“Let’s hope that the Organization’s bigger detector is just as blind,” he said after the test. “That one, I understand, was able to zero in on amartos even when they were not in use.”
Jaime was going to be participating in The Mission. He would be piloting the used space ship which was to cart the members to the planet where the laboratory was believed to be. After all, he was a qualified pilot, a graduate of the Mallora Pilot Training Facility where he had befriended Steph Clennan.
It seemed to Coryn, as he coordinated the details of The Mission that everyone was going on it, except for him. Sarah, Dian, and Jaime. Jillian and Joe Ashton. Even Texi had talked himself into a membership, and was bringing Nance along, “to impersonate a Kordean Witch”, should that kind of subterfuge become necessary. The Agency Headquarters were sending along a trusted, older operative, Roland Harmiss, with his wife, Elli, who was also a senior Agent. The Harmisses had chosen another couple of sturdy young men to accompany them from the Agency’s stable. With Coryn off the roster, that made the group eleven people, and the idea was that they were to masquerade as a small splinter group from a strictly religious world who were looking for a new place to alight, after a falling-out with their spiritual leaders.
Harmiss had come up with the notion; according to him, that sort of thing actually happened now and then on the border between the Confederation, and the area controlled by The Organization.
“Harmiss?” Sarah had said to Coryn when she had heard the name. “Any relation to Matty Harmiss whom I got to know on XER?”
Coryn had managed a passable smile.
“Matty is Elli and Roland’s son,” he had replied.
“But he’s not coming along on this venture with them?”
“Afraid not. He’s still needed, playing his tricks, on XER. But I think that you’ll like Roland and Elli. They’re very pleasant, and extremely competent Agents, although this is their first time dealing with the amarto-angle.”
*****
Marlyss was at her haughtiest when Coryn brought the Harmiss couple to meet her at Ferhil Stones.
“I understand that I have no choice but to direct Witch Dian and Witch Sarah to take orders from the two of you,” she said coolly. “Since you are the ones that this Agency has entrusted to lead it. And the circumstances happen to be such that I’m not allowed my choice of a leader, which would have, of course, been Coryn Leigh here.”
Coryn raised his brows slightly at that. What was the greenhood’s game?
Roland Harmiss shrugged his shoulders.
“We all work with limitations. My wife and I have a lot of experience with the Agency, and consequently know much about The Organization, and how they operate. That, I believe, is why we were chosen for this task, in spite of the fact that this is the first time we have worked on the amarto-angle. Coryn tells me that Witches Dian and Sarah are perfectly capable of filling us in on whatever we haven’t already been briefed on, once we are on our way.”
“They are both remarkably talented young women, and that is why they have been chosen to go on The Mission,” the Eldest of the Twelve said. “However, they won’t be able to display—never mind exercise—those talents for much of the enterprise. It seems that The Organization has succeeded in tying our hands.”
“I’m assuming that your idea is to surprise The Organization’s leadership. The young women are to sneak inside the Citadel, to coin a phrase, and then, when it’s too late for the laboratory personnel to do anything about their presence, to unleash whatever powers of destruction they can bring to bear.”
Marlyss nodded.
“Something along those lines, yes,” she replied. “I can’t work out the details, of course. That will have to be left to those who will be on the scene.”
“Is there any help that you of the Witch Circles of Kordea can give us when the young women do unleash their power?” Roland asked. “You will be aware of it happening, right?”
He was good, Coryn conceded. And had done his homework.
“We’ll be aware of it,” Marlyss answered. “How much aid we’ll be able to give Dian and Sarah will depend on the timing and the circumstances. If we had enough notice I could bring the power of all the Seven Circles to their aid, but, since there has to be an element of spontaneity to this, that may not be possible. The Circle of the Twelve, however, can be gathered together very quickly.”
“We’re not certain, either, of what kind of strength the other side can throw at us in terms of amarto-power,” Roland added. “Although I do understand that they threw quite the loop at you people, right here on Kordea.”
“You mean, quite the mesh-bag,” Marlyss corrected, with a hint of a smile.
She was melting, Coryn judged.
“You will be in touch with Coryn here, I trust,” she added. “In your Terran fashion. So if Sarah or Dian wants to let us know something important, before they are ready to reveal themselves to the enemy, Coryn can pass the word to us.”
Ah, thought Elli, who had been listening very carefully to every word spoken. Was that why the Witches were insisting that Coryn remain on Kordea? They wanted him as their go-between? She had heard that the young man had developed a very good relationship with the Witches, as well as other Kordeans of importance, in the time that he had functioned as the Kordean-Confederation Liaison Officer. The fact had surprised a lot of people, since the pretty boy had been dismissed in some quarters of The Agency as an eager hot-shot with a way with women, who deserved the dead-end assignment that he had been given, of digging into the absurd connection that The Organization seemed to have developed with the mysterious Stones of the Kordean Witches.
