Chapter 41

 

            The Nursejoy looked at the young man in front of her. Having worked in pokegirl centers for nearly twenty years, she had a very good idea why he was here, considering he was alone and his eyes were flicking around the room at the tamers and their pokegirls. Still, she had to ask the questions and play the game if she didn’t want to get reported for impertinence. “Can I help you sir?”

            His voice was heavily accented, suggesting he came from one of the families that kept up their bilingual heritage by speaking both English and Spanish around their children from birth. It was a drying tradition in the cities and suggested that he was rural. Most people in the cities learned Spanish later in life, while in school. “I’d like to take the tamer’s test, please.”

            “Sir, are you aware that normally the test is scheduled in advance? I’m afraid that there isn’t a test today.”

            He blinked and his already dark skin got even darker before he dug a slip of paper out of his pocket. “Sorry, I was supposed to give you this,” he mumbled awkwardly as he held it out.

            The Nursejoy, whose nametag read Alba, took it and scanned it quickly. It was an authorization for a single test from the local police department and indicated that he’d already been scanned by a psychic pokegirl. She recognized the name of the authorizing officer and gave a mental sigh. The man was mildly corrupt and sold these authorizations for drinking money. After all, the fact that the Nursejoy had to unlock the vault and get out the test equipment for a single person every time he gave one of these pieces of paper out didn’t inconvenience him in the slightest.

            “Sir, why did you need authorization for a special test?”

            The young man, who kept getting younger in the Nursejoy’s eyes, looked down at the floor and spoke in a small voice. “My papa brought me to town for this and we have to get back to the farm soon or there’ll be trouble.”

            “I see.” And she did. The young man’s family probably got to the city twice a year at most. It also explained the man’s mestizo coloration, a holdover from before the Red Plague that now was found mainly in the rural areas. His eyes and hair were black and his skin was a deep brown that showed much more than a trace of the old Indio blood that had once been prevalent in the region. It also explained the fact that he was almost painfully clean and his plain pants and shirt looked like they had been bought that morning and worn from the store. Even his thick black boots were new and showed no signs of wear.

            The authorizations had actually been designed just for this kind of situation and the Nursejoy’s carefully hidden irritation evaporated. She gave him a warm smile. “You come with me, sir and I’ll get you settled where you can take your test.” She pressed a button on her station which turned off the open sign above it. There were two other stations open with their own Nursejoys, so her absence wouldn’t be missed.

            “Gracias, I mean thank you.”

            He was clearly nervous and Alba tried to get him to relax. “I know you’ve studied hard and I doubt there’ll be any problem with the test itself.”

            “I have studied every day, miss. Papa said I wouldn’t have another chance for at least a year so I have to pass the test this time. I’m to catch pokegirls around the farm and sell them for the money.”

            The only room that she had for the testing was one of the largest taming rooms in the building. The workers at the center would move the gear out before a scheduled test, but right now it was full of implements designed to immobilize someone so they could be tamed. Alba and the young man ended up dragging a student desk into the room from the vault after she had unlocked it. “Sit and I’ll get the paperwork.”

            A few minutes later she returned with her kit and sat down on the other side of the desk. “Have you ever been registered before?”

            “No, señorita, I mean miss.”

            It wasn’t uncommon and the perks of being a tamer was one of the ways the league got the rural people to come in to the cities in order to be registered in the first place. The respect in his tone was unusual and the Nursejoy enjoyed the sincerity in his voice as she hoped he would be one of the special ones. “That’s fine, sir. What is your name?”

            “I am Rafael Constanza Delgado Lopez.”

            Alba nodded and began entering the name into the record. “You normally use Rafael Delgado, correct?” It was the custom involving traditional families to use the first name and the first surname. His full name was his legal name and would appear in his records, but his tamer ID would use the shortened version for convenience.

            Rafael nodded. “Yes.”

            “Are you fluent in Spanish?” The league tracked this for statistical purposes since tamers were encouraged to learn it. He nodded and she continued with the questions necessary to build Rafael Constanza Delgado Lopez a legal identity in the league.

