Envoy to Earth (39 page)

"Say, do you really need
Gerent for this? I have some things to talk to him about. Business matters. The
Fast Transport concern. Boring stuff." That was a hint to everyone else
that she didn't want company, he knew.

Not that anyone there seemed to
care all that much. Petra just grinned and then looked at Patty a little harder
than normal.

"Well, that's discreet
enough, I suppose. I'm planning to have my way with him later, so don't tire
him out
too
much."

His friend, who he was trying to
avoid for her own good, took his hand and nodded somberly.

"All right. This time. Come
on." She tugged at him a little too roughly for it to seem like they were
really going off to do anything fun. At least nothing that he'd enjoy. When
they got into the hallway in front of the restaurant she pointed back the way
that he'd come. It was weird, but she took him back to his own ship and climbed
on board like she owned the thing or something. They were alone then, at least.
She didn't insist they go to the bridge where Kimi was, so it was clear that
she didn't need a trip anywhere.

"Is anyone else here?"
She whispered it, as if there might be listeners just around the corner.

"The whole crew is on
liberty, except for Kimi, who's the pilot for the moment. What's going
on?"

She looked around, and then
shrugged.

"Kolb approached me, earlier
today, and said that you'd sent him and that I'd figure out what that meant? I
put him in charge of our secret enforcement branch. You know, in case we need
to kill anyone, or kidnap them. He seemed... A little
too
happy to hear
that we were going to have one of those, to be honest. He wants to know who we're
letting into the inner circle? Everyone or..." She waited, her face blank.

Gerent tilted his head, playing
the game as best he could.

"We're keeping this small,
since it's mainly about watching the immortals and making certain they don't go
power mad. So, if they're in charge of anything else, they can't really be part
of this. So, um... Douglas Baker, Tenent and Tess? Technically I shouldn't be
part of it either, what with my important plant related tasks, but I'll just
have to watch myself for corruption. Well,
you
can do that for me."
He smiled, but it wasn't all that happy. It had been a real trial, that day, so
far.

She saw that in him, knowing him
at least that well.

"Is something wrong?"

"There were some deaths. The
men that hurt Petra? Count Rodriguez, the old one, is dead. Two of his guard.
By their own hand. They'd been lied to about it being an order, so took their
own lives. With what honor we could give them. The Count hadn't ordered it
either, but I castrated him anyway, since he still had her tortured. Then the
rest of the Counts and the King took turns breaking his arms and legs, leaving
only the right hand, so he could kill himself. It isn't really a problem, but I'd
sort of hoped we could get the man that made it happen before quitting. It
won't be any easier doing it tomorrow, but that's what everyone wanted. I
guess." He didn't know what to expect from her about what he'd said, but
she just seemed suddenly pleased.

"You
all
took down
Rodriguez? Together? People from the Rebellion, too?"

"Yeah. Well, not everyone was
there for that. No one wanted it to seem like a party or game. So just the ones
needed for it." He listed them off, which got her to smile, especially later
when he covered the rest of the people involved. Then he got a low whistle. It
sounded appreciative.

"
Damn
, Gerent! I
think you may have single handedly broken open the rebellion on your own. If
nothing else this really shows that Uncle Richard isn't going to let people be
abused under his reign. Having them all in like that is brilliant. How did you
think of it?"

"Tim told me to try it. I
was kind of surprised at first that everyone just went along with the idea,
regardless of personal feelings. I guess no one wants that to become the way
things are played, really. They said as much."

"I can see that. We've...
Well, I hope things will calm down now. We can't really count on it, but it's a
start. Say, can you take some messages around for me? Just letters, but I'd
rather they weren't read by anyone else other than their intended recipient. I
have a few..." She pulled three envelopes out of her side pocket, the
black tunic sealing behind itself as soon as she did it. That was a mental
command, but one that had come almost instantly, reshaping the magic of her
clothing as easily as a person might breathe.

The names were all familiar, but
some seemed a little off. Count Lairdgren, for instance. He knew she meant Kyle
Hardgrove though, so just nodded. He'd kind of been avoiding the man, he
realized. There wasn't a real reason for it, but he had anyway. Ridley Dens
was, he thought, at the King's Palace and Baron Coltress was Collette's father.
It would take more work to get them all into the right hands directly, but he
probably had time.

"Are these vital? I can go
now, I think. It won't take too long, if I hurry." Plus, then he wouldn't
have to look at her, standing there, acting like he was her friend.

That still stung, more than he
thought it would.

"That would be perfect,
actually. Oh, um, the transport business? We're using that for part of the
delivery system, so you'll want to get with Collette on that. We've been
talking about it. It will make tracking people and letters a lot simpler if we
control that part of things." She seemed pretty happy about that, but she
was the spy master, so it made sense.

With a wave he sent her back to
the restaurant.

"Tell everyone that I went
to... Um, actually, do some deliveries for you? It's the truth, and none of
these are people that you aren't allowed to talk to, so..."

She rolled her eyes. "Always
taking the simple way, aren't you Ger? I can do that. Don't take too long.
Petra will have my hide if you aren't back by bed time."

That part might have worried him,
except that he was secretly pretty happy about it. Petra and he hadn't been
that close yet, but it made sense, didn't it? To draw them together, if nothing
else.

The trip to Earth was done in one
big jump, which sped things up by about a minute, and he was around the planet
and settling down outside the Lairdgren School at the Space Training Center,
not fifteen minutes after that, having caught the orbit decently for that. It
was still light out, so he had good visibility, once he got under the heavy
spinning cloud layer. It was clear they were having a massive storm, from
above. The thing was vast and fast looking. It didn't change how he flew, but
when he got down he moved directly to his little Tim-Craft, which was in the
rear of the larger ship. He hovered the space craft over the forest, about a
quarter mile from the school, being that it was too big to land at the base,
and left directly from there.

