The Mask of Omegon (Gwen Farris Book 6) Page 9

  It worked for other things too, however. Gwen was picking that part up over time.

  “Oh, good. I… I shouldn’t have contacted the man in the first place. I’d truly thought that you were just using the name. It’s happened a few times before. Women looking to entertain in secret?”

  Wrinkling her nose, she squinted at the man. It was probably harder than she really wanted to seem, but the news had taken her back a few steps as far as politeness went.

  “So, wait… They need to use a fake name, so put down mine? That’s creepy. Well, to me at least. They do know that I’m an actual person, don’t they?”

  That got two turned up palms.

  “I wouldn’t know that part. Again, I’m most sorry, Miss. I figured that it wouldn’t amount to anything, but I could possibly make a met or two, is all.” He seemed legit on that score, she decided. Greedy, but not evil.

  “Okay. Well, let me get to this. I swear, if I lose my new boyfriend over this, I’m coming back here. Do you understand?” She was making a threat, but the man simply took a deep breath for some reason and stood straighter. Then nodded slightly.

  “Agreed. If you lose your current friend, I’ll take his place. It’s only right.” He didn’t seem to be kidding or anything. Like that could possibly have been her real plan.

  So she nodded.

  “Exactly. Not just for a day or two either. It might make it hard on your wife, so hope for the best?”

  She didn’t wait for him to go into having said wife or not, just moving away instantly, back to Park Street. Directly to her room. Then, very carefully, she went to her wardrobe and selected an outfit for the day. She had visiting to do, which was probably going to require her to fight. That meant she wanted pants. Her running shoes as well. After she showered, she loaded her pockets with various things. Two knives. A Power Conduit. A Crin.

  That last didn’t go into her pocket however. It was four feet long and looked like a brass pipe with a spongy hand piece in the middle. This one had a small lead colored blob on the business end however, which would show a red dot where it was pointed. It was basically a laser sight for the thing. An idea that took an average shot with the weapon and turned them into a deadly marksman almost instantly.

  Then, since having low blood sugar wasn’t going to work for her, or the man she was going to beat up, she headed down the stairs. There was actually an early meal happening already, though it was only Robert that day. He was dressed for work however. Reading an actual newspaper when she came in. On seeing her he half stood, then looked at her, questions in his eyes.

  “Gwen! I see that you’re about to go somewhere? Or is there a threat?”

  She nearly hid the whole thing from him, then shook her head. She was over forty years of age after all. That was old enough to have a real boyfriend.

  “Apparently a news man, Stev Hess from The Scan? Managed to get some compromising pictures of Tomas and I the other night. The hotel fellow that called him in told me about it as I left. Probably to save his own hide. Anyway, after I eat something I was thinking about raiding his office. Stealing the pictures and possibly dropping him in the middle of the great ocean.” She smiled and then shrugged. “I don’t know what the pics show, but that isn’t the point. It could bug Tomas and we just started dating a few days ago. I don’t know if this would ruin things, but just in case, I’d rather not tempt fate.”

  She settled into a chair that was about four feet away from the end of the table. What she expected Robert Vernor to do she didn’t know really. Something posturing and possibly violent. Encouraging her to take action, or doing so himself.

  Instead he smiled a bit and laid his paper on the table, folding it once.

  “That won’t be an issue. Just go in and tell him not to print them. Possibly do an interview in exchange for them? If he finds that they’re real and you refuse to let him print, he can’t do it. After all, you’re Gwen Farris. I wouldn’t even mention who your friend is. That… Well, you’re an adult. Are you two at least looking toward marriage?”

  She shook her head, but not to really tell him they weren’t.

  “I don’t know? Like I said, it’s only been a few days. We do seem to have a lot in common though. I’m from a different world and people think that he lives in one. I’m planning to help him rehab that a bit however. This wouldn’t help. Are you certain that I won’t have to kill this man?” She meant it. Then, she needed the pictures first…

  That got her to roll her eyes.

  “Duh. I keep forgetting that part of things. I have powers here.”

  Before Mr. Vernor could ask what she meant, Gwen focused. Then, over the course of a minute, she found every photo of her that could possibly be from the hotel. Then she brought them to her. There were only ten of the things. She had to work a lot harder to get the negatives, which came along with a rather complicated looking device. She memorized where it was from so she could return it.

  Winslow came in, while she was working on the sudden project, nodding as he figured out what she was doing. Mainly from the pictures on the table.

  They weren’t good, as in of dubious quality, but you could clearly see her doing some rather adult things in them with a half obscured young man. It looked almost like they were taken through the keyhole in the door. Which was creeptastic on a level that left her feeling uneasy about a lot of places she’d been in life

  Charles spoke rather politely.

  “I believe that if you press that button down, then slide it toward you, it will release the cover plate, Miss Farris.” The words were remarkably dry for some reason.

  It worked though, so she could strip the negatives out. Then Winslow helped her do the rest of it, in case there was a picture processing in the device at the moment. There was, as it turned out. It wasn’t that great of a thing, since you couldn’t tell that it was her, or even Katherine Vernor, in it. Just a bent over back in a dress, with a man’s legs on one side.

