Don't Label Me! (25 page)

Sathi wasn’t sure what had just gone down
but if she went by this new man’s aura he was to be trusted.
Logically she couldn’t deal with both of them anyway. Reluctantly
she stood and released her catch.

“
Give Ms Rupasinghe your stone fire
weapon. Their scientists want to study one.”

Surprised Sathi accepted the offered weapon.
She looked at the man who called himself General Polemarch. “Call
me Sathi. I still need to know his contact down at the port. This
network of aura watchers is a threat to us.”

“
I will get a list to Simon.
Unfortunately Sakla no longer trusts me so he doesn’t always tell
me all his schemes these days. If he’s doing this he’s using what
he has on these people to blackmail them and bend them to his
purpose. Anyone who can see auras is spiritually evolved. He’s
trying to turn your potential allies against you. He may even be
using them to identify and round up anyone with auras that show
them to be on the path to waking up. Tell Simon I’ll investigate
and meet with him shortly. We’ll be neighbours of a kind soon. Now
go. You’re lift is waiting.”

Sathi turned around but could only see a
plain tabby cat. Feeling Hideo somewhere back in Boswell she bent
down to pat the cat. “Good day. What are you doing here?”

As the ex-Din said, I’m
your lift.
The cat brushed against her and she was
instantly transported into a small clinic. Hideo lay on a gurney.
Of the people around him she only recognised her ex-guru. “Simon.
Can you heal him?”

“
Sally and I can help but it is only
with the heart’s blood of someone bonded with Hideo that such a
wound can be healed.”

“
But I’m not bonded to
him.”

“
Actually yes, you are. That little
rope ritual in Sydney did the trick. You gave yourself to him in
complete trust. The power of such trust is no small
thing.”

Sathi froze in fear. “But I have no wish to
be anyone’s possession.”

Hideo coughed to grab her attention. “And I
have no wish to ‘own’ you either.” He watched her wince and knew
then that she did care something for him. “ I wish for your
companionship, your trust, your friendship and maybe one day your
love.”

Sathi neared the gurney and viewed his arm
with anguish. She hated to see him in pain, but... “Hideo, I do
care for you. I barely know you but I feel a calmness and
steadiness whenever I’m around you. You make me feel safe, watched
over, precious. Yet I care for Lewis and Roger too. I trust Simon’s
judgement. He sent you to me but I can’t deny I have a place in my
heart for them too.”

Simon grinned knowingly. “Actually I sent
each of them to you. Roger first up, obviously. More recently I
passed your contact details on to Lewis. He was looking for a
female dominant to help him destress after a particularly gruelling
patch of work and because of my own past reputation he thought I
might know someone suitable. Forgive me but I couldn’t help but
keep tabs on you. My seer’s skill means little is hidden from me. I
couldn’t send you Hideo until his heart was ready. Each, I believe,
has found a place in your heart.”

“
It is true guru.”

“
Just Simon. I’m not your teacher
anymore. I’d hazard a guess that on the sexual front you could
teach me a thing or two. We must swap ideas sometime.”

“
I’d like that guru, um,
Simon.”

“
Just as long as I don’t have to fuck
Lewis or Roger I have no problems with sharing.” Hideo muttered
from where he lay.

“
I think Lewis and Roger will do
enough of that with each other.” Simon mused.

Sathi stared at Hideo. “You’d share? You’re
okay with that?”

“
Make no mistake Sathi. I may not wish
to possess or control you but I consider you mine. If you wish to
make Lewis and Roger yours in turn that’s your business. Just keep
them on the other side of the bed. I’ll sleep on the right hand
side of the bed from you. That’s my side of the bed. It’s my bed
and I’m not changing that one quirk for anyone.”

“
But you like Lewis and Roger? You’ll
let them live in the house with you?”

“
They’re good blokes. I can’t see a
problem. I’ve been on my own a long time. I think I’ll enjoy the
company. I’ll just need to set up a quite space out the back where
I can mark homework papers and prepare lessons without
interruption. I imagine Lewis will need an office space too. But
believe me when I say that if either one of them ever gives you any
grief they will answer to me.”

