Revenge of the Catspaw

by Helena Puumala

“Officially I'm here to find out what is going on with Graeme Forshie and Hart Monroe,” she laughed to Jillian who greeted her. “Marcues couldn't find anyone else willing to come, so he had to accept the only volunteer, which was me. He wasn't particularly happy about it, and I expect that I'll have to see the two dolts, and report on their situation to Marcues.

  “Unofficially, I'm here to beg to be given a role in any rescue-Coryn mission that this Office and the Kordeans may be planning.”

  “You're a competent Agent,” Jillian said. “You have no need to beg for work, as far as I'm concerned. I'll put you on the roster for the Strategy Session that we're planning, and if you fit into the group that we come up with, you'll be in, no question about it. Actually, we should have at least one experienced Agent on the Team, and, unfortunately, it can't be me, since my face, after our last mission, is as familiar to the Hounds involved, as Coryn's.”

  When the Guru Johannes and the Greencat arrived, Fiana declared that it was time to pull the meeting together. The Liaison Office Staff, and the Servants at the Official Residence burst into a last, mad dash of activity. Flyers were sent to pick up Witches from the Seven Circle Strongholds. Jaime was requested to bring Jerold and Cameron into Trahea from the Institute of Kordean Studies. The large meeting room in the Official Residence was prepared for a big event, complete with food and wine to be served to the participants.

  Meanwhile Lindy took care of her official duty of checking up on her ex-husband and his buddy. Stating that she was not about to do anything underhanded, she asked Jillian and Mel Jourda to accompany her. The Liaison Office was funded by the Diplomatic Corps; therefore the Corps representative had the right to be present at her meeting with the two who had intended to take it over, without informing the Corps of what they were doing. And Jillian represented the staff of the Liaison Office who, obviously, had a large stake in the matter, especially since the word was that Forshie and Monroe had planned to “clean house”, which possibly would have meant a complete change of personnel.

  The three of them arrived at the Port Security Holding Cells, where two Security Personnel awaited them. Jillian apparently knew one of them; she introduced the young man as Kyle. The woman was an older Officer, and, apparently, the one in charge. She introduced herself as Susan, and the threesome took their cues from her informality; even Jourda gave his name simply as Mel.

  “We took all their electronics from them when we confined them,” Susan said, before she took them to the cell block. “They're in our safe, but we haven't done a thing with them. We didn't want to invade their privacy, since it looked like what we were interfering in wasn't criminal activity, but more like a turf-war between two bureaucracies.”

  “I think that we'll have to at least glance at those, but they can wait until we've talked to the men,” Mel said. “Wouldn't you agree with me about that, Lindy and Jillian?”

  “Oh, definitely,” Lindy said immediately. “If there's something suspicious there, I'll certainly want to report such to my superiors.”

  The Port Security Holding Cells were a remarkably civilized venue for what amounted to a prison. Forshie and Monroe were confined in a two-inmate suite, which consisted of a main cell space open to staff scrutiny through a transparent wall, two sleeping cubicles which provided, at least, an illusion of privacy, and toilet and shower facilities in a third cubicle. When the visitors arrived in the staff observation area, the prisoners were amusing themselves with what looked like an old-fashioned board game, in the sparsely-furnished, shared part of the cell.

  Susan took two stunners from a drawer of a desk in the observation room, and handed one of them to Kyle. Then she played with the keypad next to the door beside the big window, until the door slid open.

  “Since these guys are not considered dangerous criminals, I think that we can join them in their abode for this interview,” she said.

  “Though I notice that you are being mindful of our safety,” Lindy said with a grin, and a glance at the stunners.

  “Always,” Susan agreed.

  She sent Kyle in first, and, in spite of his obvious youth, he appeared to be a competent Security man, Lindy thought. He knew exactly where to stand so that he would have the prisoners within his sight at all times. If they decided to move around the room, no doubt he would alter his position and stance accordingly. Susan herself stayed by the door, casually holding her stunner in one hand, looking deceptively relaxed.

  Professionals, both of them, Lindy judged. She liked that.

  “Lindy!” Graeme Forshie cried, as soon as he recognized her. “What are you doing here?”

