Strangers and Lies Read online

  Books by P.S. Power

  The Young Ancients

  (Tor)

  The Builder

  Knight Esquire

  Knight of the Realm

  Ambassador

  Counselor

  Slave Line

  (Timon)

  The Dark Half of the Sun

  (Tiera)

  A Simple Darkness

  *Coming in January 2013

  Keeley Thomson

  Demon Girl

  Keelzebub

  Mistress of Souls

  (Related Works)

  (Richard)

  Christmas of the Vampire

  Other Places

  Shortcuts

  Gwen Farris

  Abominations

  Monsters

  Strangers and Lies

  Dead End

  A Very Good Man

  A Very Good Neighbor

  A Very Good thing

  A Very Dark Place

  The Infected

  Proxy

  Gabriel

  Cast Iron

  Proxy: Reunions

  Cellophane (*Coming January 2013)

  Stand Alone Titles

  Crayons

  Unrelenting Terror

  Gwen Farris Book Three

  Strangers and Lies

  P.S. Power

  Chapter one

  "Just a second here, while I get it ready." It was a little bit embarrassing to be standing in front of the assembled group of people, all high powered government agents of one sort or another, and to be scrambling like Gwen was. The test was ready, but the truth of the matter showed that she just wasn't.

  Then, the group of six people had gotten her out of bed at four in the morning, without bothering to call on the telestator first or set up an appointment at all. Doing that was a big deal too, she figured, since Charles Winslow, the butler, looked about ready to kick them all out. For their part in the matter the four Westmorlands and the two other people she hadn't been introduced to at all just stood in the dark and cool back yard of Park Street, the Vernor family home, waiting for her to shoot some things with her new toy.

  It wasn't the apparatus that was being a problem for her, it was the sleeping gown, with the cumbersome robe over it. It was a nice blue thing, made of silk, covering the draping white sack she was supposed to be sleeping in each night. Of course she was being incredibly rude showing up dressed in night clothes, especially in front of a group of strange men like this, but she was a bit ticked that these bums hadn't bothered to give her a chance to change first, or even get a cup of coffee, before whipping things out for her display. Her long sleeves were getting in the way of the crin, the crystal inducer, which was kind of like a rifle, if it shot magical energy and was invented by a six year old with a broom handle and a lot of imagination. It was about four foot long and made of copper tubing that had been packed with quartz, which was aligned in a special fashion to hold the power of intent.

  Or something like that. Honestly, even though she'd been working with the things for a while now, she didn't really know how they worked. Of course back home she hadn't been able to build a television either, so it was probably about the same thing over all. The magic here was beyond her in some ways, just like technology had always been. Except for here she'd actually been on the cutting edge of design, hence the thing she had in front of her.

  After about ten seconds she sighed, feeling sleepy and clumsy still, and ready to hit someone if they didn't get on with the whole thing fast. That was too long though, so she thumbed the new device on, pointed the red dot at the targets about fifty meters away and started blasting.

  "It isn't hard. You turn on the light, and where it goes, so does the blast. It doesn't fix your aim, but being able to see where you're pointing the thing makes a vast difference in accuracy." She emptied the six shots the military weapon had before it needed to be set up again and then stopped for a minute, focusing on the charge port on the back end, pushing energy into it. That was something she was decent at. Most people that could manage to charge a crystal at all would have taken a lot longer, but somehow, coming to this new magical world had left her in the body of a very powerful young woman. It still took skill, a thing that she had to learn, but the natural ability was there. It meant she was kind of lucky. Having magic in this place really helped.

  That part made sense however, since Katherine Vernor had to be strong to steal her body, all the way in another world. She'd done it to avoid being killed, or possibly because she was forced to, which wasn't the version that Gwen liked, since it left her feeling even worse about the poor girl having gotten her body in exchange for the one she wore at the moment. This one was perfect. Symmetrical and without major health issues. Even good looking.

  Her old body was warped and a lot less than what anyone would ever want for themselves. It left her feeling bad, thinking about how hard it would be for the woman to survive without magic or resources in her world. So she didn't. It was way too early in the day for that kind of thing anyway.

  When she had a full charge she handed the weapon to a strange man that looked out of shape and a bit sour. Maybe they'd gotten him up too early for this thing as well? If that was the case they were kindred spirits.

  "Here, go ahead and try it, six shots, six bull's-eyes. Go." She waved at him a little after he took the thing, but forced a tired smile, since as far as she knew the man hadn't actually been the one forcing her to be awake at strange and uncivilized hours. No, the culprit there was likely Adam Westmorland. The guy hated her for some reason that he'd never bothered to explain. Or it could be Darrick Westmorland, who was looking at her in the dim light as if she were a freak. That at least probably just had to do with the clothing she wore, since the man actually seemed to be a friend of hers, after a fashion. They didn't hang out for tea... But probably should. She'd have to make a point of asking him.