He'd been to the school before,
but hadn't really learned the layout. Given the high winds, everyone else was
inside no doubt. For that matter he wasn't totally certain that Kyle Hardgrove
had stayed on as the Headmaster of the place. He was a Count now, so may have
relocated to Grenwyn. That normally wouldn't have been too hard to figure out,
since he could just ask one of the students about it, but no one was out in the
storm. It was bending trees nearly sideways with its force and bits of the
buildings were starting to come off, in several places. Looking over he noticed
that one of the dorm's had lost its top completely, the thing blowing away and
taking out part of the wall of the structure next to it. There was a mighty
crashing sound, and then, as he moved his craft over in that direction, scared
faces popped into view through the hole.

Young ones. Students of the
Lairdgren School. And here he was, Countier Lairdgren the lowest... That sort
of meant he was required to help them, if he could, before they blew away.
Others dared to come out, from different locations trying to help, but he just
settled the craft and turned his shield on. It kept the worst of the wind off
of him, and would protect against flying objects.

Then, carefully, he made the
craft grow and added soft chairs for everyone, then he darted out, making a
door on the left hand side.

"In here! Come on, everyone
in. Put your shields on, if you have them! If you don't, well, everyone make
sure you have someone near you that does." It sounded like a silly idea,
but just trying to move from inside the dwellings to the craft, several of the
smaller kids tried to fly away. Not under their own power, either. The wind was
just that strong. At one point he ended up flying out to grab a girl in brown
silk that was nearly picked up and tossed into the building next to the one she
came from.

She clung to him and sobbed when
he set her down inside.

"Oh! I nearly died! You
saved me." It was a bit too dramatic really, but he patted her arm gently.

"Get a seat, toward the back
if you can, away from the door here. This wind is a bit brisk."

Over the course of forty minutes
they managed to get everyone inside, and not lose anyone. A few had broken
bones, and one young man, who was about his own size if more muscular, had a
piece of timber from one of the buildings lodged through his stomach. It should
have been a fatal wound, but Gerent carried a healing device, so it was just a
bloody mess and some manly sounding grunts of pain, instead.

Sighing he got on his
communications device and contacted Petra, since it was pretty clear that he
wasn't going to make it back in a timely fashion.

Everyone gathered around the
device on the other side, and the forty or so young people with him seemed to
be pretending not to eavesdrop. Poorly, as it turned out.

"What happened?" Pet
asked, sounding concerned at least.

"Massive storm in Lairdgren.
I... don't think I've ever even heard of anything this big before. I'm at the
school, it looks like they've lost two or three buildings. I'm sort of
providing emergency shelter for the ones that need it right now, which kind of
changes the plans a bit. Personally, I blame Patty, or would if I hadn't
figured that I could have this all done in about an hour. Silly me. Well, I
guess we can set up a food unit and use building pieces to make snacks."

That got a chuckle, from the
other side of the unit. No one there did however. They were all still scared
and tired looking. Exhausted by nearly dying.

That always took it out of him,
too.

"Take care love. We have
things handled here. Get back when you can?"

"I will. Thanks for
understanding." He meant it, but Petra gave him a wrinkled nosed look and
rolled her eyes.

"What's not to understand?
You're
there
, so you have to help. I'll get off the communications
device. Have you reached anyone there yet?" It was clearly a hint as to
what he needed to do next. Smiling he shook his head.

"Of course not. It only made
sense to talk to you first, right? I'll do that now. Later."

She just disconnected, which he
hoped was due to expediency, not annoyance at him being late. Or leaving
without telling her first. He really didn't know her well enough to understand
what she might be thinking, did he?

He tried for Count Lairdgren next
and was in contact with him almost instantly. Wherever the man was, it was
clear he was close, since the wind howled through the building he was in.

"Hardgrove here,
go
!"
The man had to scream the words, and was holding on to a wooden pillar, one
that seemed to be outside. He clearly had a shield on, since he wouldn't have
been alive otherwise. There were two scared looking boys with him, too. They
clung to the pillar next to him.

"Gerent here, where are
you?"

"Weapons square!"

"Right, we're coming to you
then, hang on!" He sealed the door and called out to everyone else, even
though they were actually fine. He just liked to know what was going on,
himself and figured they might.

"The Headmaster and some
kids are in the weapons area, which way is that?" A tall boy, who looked
like he might be sixteen, jogged up to the front of the craft, he was all wet
still, and his hair was a mop that made him look unkempt. It was too long for
any of the fighting students there, he thought. They kept their hair pretty
short, so people couldn't use it against them.

"That way, sir. This craft
should fit, if you're careful. I'll try to spot for you?"

They worked together, with the
boy running from side to side, looking for a good place to land, and to keep
them from hitting anything. It took a lot longer than it should, since the
heavy rain turned the air nearly gray outside. Still, he was able to get out,
along with two shielded students, and grab the kids that had nearly died.
Hardgrove was fine, but neither of the others had shields on. They were very
young too. Maybe first year students? Ones dumb enough to get caught out in a
storm like that.

They actually needed the healing
device, it had been so bad. Mainly because of things hitting them. Wind driven
objects, and the cold water having sapped their bodies of heat.

He didn't get to do more than
settle back down before another building lost its structure, collapsing almost
completely. He winced, but the headmaster just waved at it.

"One of the storage
sections. Hopefully no one will have been in there. Luckily for us you happened
by." His tone was a bit exhausted sounding, so Gerent passed him his
waking charm. It did seem to perk the man up, so he passed it back to the
others. That made sense, given that being awake and alert was better than not
ready for what they had to do next, whatever that was.