Yet, in the last some while, that amarto-angle had turned into the most disturbing part of The Organization’s quest for galactic domination. And the pretty boy Agent had proved himself a very capable operative who had already succeeded in foiling some of the enemy’s plans, and had managed to forge a working relationship with the strange but powerful women who considered themselves responsible for the world Kordea. He had not been forthcoming concerning the reasons why the Circle Witches wanted him to pass up on The Mission, when he was sending an assortment of his own people on it, but Elli decided that the reasons were probably good ones. There was more there than just the desire of Witch Marlyss, the Eldest of the Circle of Twelve, to have a trusted messenger boy at hand.
“We will, of course, keep in touch with Coryn,” Roland said. “I believe that we have channels of communications undetectable by The Organization.”
*****
Saying goodbye to the group which departed on the old retrofitted ship to which both Joe and Sarah gave a passing grade, was tough for the Liaison Officer. A good portion of his staff was on it, including the recently hired Scientific Advisor. And Sarah, of course, Sarah who had been avoiding him since their morning chat, as much as was possible. And he could not blame her; he recognized that he had not been the most pleasant person, the last few days.
Jillian cornered him before she and Joe took their bags to the ship, rechristened “Hera’s Hope”.
“Look, I know you wanted to lead this Mission, Boss,” she said. “But I asked Dian why she thought that Marlyss wanted you to stay behind, and she figures that there is going to be something happening here that requires your input. Besides which, you can keep things sweet here, whereas none of the rest of us can. So quit looking so glum; the universe will unfold as it should.”
He managed a wry smile.
“I certainly hope that it’ll unfold as it should. If you must know, that’s why I agreed to stay behind. To try to insure that it does.”
“We’ll all be doing our best to protect Sarah,” Jillian added. “That’s part of your black mood, isn’t it? Worrying about her braving the lion’s den?”
His smile died. He drew a deep breath.
“Do what you can,” he said. “None of us are able to do more than that.”
When Sarah said her perfunctory good-byes to him, he fou
nd himself thinking of how trustingly she had held his hand in The LockandKey, before the capture of the amarto-detectors. Now she was making sure that he didn’t get a chance to touch her; she was denying him even the possibility of a brotherly peck on the cheek. She really must think that he had a lover whom he was concealing from her! It would have been funny if it hadn’t been so achingly sad. Where did she think that he was hiding this mythical woman?
Sarah, on her part, just wanted the awkward farewell to be over. Had Jillian’s chatter about her boss’s hormones given her some foolish idea that she, the skinny space ship mechanic from Laurentia, could actually win for herself the attractive Coryn Leigh? If so, that had been stupid of her; of course there was some other woman in his life—probably some beautiful Kordean woman, with a lovely figure like Nance had. There were enough of those in Trahea. Jillian had said that Coryn was monkish in his habits these days, but what did Jillian know? He could be doing anything during his off-hours; he was an adult, and nobody was tracking his comings and goings. It was true that she had not seen anything to indicate such during her visits to the Official Residence, but he would likely not have confided in a protégé whom he obvious considered the next thing to a child!
Well, she had work to do, a Mission to accomplish, and it was best not to waste time pining over a man whom she could never have. Only, how long would it take for her to excise him from her system?
*****
“This is it,” said Jaime to Roland Harmiss. “Altec III. An Earth-type planet, okayed for colonization, but never properly occupied, except by fringe groups like the one we’re impersonating, because it is in the no-man’s land between the Confederation and The Organization. Therefore, sparsely populated, by scattered enclaves who don’t have much to do with one another. Which is one reason, certainly, why The Organization chose to locate their experimental laboratory here. Not many people on the mudball, and none of them are of the highly technological variety.”
“You’re referring to secrecy, and security, I presume?” asked Roland.
“Partly.” Jaime scratched his head. “Also, I very much suspect that the presence of large, technological population centres interferes with the operation of their amarto-energies resonating devices. You’re aware of how radio telescopes are usually located on the far side of the moons which orbit major planets like Mallora, and Earth?”
At Roland’s nod he continued:
“I found out, on Kordea, that amarto-sensitives find it easier to work efficiently if they are at a distance from large concentrations of human beings—the Circle Strongholds are always located in the countryside, never in cities, or even near cities. Apparently, the less trained a sensitive is, the more she feels the interference of the random mental activity of crowds.”
“I’m a little surprised that The Organization didn’t stick to their own territory, though,” Roland mused. “They’re arrogant, I know, but to put a facility like this in the borderlands—any ideas?”
“They may have decided to ‘hide it in plain sight’, so to speak,” Jaime replied. “Figuring that nobody would look for something like it there—besides which, if push comes to shove, they can just claim that it’s not theirs, but must belong to some group of crazies, whether on planet or not. Also, this way they’re not risking their own people if something goes wrong.”
“And if they’re judging the Confederation according to their own standards, I would guess that they assume that we don’t care about these people, either,” added Roland. “They’re dissidents of one sort or another, after all.”
“Mind you, I’m sure that they’re keeping a spy-eye, or ear—or a few of both—in the vicinity. And, possibly, a battle ship, or a small fleet of such, behind the nearest asteroid, attuned to the info-gathering devices,” Jaime said. “So they will be aware of our arrival, which means that we better play our parts convincingly. And there will be trouble once The Mission has been completed, and we’re looking to get the hell out of here!”