  He sounded surprised to see her, and somewhat dubious. With good reason, of course. And, without doubt, immediately busy trying to figure out what use he could make of the unexpected development.

  “Checking up on what's happened to you and Hart,” Lindy responded casually. “For the Agency Head. He couldn't find anyone else willing to come, and the two of you are incommunicado, so he had no idea what had happened here, other than that you obviously are not in charge of the Liaison Office. I am to report on your status to Ry Marcues.”

  “Oh. Not to get us out of this hole, and into the Office that was promised us?”

  “I couldn't get you into that Office even if I wanted to,” Lindy said with a shrug. “Nor could Marcues. Surely you have been told that the Kordean-Confederation Liaison Office comes under the jurisdiction of the Diplomatic Corps? Diplomat Jourda, here, has much more say in who occupies that office than does Ry Marcues.”

  She nodded at Mel Jourda, deliberately refusing to be casual in her speech.

  “But Marcues arranged to have the office created when the Diplomatic Corps had been sitting on the plans for decades,” Forshie objected. “Surely that gives him authority over it!”

  “He did no such thing,” Mel Jourda contradicted him. “Coryn Leigh did it. He found out about the hypothetical existence of the Liaison Office, and convinced us at the Diplomatic Corps to let him use the funds allocated for it, to create it; then he put the office together, earning, in the process, the good will of many important Kordeans. Ry Marcues merely gave him permission, and support, for doing so while remaining an active part of the Agency. But from the Corps' point of view, the Agency connection has always been secondary, although useful, since the Kordean nationals are in the situation that they are. And since the Witches have taken it upon themselves to safeguard amartos, and one very talented amarto-sensitive young woman who happens to be three-quarters Terran.”

  Forshie turned his attention back to Lindy.

  “Before Hart and I left to come here, I heard that you had reconnected with the old boyfriend, the pretty blond boy from your training-school days, while he was passing through ASC,” he sneered. “Cute, wasn't that?”

  Lindy shrugged.

  “We had dinner and talked. He told me straight out that he was in a relationship and not available for any sexual reconnecting. I respect that, and envy this Sarah, a little bit, for having got herself a loving, loyal partner. Me, I really screwed up on that part of life.

  “Shall I report to Marcues that he needs to perform some bureaucratic diplomacy to get you out of here? I will have to report to him that there's not a snowball's chance in Kordean sunshine that you'll ever be confirmed as the Chief Liaison Officer at the Kordean-Confederation Liaison Office.”

  “If the two of you are willing to be escorted onto an outgoing mega-liner, I think that Ms Ashton and I might be willing to authorize Port Security to release you,” Mel Jourda said. “What about it, Jillian?”

  “Sure, why not?” Jillian agreed. “Especially, if they undertake to swear oaths to stay away from Kordea in the future.”

  “Thanks,” Susan said to Mel when they were back in the staff area, and the cell door was once again securely locked. “It'll be good to get rid of them. Kyle and I can arrange to get their oaths, and to pack them off on the next half-way convenient mega-transport.”

  “But we need t
o look at their electronics before they get them back,” Lindy said. “If they get them all back.”

  “Lets go and do that right away,” agreed Susan.

  However, the only somewhat interesting item that they could mine from the equipment, besides the orders that the two had been given by Marcues to take over the Kordean-Confederation Liaison Office, was a litany of information about the XYZ Import/Export Company, apparently scrolled from someone else's tablet onto that of Graeme Forshie.

  “Snooping, he must have been,” Lindy snapped.

  “But there's nothing there we don't already know,” Jillian added. “Fiana had Karan and Nance trawling the Public Records after Coryn sent us a cryptic message regarding Peter's previous employer, but there really was nothing useful there, as far as we could tell.”

  “Maybe I'll have to take the direct approach, and question the man himself,” commented Mel Jourda.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “We need to do whatever it takes to bring that young man back,” said Witch Nadina, the Eldest of the Circle of the Ten.

