Crystal Core Read online

  It came up in their world. Protecting them first made sense, given that.

  There was a hug from Cin, with a soft kiss involved. Turner didn’t say anything about it, but even as she smiled softly, the woman clearly felt they were being unprofessional. More to the point, she was thinking that her office worker needed to be a bit more discreet, while in uniform. It wasn’t the action at all for her, but where they were at the moment.

  Which Cin didn’t care about at all. That part was a bit strange, to Willum. A week before, in the world Cin Mableton worked and lived in, she’d been, perhaps, half interested in him. That had been mainly about sex. Now the feeling off of her was more connected. Still about sex mainly, of course, rather than love, but that was fine.

  Relationships weren’t normally built on love anyway.

  The alteration was different though. Really, they hadn’t even been around each other much in that time frame, to cause a change of heart or greater interest. Something had changed, without anything externally pushing it into being.

  The blonde woman, his girlfriend, winked at him.

  “It’s the normal thing that pushes women into relationships here. All the other girls want you, so I had to act fast or miss out. Besides that, I realized there is a small percentage of people in the world, possibly any world, that would be able to put up with me, long term. I mean, I’m pretty much framing someone for sex crimes to get rid of him, and while you stood up to me on it, you didn’t blame me for doing it. That’s huge, in my world. Most people would kind of hate someone doing a thing they disagreed with like that.”

  She hugged him again, her tan uniform pressed up against him. It was close and friendly.

  “See you soon? Sorry I can’t be here for the fun part. That’s… Well, it’s the job. Duty and all that, right?” It echoed his thoughts of moments before, which for the woman in front of him was probably a manipulation. Even telling him the truth would be, for her.

  A thing he was fine with. Everyone did things like that, all the time. Most just weren’t aware of it. That or they lied to themselves about it, and would act shocked if they were ever called out on it. For Cin, it was a power of sorts. She knew what she was doing, all the time.

  Director Turner was a lot like that as well. A bit gentler, but only by a small fraction. A little less mercenary. After all, Cindy originally had decided to get Will interested in her if she could, in order to use him for line travel. To her credit that had been for all of the IPB, not just herself. At least as an afterthought. Really, it was a good plan that way.

  He would take his friends and girlfriends places, if they wanted to go. Not that the woman didn’t have real options that way. She knew him, but also had Lydia, Brian and Sara there. All of them could take her around and even seemed to like her. That kind of thing could work out pretty well for her, if she wanted to go to exotic places.

  She held his hand a bit, and nodded.

  “I really have to get going now, if I’m taking anything with me. Bye!” She moved out then, jogging from her own office.

  Leaving him standing there with Marcia, who looked at him blankly for a bit.

  “That walk? Unless we’re supposed to get cuddly, in which case we need to wait for Cindy to get off the base.” It was spoken very mildly. Not even as a joke.

  Internally the woman didn’t even register having said the words. To her, it was all about throwing off anyone listening, nothing more. Even if she was attracted to him, on some level. That part was interesting, since to her he was far too young for that kind of thing. Still only seventeen. To Will he’d aged more than that, in the time he’d known her. So was eighteen.

  Except that wasn’t totally true. After the three millennia he was away in the void between worlds, everything was thrown well out of balance that way.

  “That’s all right. It’s an open relationship. Noble rules, you know? We should get some kind of birth control. Come on?” His voice sounded nearly dismal, which was far from what he needed to be doing.

  Then, technically he was supposed to be on holiday, not working, which this really was. A strange job, true, but it was about what he did, day to day. Just leaving and proclaiming he wasn’t working wasn’t enough.

  They didn’t stop by medical for sexual protection, or take gear with them, just heading straight to the front gate. They had to sign out, using a pen on an electronic pad that one of the guardsmen there provided them. Unlike the police, the uniforms for these men were rather casual. White shirts, with black trousers, and black long coats, to keep the rain off. They all had very short haircuts, which was common on the base. If it meant anything in particular, Willum couldn’t tell. No one was thinking about it at the moment.

  The two of them walked, heading straight down the road, for about a mile before speaking at all. Willum went first, as soon as it was time. Marcia knew that being a quarter of a mile away was enough, but she liked to be safe, even without her old first mode being turned on at the moment.

  The blue-black of the road surface had tiny bits of things all over it. Pebbles and slicks of rainbow colored oil, that had leaked out of passing craft. Not a lot of that, but he could see it, floating in the rain. The clouds overhead were dark, except for where the sun was shining behind them, which was an off gray color. The rain was still falling, being deflected by their shields. He didn’t recall turning his on at all. Turner hadn’t slapped her chest to do it, either. It was working regardless.

  “I’m slipping. Mentally. Cindy knows that, but you should too. I don’t know why that is. She’s claiming it isn’t genetic or due to magic. If it isn’t…” He turned then, walking away from the road. There was a low hill that he didn’t think would be easily seen past, once they were behind it. From part of the road, perhaps, but being both in tan, they should blend in well with the low grass and small shrubs in the area. There were trees in the distance, but not very many of them.

