“You’re forecasting nothing short of the end of the world as we know it,” Spirit said at last. “Maybe the end of the human race as we know it.”
Morgaine nodded. “It won’t take more than a couple of years for New Eden to produce enough projectors to do the job. Even if they don’t lick the flying problem right away, they’ll lick that, too, given time. You know it and I know it. All Flux and Anchor at the mercy of a single council of Fluxlords who wouldn’t even need the power themselves. Maybe one vision at the end.”
“Yeah,” Matson sighed, lighting a cigar. “I agree New Eden’s the major threat, but it’s not the only one. This group is smart. Don’t put ’em down because they’re brutal or dirty-faced. They got plans for this thing, and it isn’t just bigger raids or a big Fluxland. From what I know, I don’t think Ayesha’s vision of World would be any nicer than New Eden’s.”
“But surely she doesn’t have a prayer of actually beating New Eden to the punch,” Sondra put in. “I mean, how could she build them?”
“I don’t know, but I say again not to underestimate this bunch. They always seem to know what they’re doing and be one step ahead of us. They’re good.”
“You’re betting that she’s already got a deal with somebody else, somebody she’s betting on to solve the problem her way?” Morgaine asked him.
“Bet on it, or something like it. And that just complicates things further, since whoever that is is an unknown player in the game, one who might be worse than either of the known players. That’s why we hit the trail, daughters. Light and fast. I’ll depend on you for the basics.”
“That’s no problem,” Morgaine responded confidently. “The thing is, you know what we’re going to do if we get them?”
“No. I don’t even know how we’re going to do that, although I got a few ideas when the time’s right. I don’t really like fighting Suzl, but I can’t see anything we can do about that. Even without consideration for the kids, which is our first worry, we need that string or we’re sunk at the start.”
“Do you really think she could be so converted she’d fight us?” Sondra asked him disbelievingly. “Suzl?”
He nodded. “Yeah, it’s not so tough. They have power as a group and they have other things, probably including hand amps that were enough to knock Cass cold. She had the power and Coydt still managed to stick her with the Fluxgirl spell, remember.”
“But that was in the old days, the old Suzl,” Spirit noted. “She’s not the same now.”
“Are any of us? No, the trouble is that the old Suzl and the new Suzl have been having a war inside her head for over forty years now and they haven’t even compromised a thing. Half of her is revolted by the very idea of Fluxgirls and the other half wants to be one real bad. She’s been real close to killing herself but neither side of her has it in her to do that—and when she realized that, the Fluxgirl side got the edge. If they don’t know that now, they will when they have her a little bit. Her old self’s desperate, and that makes her vulnerable. It’ll be real easy to slip her around the bend so she’s deadly against anybody who serves any part of New Eden’s interests or who seems to. And that brings up tonight.”
He filled them in on the swap. “I’ll stay back, as will Dell and Verdugo. They don’t like or trust men much, not even old Borg. You three have the power to handle it—and to take care of yourself just in case something goes wrong.”
“You expect them to pull something?” Morgaine asked him, sounding almost as if she hoped they would.
“No, I don’t. But you can never be absolutely sure of these things going off, and while I’d trust Verdugo with my life in a fight, I wouldn’t trust him for a minute if his New Eden bosses decided to step in.”
“I still don’t see why we have to take that vicious punk along,” Sonda said acidly. “Even if he’s convenient now, he’s not somebody we need along the way. At the right moment, he’ll betray us.”
“He might,” the big man admitted, “but that’s not a present worry. We can always take care of him if he’s a problem, or if Flux doesn’t get him first. Me, I just need backup by folks who don’t depend so much on magic to win out. Dell’s good in a fight but he doesn’t think dirty enough and he’s got too much power in a pinch in Flux.”
Morgaine stared at him again, wondering if she’d heard correctly. “It’s not possible to have too much power.”
“Honey,” Matson sighed, “I said it before and I’ll say it again: I have no power to speak of. Coydt had the most power of anybody we ever knew on World. I killed him—in Flux. Your daddy might have been number two. He’s gone, too, because he found a wizard as strong as he was. Me—I’m still here. Now everybody and his sister has machines that make their power even stronger. You all just take care of the wizard stuff. Me, I’ll take care of the wizards too strong for you.”
“I think he lived in New Eden too long,” Morgaine whispered to her mother.
“Maybe,” Spirit replied, “but you haven’t seen him work. He’s still here.”
7
SWAP MEAT
Getting out of New Eden undetected had been easy. Matson’s acquiescence to Verdugo’s presence on the mission had cut through much red tape and allowed for many bends in the rules. They went out only three kilometers, then made a crude cold camp. Matson wanted to be ready for anything if and when the exchange took place and they might be fair game. Spirit and Sondra had spent a great deal of time talking to Suzl, but when she asked them what the alternative was that would preserve the children and her own sense of honor, they had no real reply. It was just tough to send a loved one to the wolves without a fight.
Suzl, oddly, felt the least emotion about what was going to happen. Ever since going into Flux she’d felt curiously distant from everything, as if she were going along merely as an observer to what would happen. It disturbed her that she had so little fear and apprehension, but she could not escape the feeling of destiny in all this. She’d been a lousy student, a lazy loafer, and she’d been tossed into Flux at majority. Before that point she had refused to take any control of her destiny, and afterward she had no control over anything that followed. Ultimately, she’d been a key factor in saving World; when that was over, she’d felt her destiny fulfilled beyond any dreams of youth. Yet, now, here she was again, at the center of another equally threatening crisis, and again she had absolutely no control over it.
