Pliocene Exile - The Adversary Part 34

AIKEN: Greetings, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH: h.e.l.lo and congratulations! I see you're ready to leave Calamosk with the all-terrain vehicles. You've been very adroit in handling the young North Americans.

AIKEN: They've swallowed my bluff, if that's what you mean.

And for the moment, they're willing to accept my authority.

Hagen Remillard suspects something fishy might be going on, but he can't quite put his finger on what it is.

ELIZABETH: He's tried to probe you?

AIKEN: That's his sister's gig ... but no, they've been discreet so far. Still sniffing me out.

ELIZABETH: Are you heading directly back to Goriah now?

AIKEN: All of us except the expedition to the Alps. They'll split from our caravan at the Amalizan crossroads. Sail across Lac Provencal and then head into the mountains along the trail behind Darask. They'll approach Monte Rosa via the Italian back door. Bleyn's on his way down from Goriah to lead the expedition and Ochal the Harper will be his second. I'm sending seven of the fifteen fourplex ATVs, with ten of Hagen's nontechnical people as drivers. Basil and his b.a.s.t.a.r.ds will go, of course-all except one guy named Dimitri Anastos, who's some kind of hotshot u-field engineer. Hagen thought he might come in handy on the time-gate project. I'm filling out the expedition with thirty-odd Tanu and elite golds, armed to the teeth. Those aircraft are the family jewels, babe. Timegate or no time-gate, I'll be truly snookered if I don't get my hands on them in time to counter Marc and the Firvulag. You could help the expedition, if you would.

ELIZABETH: Routemaking?

AIKEN: Primarily. The Darask people say that n.o.body knows the territory east of the Maritimes. To the north is Famorel, of course. The expedition wants to avoid an encounter with Mimee's forces at all costs. If you could keep an eye out, steer them away from hostiles, show them the fastest routes for the ATVs you'd save lives.

ELIZABETH: Of course. I'll be glad to.

AIKEN: [Relief.] I was afraid it might be against one of your d.a.m.n principles.

ELIZABETH: I can't a.s.sist you in aggression, Aiken. This is nothing of the sort. Your acquisition of the aircraft may prevent war.

AIKEN: It better.

ELIZABETH: Will you begin work immediately on the Guderian device?

AIKEN: I've got Alberonn and Lady Morna-Ia tracking down likely technicians and other boffin types right now. They'll a.s.semble the personnel in Goriah. I wish I could hide the project away in some secret spot where Marc wouldn't be able to find it-but I wouldn't trust Hagen out of my sight, and there are some other specimens among those young rascals who make him look like Sir Galahad. Oh, we're getting along famously.

ELIZABETH: Do you really think it will be possible to build the tau-field generator?

AIKEN: These North Americans brought a h.e.l.l of a lot of stuff with them-components, manufacturing apparatus, gadgets galore. And we'll probably find more useful items in the Goriah store that Kuhal and Celo mopped up for me. They're finis.h.i.+ng the new inventory now. The most difficult raw material will be some rare-earth element Hagen says we'll have to mine in Fennoscandia. Even with an aerial survey, it'll be the devil's own job to locate the ores. None of the Tanu are familiar with that northern country.

ELIZABETH: You should enlist Sugoll's help.

AIKEN: ?.

ELIZABETH: Numbers of his people lived in that region prior to the Howler ingathering. Some may still remain. I know that many mutants were keen miners of jewels and precious metals. If you described these rare-earth minerals to them, they might be able to expedite your survey.

AIKEN: Great idea. I'll farspeak Sugoll, spin him some yarnELIZABETH: Tell him the truth. About everything.

AIKEN You don't think he'd ... oh, my G.o.d, no!

ELIZABETH: All peace loving persons in the Many-Coloured Land must know about the time-gate. And have the option to choose.

AIKEN: [Laughter.] Oh, Woman! I can just see it. Nine or ten thousand hobgoblins pouring out of the gate into twentysecond-century France! There goes the neighbourhood! The Milieu would have to find a spare planet or something.

ELIZABETH: You could be dirigent.

AIKEN: Who said I was returning?

ELIZABETH: Aren't you? I took it for granted.

AIKEN: Take yourself for granted, sweets. The gate project is a long, long shot at a murky target. I have plenty of other troubles to keep me amused. Such as regaining my own sanity and powers before that d.a.m.ned Abaddon lands in Europe.

ELIZABETH: Aiken ... I thought you knew about Marc's djumping ability. [Image.] He came here. To Black Crag. He doesn't have the faculty under control yet, but it won't be long before he's able to teleport anywhere in the world.

AIKEN: Then Hagen was telling the truth. I hoped he had it wrong-that Marc was only pulling some sophisticated bilocation stunt with his augmented fa.r.s.enses and creativity.

ELIZABETH: He materialized inside my chalet.

AIKEN: Jesus! Did he threaten you?

ELIZABETH: No.

AIKEN: I can give you a sigma generator. Hagen doesn't think Marc will be able to d-jump through its force-field.

ELIZABETH: Thank you, but no. I must deal with Marc in my own way.

AIKEN: You have a way? Nice! I wish I could say the same.

We've been hiding under Hagen's big SR-35 sigma for our conferences here so Marc couldn't farpeep or join the party-and I'll use the thing in Goriah to s.h.i.+eld the Guderian project. But the King can't live permanently inside a friggerty silver fishbowl ... When Marc gets his act together, he'll put the screws on me proper. And I'm scared, sweets. When he finds out about the gate project, he'll try to burn me-and maybe succeed.

ELIZABETH: He's much weaker than he was before. Felice injured both his body and his brain.

AIKEN: That's what Hagen and Cloud said. But they didn't know how seriously his barebrain wattage had been diminished.

Even if he's ninety per cent wrecked, he's probably more than a match for Me right now! ... Not to mention the help he'll get from them.

ELIZABETH: [Concern.] Them. You're not talking about the Remillard children and their friends, or the older RebelsAIKEN: [Quiet laughter.] ELIZABETH: ... There's been no improvement in your subsumption?

AIKEN: I'm losing ground, if anything.

ELIZABETH: Symptoms?

AIKEN: I haven't slept since the fight with Nodonn. Ten peris.h.i.+ng days. I can barely fly, let alone carry anything. My creativity is shot except for illusion making. The redaction is just about wiped out. I can still coerce. (Wouldn't you know?) I can fa.r.s.ense, but it hurts like h.e.l.l.

ELIZABETH: I never would have known. You have a very deceptive psychosurface.

AIKEN: [Desperate weariness.] You mean, dear lady, that I am tricky.

It may be my last bastion of survival. If I don't get some help soon, I'll be stark raving mad before Truce.

ELIZABETH: Oh, Aiken.