  Moving with him, Turner actually grunted. It wasn’t a very ladylike thing to do. It fit her anyway.

  “No shit. Everyone has been picking up on that. I’ve had reports from three different worlds on the topic, so your ability to hide it isn’t that wonderful. Everyone pretty much gets it though. Think for a minute. You’ve been running nonstop for how long on this project? I mean, twenty-four-seven, without more than an hour or two of break time, right? No sleep even.” She waited, clearly expecting him to answer for some reason.

  “Um… About nine months, my time. So not that long.”

  “Except that human beings aren’t meant to work constantly for even close to that kind of time frame. Even the things that might be relaxing are part of your job, now, most of the time. Really, we need to find a place for you and just park you there for a while. A beach or something nice.”

  Stopping, at the foot of the small rise, Willum forced a smile for her.

  “I just… I don’t feel like I have time for that. Things are about to happen, I think. We have news. I don’t know what you’ve been briefed on.” She knew Cindy, after all, so her data could, literally, be everything he knew.

  “Not much. You managed to collect some encoded data and your people have the code key now. One of the enemy came to visit and laid down a load of data that may or may not be real. It sounds plausible, but could be a trick. If it is real, then we might have a way of protecting the vulnerable worlds from open attack. Though, my understanding is that most of the real issues so far have been smaller things. Assassination attempts on individuals? Some larger attacks in other worlds though… Mainly using slaves to attack, if we’re correct on everything. Still, if we let that kind of thing fester, the other side will eventually attack, thinking we’re weak.”

  That was probably true. It felt right to him, at any rate. If he was in any condition to judge that type of thing.

  “Right. So, I need to be on the job, not… Doing this. Whatever it is.” Taking a walk in the rain. With a woman that didn’t even want to hold his hand while they did it.


  There was a smirk then and a sudden head shake.

  “See, that’s part of what you missed in training. In a real spy organization, the CIA or even the NSA, you’d be put in an office or with a partner for a while, to learn the rules you didn’t get in training. The first one of those is that your part in anything is collecting data as a primary goal. You aren’t an assassin, or a warrior. Pretending you are gets good assets killed. The people in your system are doing that part right, but you don’t have anyone to remind you of it. You’ve been doing your part. Collecting data while taking messages around. Better than that, you’ve managed to work an enemy around into giving our side vast amounts of help.”

  Willum truly smiled then, meaning it for the first time in weeks.

  “I worked her around? That doesn’t seem very likely, does it?”

  Now Marcia nodded, her head barely moving while she did it. That was to keep any cameras from picking up her body motions too easily. Not that anyone was watching, that she knew of. You either held to good habits all the time, or you made mistakes when you couldn’t afford them.

  “A real point. Which is why we can’t just trust what she recommended. Still, if only part of the information is correct, say, that there is no giant plan to destroy all reality, then we’re pretty much in the clear. Even if we lose thousands of people in hundreds of worlds over the next ten years, that does not a war make.” There was a shrug. A thing that caused her slender shoulders to rise and then sink, slowly enough that it seemed almost as if she were indicating thought, instead of trying to show she didn’t know, or care about what he had going on.

  The rain kept trying, and failing, to make them damp. It was an interesting effect, seeing what was going on with someone else standing there. The water poured off around Marcia, making a nearly clear, but reflective coating around her shield, about three feet from her body. Like a woman inside of glass, almost.

  He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to clear his mind.

  “The whole thing is confusing. We don’t know enough to really do anything, do we?”

  “Don’t we?” She just looked at him. A thing he could feel, even through the shield she wore at the moment.

  Given everything, that meant he was focused enough, and that his mind was clear. You didn’t pick up things like that without being very concentrated over all. At least he couldn’t do it that way.

  Not wanting to bark that she needed to explain herself, he simply let the moment move forward. She held up a single finger on her right hand. The first one.

  “We know that we need to search for large movements and that they might not be coming. If your contact is being truthful, then the lack of large armies gearing up for attacks is a good sign. We will probably see some things like that, given the situation we’re facing, with all the varied realities, but even then, my guess is that the average fighter won’t be trying to destroy all reality. The trick there is in moving people around. No one seems to be able to take large groups to other worlds easily yet. The most I’ve heard of are a few hundred at a time.”

  That got him to blink.

  “I haven’t gotten that at all. No one tells me enough.”

  “No shit. You’re on the ground. Sure, it would be hard to crack you using torture. You might even be able to stand back and not speak while your friends are being hurt or murdered. You can’t stop the best telepaths or mind reading machines though, can you? Not forever. That means the only safe way for you to go to a lot of places would require not knowing about things. Spies almost never get to know what they are doing, for that very reason.”

  It wasn’t news to him that it had been going that way. Really, everyone had hinted at it, for a while. Instead of whining about it, he just tried to seem agreeable and rally a bit. That part didn’t really happen, however.

