Wine of the Gods 26: Embassy (33 page)

Rael eyed Xen's sister cautiously as the girl—
Dear One! She looks like she might, maybe, be sixteen
—stopped and looked her up and down.

"Interesting, how the Gods of Spies found a woman the collective subconscious won't try to kill." Q nodded approvingly.

Rael boggled. "How many women has the collective subconscious killed?"

"None. He knows the risk. And you know the stereotype. You have the stories, the vids. The super spy's girlfriend, lover, wife or whatever always gets killed in revenge or kidnapped to use as a lever . . . she never survives very long. You came close to dying once, but that might have just been a coincidence. But the role of Femme Fatale, now, that's got potential."

Xen loomed over her shoulder.

She glanced back, then turned back to Rael. "You should be safe, so long as you keep a strong adversarial streak in your relationship."

"Q!" Astonished betrayal from Xen.

She ignored him. "Just remember to use him, abuse him, and occasionally betray him and you should be just fine." She nodded calmly, and walked away.

Leaving her facing Xen.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I . . . don't really think the collective has enough control over ordinary people to do that. I mean, I know it has a fair amount of control over me, but most people are less connected."

"Like us to the One." Rael bit her lip. "But that's what our relationship is going to be like, isn't it? Adversarial, utilitarian . . . and occasionally on the same side."

"Well, yes."

Rael thought it through. Batted her eyelashes and giggled. "You're in trouble. I'm
trained
for this kind of warfare."

His grin flashed. "And I'm experienced. We'll see who wins."

They all jumped at a shriek, echoing up from below.

Q trotted down to the jail cells and eyed the incarcerated carefully. Xen had worked essential transformations on six of them, then added chain spells. Reversed two purple bunny morphs. Q had had to do some hasty remodeling of the basement as their first arrests overwhelmed the two original cells. Five small cells. Adequate, but not roomy. A nicer, larger, cell for the three servants. Non-magical and badly abused, both mentally and physically. The frog woman was slowly reverting to normal, with the long term spell broken.

It looked like Sunset was going to survive her wounds. They'd move her down here, probably tomorrow.
Xen's girlfriend is good at getting through shields. Her slice spell shattered a bit, but still killed Dawn and came close to killing Sunset. I need to see if any of Napoleon's cams caught that bit of action, especially where the third member of the triad went.

"What have you done to me? What have you done!" Teri glared, all the while shrinking back away from her.

"I suspect you know very well. Your ability to collect power has been removed. And a chain spell has been placed on you. You will be extradited to stand trial. If you are found innocent, or when your punishment is complete, we will return your power." Q looked over her shoulder at the people trotting down the stairs. "I regret to say it looks like some lawyers have arrived. Perhaps they will enjoy talking to you."

"You took my witch gene? You just took it? Quicksilver! I thought you were my friend!"

Q walked away without speaking.
No, I pitied you. I tried to help you, but you followed Richardo.

There were plenty of lawyers and more FBI agents. The groggy prisoners were told their rights, with the lawyers protesting the condition of their clients. Garit retreated and made a quick circuit of the other embassies. Extradition was an uncomfortable subject, and they wound up with a couple dozen lawyers and politicians talking at each other in the huge forum room.

Garit finally put his foot down. "The World locally referred to as Earth Bogota Nuke has presented recorded evidence of the involvement of six of our twelve prisoners in a serious criminal matter. Two of them are convicted escaped prisoners from Comet Fall. Three are wanted on capital charges. The Comet Fall ambassador has passed on the government's decision to defer to the claims of Earth Bogota Nuke in this matter. Therefore Disco approves the extradition of those six accused to that World. Albatross Zenithdaut, AKA Teri, Smokey, Sunset, Arrow Albdaut, Zap Dosson, Mag of Gendo. Lida of Arbolia will be returned to Comet Fall to complete her sentence. The two minors, Nimbus and Dusk, will be remanded to the custody of the Elder sister of the Mount Frost Pyramid. The seven toddlers and infants will also be returned to Comet Fall and placed for adoption."
Hope I got all the terms right and they understand that.
"Most of the female prisoners are pregnant. The disposition of those babies will be left to their jailors. Again, they can be adopted on Comet Fall, as we haven't the prejudices against genetic engineering that many other worlds have."

One of the lawyers jumped straight in. "How long were the Comet Fall sentences? For what crimes?"

"They were all sentenced to death for aiding and abetting murder for hire. Their execution was held indefinitely. It is a point of our laws that hired assassins cannot be punished more harshly than the person who hired them. The king held the execution of his son, Prince Mirk, therefore the hired assassins were also not executed."

"So if that woman goes back, if Earth Bogota Nuke returns the others to Comet Fall you could execute them?"

"Yep. But we won't. You can keep on arguing. We do want some agreement on things like this. As you've all noticed it would be easy for a bunch of magicians to turn into tyrants. That's why we started by building this room. And I think we need to not leap to hasty actions—such as executing people—until we've beaten something into shape.

"The last three prisoners were the servants of the gang, with major mental influences on them. We need to determine if they are dangerous, and if there is anything we can or should do about the mental modeling. They are not specifically implicated in any crimes."

"What about those babies? Can you actually take all parental rights from the mothers?"

"Yes. Two mothers are dead, four are or will be in jail, and one is one of the servant's. That last, depending on psychological evaluation, may keep her baby."

"Of immediate concern." One of the Warmonger Earth lawyers jumped in. "Is the medical treatment of prisoners."

