for gate transit."

Rael giggled. "Rumor has it that the main purpose of the toll gates is to space out the vehicles. Everyone knows how dangerous gates can be. Hard to believe they're having trouble already."

"Three fatal incidents. Eighteen with injuries, and thirty some with just vehicular damage. These gates may be mild compared to the powered gates, but they aren't harmless."

"How about the corridor?"

"Even more mild. No fatalities yet. Despite the idiot commuters trying their hardest."

"It's . . . going to be an interesting decade, adjusting to all this."

Rael looked over at him. "Did you see the DNA results on those two goats we caught?"

"Yes. Totally normal Earth Human. Orde ordered them returned."

"We tossed them back through the Embassy gate a week ago. At night. One only knows what they'll remember, or comprehend of their stay here." Rael shook her head. "We could feel the spell net, but that thing was designed to stick. We couldn't break it. Hell, we couldn't analyze it. Agni was looking a bit . . .odd and muttering about dragons."