  Then, focusing again, she placed the device back where it had started from.

  “Now, I can just teletransport him to Marduk and it will be all set.” She hadn’t been there, but didn’t really care if she missed or not. A foreign land… The Antarctic, it was all the same to her.

  Robert laughed.

  “There was a time, not long ago, where that would have been very helpful to me, personally. Still, use your words here, Gwen. It’s his profession to find the salacious in the world. Blaming him for doing his job too well won’t help anyone.” The words were almost wise sounding.

  “Right.” Hers just seemed grumpy, so she forced a smile. After all she was the one with all the high quality her-porn now.

  Though if she were doing that she wanted better lighting and an unobstructed view. Neither of the men looked at the pictures, but she didn’t burn them or anything, figuring that she might need to prove that she’d had a reason to beat up Stev Hess at some point.

  “Stev. That’s an interesting name, isn’t it? Fake?” She looked at Charles and Robert, two men with very normal sounding names.

  Mr. Vernor glanced at his paper again, now that the main problem seemed to be handled.

  “I went to school with a chap by that name. Stev. I’ve known a few men with it. Isn’t that one that you have, in your world?” The man knew the story there.

  That she’d actually been back and found that it had changed beyond all recognition in her absence. Not that he was making light of it. She’d acted like that was no big deal, so the man was doing the polite thing, and pretending with her. Even she was able to understand that part. Ethyl had tried to do the same when she’d found out, but her bursting into tears had kind of ruined the effect.

  “Nope? Not where I come from anyway. Though I bet I can…” She glanced at the photos, then nodded. “Right. I need a picture of Stev, then. I don’t suppose either of you have a camera I can borrow?”

  Winslow smiled at her, then nodded.

  “I do! Photography is a hobby of mine
. Why would you need a picture of a gossip man? That seems a bit backwards.”

  She had a plan. It was going to require going to a different world, but Zack, her new other-worldly buddy, had shown her how to do all of that. Not that she was any good at it. She could get back to her world, she thought. Without him being along she might never make it back to Park Street, however.

  Still, if she could meet up with him, or one of the others that walked the lines between worlds, she might just be able to set up what she wanted.

  Which got her to sigh.

  “Sorry. I was taking this way too seriously, I think. I mean, yes, the man spied on me, but I really was doing it. I was just going to have the photos reworked to show him in bed with an unknown man. Wearing my dress. Even where I came from that could have been done easily enough. No one here would get it anyway. You know, it would seem real? I bet that I have some friends that could do an even better job than that.”

  Winslow smiled a bit.

  “Perhaps a trifle petty to do it that way? I’m certain that merely explaining that you wish your private affairs to stay that way would be enough for him. If not, Deborah knows the man, I believe? There are oh, layers of things to do before destroying him for all time. Even killing him might be kinder. At least it wouldn’t be starving to death.”

  She sort of understood that one, having seen Charles almost end up in a similar situation a few years before. His boyfriend Will had been caught out by his boss of the time. Being a pervert, which was what they called anyone that wasn’t strictly playing for what they considered the right team, could destroy a man. A woman too, most likely, though that didn’t seem to be as big of a deal there. Why that was, she’d never worked out.

  So odds were that Winslow might be a bit sensitive on that score.

  “Fine, fine. I won’t start out with that one. I’m not happy though. I should… I don’t know what to do, really. If death and social destruction are out, then I’m pretty much down to stewing in my juices and pretending that I’m an adult, aren’t I?” She hated doing that.

  Not that being the grown up wasn’t a good plan, most days. It was just that her entire life had been filled with people doing bad things to her, while the world left her almost nothing to do about it in return. Now she was in a place where she had power. Not just wealth at her disposal, but the personal kind which made her incredibly dangerous to anyone that had done her wrong.

  Though, after a few seconds, she got something that had moved past her. There had been a real problem and she’d fixed it. Herself. Without harming anyone. It just seemed off to her, since violence had been her only real retribution for so long.

  “When you only have a hammer.” She spoke the words out loud, which got Robert to look at her. Winslow had left while she thought, probably to do his job.

  “Sorry there? You need a hammer for something?”

  “Not really. It’s a saying from where I’m from. When you only have a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail. I’m too used to only having a hammer. That’s all.”

  The man might not have heard the saying before, but he was smart. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been the captain of worldwide airshipping. That meant he got the idea without having to think about it for all that long. A few seconds.

  “You do have a lot going for you now, don’t you? If you wanted, I could set you up in a business doing nothing more than you did a few minutes ago. Just as there are mets in taking the damaging pictures, people would pay well to have them removed and destroyed. You even knew to get the negatives. Which shows rather a keen mind for that sort of thing” There was a frank look, with just the hint of a smile going on. “That, or bank robbery. Though if you need funds, I’d prefer you work for them, if you won’t just take them from myself and Ethyl. It is there for you, if you want it. Everything.”

  That got her to roll her eyes. She got the idea. He meant his entire fortune.

