LOGAN (The Innerworld Affairs Series, Book 5) (20 page)

Nadia eyed her with curiosity. This one sounded as though she found the idea of keeping men as slaves quite attractive. "Slavery is against the law. Our men are servants."

"Hot damn!" Robin said with a laugh. "Talk about an upside-down world. Green sky, blue grass and women in charge."

"Heart is much safer than your world," Nadia said, "where men wage wars and fight one another in their own homes. We have no such violence here."

"How do you know Earth is like that?" Geoffrey asked.

She shrugged. "We question crossovers when they first arrive, before the memory depletion."

"Are your people all forced to drink the water? Is that how you keep them so peaceful?" Logan asked.

Her eyes narrowed warily. "Higgs told you about the water?"

"Of course," Geoffrey said. "But we had already guessed that we were being tranquilized by something."

"I see. You should have all been fully assimilated by tonight. No previous crossovers ever figured it out in time." Panic turned her stomach as she realized that her warning to Ray Higgs made her responsible for this uprising. The sexual pleasure she had discovered wasn't worth the price she might yet have to pay. How could she have known that Earth men could be so devious? No wonder her people kept them medicated.

She glanced at the western horizon and noted a hint of the approaching dawn. "Please. I have answered your questions. Allow me to leave now. I have important duties to attend to this morning."

"I regret any inconvenience," Geoffrey replied, dropping his friendly tone. "But you've barely begun to answer our questions. You claim your world is peaceful but surely someone must break a law from time to time. What sort of enforcement agencies do you have? Police? Militia?"

Nadia frowned. She wasn't familiar with those terms but she understood the meaning. "Laws are enacted and enforced by Parliament."

"And who heads up Parliament?" Geoffrey asked.

"The Imperial Prefect, Par—" She abruptly recalled her lie about her identity. "Nadia of Hinac is the ruler of all the provinces on Heart."

"What is your position?"

She hesitated again. As she feared, one lie was leading to another and starting to get complicated. "I am Parisia, Representative of Acameir."

"Would the Imperial Prefect have the power to free all of us?"

"Not alone. The majority of Parliament would have to agree to it and that would never happen."

"Nevertheless," Geoffrey said, "We would like to meet with your ruler."

Nadia gaped at him in shock. "That's impossible! Even if you were freed from this commune, no man may speak to her other than her personal servant."

Logan frowned at her skeptically. "Then you'll have to come with us and make the proper introductions."

She gasped. "
Never.
I couldn't do that. No Earth person is permitted beyond the barrier."

"That's why you're going to be our escort," Logan told her.

"No! I refuse to assist you. I... I will remain here in the commune rather than betray my people."

Geoffrey brought her attention back to him and spoke with feigned innocent curiosity. "You said none of us are permitted beyond the barrier. What if someone did get through? Are there guards around the wall?"

Nadia smirked. "That would be an unnecessary use of womanpower. No one can penetrate the barrier from this side, and even if someone did, their action would be picked up on the monitors."

"And after that?" Geoffrey asked then saw that she didn't understand. "If someone broke through, how would that person be stopped?"

Nadia opened her mouth to reply but nothing, not even a lie, came to her. Since no one had ever managed to escape from the commune, she was not aware of any procedures to deal with it. "That information is confidential. I do not have access to it."

Logan took one threatening step closer. "Tell me something you do know, lady. If it's impossible to penetrate the barrier from this side, how did you get out of here last night?"

Her gaze dropped to the control box in his hand before she could stop herself. She tried to hide her mistake with a cough but he wasn't fooled.

"This?" he asked, holding up the box. "Would you like to be nice and explain how to use it?" She only glared at him. "No problem. I'm sure we can figure it out. Geoffrey?" He handed him the box. "This should be a piece of cake for an engineer."

Nadia's inner panic was nearing the surface. "You must not fool with the controller. Improper use could have disastrous results."

Geoffrey turned the box over in his hand and studied the four red buttons and the numbered dial. "It would be better if you instructed me—"

"
Never!
I have answered your questions but I will not help you invade my home. I have made my decision—I will remain here in the commune."

Tarla knelt down beside the woman and spoke softly. "Parisia, my name is Tarla. You wouldn't want to remain here anymore than we do. You said slavery is forbidden and yet we are being held captive and required to work in the fields to provide food for you. Surely you must see how wrong that is."

"We don't need the food," Nadia replied defensively. "The farm is merely the best means to keep the Earth men busy and self-sufficient."

Tarla cocked her head thoughtfully. "Busy? As in, busy hands are happy hands? Is that why they're still farming and cooking by century-old methods? To keep busy?"

Nadia was duly impressed by this woman's deductive reasoning. She definitely showed signs of intelligence. "Precisely. Their days are so filled with mundane chores that they couldn't possibly get into mischief."

"And the more modern bathroom facilities?"

"Hmmph! We would never leave sanitation up to men."

"One more question," Geoffrey said. "How closely are we being observed?"

Nadia gave him a sly smile. "Closely enough."

"Are we being watched now, out here?" Tarla asked. When the woman didn't respond, she reminded her, "Your freedom depends on your cooperation. We wish to know how much your people are aware of what we say and do."

Nadia thought about it for a moment then decided the truth could not make things any worse than they already were and it might just help. "There is a sky monitor that views the entire farm from a distance. The cloud cover tonight has probably obscured the picture."

"And inside the buildings?"

"Only the barn is monitored for sight and sound."