  “Okay.” He stopped then, and stared back at the woman. “I got that right, didn’t I? Okay means that things are fine, more or less? It also shows agreement?”

  “Yup. Perfectly used, even.”

  “So, okay. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now. The things I’ve done have… Well, changed me, I guess. It hasn’t been a long time, only nine months, but…”

  There was a long silence then. Mainly due to the woman doing math in her head. He waited, since interrupting that kind of thing would probably just force her to start over.

  “You’ve been in training for that whole time, which is intense from the sound of it, even for a military setting. On top of that you’ve been running active missions to over a hundred worlds, facing constant culture shock. That’s going to wear on a person. We don’t even know how much, since it literally never comes up for almost anyone else. On top of that… Well, I’ve gotten some reports on how you’ve been trained. I get it, but I don’t agree with the methodology used at all.”

  “What?” As far as he knew, he’d more or less been trained like most spies were.

  “Taman Baker pushed you incredibly fast, without leaving time for adaptation. She essentially tortured you into behaving and used psychological trauma to try and make you more malleable.” There was a funny expression, which spoke of her knowing she might be seen as mean and not really caring at the moment. “True, she had a good reason to believe that you might have to be up to speed a lot faster than was normal, but it still tore at your mind the whole time. If it wasn’t for your first mode, the one built into you, my bet is that you would have cracked by now, instead of just being a bit moody and girly like you’re doing.”

  That last part was a joke, meant to lighten the mood.

  “Well, too late now. Anyway, I didn’t really get you out here to talk about my problems. I came to make some for you to deal with. That sounds like more fun, doesn’t it?” Looking at her hard, he faked a smile for the woman.

  She did it back, feeling warm inside. As if it were a real expression.

  “Never. That never sounds like more fun. What do you have for me?”

  He took a beat, just breathing. Only one, deep slow breath. Then he jumped into the plan.

  “I’m starting a school, along with several other people, since I won’t be around to organize things. My grandfather and grandmother Baker are watching the kids. The Heir to the throne of Noram, Prince Alphonse is working on it as well. So is the Noram Ancient, Sam. We’re getting Ysidril to come in as instructors at least part of the time as well, so it’s going to be very impressive. The idea started as being for the port children. The kids that work the space ports, doing trash collection. I think Sara should attend there.”

  The woman turned on him, her face going hard.

  “You think it’s a good idea to stick her away in a different reality? Sending her away from us like that? She needs stability. Her life has been pretty hard, so far.” The words were half gloomy and half ready to fight him over the idea.

  Still, he was ready for the argument, if not a physical confrontation. If that started to happen, he decided to just learn to fly and get away from the woman. He might be as strong as she was and a bit faster, but they were both very hard to hurt. The two of them fighting would, in the end, merely be a waste of energy and time.

  “Send her away? Not at all. I think that she should attend school there. When she isn’t working, helping to take messages to different worlds for you. You’ll see her nearly every day. We can even get rooms for her tutor from here, so she won’t be alone. Not giving her responsibility early is a mistake. Especially if she eventually has to take over my job.” That had always seemed to be the plan to him. At least that the girl be trained in a similar capacity.

  Apparently though, his words were confusing.

  “What? Why would she do that? For one thing, I’m nearly certain that it won’t be needed. We’ll break this thing down inside a few years, tops. Maybe less than that. There have been no attacks for over three months here, that way. I think that… Don’t let this out, but I think we took out most of the people here that were in on that kind of thing. Trying to destroy
reality.”

  There was a half of a thought, a thing that she tried to suppress. It wasn’t totally clear, thanks to that, but it spoke of thousands of men and women suddenly dying. A lot of them having been powerful people with shady pasts. It was a lot. More than he would have thought possible as being part of a small organization that was plotting against them.

  Except he got that part of things. In all of the worlds he’d been in, the agents and fighters were cattle. Pawns pushed into the job, by a few who blackmailed or tortured them into it. Most of those that had been murdered were, most likely, of that sort.

  Except that it wouldn’t work, if what they were told was real. Not totally.

  “Each of those killings set into motion a different possible reality. One where it didn’t work. More than that… Every possibility was there. I guess you might be safe here, but I bet one reality over we’re having a different conversation about things. It’s why this whole thing is impossible. Reality is… Insane. We just imagine it makes sense and that we have some kind of free will.”

  There was a blank look for a moment.

  “Not our problem, man.” After a moment, she went on, her face serious. A puddle collecting at her feet, making a circle, all around her where the shield entered the ground. “I mean that one, too. We’re only responsible for our own worlds and then helping our allies. We can’t fix everything for everyone. Really, that may not even be the best plan. As long as we can prove that we aren’t all going to end up dead suddenly, reality being exploded or whatever they work out for us, and our people aren’t being killed, then we have to call it good.”

  The words made sense. Willum even agreed with her on the basic idea, once he heard it out loud. He just didn’t know if that was how things were going to play out.