“Great. Uh, is there any place I can sit and talk to people?”
“You can borrow my pavilion,” the herald said. “I want to talk to you about this anyway. I’m looking for a change myself.”
The herald’s pavilion turned out to be an aluminum-framed camping tent hung with banners and set well off to the side of the encampment.
Moira sat at a folding table under an awning, sipping lemonade from a wooden goblet and watching the knot of people who had gathered in response to the herald’s announcement.
They didn’t look like the Mighty Moira was used to. There wasn’t a full gray beard among them and none of them showed the stately bearing and serene self-control she associated with powerful magicians.
The first one into the tent was a dumpy dark-haired woman in a blue-and-silver gown whose long dagged sleeves nearly trailed in the dust. Far too elaborate for such a place, Moira thought, especially since these people did not have cleaning spells.
Behind her were a tall dark-haired woman with piercing dark eyes and a shorter, sandy haired man with a neat spade beard who seemed to be her husband.
Next to them was a lean man going bald on top with his remaining hair pulled back into a pony tail.
She wondered how Jerry was explaining her world’s needs to them.
“You certainly seem qualified, Ms. Connally,” Jerry said to the woman sitting across from him. “I can’t tell you the nature of the job until you sign the nondisclosure agreement.”
“Judith, please,” the dark-haired woman in the blue-and-silver brocade gown corrected.
“I can tell you it is a short-term contract, probably about six months. The assignment requires that you live on-site until it is completed. The site is remote and rugged and contact with the outside world is very limited.”
“A black site?”
Jerry recognized the reference to an ultra-secret project where the programmers were kept totally isolated.
“Kind of dark gray, actually.”
Her eyebrows went up. “SDI, right?”
Jerry smiled, as he had seen so many recruiters do. “I am really not at liberty to say.
“Now,” he went on, “I should also warn you that there is an element of physical risk in this.”
The other’s eyes narrowed. “This is legal, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Jerry said, “That is, there is absolutely no law against what we are doing.” At least not in California, he added mentally. I think Massachusetts still has a law against practicing witchcraft.
“Now, tell me a little bit more about your background.”
The interviews went quickly. Jerry wasn’t interested in playing interviewer games, there was no application to fill out and no one had brought a resume to an SCA war. Besides, Jerry was a programmer himself, not some personnel bozo who only had the vaguest notion of what the job entailed.
And nobody is going to ask me to fill out an EEOC report on this one.
He had just talked to the eighth candidate when the herald, who went by the name of Ali Ahkan, stuck his head into the tent with a peculiar expression on his face.
“His Majesty, King Alfonso of Seville,” the herald announced.
Jerry wasn’t up on the etiquette, but he stood up as the king entered.
“Your Majesty.”
King Alfonso turned out to be a tall, rather lean man in his mid-twenties with an olive complexion and dark unruly hair. He was wearing a crown of sheet brass set with agates, dark hose, a black velvet doublet and riding boots. A broadsword hung from his hip on a white belt. His clothes were powdered with the brownish dust from the site.
The king stuck out his hand. “Karl Dershowitz,” said the king with a distinctly Texas drawl.
“Jerry Andrews.”
“So tell me,” said the king, pulling up the stool, “what’s this super-secret job you’re recruiting for?”
“How did you find out?”
He shrugged. “It’s all over camp. Did you know you’re with the CIA and you’re recruiting programmers who are expert swordsmen to fight their way into Afghanistan so they can tap into the Russians’ SDI computer network?”
“It’s nothing like that,” Jerry said uncomfortably.
“Of course not.” The king smiled. “If anyone in this bunch has a choice between a good story and the truth, the good story will win out every time.”