Sathi relaxed a bit but not entirely. Time
would see if the arrangement would work for them all. “And the
heart’s blood?”

“
My mum will take your offering.”
Simon explained. “ The process is a little unpleasant but it won’t
hurt you.”

Not wishing for Hideo to suffer a moment
longer Sathi nodded her consent. “Do it.”

Peter found the three of them an outside
table at his favorite cafe. He waited for Alicia and Sandy to seat
themselves and then passed them a menu each. No doubt in other
countries he’d be expected to pull out their chairs for them but
these were modern Australian women who would be startled if not
outright made to feel awkward by such a gesture. They each made
their choices from the menu and then he called the waiter over to
give their order. “Now ladies, tell me what you are really up to. I
can protect my own arse so that’s not the all of it is it?”

Alicia smirked. “Very perceptive of you Mr
Stein.”

“
Peter, please.”

Alicia nodded her appreciation of the drop
in formality. “Here’s the deal Peter. Sandy and I have our business
which is predominantly corporate troubleshooting. We started out as
fairly ordinary private investigators but soon got jack of looking
for lost pets and watching errant spouses. We both have MBAs and
past lives in the corporate sector. Lives we got wholeheartedly
sick of, what with all the backstabbing, greasy pole climbing, dog
eat dog world of trying to achieve anything in that field. We knew
enough of that world though that we could use our knowledge to make
it better for others. We started specializing in cases dealing with
uncovering corruption and fraud in business. That’s when General
Polemarch of Sauros Enterprises found us. He’s been contracting us
from time to time to clean up his own organization, small scale
fraudsters, insider trading, industrial espionage and that sort of
thing.”

As Alicia stopped to sip from her cup of
tulsi masala Sandy took over the tale. “He wants us to up the ante.
Now we work not for Sauros Enterprises but for Polemarch himself.
He wants us get the dirt on SE and bring it to its knees.”

“
So why has he positioned you within
my council?”

“
Well firstly he really does want to
protect your back. He’s sure Sakla will come after you. This first
attempt on your life was just testing the waters. He’ll up the ante
for sure. The other reason is that he thought you might be open to
starting a fight against corruption in your own neck of the woods.
A campaign that has the potential, if your are willing, to go
global. We start by putting this council under the microscope, so
to speak. Then we follow the trails and see where they take us. Any
council has extensive network connections with all arms of
government, business, even non-profit organisations. We’re working
on the theory that whatever we find here will be a microcosm of
what is going on at the global level. We’ll start small and follow
the trails. But we need you to cover for us and back us.” Sandy sat
back and took a sip of her own cup, watching beneath her eyelashes,
waiting for his response.

“
Well ladies. I won’t say no to the
protection even though I can’t imagine how two mild mannered souls
such as yourselves might do that. As for the other, you have my
total backing. When do we start?”

Alicia studied her fingernails, concealing
the smirk on her face. He’d get a shock when he realised just how
deadly they could be. Yet she had no illusions that it would take
more than her and Sandy to keep him under surveillance at all
times. “We’ll be working closely with J.G Security and an operative
from Sentient Species Liaison to keep you covered at all times. All
you need to do is to get us firmly entrenched within the council
and grant us complete and open access to all files and
personnel.”

Peter worried the union might give them
grief if anyone cottoned on to the surveillance but they’d cross
that bridge when they got to it. “Keep it low key for now but you
have a go. I trust you to keep me as informed as Polemarch.”

Alicia and Sandy looked at each other,
slight movements of their eyes speaking a language they’d long ago
worked out. Finally Alicia nodded. “You have our word.”

Tyra looked up from her work with Ally as
Simon entered the room. “How’s Hideo?” Even as she asked the
question she found the answer in his mind.

“
He’s fine. Sathi’s resting. Sathi’s
still a little unsure of what I’ve thrown her way but they’ll all
sort it out okay.”

“
So another foursome in
Boswell.”

“
Yes but it’s not mine. It is you,
Arion and Thex that are everything to me. Thanks for understanding
about Sathi and not holding my past against me.”

Tyra’s love for the man beamed out through
every pore of her being as she stroked his hand. “You will always
be everything to me, just as you are, just as you were and just as
you will be.”

