Part 12 (2/2)
”I asked Brown what of me, and she looked at me and told me to go to the storage chamber. So I did, and sneaked out from there. No one saw me.”
”How did you know where the storage chamber was?”
”Silly! I've been there many times before!”
”But you were supposed to be a Proton guidebot.”
Now it sank in. ”I shouldn't have known! The machine shouldn't have known!”
”Which means Brown caught on to your ident.i.ty.”
”But she wouldn't give me away!”
”I'm afraid she would, Nepe, now.”
”But why? She's on our side!”
”She is being blackmailed.”
”What?”
”Her s.e.xual preference is for women. Trool knew, but kept his counsel until he realized that Purple and Tan were catching on. Then he told me. Neysa was going to help her, but the invasion came too soon. Now they are forcing her to cooperate with the Hectare, lest her secret be publicized.”
”But who cares what she likes?” Nepe demanded. ”She's not the only one! Tsetse-” Then it came clear. ”That's why Purp sent her! To-”
”To make clear that he knows her secret, and will not only keep it, but give her a lover-if she cooperates,” Mach said. ”Carrot and stick. She can keep her Demesnes and nominal freedom, and have a truly lovely and obliging woman-or she can suffer the humiliation of exposure and unkind imprisonment. Rape by males would no doubt be pan of that punishment. She is a good woman, but sensitive and alone. She can not withstand that combination.”
”But do the rest of you really care? I mean, you tied in with an alien blob and a unicorn; what do you care about who she cares about?”
”Nothing. We can accept her as she is. But she can't believe that. Had we realized how it would be used against her, we would have made our position plain before the Hectare investment. But of course most of us simply didn't know. She was once smitten with Stile; we had not questioned beyond that. We should have.”
”Grandam Neysa-that's why she hurried us on,” Nepe said. ”Why she went back. Maybe she told Brown it was all right.”
”Neysa is conservative. It took her almost ten years to accept Fleta's relations.h.i.+p with me.”
”So she wouldn't go for it,” Nepe said. ”So Brown thinks that's how we all think!”
”It is an irony of the situation. We were distracted by the coming conquest, and didn't realize how this would relate.”
”So Brown will tell on me, because she has to. I wish I hadn't given myself away! What do we do now?”
”We shall have to move quickly, before the golems stake out the Poles.”
Nepe was baffled. ”What are you saying?”
”Something I preferred not to, before. We have set two counterploys in motion. One is the Magic Bomb which Black and Green have made.”
”The what?”
”Its detonation will destroy the planet and all on it. So if we lose, we will take the Hectare with us. But we prefer not to lose.”
Nepe was daunted by the horror of the notion. ”I had no idea!”
”We preferred to s.h.i.+eld you from that sort of reality,” he replied. ”But it is time for you to know, so that you understand the importance of your own role.”
”But I'm just a messenger!”
”Your messages are critical. You will have three, and you dare fail in none. Soon all of us will be captive except you. Here is the message capsule. Do not attempt the second until the first is done, or the third until the second is done.”
”I'll try,” she said. ”But-”
”I have erased my own knowledge of the plan,” he said. ”I was the only one who knew the full course. Now none of us can betray it to the enemy. I can only say that its details will be completely surprising. If you are caught, destroy the capsule without reading it.”
”But then we will all be destroyed!” she protested. ”By the Magic Bomb!”
He cracked a small smile. ”Get offplanet if you can.”
”But Daddy-”
”You are on your own, alien flesh.” It was an endearment he used on her, referring to her Moebite ancestry. ”On your way, and do not communicate with me again.”
She knew he meant it. She scooted away from him, the weight of the planet suddenly on her little shoulders. They were playing what in the game was known as hard ball.
When she was safely alone, she activated the capsule for the first message. It was simple: GO TO NORTH POLE.
That was all. She waited, hoping that there would be some explanation, but was disappointed.
She pondered it, her mind whirling. Tsetse had been delivered to Brown, and suddenly to save the planet Nepe had to go to the North Pole! How could she make sense of that?
Well, she could make a little piece of sense of it. Brown now understood what was at stake for her. Brown had also caught on to Nepe's presence. That meant that the enemy would be on her trail. But maybe not immediately. Brown might take a few hours to realize what she had to do, and Purple might have trouble tracing Nepe after that, even with magic. So maybe there would be no pursuit. But the Hectare might have devices that no one else knew about, that could sniff out even a magic trail, with a little advice from an Adept. So they couldn't take a chance. So Mach had given Nepe the full dose, on the a.s.sumption that they would trace him down through her, and take him out of the game. He could not afford to a.s.sume otherwise.
So before she went to the North Pole, she had better mask her trail. But quickly, because she didn't know how much they already knew. Mach had said they might have Brown's golems stake out the Poles. What did the Poles have to do with all this? Probably the answer was in the Book of Magic, which Mach had taken somewhere. He must have hidden it where it wouldn't be found by the enemy, because with it they could overcome anything any Adept tried.
Where would that Book be? Where else: the North Pole! So if she went there and got it, maybe she could use it to do whatever else was needed.
Nepe moved about within the city, crisscrossing her trail so that it would be excruciatingly difficult for anyone to track her by any normal means. She was good at hiding, as good as any creature could be, but there remained that lurking doubt: if Brown had told immediately, and Purple had put a magic tracker on her, that would be impossible to shake by physical means. So she might be wasting her time here.
Still, Flach was experienced at magical hiding, and he could do his best to nullify that tracker spell. So after she was done here, she would turn it over to him, and he would complete the job.
It all seemed reasonably simple. But she very much feared it wasn't.
8 - North
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