  It was still exactly like him to get her up in the middle of the night, just to see her demonstrate something under pressure like this.

  The rather heavy man in front of her made a face, but pointed the red dot carefully and gasped after making the first shot. It was a shocked thing, almost unbelieving. Then he emptied the crystal's charge with five more excellently placed shots. It was, like she'd hinted, easy. Better than that, you didn't have to adjust for range, since the energy from the blast wasn't affected by gravity like a bullet would be. Holding out her right hand for the crin she recharged it and made sure everyone else had a chance at it as well, striking the innocent and so far non-retaliatory target over and again. When she got to Adam she stopped him and pointed a little to the right.

  "There, about three hundred meters off, between the trees? We have another target set up. It falls down each time you hit it and pops back up on springs. Go ahead." She didn't explain the idea, the sour looking white haired man aiming carefully. He made the white target vanish for a second then did it again several times.

  "Like that. Even a child could do it." Gwen didn't bother sounding smug, since it wasn't like she'd invented laser sights or anything. She was just introducing the idea. They even had magical lasers, or something close enough that the technology worked. The tricky part had been putting it all together, which Doctor Professor Grainger of Western University had done for her. More to the point, a team of students had. They'd done the actual machine work to make the device and produced the actual little metal piece for it and everything. It just ran off of the crystal charge too.

  "The light makes the blast marginally weaker each time, but it's so small an amount that no one really notices the difference. It is there however, so it's something to keep in mind." There were trade offs for everything after all. She didn't want to let these men be fooled in any
way. They'd take to the new technology or not, based on what they felt there was a need for. For her part, she was using it.

  The fat man in his slightly shiny black suit smiled and clapped once, seeming far more awake suddenly.

  "I can't normally hit the broad side of a house with a crin. May I try that again?" Before he could do it, Adam stared at the charge plate on the end of thing for about the same amount of time that it would have taken Gwen and then handed it over to the other man with a small bow.

  The guy hit three of the close targets again, then, slightly nervous, he tried to hit the further target. He missed the first time, but that was probably just because he'd accidently aimed at the tree next to the white thing. The man seemed flustered then, but Darrick pointed at the target, acting as a spotter for him. The words were gentle for the very fit gray haired man, not even commanding.

  "Aim again please, slightly lower... over to the right just a bit... There, that should be it."

  Half a second later the faint, light colored blob vanished, making a thump that could be heard even as far away as they were.

  Gwen yawned for the third time, covering it with her right hand, not trying to be rude to anyone. Then she had the heavy man empty the crystal again and let people keep going until they were all happy enough with the whole thing for the day. It was still nearly pitch black out, but the men didn't make to sneak off, as if it were some kind of secret mission, they just started quizzing her on portions of things that she was kind of surprised she knew the answers to. Gwen had the information for them immediately, thanks to Doctor Grainger being an educator, and therefore prone to testing people on the particulars of what they were doing. She'd felt it was a little patronizing at the time, but had put up with it, since she didn't know enough about this world to let her feelings get in the way of any learning, which was really working out for her now. So, she figured, score one for not being a bitch.

  It was the man that hadn't spoken at all yet, who looked non-descript and a little bland, that spoke then, his questions very well thought out it seemed.

  "How much would each unit cost, fully mounted and ready to go into service?"

  Gwen knew that the answer was a range, and would vary depending on where they made it. Everything in the Western Kingdom was done artisan fashion, rather than on an assembly line, which meant that it cost more in the end than she would have figured.

  "About ten mets each. There isn't a lot we can do to bring that down either, I'm afraid." It wasn't a small cost, since most workers didn't make more than about twenty-five metric dollars per month. A meal at a restaurant was often only about ten to twenty cents after all, so it was a big deal. No one seemed surprised though, or overly put out by the cost. Then they were government workers, so they weren't paying for it all anyway, were they?

  The man, who was dressed in an odd suit of clothing that was all a deep burgundy on top, with black pants and shiny gold buttons nodded, barely moving.

  "How fast can they be brought into production? What kind of numbers can we expect to see that way in the next year?"

  That part was a lot less than she would have liked herself, being only about five hundred per month, but she was able to tell him that they could have them soon, since Grainger had convinced some of his friends to invest in the project and already had them being made. It was a risk, but not a very large one.

  The man seemed pleased enough by that and suggested that the Army could use most of those, for their elite forces. That started an argument, since the heavy guy wanted them for Con-sev. If Gwen had the idea right, that was basically the FBI for this Kingdom, and while they were, from everything she'd heard, good at their jobs, they had a reputation for being rather poor shots. That wasn't hard to manage with a regular crin, which took a lot of practice to aim and fire accurately. She kind of sucked at it herself still, without the new system in place. Even the Westmorlands did better with the magical laser doohickeys though and they were some of the best, as a group. That had come as a surprise to her, since she thought they were all perfect shots, but Darrick and Heather had both assured her that it had improved their scores on the range instantly.