  She was an old lady, the oldest of the Circle Leaders. Sarah, seated between her father and brother, watched her curiously, while tamping down on the tension and the frustration which had become her constant companions since she had heard about the kidnapping. Having worked with Nadina, among the other Circle Witches, during the scuttling of the Lina-trap, she was aware that Nadina's astral form did not show her age at all. She was still as vigorous a Witch as she had ever been, thanks to whatever her genetic background was.

  “That's a given,” snapped Clarisse, the Eldest of the Six, the smallest of the Seven Circles. “What we're here to do, I understand, is to figure out how we can do it.”

  “My husband, Steph, has alerted his Superior, Carovan, who in his turn, is having discussions with the top brass of the Confederation Armed Forces,” Fiana informed the group. “Although I'd be among the first to say that if we can do this without warships shooting at one another, that's the way to go.”

  “But you're recognizing that we need the support of the Armed Forces,” commented Mel Jourda of the Diplomatic Corps. “If only as a backup, in case things go seriously awry.”

  “We don't want things to go seriously awry,” protested Lindy Cass. “We need to come up with a scheme that can get us what we want—without battles. Anything other than that counts as a failure.”

  “Spoken like a well-trained Agent,” commented Jillian Ashton. “The trainers did rather pound that attitude into our heads.”

  “We need to, of course, do everything that we possibly can to avoid star-spanning war,” said Marlyss, the Eldest of the Twelve. “But I agree with Nadina and Clarisse about the importance of rescuing Coryn from the Neotsarian hands. Also, it is necessary to get at it as quickly as possible.

  “Sarah, can you, please, enlighten us as to the impressions you have been getting from him in the last few days, presumably once his captors reached their destination in The Organization space?”

  “He is suffering,” Sarah said, biting her lower lip. “So far I've been unable to get much in the way of details. The emotional impact of whatever he is being subjected to, is blocking my ability to directly communicate with him. We had developed a workable rapport between the two of us before he left to go to Space Station ASC; at times he could project images to me of what he was looking at, for example. That's not so now; it's more like he's actively trying to not communicate images—all I get is feelings of pain, frustration, and, unexpectedly, acute shame. That last I don't understand, to be honest.”

  “Oh ye gods!” Lindy cried. “I do get it! Loud and clear! They're forcing him do something that he believes is wrong!”

  Jillian blanched, as much as a brown-skinned woman could.

  “Lindy's right,” she said. “It's a tactic the Neotsarians use to erode resistance, and to degrade those whom they consider low down on their social scale. And there's nothing lower on their scale than captured slaves!”

  “What my people have found out,” said the dark-skinned, white-haired, spry old man who had taken a seat next to the Eldest Marlyss, “is that the Elite Neotsarian women like to make sexual use of any nice-looking young male slaves which come their way. That use can be cruelly done.”

  “The Guru's correct,” said Cameron Mackenzie, looking grim. “I was fortunate in that I was only average in looks, and that the Elite men wanted my mind intact to do their engineering for them, but I heard stories. Some from young men who had been through hell. I haven't wanted to talk about this, for Sarah's sake, but I'd be very surprised if Coryn wasn't handed over to Evella Copoz to play with, the moment he landed on Volgoid, the Prime Organization world.”

  “Evil Evella!” Jillian cried. “That's what she was doing in Trahea! Checking him out! But it makes no sense! Why do the Elite men bother to humour her?”

  “It's not that hard to figure out,” said Marlyss. “They expect Sarah to go looking for him. What better motivator than the fact that he is being tortured thus? Even if they have no idea that Sarah can sense Coryn's emotions, they would guess that female Agents such as Jillian, Fiana, and Lindy would do the math sooner or later, and come up with the right answer. And can Sarah keep from rushing into some kind of action, even if it involves serious risks?”

  “The Neotsarians have made a catspaw out of Coryn,” Cameron said, his voice heavy. “A catspaw to catch another catspaw, meaning Sarah.

  “It's and old Earth term,” he explained to the raised eyebrows around him. “Someone who does the work of another, unwittingly, or unwillingly. Coryn, the initial catspaw is expected to catch the ultimate one, the one that is intended to deliver the whole Galaxy to them.”

