The Mask of Omegon (Gwen Farris Book 6) (9 page)

He stopped, since she was shaking
her head.

“We can’t do
that
. Of
course. No, we need to use a combination of milder things to help. Low level
pleasure that’s really nice, but isn’t totally addictive. Low level discomfort
that won’t be torture. Just not fun. Then, actually, we can use close to the normal
protocols. It won’t be as effective, but enough to make it worth doing, if we
aren’t pushing him to do things that are nearly impossible. I don’t know his
strengths, magically speaking. Though something like field healing might be
useful?”

Everyone had that as their
strongest power after all. Healing. Even Gwen did, though she’d never learned
how to do any of it. Most didn’t, which to her mind said something about how
people really were.

“I want in on that one too, if
possible? Also fighting, since it could come up. I want something… Um, kingdom
side for him? In the military? In war that can’t always be guaranteed, so…”

She didn’t explain why she wanted
that for him.

Then, with Adam Westmorland, she
didn’t need to. Tomas was a noble, so he kind of loved him. Automatically. It
had literally been tortured into him, after all. Into all of them.

“We can do all of that. Come along
then, Miss Farris. I’ll hook you up to your wicked box, then we can plan things
out more carefully. Yes. This way?”

The man got slippers, but no real
clothing and led her away at a decently fast walk.

The next morning, at what was
likely a decent enough hour, Gwen decided to check out of the hotel she was in.
The man that was at the front desk was pleasant, smiling at her with only a bit
of strain on his face. She didn’t exactly understand why. Not at first.

Really, she figured it was the
obvious thing. That he’d realized who she was. The traitor that had sold out
everyone in the worst way imaginable. Except that when he spoke about it, after
the cash had changed hands, which came to four mets for the entire time she’d
been there, the guy seemed a little worried about something.

“Miss Farris?” He was looking at
the ledger, where she’d signed her name.

“Yes?”

The poor guy, who seemed to be in
his forties or so made a tight face then. One that seemed almost ready to
produce tears. The men there didn’t do that in public. They hadn’t back home
either, but here the very idea would literally have had most adults turning
their backs at that point. Even if they didn’t understand the reason behind it.

“I fear that I have wronged you.”
There was a deep shuddering breath.

Suspicious she watched him for a
second, then forced a small smile.

“How so? Did you over-charge me? I
have to say, it was a nice room for a met per night. I’ve had worse for a
higher price.” Which was the plain truth. Meals weren’t provided, though they
did have a restaurant there. She hadn’t eaten at it, however. That was just her
using common Gwen sense. That was like regular common sense, only after being
filtered through the fact that she knew, intuitively, that a whole lot of
people
had
to have it out for her.

At least the man hadn’t been
jacking off into her soup. There were other things that could have been done,
but none of them seemed like the guy would apologize for them. Taking money
from her was the main one. That, or peeking at her when she showered. The
thought got a very slight prescient hit. Enough that she noticed it being
there, but
light
so that she had to figure that something pretty big was
wrong with the concept.

“No. I… I noticed that you’d signed
in as Gwen Farris. So I figured that letting some newsies know about it might
make me a few extra mets. Except that the one that I called in took liberties
and spied on you. They… Saw you, doing things with a young man? I tried to get
them to stop, but… There are pictures.” The last bit was hissed.

“I see. Well, that could be pretty
bad then. How about this. You hand over some names and I’ll try to make sure
that nothing comes back on you here? That
isn’t
a great way to make
friends, by the way. Selling me out like that. Then, it isn’t like we’re close,
is it?” Honestly it wasn’t that big of a deal. To her. The big issue would be
that one of the people in the picture might be identified as Baron Harrison.
Which honestly might solve the problem instantly. Even newsies didn’t often
tempt the wrath of the nobles in the Western Kingdom.

“It’s Stev Hess, Miss.” That got
downcast eyes pretty quickly. She didn’t understand why that was, however.

“I don’t know the name.”

“From The Scan? It’s a horrible
rag, but…”

She got it then, having read an
issue herself. It was
all
gossip, but tended to be fairly accurate. At
least for the things that she was close enough to have inside information
about. So if they said she was sucking off strange men in her hotel room, then
it would be believed. Gwen
had
been, so to her it just seemed a bit
embarrassing. It was the impact on others that would be the problem.