  “Not needed. You’ve both been wonderful to me. You know that, right? I feel like I’m just a drag on everyone. Not just you either. Ferdinand, Charles, everyone with the last name Westmorland.” Probably poor Tomas as well. On the good side, he could just drop her and it would be fine. Not for her, but she didn’t really figure that the man would be around forever.

  Even if they did have things in common, like being a bit strange for the world they lived in.

  Robert put the paper down again, but didn’t seem worked up or anything. Just pensive.

  “That isn’t true. Any of us would stand before you in a fight.” He stopped then and smiled. “Which is probably what you really mean, isn’t it? You aren’t habituated to being cared for that closely, so it sends you off your match. It seems a stress on others, even as you throw yourself in front of harm for all of us, a thousand times. As if the two things don’t weigh the same. Which is true, but the lack of balance goes the other way, Gwen. We, all of us, owe you.” The man shook his head, but only a tiny bit.

  She didn’t respond, not able to see all of it.

  After a moment Mr. Vernor went on.

  “There is no real way for our world to repay you. Most heroes come from within. Their actions are… Linked, after a fashion to the world they grew up in. Their payment is in part repayment for the life they’ve had. For the food the world provided them. For the parenting they received. The backdrop of a thousand things that made them into what they are, both good and bad. With you there’s none of that. Everything we’ve seen here tells our entire world that you should be something so very different than we see before us. I know that King Ferdinand is at a loss about what to do for you.” He took a long slow breath.

  Gwen didn’t know what to really say.

  “I don’t need anything.” It was true enough. Even going home wasn’t going to work for her. It wasn’t there anymore.

  Not that it had been all that great for her. The best times she’d ever had were all in the world she was sitting in at that moment.

  The man, who was nice looking in a distinguished way, actually chuckled a little then.

  “I know. We all do. Do you have any idea how frustrating that is? Everyone wants to repay you and each time we try, we end up in greater debt. Which is fine. You’re family. That happens. Just, you have to know that we’re here for you as well. The entire world. Well, not all of them, perhaps. I do wager that you could have simply spoken to Stev Hess however. A man that would flay his own mother alive for sales, true. I don’t doubt that he’d sit up and heel to your word without issue, with no more than a suggestion it be done.”

  She had nothing at all to use in response to that. So she changed the channel.

  “We’re, Adam and I, trying to put together a new program. Getting prisoners of war back?” She waved at the pictures to her left, that had the shiny strip of film on the top. It was enough to have the other man going wide eyed.

  “You can do that? I’ve never even considered that as an option. How…” Then he stopped and waved at her. “That then. Right there, Gwen. Once again we find you standing in front of us. Not that you shouldn’t be doing that, but if you wonder why we all love you, if you ever start to doubt, think on that.”

  The rest of the meal was all small talk, as she tried to not feel bad for being less than she should have been. Finally, Katherine spoke in her head.

  ~ That’s the point, Gwen. Father is trying to let you know that you are more than you should have been. It’s a good thing, not a failing. So please. Stop the self-pity? Or at least feel poorly over the things that are actual problems. That people like you isn’t a bad situation. ~

  It wasn’t the nicest thing that the woman in her head had ever said to her. It was however the first time that it had really happened when Katherine couldn’t directly benefit from it. Unless she was softening Gwen up for extra reward time. That was actually possible, she knew. Little Peter, who wasn’t all the small any more, she recalled, would have come in and killed them all for an extra hour of time that night. He’d feel awful abou
t it later, but that wouldn’t stop him from getting at what he wanted.

  Kat was in the same boat that way.

  If so she was being clever about it however. She’d been nice and propped Gwen up when she felt pretty low. That really could end up with her doing the same for the woman later. Like a pet on television that had clearly trained their owner to get them a treat every time they sat. Part of her wanted to punish the woman for doing that. Another part of her knew that she had no way of knowing if she was correct at that moment anyway.

  So she set it all aside. If it was a trick to get more from her, then Katherine would have to try it many times to make it work. That would get pretty obvious. If that didn’t happen, then it meant she might have been telling the truth.

  All of this indicated to her that Gwen Farris was being paranoid. Again. That really was a big problem in her own life of course. It was what Robert had really been speaking about a few minutes before. She tried to be there for everyone else. At the same time she felt that getting anything from them was out of balance. That was down to the idea that she wasn’t worth anything. No matter how hard she worked or tried. That she was always just a burden.

  That feeling came again a few minutes later when Ethyl walked into the room. She had makeup on already and a light blue dress that looked heavy for a day that might well end up being too warm. If it was, the woman would just change her outfit. She smiled on her arrival to the space, looking sunny and actually happy.

  “Good morning everyone! I’m feeling incredibly optimistic today!” Almost as if her name were Cassandra, she looked over at the photos, blinked and picked them up before Gwen realized that the woman might not wish to see her little girl doing those particular things with an unknown man. Not that she couldn’t get that it was Tomas, since he’d been wearing the same clothing when they’d come to visit. Not half an hour after they’d finished on the bed, if she remembered correctly.

  Instead of saying something quaint or cute, like a church lady that was about to have a horrible case of the fainting vapors, she made a half choking noise.