Empire of the One (Wine of the Gods Book 14)

by Pam Uphoff

  War Party! Friend or Foe?

  Those with enough rank to carry swords as part of their dress kit were drawing them, others were picking up anything handy . . . guns the waiters had dropped . . . their eyes were focused on the President, not searching for attackers to defend him from. They were fired up, moving faster than the background people. Almost as fast as she was.

  Endi and Agni blocked them. There were too many, the men further back sidestepped the flurry of battle and circled, eyes on the President.

  Qayg was suddenly there. "Foin, run evac. Xiat, rear defense with me." As the first of the War Party reached them, the old woman stepped out, spun gracefully, her bare foot connecting with a temple.

  Xiat swept a blade aside, outside of forearm to flat of blade. She spun to chop the man across the throat, kept spinning to kick to the midriff of the next. Staggered as something hit her shield hard. Bullet. She bent over long enough to scoop up the dropped sword. A dueling point.

  That shouldn’t have gotten past the entry guards.

  The third attacker was fired up a bit faster than she was; they exchanged a flurry of blows, shields and sword points sparking with conflicting spells. Xiat retreated, to keep between the President and the men trying to bypass the defenders. Her opponent overextended, she stepping inside his reach, lunged and he was down. Two more. More princesses and other security.

  On the path ahead, suddenly blocking the President’s exit, Ydqe and behind him Izzo, both with swords.

  Izzo! Pain, as if she'd been stabbed through the heart. No! No! No!

  Ydqe stepped toward the President, jerked suddenly and fell. Behind him Izzo pulled his sword out. He turned, his back to the President, scanning the crowd for more attackers. The guards hustled the President past him.

  Xiat drew breath into her tight chest . . . threw herself to the right, away from a thrust.

  She spun, jerked back to alertness, reflexes trying to get her sword up in time to deflect a thrust. The man collapsed.

  Urfa with a stunner in one hand and a laser in the other appeared briefly in her peripheral vision.

  The sound of a jetcar departing at speed. A triple whistle that meant the President was clear. She tried to stop the next man without killing him . . . Director Orku. He was too fired up, too out of control, in a berserk state that acknowledged his cause's defeat and his own death. She drove her sword through his windpipe and into his spine. He spasmed, taking the sword with him as he fell. No one else was coming at her. She swept her eyes around. Even the crowd was quieting, no more attackers. An aircar dumped a dozen troops, men who were less likely to be a part of all this, to take over immediately and sort out the defenders from the attackers. She drew a deep breath, and let her Speed go as she exhaled.

  ***

  The sword flashed. Endi spun, danced. In and out. One attacker curled over, folding around the stab. He leaped forward, a fountain of blood, a body dropped. In an oddly detached state Rael watched a master at work. I never realized you could fight like that. The physical shield parted before his sword, sealed behind it. A left handed gesture, a man dropped. A bravo with a dueling point lunged at him, his sword shattered on the shield, and Endi's sword drove straight into his chest.

  Endi's black jacket was stained with blood.

  Others' or his?

  A barrage of spells, mental effects, light and a last fireball. Endi pointed his left hand, a man exploded in a shower of gore. The crack of the pistol was loud, Endi spun and dropped. Three more shots, silence.

  Agni punched a man in the Guards' uniform. Dropped him and staggered forward, turned and moved out of her sight. Still yells and screams from somewhere behind her, but she and Endi were out of the fight.

  Endi was half a meter away, he turned his head and met her gaze.

  "Hey Spikey, you look worse than me." He fumbled out a small flask. Tipped it and drank. Reached out one arm to touch it to her lips. Red wine, making her aware of the blood she could taste. "Try to swallow. It’s got tons of healing spells in it. I give it to all my horses." His voice was faint, his face paling. He closed his eyes.

  Rael swallowed, as if that would bring him back to talk, to reassure her that they were both alive. Spells in red wine, how odd. Distantly she heard the triple whistle. We saved the president. Now there’s just saving ourselves.

