The Mask of Omegon (Gwen Farris Book 6) (24 page)

“Well, don’t worry. We’ll make sure
you get taken care of. Thanks for being a sport about it all.”

There was no answer. That was
probably due to the fact that everyone had to get up, regardless of when they
were supposed to be sleeping, which made the whole thing a bit more noisy. They
got rolls for breakfast, which meant heavy bread things,
not
donuts.
That and coffee. Lots of that, since they had to be awake.

Groundling, who was the loading
boss for the trip smiled at them as they met in the back of the loading bay.

“We’re going to be unloading fast,
as soon as the first wagon is in. Then we don’t know if another load is coming,
so we need to stay near the Peregrine. The Captain can have us leaving inside
ten minutes, so let’s not stray. If you do, we
will
leave you behind.
Understood?”

Gloria seemed to be in on things,
or at least wanted them to think she was.

“I need two helpers as soon as the
loading is done. I want to clean the rear maneuvering engines. Port and
starboard.” The blonde woman looked around, her face bland for some reason.

Gwen raised her hand.

“I can do that? Tom, you were
looking for ways to seem useful, right?”

He nodded, very seriously.

“I was! I don’t know what to do for
that. I can learn, however?”

That got Gloria to actually clap
her hands a few times.

“Good! See me as soon as you’re
free. We should be in dock in an hour. I want to be unloaded by noon. Get ready
to work!”

There was a groan from the men.
After all, it had taken almost a full day to load in the first place.

Going faster would be possible, but
hard.

Possibly important, too.

They all worked like something was
going to explode on their ship and they
really
wanted it off before that
happened. Gwen pulled out the stops, getting Groundling, Gloria and Tom to pass
her energy, as she loaded half wagon loads at a time. It took a lot of focus,
lifting things into the air with her mind. The trick of it wasn’t really one
for her, naturally. It was just using the same mental controls that were used
when she flew, with the field being around the objects that needed to be
shifted around. That was all.

That was about a ton being moved in
a few moments each time. At least with the aid she was getting from the others.
The loaders didn’t stop just because of that, either. Everyone did what they
could to get the job done. So there was a lot of sweat flowing, along with
grunting and jogging feet as they worked.

Gloria pushed them to go faster.

“Go! New wagon, up!”

That meant they weren’t finished by
noon. It took until nearly two, but it was still done as fast as the wagons
could get into place. Half of those were horse drawn things, which could pull
more weight than the magical ones by about fifty percent. Gwen had to move hard
though, the entire time. It was exhausting, but the others providing power
really helped. It shocked her a bit, since some of the other men, all loaders,
took a turn as the others got tired out.

Gloria was an
engineer
, so
of course she was decent, magically speaking. Her job required her to be high
end that way, no doubt. Not at the top, probably, but she needed to charge
large crystals sometimes, which required a certain amount of base ability. That
the others all were as well… was a bit strange. They were
loaders
after
all. That was a manual labor position. On any ordinary airship it was anyway.
That alone would have been a sign that something strange was going on, if she
wasn’t already suspicious. More, they were probably nervous at the moment.

Otherwise they would have been more
careful to hide the truth from her.

After all, Gwen had known these
guys for years. Some of them. Most of the people left behind, though not all,
had been on her very first trip out with the Peregrine. None of them even acted
all that shocked that Tomas, the new man, was able to feed her enough power to
make it worth doing.

They weren’t all top end talents
that way, but at a guess they were all above the seventy-five percent mark,
which was telling. Ex-Air Navy,
all
selected out for magical power. That
was probably informative on a level that was insane. Better, or worse, they’d
been collected from
before
the current war. So this wasn’t something new
just for that. It was an old, tried and true, working team.

With Duke Morten leading them, if
in secret. That was probably something that she should have noticed before. It
was clear that her buddy Groundling was a hard man. The name itself,
Groundling,
meant
executioner. No one normal went around calling
themselves that. It had real meaning in the Western Kingdom.

As in the man that put you in the
dirt for the final time.

Still, at two in the afternoon,
they had things done and if anyone was feeling tired, they didn’t show it. In
fact, everyone was kind of nervous seeming. Excited and jangly, instead of
acting like they wanted to run off to sample the goods that Eng had to offer
them.