“Ah. No problem then. I’ll handle
it. Thanks for telling me, by the way. If anyone asks about this in the future,
please send them to me first? It shouldn’t be a big problem. This time.”

Not that she knew that, but she was
good at faking confidence. It had gotten her out of more than one fight in her
time. People looked at her, heard her saying she was
willing
to fight
them, three or more at a time and worked out that she must have had a weapon on
her.

It worked for other things too,
however. Gwen was picking that part up over time.

“Oh, good. I… I shouldn’t have
contacted the man in the first place. I’d truly thought that you were just
using the name. It’s happened a few times before. Women looking to entertain in
secret?”

Wrinkling her nose, she squinted at
the man. It was probably harder than she really wanted to seem, but the news
had taken her back a few steps as far as politeness went.

“So, wait… They need to use a fake
name, so put down
mine
? That’s creepy. Well, to
me
at least. They
do know that I’m an actual person, don’t they?”

That got two turned up palms.

“I wouldn’t know that part. Again,
I’m most sorry, Miss. I figured that it wouldn’t amount to anything, but I
could possibly make a met or two, is all.” He seemed legit on that score, she
decided. Greedy, but not evil.

“Okay. Well, let me get to this. I
swear, if I lose my new boyfriend over this, I’m coming back
here
. Do
you understand?” She was making a threat, but the man simply took a deep breath
for some reason and stood straighter. Then nodded slightly.

“Agreed. If you lose your current
friend, I’ll take his place. It’s only right.” He didn’t seem to be kidding or
anything. Like that could possibly have been her real plan.

So she nodded.

“Exactly. Not just for a day or two
either. It might make it hard on your wife, so hope for the best?”

She didn’t wait for him to go into
having said wife or not, just moving away instantly, back to Park Street.
Directly to her room. Then, very carefully, she went to her wardrobe and
selected an outfit for the day. She had visiting to do, which was probably
going to require her to fight. That meant she wanted pants. Her running shoes
as well. After she showered, she loaded her pockets with various things. Two
knives. A Power Conduit. A Crin.

That last didn’t go into her pocket
however. It was four feet long and looked like a brass pipe with a spongy hand
piece in the middle. This one had a small lead colored blob on the business end
however, which would show a red dot where it was pointed. It was basically a
laser sight for the thing. An idea that took an average shot with the weapon
and turned them into a deadly marksman almost instantly.

Then, since having low blood sugar
wasn’t going to work for her, or the man she was going to beat up, she headed
down the stairs. There was actually an early meal happening already, though it
was only Robert that day. He was dressed for work however. Reading an actual
newspaper when she came in. On seeing her he half stood, then looked at her,
questions in his eyes.

“Gwen! I see that you’re about to
go somewhere? Or is there a threat?”

She nearly hid the whole thing from
him, then shook her head. She was over forty years of age after all. That
was
old enough to have a real boyfriend.

“Apparently a news man, Stev Hess
from The Scan? Managed to get some compromising pictures of Tomas and I the
other night. The hotel fellow that called him in told me about it as I left.
Probably to save his own hide. Anyway, after I eat something I was thinking
about raiding his office. Stealing the pictures and possibly dropping him in
the middle of the great ocean.” She smiled and then shrugged. “I don’t know
what the pics show, but that
isn’t
the point. It could bug Tomas and we
just started dating a few days ago. I don’t know if this would ruin things, but
just in case, I’d rather not tempt fate.”

She settled into a chair that was
about four feet away from the end of the table. What she expected Robert Vernor
to do she didn’t know really. Something posturing and possibly violent.
Encouraging her to take action, or doing so himself.

Instead he smiled a bit and laid
his paper on the table, folding it once.

“That won’t be an issue. Just go in
and
tell
him not to print them. Possibly do an interview in exchange for
them? If he finds that they’re real and you refuse to let him print, he can’t
do it. After all, you’re
Gwen Farris
. I wouldn’t even mention who your
friend is. That… Well, you’re an adult. Are you two at least looking toward
marriage?”

She shook her head, but not to
really tell him they weren’t.