  "I shouldn't have tried to stay undercover. A few black goats and purple bunnies would have impressed the hell . . . Q? I think I need help . . . "

  Tunnel vision. She tried again, couldn’t feel her arms or legs. Endi managed to turn his head. His eyes shimmered, unfocused. She felt him fumble at healing spells, and reached out to help. Tried to reach out. The world tunneled down further and disappeared.

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Paris, European Region

  27 Qadah 1396 yp

  Izzo stood very still, not moving at all. There were a lot of weapons aimed at him.

  The gory aftermath was spread all over the beautiful green lawn. A mountain of gore and body parts where the President had been ambushed. Scattered lumps, some smoking. Half in uniform, a few in formal wear, more in servant's white.

  The line of bodies along the President's egress route. The War Party fanatics had rushed him, when their triggermen failed. And on the other end of the path, General Akja was still faintly breathing, blood soaked. Izzo looked down, feeling a bit faint.

  Ohme stepped up and turned the General's head, stared into his eyes for a long moment. Shuddered and turned away. "I believe he was the Principal, but I didn't have enough time to be sure. He is dead." The priest strode across to the dance floor, stepped over scattered arms and legs, to the young man still gasping on the ground. He was conscious enough to meet the Priest's eyes. Ohme turned and frowned at Urfa. "He was taken by surprise, he had nothing to do with the assassination attempt. But he's shielding, hiding much, even now while he turns all his magic and will to survival. Keep him alive, if you can." He stood up and frowned down at the man.

  From where he waited, Izzo could see that Endi'd taken several rounds to the abdomen. From the amount of blood on the ground underneath him, they'd be lucky if he didn't bleed out in the next few minutes.

  He may be a spy, but he certainly wasn't here to kill the President.

  Ohme stepped to a limp body in the white of the wait staff. Stared at him for a long time. "He came to kill Orde. He's had considerable mental modeling. Keep him alive, he's the start of your thread."

  A man in a tuxedo, crying silently by the body of a friend. "Loyal." He turned and walked back to Izzo. "Lower your shields."

  Izzo did. He sank into deep brown eyes. And remembered everything. He jumped as if receiving an electrical shock when the priest turned his gaze away.

  "Innocent. It appears that he was to die as well, and bear the blame."

  "I . . . " Izzo stopped.

  Of course.

  They set me up from the start, raising my profile with multiple visits to Government House.

  And I soon had a girlfriend with Presidential access. How had they arranged that? Oh, right Orku had no doubt asked Urfa for Xiat specifically, since I had shown such attraction. Possibly not necessary. Orku was an old hand at Internal; Urfa was new to his job as the President’s Director. Orku probably knew all about the princess who was moving toward law enforcement.

  And I was passed over for a promotion. Buddied around with that criminal, Native lover and pacifist, Endi Dewulfe. And I'm a Colonial, a loner, a rebel holdout from the Priesthood. I guess I was perfect. A lover suiciding in my bed would have just emphasized what a backstabbing, traitorous fellow I was, deserving to be killed as a matter of honor.

  They hired me specifically to take the blame for this.

  One! I am such an idiot.

  He refocused on the outside world as Ohme released Xiat. Xiat shivered. The frost on the grass crunched when he walked over and stood near her. She was barefoot, and her dress left a lot of skin uncovered. The breeze was blowing warm and then
chilling. How much magic is still being pulled here? He shed his jacket and dropped it over her bare shoulders. Tears were running down her cheeks. How many of those unmoving forms in uniform were friends of hers? Most of them.

  The medgicians stood back and the medics rushed Endi Dewulfe toward the flashing lights of an ambulance. It was in the air in seconds, flying low and fast.

  Other medgicians were checking carefully through the bodies for any others still breathing. They found one, summoned more medics away from tending minor wounds. Izzo looked down at his forearm, wiggled all his fingers, rotated the wrist. The cut was along the tendons, not across, the stab deep into the muscles. It hurt like the One's Hell, but everything worked. Not much blood. Missed the arteries.

  Xiat had some bruises showing, already. She reached for him, and winced, eyed her swelling wrist. "I don't even remember doing that."