  For once Adam didn't hang back and look like a half beaten puppy around the other men, stepping right up to demand some of the things for his people too. Of course none of these men was the King, and when she'd seen him do that, the fellow had always been around, hadn't he? It was probably part of the rather severe mental conditioning that the Westmorland super soldiers all got to keep them honest and loyal or whatever. It wasn't stopping him from trying to get things for his people now, not at all.

  "The Special Service gets first crack at these. We have the greatest need and besides that, Miss Farris is one of us, so I rather think we have first place." He wasn't gruff sounding at least, which he normally was when her name was mentioned. Instead of arguing the point the fat man simply smiled at her.

  "Miss Farris, would you like to change careers? I've heard that you had a hand in the new forensic devices coming out as well, which shows great insight into investigative matters. You'd fit right in, over at Con-sev." He was being nearly playful, in a charming way, as if actually trying to butter her up, rather than steal her from the Special Service directly. It was kind of an interesting offer however, but she didn't think it was going to work. Not really.

  After all, since it had come out that she was actually her, Gwen Farris, a woman stolen from another world, no one had been overly willing to work with her anymore. It wasn't, as she'd first wondered, that they didn't like her because of it, but rather, her friend Beth had assured her, that people, the average ones on the street even, felt so bad about what had been done to her that they were responding with personal shame over it.

  It was a lot different than what she was used to from home, that was for certain. The idea that the common person was responsible for something done to her, simply because she was from another culture, was nearly insane to her. That wasn't a small issue either, once she thought about it for a few seconds. After all, the idea that she'd lost it and gone bonkers was right up there on her list of what was probably going on. Because sure, she went from being a crippled and deformed woman that had to struggle to keep herself fed and housed, barely avoiding being beaten in the streets when she went out most days, to being a lovely heiress with super-powers in a steam-punk world that ran on magic.

  That was perfectly normal, wasn't it?

  Before she could speak, Charles, the butler, bowed to the men and cleared his throat lightly.

  "Perhaps, before dunning Miss Farris with demands for her services, we might repair to the drawing room and allow her some small time to prepare for the day?" It was nearly calling the men with him out, compared to the normally polite way he did things, his voice still relaxed and calm, but firm enough that no one would be left in doubt of what he meant. Even she got it.

  To his mind, by the rules of this place, these men were being completely improper. Being out at night, in the dark alone like this was about the same as saying they were meeting up for a gang-bang. Gwen nearly smiled at the idea, since it was kind of intriguing, after a fashion. Old her hadn't ever even gotten so much as a romantic kiss, thanks to her looks. Here she could do things like that, if she wanted. Kissing at least. She was a little shy about the idea of sex, so a gang-bang seemed a little bit much to her just yet. Plus, she'd been informed that she actually had a reputation to maintain now, since tiny school kids knew who she was and all that. There was a cat character based on her used to teach bomb safety. True the program was named after the body she was in, but that was kind of splitting hairs, so she didn't bother.

  For their part all the men, except Adam, acted like it was a real thing and suddenly went into hyper polite mode, even suggesting that they all leave, or wait for daylight. Because now, suddenly, they remembered that they had rules that way here. She was fine with whatever they wanted, really, but Winslow was firm as he marched the men away, so that she could at least go a
nd change.

  When she got to her room it was empty, just as she'd left it. For weeks Beth and Heather Westmorland, her best friends, had been staying with her, which had been a bit crowded and close for her, being that she wasn't used to that kind of thing. Having friends was new to her in and of itself, so the idea that she had two of them that would be in the same room all the time was exciting, but also strange.

  Heather had been called away on a job however, to lead a Special Service detail in what seemed to be called the Southern Section, which was basically Brazil, as far as Gwen understood it. Beth had an investigation to look into, trying to find Doctor Erin Debussey. The bad guy. Woman? She was evil at any rate.

  The one that had kind of destroyed her life, as it turned out, so Gwen definitely wasn't a fan.

  True she had been mainly been telling the truth, that being the fact Gwen really wasn't Katherine Vernor, and that her world didn't have magic, meaning that Gwen couldn't have stolen anyone's body at all, but Erin had done it on the telesar in front of the whole Kingdom, so that she couldn't hide it any longer. Kind of a bitchy thing to do, since it was pretty much aimed at hurting the Vernors, and in order to destroy their massive shipping business.

  Which would also hurt the world's economy. Probably part of Erin's plan to make people scared and miserable, so that she and her buddies could open the void and bring forth the "Old Ones". A thing that even someone from Gwen's world could tell was a horrible idea. It was in all the movies of a certain genre after all. Call for the ancient gods and find yourself living in horrible torment. They didn't have that kind of thing here. Well, plays, but Gwen hadn't been to any lately. Or ever, come to think about it.