“Coryn and Marcues are supposed to be getting us back-up for that.” Roland shook his head. “I’d worry if it was all up to Marcues, but Leigh stands by his people, so he won’t let us down.”
“No, I don’t see Coryn leaving us to be devoured by the wolves,” Jaime agreed.
“Now, whereabouts on the surface did your clandestine info claim that the facility was located?” he then asked.
“Surprisingly close to the largest settlement,” Roland replied. “My guess is that they don’t want to bother shipping in all the necessary products to keep the place going—foodstuff and such—and decided to trade with the locals for those.”
“They are actually trading for those,” said Elli, breaking into the conversation, “which is one of the reasons why we zeroed in on this particular facility. More often than not, The Organization government simply requisitions whatever they need or want, from the locals, without any recompense. For them to be making the effort to stay on the good side of these folks, suggests that what they’re doing here is important, and that they are here for the long term.”
“True,” her husband said. “The Agency has a spy, or two, in the settlement, and apparently the locals are very interested in knowing what’s going on in the facility. It’s something of a closed box to them, and that, of course, has whetted everyone’s curiosity. They’re wondering what those who claim to be the overlords are doing in their back yard.”
Sarah, listening to the exchange, very much regretted the fact that she could do no Stone-scanning of the planet surface. She glanced at Dian, who was listening to the conversation along with her, and saw a frustration mirroring her own on the Circle Witch’s face.
“Hah,” said Jillian who had been observing everyone, as was her habit. “Sarah and Dian, you’re just going to have to leave the investigating to us Agents this time, no matter how much it irks you. Just keep those amartos shielded inside their amusing bags.”
“Oh, neither of us has the least intention of blowing cover,” Sarah assured her. “But perhaps we’ll be able to mix with the locals a bit and make like we’re auxiliary Agents. We were planning to land at the settlement, and start the operation from there?”
“Oh yes,” Roland answered, his eyes roaming over the motley crew. “So have your drab clothes ready, everybody. It’s time to start looking and thinking like a bunch of religious fanatics.”
*****
The settlement’s Space Port amounted to a stretch of gravel. Incongruously, there were four sleek-looking space ships parked on the gravel when Jaime brought Hera’s Hope down. Besides those, there was only one other vessel, of about the same vintage as the one that the supposed pilgrims were using. It was parked to the side, and grass had begun to grow around it; it had not seen space flight for some time.
There was nobody to welcome the crew or the passengers of Hera’s Hope at the makeshift Port; they might as well have landed on an uninhabited planet. No-one had answered Jaime’s hails either, when he had tried to announce their arrival, although his equipment had detected listeners tuning into his hails, from the very moment when he had first requested landing space. He had had to take a guess as to the location of the space vehicle parking area; the four fancy ships had lured him to this patch of gravel, and the presence of the superannuated ship had clinched the gravel pit as the Port of the local Settlement.
“Maybe Sarah and I could get employment putting that old girl back into shape,” Joe said when he saw the unused ship. “It looks like one of those that, with decent maintenance, will just keep on going and going.”
“Wonder what these people use for local transport?” Texi mused. “If they use the flyers and the flits associated with that ship, I could make myself useful.”
“We were planning on claiming some land, and starting a commune,” Elli protested.
“Hey, we’re going to have to interact with the locals, Elli,” protested Roge, one of the Agents whom Roland and Elli had brought with them. “We’re not a big enough a group
to form a commune on our own.”
“The Lord will provide,” Elli said primly, and Sarah swallowed a burst of the giggles.
Elli was good. Sarah hoped that she could do as well herself.
They were all dressed in grey and black clothes: tunics and pants. The women had balked at the notion of wearing long skirts, and Roland had agreed that they needed to be able to move fast in any emergency. Elli had been the one to finesse that.
“It could be part of why we broke away from our supposed parent sect,” she had said. “Our women were rebellious about dress, and you Roland, our leader, didn’t see why we couldn’t be allowed to wear trousers. So it was just another item, among many, to chase us into exile.”
All the women also wore leather-covered pendants, hanging on long chains around their necks. They were known as Hera’s Gems, and were never to be uncovered, or removed. The women would clasp them while praying to the Female manifestation of the God, known as Hera. Men, on the other hand, were men, and needed no trinkets.
*****
“You’ve got some comely-looking women,” said the Elder of the Settlement whom Roland and Elli had approached about the possibility of getting a land grant to start a commune.
His eyes wandered among Jillian, Sarah, Dian and Nance, stopping especially to admire Nance, who, in spite of her drab outfit, did look rather fetching. Sarah was suddenly glad that she was the plainest of the young ladies. It felt safer, somehow.
Jillian snorted, and Roland threw a warning glance at her.
“Spirited, too,” added the Elder.
“They’re all spoken for,” Roland said sharply. “As you can see, the men in our group outnumber the women. If anything, we’re looking for another young lady; we’re not about to give any of ours away.”
Love and Intrigue Under the Seven Moons of Kordea Page 14