Simon’s eyes threatened to water as the wave
of her unconditional love rolled over him. He managed a manly
attempt at swallowing down the excess moisture. He’d repay her
heart in full later. “What are you and Ally up to?” As if he didn’t
already know. But he knew they would both enjoy briefing him.

Ally looked up from her typing at the
keyboard, oozing excitement. “Can I tell him Tyra?”

Tyra chuckled. “You know he already knows
Ally.”

Ally shrugged, not to be put off from her
excited exposé. “We can pretend though. Here’s the gist of it
Simon. You know how Sakla has blocked any mention of Boswell on the
mainstream web. Well, we’ve created a not so ‘dark web’, maybe you
could even call it the ‘light web’, where we can get our
information out to those who are interested. At its core it's a
social networking platform for the town and our allies in other
parts of fairy. Upal and Mendal have teleported over to the Yungus
and are setting them up with solar power and all the other
necessary technology as we speak. George and Orea are doing the
same in Borneo. There’s a spare grass hut there they can turn into
a community online access point which they will help them use.
We’ve also had a contact from a guy calling himself Yiannos. He and
his mate Evie want in too. He’s offering to connect us back into
the main web through back doors he’s personally built into it.”
Ally frowned momentarily, wondering if they were putting just a
little too much trust in this unknown guy.

“
He’s okay Ally”. Simon answered her
unvoiced thought. “He’s is, or I should say was, a guardian like
Tyra. He’s now passed the guardian role on to another but he’s
still totally dedicated to our side. You can trust him.”

Tyra looked at him curiously. “Is he
anything to do with the strangers that came to the market this
morning?”

“
He’s the son of one of those who
came. JJ’s the human you met.”

“
So Yiannos is from the Rasselas, the
newest part of the fairy dimension. Earth 2.0 is
expanding.”

“
Earth 2.0. It’s an idea. But I also
like your name for the digital world you and Ally are building.
Let’s call it the light web.”

Simon, Helena and Melissa walked into the
dappled light of the glade. Ready and waiting for them Eadaoin sat
on a boulder, stretching her wings in the warm morning sun.
“Greetings friends.”

Simon bowed respectively to the ancient
faerie queen. “Thanks for making time to see us.”

Eadaoin dismissed the formality. “You are
family now. Communication is vital to our cause. It is time. Let us
discuss the all-spirit’s plan.”

Helena nodded quietly to herself. She wasn’t
surprised Eadaoin was already one step ahead of them. She’d been
Eadaoin’s friend for a long time. In fact for a long time the feya,
as the Russians called them, or faeries had been the only beings
Helena could safely befriend without putting them at the risk of
her mafia bosses. Over years of meetings with them on Sundays in
the park they had taught her many things. “You felt it in the trees
didn’t you?”

“
I knew as soon as you determined the
path you would take. The earth told me, the trees told me, the very
air breathed it.”

Melissa drew her own breath in anticipation.
After all this dimension sort of belonged to the faeries. They’d
shifted their realm into it long ago and could easily claim prior
ownership. Yet they had warmly welcomed and even actively assisted
the transition of Boswell and their Yungas jungle friends into that
realm. “So what do you think?”

“
Bringing the whole world, piece by
piece into this dimension. Stealing the world, so to speak, right
from under the feet of the Din. It has merit. I think we do this in
six stages based on the idea that between any one person on the
planet and everyone else there are six degrees of separation. We
start with those we know and trust. The current realm of fairy now
includes Boswell, our friends in the jungles of the Yungas and
Borneo and our longtime neighbours the Shang in Zhang Zhung.
Between us we have connections to numerous small, tightly knit
indigenous, rural and remote communities around the world that
still follow the old ways. Add to those certain pagan and new age
communities who honour the earth. Nor should we forget those the
Din’s system has rejected; the homeless, the world’s nomads and
anyone else who has in large part opted out of the economic system.
The disappearance of any of these will not unduly threaten the Din,
in fact I think they will be happy to see them gone as they are the
source of most of the resistance to them. What they won’t realize
is that once that key niche is emptied it will begin to refill with
a new wave of resistors ”