Not that she sought control anymore, if indeed she ever had. She had often had visions in her youth as some kind of absolute monarch, but she’d had no sense of what she would do with such power. She had often pondered that early self-image and wondered what it really had meant. In the end, the queen bee did nothing but bear children; otherwise, she was merely the center of attention and waited on hand and foot. It had struck her one day a few years back that there was precious little difference between a queen of that sort and a Fluxwife of a judge in New Eden.
She had been fat and plain, and had been raised by distant relatives who really couldn’t have cared less for her but took her in because of family obligations. Until New Eden she’d always been brash, outspoken, irreverent, rebellious, always drawing attention to herself. It wasn’t really until she had to raise her own brood and then the grandchildren that she saw much of herself reflected in their immaturity and needs.
Her own children were, in fact, divided and as distant as she had been. Most were grown by the time of the Invasion; those had remained in New Eden and had drifted well away from her. The younger ones had gone to Freehold to grow up, but there was a distance there, too. Only two of her kids had shown up at the inn, the parents of the kidnapped girls, and they were there not out of worry for her but out of worry for the kids. It was true that they’d cried a bit at her sacrifice, but they had never questioned it nor expected her not to make it. Somehow, even though she’d have done it anyway, the mere fact that not one of her children had urged her not to go hurt, too, and made it all the easier to make the sacrifice.
It had all been said now. She rode in silence between Spirit and Sondra to the small temporary pocket, and she tried not to think of the past. Although three had been allowed, only these two would be with her—power enough for most circumstances. Morgaine was there as well, but silent and invisible, monitoring what could be monitored and providing a security backup.
Suzl didn’t know that the strings, the invisible strings, had already been attached to her through stringer devices and Flux power and matched to the rest of the group. The two women with her understood what was to come, and knew that Suzl above all others must not suspect those strings, nor when it became obvious that someone followed who that someone might be.
The pocket was easy to find if you were looking for it, and very crude. It was nothing more than stone and grass and a small pool of water. They dismounted, let the horses drink and graze, and waited. They had brought no extra horses or provisions; the children, if and when released, would be spirited back to camp on Flux wings and there reunited with their parents who would take them home along with messages and explanations from the others.
They had sat in near-silence for a while when Spirit said, “We’re being observed.”
The other two nodded. They were all veterans of the void and had never lost that sense of danger that saved many a life.
Suzl looked at both of them. “I don’t want any tears,” she told them. “I’ll survive. I always do.”
There was no response. About a minute later two horses and riders came into the pocket. Both riders were women; dark, well-built and muscular, and taller than average. Only their faces kept them from being striking beauties. One had a pushed-in, almost-snoutlike nose that also raised the upper lip, giving her a permanent snarl; the other had a nice face but it was totally hairless, without even eyebrows, and also had only small holes where the ears should be. Both were dressed very lightly, yet both had laser pistols in holsters on their hips. The one with the sneer held a small child in her arms which all three women saw was Dee, the youngest. They halted and looked down at the trio awaiting them, but did not dismount.
“You seem to have kept your part of the bargain,” said the bald one in a cold, emotionless tone. “We are keeping ours. The child has been given a mild sedative but is otherwise perfect. She has been held in Anchor by ones who appeared to be Fluxgirls, and should not have suffered much. All three have been insulated and well-treated.”
Spirit approached the one with the child and took her. The child shifted and started to suck her thumb in her sleep. The woman took the child over near Sondra and placed the little form on the grass, then turned back to the strange-looking pair.
Suzl approached, still feeling that this was distant and somehow unreal. “What now?” she asked.
The bald woman reached down to her saddle and withdrew a canteen and handed it to Suzl. “Drink this. All of it. There isn’t much there. It is nothing more than a strong hypnotic. We will do no spells here, but we don’t want you doing any, either.”
Suzl nodded and took the canteen. She opened it, sniffed it, then hesitated a moment, turning for one last look at Sondra and Spirit. Then she drank it down. It tasted like orange liqueur, and it burned a bit going down. She could trace its progress by that mild burning all the way to her stomach. She started feeling a little dizzy, and sat down on the ground.
“While it takes full effect, we will release the second child,” Baldy told them. Another rider then came in behind them holding another sleeping form. This was Missy, the middle child, older and larger than Dee, but she was also asleep. The new raider was much like the first two, but she had an eerie, animal-like face, something like a large cat complete with whiskers and a black nose. Her complexion was a yellow-orange with regular black stripes, even on her face, and she had hair that framed the face making it even less human.
She handed Missy to Spirit, who laid out the sleeping girl next to the first one.
Suzl had assumed a somewhat-rigid sitting posture and her eyes were closed, her breathing deep. With her power she could have easily eliminated or negated the hypnotic, but she had not and now it held her. She was beyond any resistance.
“Suzl, open your eyes,” Baldy commanded. “You will hear only the sound of my voice, and you will obey what it says if I begin the command with your name. Anything I say not beginning the sentence with your name you will not hear. Suzl—get up and go over and mount your horse.”