  He nodded. "I suppose we could get in line and wait for the medic's attention."

  She leaned on him and watched Urfa, organizing the chaos. The guard princesses were running notes. "They must have a complete electronics shutdown. Standard precaution in case of a follow up bomb."

  "One."

  "Yeah. I suspect Orde and Paer are a hundred miles away already and still going."

  "He shot Endi." The tuxedoed man stood up and looked at Xiat, tears running down his face. He was at that meeting, one of Urfa's insiders . . . "Then he started shooting at the President. Ahba was trying to shoot the President. I . . . I killed him."

  Director Agni was sitting on the ground, head clutched in his hands. Overworked but not drained.

  A heap of yellow and brown silk rippled in the breeze, but no medgicians were concerned with whoever lay beneath.

  "Ricochets. Bullets and spells." Xiat had followed his gaze. "No one had time to worry about the crowd."

  A princess trotted up. "Xiat and Izzo, you are to come with me to write out statements. You are not to speak to each other until the preliminary investigation is completed."

  "Right. Umm, may I suggest that Dewulfe's family and associates be detained? The Le Havre Police will know all of them. Treat them as very dangerous Oners."

  A young officer nodded and stepped away. Izzo followed the princess and sat down to type up everything.

  Then sat and answered questions. Picked up information—the ceramics shop had held only Ydro, stunned and still unconscious. A passerby said a man and two women had run out the door and down the street, turning, going toward the harbor. The police were questioning three locals who were apparently under the impression that the strangers had been Space Aliens in disguise. Izzo'd looked around at that and caught the man's eye. He'd shrugged, embarrassed. "Apparently some old winos, brain damaged."

  "Well, plenty of them in that district. But there should have been three women. Pale blonde, long black hair, and short brown hair with a strong resemblance to Endi. Find out which one's missing. I'll bet the sister is coming to check on him." Izzo turned back to his questioner. Who was asking all the things he ought to have been asking himself . . . "It literally didn't occur to me to consider why Efge dragged me down to Le Havre. In retrospect, he must have been planning on implicating me that long ago. That house he had me rent . . . One! I wonder if those waiters have been living there. "

  "Endi was obviously an agent of some sort. But he was very . . . independent. Subservient to no one. Low level criminal, maybe, genetic mutation, yes. But he seemed quite self-confident and to be enjoying life. Boy toy for a bunch of rich women. His political bent was technically isolationist but sympathetic toward Natives. I couldn't see how he could be behind the spate of problems the War Party had been having. Until we turned up something, and Director Agni, umm, confirmed it tonight. I haven't told Urfa; he may want it held close." Princesses ran notes. Izzo read Urfa's reply, looked back at his interrogator. "We'd just moments before realized that Endi was a native of Target Forty-two and probably an Earth agent. Agni and I were headed to tell the President when I was intercepted by General Akja."

  "Damn." The questioner flushed faintly and tried to resume his unemotional, neutral expression.

  "Urfa says no publicity on that. Secret, to be written up in the classified version of the report, and nowhere else."

  To one side he heard Xiat's voice briefly. "None of the initial attackers were using magic. Endi was pulling power, mixing magic and martial arts like a pro. He didn't get his shields up fast enough, or maybe he just didn't bother, since the attackers were mainly aiming at the President. He was shot once, early on. Or . . . someone had a large physical shield effect up between the President and the direction the waiters were coming from. It might have been Endi. The second wave had Oners in it, Director Agni and Endi took them on while we retreated with the President. The attackers were using a mix of projectile weapons, lasers and spells. Sleep, stun and fireballs, that I noticed. Then the top echelon of the War Party came at us. They had very poor control, most of their Power was going into firing up and shield piercing on their swords. I detected no thrown spells from them."

  Izzo turned back to his own questioner, and started in on the genetic analyses. "Should have had them done officially, in the lab. I grew up helping my father run them, he's a wildlife biologist, and I had his old equipment, so I just ran them at home. An expert geneticist might have realized Endi was a spy and kept him away from the President."