Gwen waved to her boyfriend. She
had to fight a grin. Having a boyfriend, even a secret one for the moment, was
kind of a big deal. She was willing to bet that most of the others there didn’t
have one of those, for instance.

“Tom. We’re up for the rear
engines. We need to pull those and get them clean as fast as possible. Gloria?”
It was her gig after all.

Interestingly, they actually
were
taking the things out, using the side elevators. Those were a lot more like
complicated dumbwaiters more than anything else. The silver and copper colored
engines, which were actually steam rockets, were walked back to the engineering
section quickly, pushed on the heavy carts they had for that kind of thing.

“Curly, work the port side unit.
Tom, you’re with me over here. We need to have these back in the wall inside an
hour. Got that?”

Nodding, Gwen started right in.

“Understood. Let’s get that done.”
It was harder than it sounded, since Gwen wasn’t getting
any
hints as to
what she had to do. It was, apparently, her steam rocket to service and clean
that day. Emergency or not. Still, she didn’t have the newb on her team, so
managed to work nearly as fast as the other two did. That meant she was ten
minutes slower than the others, but Gloria didn’t even stand over her, as she
put the whole thing back together. She double checked her work, then did it
again.

Taking a breath, Gwen shrugged.

“Gloria? Do a pass on mine? I don’t
want to find out that I messed something up later.”

Seeming a bit tense, Gloria just
did it, nodding as she got finished.

“Good work. Let’s get these rehung.
You…” She glanced around, then shook her head. It was a slow thing, that held
meaning. The hidden kind that Gwen was almost never privy to. “We’re doing a
pick up. I shouldn’t tell you, but this
isn’t
the time to be running off,
or anything… No one knows the timing on it. It may not even happen. Stay ready.”
The words were whispered, but loud enough for both of them to hear. Tom didn’t
say anything about it at all.

The work went fast, meaning they
then got the privilege of puttering around the deck, inside the loading hangar.
Technically it was owned by Vernor Industries, even if it was in Eng. Most of
the ports they went to were, apparently. Including the ones in Europa, Marduk
and the Chinoise. Groundling mentioned that, as they all pretended to clean the
brass railings. Well,
Gwen
actually did it. Tomas did as well. The rest
of them were so clearly phoning their efforts in, it wasn’t even funny.

What was humorous, to Gwen at
least, was when Darnell, the useless man that had once greased the corner of a
charging pack, walked up to the ship. He had a bulging sack with him, made of
canvas or burlap. It was a bit dirty looking and bunched at the top. It wasn’t
even a pack or anything. Just a simple bag. Like what potatoes came in. No
handles or anything. The guy was unshaved, seemed unclean and
looked
like he was going to smell if he got too close. Groundling went very still, on
seeing him. So did everyone else.

Gwen nearly did, but then fell back
on the story she’d been given the entire time. That Darnell was a joker and a
waste of space who had been kept on because it was hard to find another guy to
lift and tote things. Only that wasn’t really true. Not,
keep the useless
man around for three years
, honest. Which given everything meant that the
fellow, who wasn’t all that old, might well have been something other than
she’d been led to believe the whole time she’d been around.

Which was interesting, since that
meant he’d probably been trying to trick
her
, the first time they’d met.
Since that should have ended in thousands of mets of damage to a crystal, that
meant the man was being set up to be seen as a giant fuck up on purpose. To the
eyes of the daughter of Robert Vernor.

So, just to be in keeping with the
game, Gwen glared at the man when he walked up. After all,
she’d
been
told he’d been abandoned in Paris. For cause.

“Darnell. I see you made it back.
Grab a rag and start on the starboard rails. If I hear
anything
about
you trying to take liberties with another woman, especially one that works for
Vernor Industries, I
will
personally drop you in the ocean. Got it?” She
sounded pissed. That she wasn’t at all was missed by almost everyone.

Darnell just nodded at her.

“Yes, ma’am. Lesson learned. I was
just…” He stopped, and looked hangdog, instead of going on.

Which made sense if he didn’t know
the cover story that had been made up.

“Fine. Stow that gear and get to
work.
Now
.” She turned, to look at Groundling, her face a bit evil
seeming. At least that was what she wanted to seem like, if it was possible.