Tarla nodded thoughtfully. "So, when someone goes into the tack room with a medical problem, they are seen and heard by someone. Correct?" She quickly glanced at Logan then back to their captive.

"At the moment, there are observation techs on duty around the clock, though that is not usually necessary. Your avoidance of the antidote has caused a number of inconveniences," Nadia said with obvious annoyance.

Logan motioned Geoffrey aside and Tarla and Robin followed, leaving the rest of the team to guard their captive. As soon as they were out of the woman's hearing, Logan said, "My guess is, she's told the truth for the most part but either something she said is a lie or she's holding back an important bit of information."

"Agreed," Geoffrey said. "For one thing, she said the magnetic pull only goes one way but polarity can be reversed. If we got here, we should be able to get back."

"Why would she lie about that?" Tarla asked.

Geoffrey shrugged. "Maybe her people just want to keep their world secret, so they don't allow anyone to go back to Earth to talk about it."

"I'm not so sure," Tarla said. "I had the feeling she was stating facts as she knows them. If there is a way back, she may not be important enough to have that information. But that makes me wonder about something else. We haven't heard a single story about anyone from outside the farm coming to visit before. Why now, and why would she be the one given permission to make contact?"

"Maybe she didn't have permission," Logan murmured, then realized what had been bothering him. "That's it! She's here illegally. I'd bet on it. She was dying to get back one minute, then willing to stay forever the next. I'd say she definitely did not want her ruler finding out she was here. Now all we have to do is figure out how to use that to get what we want."

Robin was first with a suggestion. "We could promise to release her after she got us out of here and directed us to where we could find that imperial person."

Logan added, "If she's telling the truth about there being no police or guards, we could probably take over the capitol or palace, or whatever it is, before they knew what was happening."

"And what if she wasn't telling the truth?" Geoffrey asked. "If they were able to get us off the plane and corral us here without us having any memory of it, they could do it all over again. We'd be right back where we started. No, I think we need to stick to the original plan and use her as a hostage to negotiate our release. Perhaps if we prove that we can behave in a civilized manner, they might be willing to deal fairly. Any aggressive action on our part will only serve to confirm that we are the primitives she called us."

"I agree," Tarla said. "There's only one part of the plan I think you need to reconsider. From what Parisia said, there's no way her ruler will negotiate with a man, no matter how passively he behaves. Our representative should be a woman."

Logan knew she meant herself and his immediate impulse was to refuse to let her take such a risk. A heartbeat later he conceded that he had no right to do that and he remained silent.

"Are you volunteering?" Geoffrey asked Tarla.

"Yes, sir."

"Same here," Robin said. "She can't go alone."

Geoffrey shared a look of resignation with Logan. "I don't like it but you're right. It will be the two of you, plus Lee and Alicia, just in case you need to defend yourselves. You may as well get started right now. We'll take care of stowing our guest out of sight."

While Geoffrey and Tarla went over the plan and the terms she would request, Logan tried to think of one good reason Tarla shouldn't go or why he should but nothing logical came to him. All that remained was to wish her luck, as if she were any other soldier going off on a dangerous mission.

You might never see her again. Tell her.

But Logan knew there was nothing he could say that she wanted to hear. "Good luck," he finally said, giving Tarla and Robin each a curt nod then returned to his prisoner as they walked away.

Tarla told herself she was imagining things. Logan hadn't looked at her in any special way. He hadn't been about to say something then changed his mind. It was just tension and the dark playing tricks on her eyes.

"Do you suppose Alicia and Lee are finished tucking in sweet little Ray by now?" Robin asked, grinning and wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Tarla made a face. "Let's just hope they all know the meaning of discretion. The last thing we need now is for Wilkes to find out the ladies preferred Higgs over him."

"Oooh. Not a pretty picture. But speaking of discretion..." Robin pointed at three figures huddled together in front of a tent. As they walked closer, she could tell it was the trio they had just been discussing. Their approach was instantly noticed.

"What's going on?" Lee asked Tarla.

"The four of us are going into the tack room and try to negotiate our release. I think we should have a brief strategy meeting before we go in."

"You got it," Lee said then turned Ray's face to hers and gave him a quick kiss on the mouth. "Sleep tight, baby."

Alicia waited for him to look up at her. "We'll catch you later, love. Behave yourself till we get back." She lowered her head to deliver a considerably longer kiss than he'd gotten from Lee.

On the way to the barn, neither Tarla nor Robin asked and neither Lee nor Alicia offered comments. Instead Tarla summarized what they'd learned after the other two women left with Higgs. "There's no way of knowing if Parisia was being honest or if she's even typical of her people. The best we can do is assume she was somewhat truthful and stay on our toes."

"In other words, we're going to play it by ear," Robin said with a laugh.

Tarla smiled back. "Right. And try to let me do most of the talking so they get the impression I have some control over my people."

Robin saluted crisply. "Yes, sir. You're the boss-lady."

"That's what I want them to think. Otherwise, I'm not sure they'll believe I have the power to negotiate. So, no matter what I say, even if it sounds outrageous, back me up. You can argue with me later." She met each of the women's eyes and knew she could count on them. "Ready?"

They all nodded and wished each other luck before entering the barn. Robin lit the candle lantern by the door and led the way into the tack room. Once they were all inside, Tarla threw the bolt on the door and spoke the words she and Geoffrey had decided on.

"I am Captain Tarla Yan of the United States of America, Planet Earth. We have captured one of your people, Parisia, Representative of Acameir. We wish to open negotiations regarding her release."