"I understand that you are concerned because of their unconscious or semi-conscious state. That is due to magical stunning spells, and they can wear off as easily in there as in a hospital. They're pretty much back to normal already. The one seriously injured witch will be well enough to be jailed shortly. If you wish, I suppose a committee of doctors from three or four embassies could examine them, and give their opinions as to the prisoners' condition, and conditions of incarceration. Their physical injuries are healing quickly, and in some cases, are already completely healed." Garit wondered how long this would go on.

"And you are keeping male and female prisoners in sight of each other. They must have privacy for hygienic functions."

"Oh. The buckets? Hmm, well I wouldn't worry about this bunch, they've all been very friendly. However I suppose this is something we'll need to address."

He left them arguing and hunted down Q. Hiding in her office, meditating.

"The only useful thing they've said so far is that the male and female prisoners need to have privacy from each other for peeing."

"And I need some sound insulation between the jail cells and everywhere else." Q said, not opening her eyes. "I'll make a solid barrier between the cells. There's no sign of gate action in any of the Worlds they had connections to. I think I closed the established gate after one group went through. Then some got through the next gate, one of the new ones, just before I closed it. I had to go off and hunt for a cone, and the rest of them, if there were any more, were gone."

"So the survivors are split into at least two groups, possibly three. Excellent. Now tell me, can you make a huge suite of charms that would ward off the spells that took down the SWAT team?"

"Umm, the best I could do is make the witches search harder for something not warded against. They all had six, two each for different mental, physical, and energy spells. We're lucky that the first one that got through was some sort of stun, a Oner spell, according to Inso, just enough difference from ours that it got through. But with enough charms, we might manage to get the troops enough time to get to the wizards. Next time."

Xen sauntered in. "How about more sword training? I can charm their swords to pierce the most common shield spells. It wouldn't be as good as having wizard soldiers, but it's a place to start. We—Disco—need our own magical cavalry. Beats me where we'll find the men . . . smart horses, on the other hand . . . "

Q perked up. "Oh. Good thought. We're going to need even more horses . . . "

Garit grinned. "Smart horses. And even so they had trouble. That low shield was brutal. Again, thank the Gods for that wine. We need a lot more training about traps like that on a magical battlefield. And getting through shields. The horses protected us, but we didn't do nearly enough damage. Hell, we mostly wound up trying to block them, shield against shield. Slowed them down a bit, but not enough to matter. They just turned and went through a different gate."

"Maybe I should talk to Harry about a military stud farm up near the Crossroads. Then train them here." Xen glanced out the door. The rest of the floor seemed quiet. "Everyone go home?"

Q nodded. "They figured you could deal with the diplomats. Deena hauled Easterly, Fuchsia, and Yellow home to rest; she said she'd bring Ultra or Answer back to take Nimbus and Dusk away. Jiol's down keeping an eye on the prisoners, she said she wasn't going home until her boss had gotten over her turning into a frog princess. Inso's gone to One to report. He took a copy of all their recordings with him. Lon's prowling about, keeping an eye on things, and Julianne's going to spell him in a couple of hours."

Garit grinned. "I wonder what the Action Team reports were like. And that observer's."

A trace of smirk crossed her face. "They thought it would be a walkover. And wound up with all but two Oners wounded or bespelled. I need to work up some nets of really exotic spells. That ought to get something through their shields. I suppose I could make them non-lethal."

"For police work. Wars, don't even think about being nice. I hope we don't have to switch back and forth very often. Messes with the reflexes." He sighed. "Everyone is going to have to learn sword work. And you might think about some spell webs that we poor average magicians can throw, to capture criminals. We should have them on hand."

Xen nodded. "The problem with this gang is the sheer numbers of children that were present. I . . . ought to have hit Eldon harder, but all the kids on his far side, that he was trying to protect from me was . . . off putting."

Garit sighed. "I hate police work."

Q nodded. "Next time, I can have a crew ready to bump loose the gates from safety, while I dive in and beat up witches."

"No!" He and Xen spoke as one.

"I have got to get more people trained. I don't understand why they can’t see what's out there."

Xen grinned. "So, we need more sword and horseback fighting training, recruit smart horses, charms, and spell webs."

"And don't forget the tech. Lasers in various frequencies. Shield piercing on bullets. There must be a way to make that work."

The prince sighed. "
Next time
, they'll be in trouble."

Xen snorted. "They were in trouble. Just . . . not as much as we'd hoped."

Napoleon Zambrano stalked out of the embassy building after the departing army officers. "You cannot just confiscate every single recording I made. I demand copies. No, I demand my originals. You may have copies when . . . after I appeal this, this . . . outrageous search and seizure warrant!"

They ignored him. "The Earth wasn't even
involved
in the police actions I recorded. Disco needs these records!"

He stopped and fumed as they got into a car, and zipped away. Ground his teeth and stalked back inside the embassy. Montgomery was still in the lobby.

"No wonder you were so accommodating, and letting me stay here. I cannot believe you have so little respect for the press . . ."

At Montgomery's gesture, two large men grabbed him and threw him out the door.

Perfect. They are completely fooled.
He dusted himself off and stalked off, head down so they couldn't see the grin he couldn't hold in any longer.

I'll get
one
of my backup data crystals from Q. They'll never get them all. Bwahahaha! Just wait till I edit them and send them to the bureau. They'll be all over the news. And I'll bet I can sell copies to every world with an embassy here.
Especially
the Oners.