“Do we have a load incoming? We
should
try
to get something, but… Really, I’m going to kick his ass if I
have to look at his face for too long. For real. That kind of thing reflects on
all of us. Word gets out that we let men do that kind of thing and there won’t
be a single cook willing to serve on our line.”

The three men that were following Darnell
into the hangar all seemed to be official, for some reason. Dressed in bright
red, like the Europan guards had been. Even if they were in Eng. Gwen ignored
them, yelling about taking liberties with their people, at nearly the top of
her lungs. She even approached Darnell, and pushed him a bit. As if he were
about to have his behind truly beaten by a tiny woman.

The others tried to calm her down,
but she let herself seem ready to fight by the time the strange men got to the
back of the craft. Looking over the deck, she smiled.

“Ha! Even the Europans are here to
get you, Darnell.
Fine
. You men want this would-be rapist? Come in. Come
in! This is bullshit! What did you do this time?”

Oddly enough the strange military
men, in their rather pretty uniforms, didn’t speak very good Western. They
were
following Darnell however and started to chase him, before he could get rid of
the bag he had with him. That was going to start a fight, she didn’t doubt.
Probably because the bulging sack didn’t have his clothing in it, just masses
of other things.

Groundling started screaming
something, in Mongolian. It was distracting to the men in red, if nothing else.
Several of the others moved to pull weapons from both the walls and in a few
cases their persons, which was telling. Too much so. Normal ships crews
wouldn’t have that kind of thing available. Not on a merchant ship, like the
Peregrine.

Gwen shook her head, waving at
people. Covertly. Then she counted on the idea that these men wouldn’t
understand her very easily. Not with her funny accent.

“Get those put away. We’re fine.
What are they saying?” She looked at the others, but it was Tomas who moved
toward her.

“That they want that sack he has.
That he stole something from them? They aren’t saying what, just that he took
property
.”

She nodded, since it made sense to
her. Enough that everything clicked into place inside her mind. The trick, her
part in the day’s events, would be in fixing things before anyone got to the
bag. Which was inside of what she could do, with enough effort.

It took work. Really, there was
some theft involved as well. Along with shifting the contents of the bag in
three batches, barely able to sense what was inside the thing, replacing them
at the same time. It caused the tan sack to jump a few times, but nothing
exploded, thankfully. Groundling was distracting the soldiers nicely, screaming
at them and getting in their faces.

Which meant that Gwen had to go to
her room, in order to hide the documents that she’d removed from the cloth
sack, taking them to Westmorland Central. It was the safest place that she knew
of for that kind of thing. In fact, they ended up on Adam’s desk, since she
figured that would be a secure enough place for secrets. They might not be
friends, but she had no doubt at all that she could trust him with sensitive
things. Especially if it might be for the kingdom. She jotted a note down for
him, saying only that Gwen had left them there. Also that she had no clue what
it was about and that he shouldn’t peek, since it might be a secret.

It could be the secret plans for
cute underwear for all she knew. Hopefully that was the case, actually. That
would be wild, after all. Plus, she had a reason to wear that kind of thing
now.

Then she moved back to the
Peregrine as the Europans tried to push around the crew, grabbing at Darnell,
pushing him to the ground as they stole his sack, using force that wasn’t going
to play with anyone from the Western Kingdom. It meant they had his secret,
ill-gotten bag of loot.

Of
candy
. The good kind.
Probably several mets worth, which Gwen was going to have to pay for, when she
got home. She’d stolen it from the display case in Carmichaels’, after all.

Opening it with force, the men went
ballistic for some reason. They even patted Darnell down, looking ready to
strip him, publically, to find the papers that they
knew
the man had to
have.
That
part started a fight. Which came about when Groundling moved
to hit one of the red clad men in the head.

Tomas tackled one of the others
from behind. Gloria pulled a wrench, looking ready to slam the last one in the
brain case.

Then she said something harsh in
Mongolian. It sounded a bit rough, like she didn’t know the language very well,
but it got the men to stop. Groundling pushing the man that he’d been fighting,
moving him away. With enough force that the man nearly flew backwards.

The red covered men left then,
walking quickly, calling something back at them. Gwen didn’t get any of it, of
course. She really needed to learn some other languages, it was clear.