  Peter Mackenzie put his arm around Sarah's shoulders

  “No, Sarah,” he said softly, almost pleadingly. “We need you to stay safe. You were at that laboratory on Altec III. You don't want to get caught in that trap again.”

  “Dad, I have to get him out of there,” Sarah protested. “How can I live, knowing that he is in pain, and not do anything to help? Besides, who's to say that the catspaw can't be turned around to slash at the puppet master, instead?”

  “Others will go, Sarah,” Peter said. “I, for one am ready to go.”

  “Dad, if one of us goes, it should be me, not you,” Cameron objected. “For one thing, I'm quite a bit younger than you are.”

  “And we may need Peter right here on Kordea, should things take time,” said Mel Jourda. “Coryn fingered you, Peter, as the possible replacement for the job of the Kordean-Confederation Liaison Officer, once Fiana needs to pop out her baby. I have a lot of faith in Coryn's ability to match people to tasks.”

  “Oh. That's why you wanted me at the Office, Fiana,” Peter said, hugging Sarah a little tighter. “Introducing me to the job, were you?”

  “Why, that would work!” exclaimed Marlyss. “Peter, you're part Kordean by birth, you have intimate knowledge of the dangers The Organization presents, and you're old enough to know when following procedures already established, and trusting the people around you to do their jobs, is the best way to go—and when not! I'll support Coryn's choice, but then I agree with you, Diplomat Jourda, about his abilities!”

  “Hey, are we meeting for the purpose of you people stealing all my workers from me?” Jaime Morrow asked. “Don't forget that what we're doing at the Institute, has as one of its aims the solution to a particular problem that The Organization presents, even if we can't solve the immediate crisis!”

  “I'm not offering to go back into Neotsarian space,” commented the brown-haired man sitting next to Jaime. He was the Neotsarian Scientist, Jerold Lowe. “I've had enough of their looming presence—we on my home world were never particularly happy to be a part of the Empire. Plus, I haven't forgotten that they just came and grabbed me to do the work they wanted done, without asking whether or not I wanted to go!”

  “But it sounds like you'd be a valuable source of information for those of us who will go,”
said Lindy, staring at him. “Like, are there other worlds whose inhabitants are also unhappy, and, just as importantly, are there pockets of discontent on the world where Coryn is most likely to be?”

  “There are always pockets of discontentment, everywhere,” stated Jillian. “That's how the Agency has been able to maintain its spy network.”

  “Yes, but we need people who are willing to do a little more than gossip, and pass on information,” Lindy argued. “We need them to willingly harbour what amounts to enemy aliens.”

  “If they don't know we're enemy aliens...,” Cameron threw in. He, apparently, was going on the mission, at least in his own mind.

  Lindy gave him a long look. Then she turned back to Jerold.

  “Could the Team use your world as a base, and a cover?” she asked. “Your people are somewhat eccentric, compared to the rest of the Neotsarians, at least the run-of-the-mill ones, no?”

  “You mean, could you pretend to be a bunch of Yukoidian travellers, stopping at, among other planets, Volgoid, the world where the controlling Elites are based?” Jerold asked.

  At Lindy's nod, he laughed.

  “It could work!” he crowed. “Especially, if you're willing to tour as a bunch of entertainers who are down on their luck on the home world!”

  “Yes!” said Lindy, clapping her hands. “We're in business! Now we just have to decide who's going!”

  “You absolutely have to let me come,” said Sarah, a glint of determination in her eyes. She, it seemed, was not prepared to be talked out of going. “You'll need me. You know that in a pinch, if I can count on the Eldest Marlyss to loosen the strings of the bag insulating the amarto-cache keyed to me, I'll be able to transport a whole bunch of people out of danger!”

  “Sarah, stop to think about what happened the last time you pulled a group of women across the Galaxy!” Jillian said. “You scared the living daylights out of us with your unscheduled mental trip to Eden!”

  “I wouldn't need all of the Stones' energy if I made it a shorter transport,” Sarah argued. “Witch Marlyss could exercise her native caution, and release only a few amartos. Maybe I could use the island community on Altec III as the target. It's in the Borderlands between the Confederation and The Organization Sectors, as all of us who were involved in the last adventure well know.”