“I don’t know? Like I said, it’s
only been a few days. We
do
seem to have a lot in common though. I’m
from a different world and people think that he lives in one. I’m planning to
help him rehab that a bit however. This wouldn’t help. Are you certain that I
won’t have to kill this man?” She meant it. Then, she needed the pictures
first…

That got her to roll her eyes.

“Duh. I keep forgetting that part
of things. I have
powers
here.”

Before Mr. Vernor could ask what
she meant, Gwen focused. Then, over the course of a minute, she found every
photo of her that could possibly be from the hotel. Then she brought them to
her. There were only ten of the things. She had to work a lot harder to get the
negatives, which came along with a rather complicated looking device. She
memorized where it was from so she could return it.

Winslow came in, while she was
working on the sudden project, nodding as he figured out what she was doing.
Mainly from the pictures on the table.

They weren’t
good
, as in of
dubious quality, but you could clearly see her doing some rather adult things
in them with a half obscured young man. It looked almost like they were taken
through the keyhole in the door. Which was creeptastic on a level that left her
feeling uneasy about a lot of places she’d been in life

Charles spoke rather politely.

“I believe that if you press
that
button down, then slide it toward you, it will release the cover plate, Miss
Farris.” The words were remarkably dry for some reason.

It worked though, so she could
strip the negatives out. Then Winslow helped her do the rest of it, in case
there was a picture processing in the device at the moment. There
was
,
as it turned out. It wasn’t that great of a thing, since you couldn’t tell that
it was her, or even Katherine Vernor, in it. Just a bent over back in a dress,
with a man’s legs on one side.

Then, focusing again, she placed the
device back where it had started from.

“Now, I can just teletransport him
to Marduk and it will be all set.” She hadn’t been there, but didn’t really
care if she missed or not. A foreign land… The Antarctic, it was all the same
to her.

Robert laughed.

“There was a time, not long ago,
where that would have been very helpful to me, personally. Still, use your
words here, Gwen. It’s his profession to find the salacious in the world.
Blaming him for doing his job too well won’t help anyone.” The words were almost
wise sounding.

“Right.” Hers just seemed grumpy,
so she forced a smile. After all she was the one with all the high quality her-porn
now.

Though if she were doing that she
wanted better lighting and an unobstructed view. Neither of the men looked at
the pictures, but she didn’t burn them or anything, figuring that she might
need to prove that she’d had a reason to beat up Stev Hess at some point.

“Stev. That’s an interesting name,
isn’t it? Fake?” She looked at Charles and Robert, two men with very normal
sounding names.

Mr. Vernor glanced at his paper
again, now that the main problem seemed to be handled.

“I went to school with a chap by
that name. Stev. I’ve known a few men with it. Isn’t that one that you have, in
your world?” The man knew the story there.

That she’d actually been back and
found that it had changed beyond all recognition in her absence. Not that he
was making light of it. She’d acted like that was no big deal, so the man was
doing the polite thing, and pretending with her. Even she was able to
understand that part. Ethyl had tried to do the same when she’d found out, but
her bursting into tears had kind of ruined the effect.

“Nope? Not where I come from
anyway. Though I bet I can…” She glanced at the photos, then nodded. “Right. I
need a picture of Stev, then. I don’t suppose either of you have a camera I can
borrow?”

Winslow smiled at her, then nodded.

“I
do
! Photography is a
hobby of mine. Why would you need a picture of a gossip man? That seems a bit
backwards.”

She had a plan. It was going to
require going to a different world, but Zack, her new other-worldly buddy, had
shown her how to do all of that. Not that she was any good at it. She could get
back to her world, she thought. Without him being along she might never make it
back to Park Street, however.

Still, if she could meet up with
him, or one of the others that walked the lines between worlds, she might just
be able to set up what she wanted.

Which got her to sigh.

“Sorry. I was taking this
way
too seriously, I think. I mean, yes, the man spied on me, but I really
was
doing it. I was just going to have the photos reworked to show him in bed with
an unknown man. Wearing my dress. Even where I came from that could have been
done easily enough. No one here would get it anyway. You know, it would seem
real? I bet that I have some friends that could do an even better job than
that
.”