  Urfa snorted as he walked up. "He was in the right place at the right time. I’m never going to be able to just ignore precogs again. Your three old princesses had it pegged perfectly. Without Endi, the President would be dead, along with any hope of peace between his people and ours. I wish to hell I could strip Endi’s brain and find out what's going on. Agni says he had a clear view, and Endi acted solely to protect the President. He says the waiters showed no signs of surprise, as if he'd turned on them. I think he was not part of the plot, but I also have to find out if he’s spying for Earth as quickly as possible."

  Izzo nodded. "These winos who thought the spies were Space Aliens? How did they get that impression? And do they have any idea of where those three were running to? A safe house? A gate? There must be a gate somewhere. A chemical and pollen examination around their gate site might give us a clue about where they are coming from—direct from Earth or Forty-two, or a third cutout location. What we really need is to find their gate beacon, shut it off." Izzo resisted going for a toothpick, again.

  Urfa looked over his shoulder. A princess was following him, incident box in hand. "Relay that to the people in the field." Then he turned back to Izzo. "They had you wrapped up pretty good."

  Izzo nodded. "And I didn't even see it. I suppose no-one would have bothered with a post mortem DNA check of the babies? Or perhaps it doesn't matter, to be proven wrong a few months later."

  "We've got some of them alive, or alive long enough. They may even live long enough to feel the headman’s axe. They were going to treat the women as raped, and with great sympathy retire them all with generous pensions. Saves face, makes you notorious. Posthumously. Master Craftsman of the Assassination, evil right down to his personal life." He shot a look at Xiat. "Including leading that poor guard astray."

  Xiat sniffed. "I led him astray."

  "Hey!"

  She wrinkled her nose. "We pulled in stuff from all directions, and given a couple more days . . . probably still would have missed the plot. We started out looking at Endi in connection with the ID forgeries, and were trying to figure out why he was attacking the War Party. Hadn't a whiff of something bigger. How did we miss such a widespread plot? There were several dozen people in on it. It should have leaked." She blinked away tears. "Ahba?"

  Urfa sighed. "Dirty. He was always so insecure, a social climber. Opri lived long enough to talk. They worked in sets of eight, forming Great Circles. They could trust each other, because they were merged and separated from the One. So the main conspirators could communicate and plot inside the Circle, and even their princesses couldn't tell there w
as something being cooked up. All the hit men were mind modified. Most of the errand runners were working blind. When Akja went down, the central merge twisted and there was no concordance except on a visceral, emotional level, to follow his last order. I've heard of Action Teams going berserk when the Leader was dying. Never seen it in a political plot before. Hope to never see it again." He walked away shaking his head.

  Izzo turned back to his questioner, who went back to his start at the Directorate. Has it only been ten months? He relaxed consciously and tried to remember every word and nuance during his various meetings with the known players.

  Chapter Forty

  Paris, European Region

  1 Hija 1396 yp

  Urfa leaned forward on his elbows. The terror of yesterday had transmuted into some oddly peaceful exhaustion. Or maybe that was lack of sleep.

  Grief suspended, until he had the time for it. Or perhaps until the wounded either recovered, or didn’t.

  The conspiracy had unraveled at hypersonic velocity.

  ". . . In short, this looks like a long planned, organized coup attempt by the leaders of the War Party. Except for the oddity of Endi Dewulfe." Izzo was doing a good job of not looking shell shocked.

  Endi falls into the class of unlooked for miracles. A gift from the One. I almost hate to dig into his background. "What about Dewulfe? And Target Forty-two. And Earth."

  Izzo bit his lip. "There may be something more to it than Earth." He glanced at Inre, who was silently taking it all in. He had been retrieved from the Le Havre drunk tank sometime during the chaotic morning.

  "The gate was closed, but we found their gate anchor, and turned it over to the XR research department. At first glance, we can say this much. It is an unfamiliar design with sixteen electromagnets in a four by four grid. Very low power. It was buried under two inches of tarmac, with short prongs with solar cells on the end sticking up to trickle power into the battery."