            After finishing with the easy questions, then it came time for her to start with the tricky ones. She didn’t want to embarrass or anger Mr. Delgado. “Sir, I have to ask this. Are you familiar with how to operate a computer?”

            Rafael grinned boyishly and gave a quick nod. “I am, miss. I am literate in both English and Spanish and I can do math up to algebra. My mother is a G-Poindexter and she insisted that all of us take our lessons every day. We are not rich, but we have my grand papa’s pokedex and a house computer that mama keeps the finances with.”

            Alba gave a mental sigh of relief that she wouldn’t have to give him the test orally and then alert the authorities so they could pick the young man up for remedial classes in literacy. That also meant she didn’t have to ask the other dangerous question. It was; if he didn’t use a computer, could he at least read and write something. There was always a problem in the rural areas with families deciding that having the children work on the family farm was more important than their offspring getting a basic education. And that was the human children. Any pokegirl coming from the rural areas would be assumed to be completely illiterate. “All right then, I’ll get you a tablet and once we’re both sure you’re familiar with its interface you can take your test.”

            Rafael looked puzzled for a second. “There will be blood work, no?”

            “Yes, there will be, but that’ll be after I grade your exam and verify that you passed.” The Silver River League wasn’t extravagantly rich like the leagues to the north, so it economized and only performed the extensive DNA testing on the blood of tamers who actually passed the exam.

            “I understand, miss.”

            Alba spent the next five minutes making sure that Rafael didn’t have any problems with the tablet and then got up. “Rafael, I’ll be back in an hour to check on your progress.” Her voice turned formal. “You have two hours to take the tamer’s exam and if you finish early you are to remain here until I return for the test. If you leave the room without authorization, you will automatically fail the exam and you won’t be able to retake it for six months. If the fire alarm sounds, you are to remain here and I will come get you since you don’t know how to evacuate the building. Do you understand the instructions?”

            “I do understand, señorita. I stay here and someone will get me if there is trouble.”

            Alba resisted the urge to pat him on the head like she would one of her own children. “Excellent. I’ll see you in an hour.” She made sure the door was shut and the in use indicator was lit before returning to her desk and setting a timer for forty five minutes. Then she turned her open light back on and promptly went back to dealing with customers to the pokegirl center.

            An hour later Alba left her station and her quick check showed he was still working his way through the test. She went ahead and got him a bottle of water before going back to her station. An hour after that she opened the door to find him sitting and staring at the restraints around the room. “All done?”

            “I am, Miss Alba.” He offered her the tablet. “How long will it take to grade the exam?”

            Alba pulled a flash drive from her pocket and plugged it into the tablet’s port. The test appeared on the screen and correct answers turned green while incorrect answers turned red as the software scanned through the test. “I’m grading it now, Mr. Delgado.”

            He grinned shyly. “Mr. Delgado is my papa, Miss Alba. I am Rafael.”

            Alba returned his smile as his grade appeared at the top of the tablet. “Well, Rafael, I see that I will be doing a blood draw after all. You missed one question out of the three hundred and scored a 99.997 percent. Congratulations.”

            Rafael looked surprised and then pleased. “I only missed one? Mama will be so proud of me.”

            After drawing the blood samples, Alba packed everything back into her kit. “I’ll run and get this analyzed while you wait. I should be back in another hour. You can either wait in here or you can wait in the lobby, Rafael.”

            The young man looked around the taming room. “I will wait in the lobby, miss.”

            Alba hid a smile. “Then come with me, sir.”

            Rafael followed her to the lobby and found a chair in a corner where he spent the next hour and a half devouring a stack of current and old newspapers.

            Finally Alba returned. “Rafael?” When he looked up she gave him a broad smile. “I’m sorry I was gone for so long, but normally you would have to return this evening to pick up your starter. I know you’re in a hurry and so I took the opportunity to get one for you while your pokedex was being programmed.”

            For an instant Rafael looked stunned, but suddenly a smile bloomed on his face. “This is a wonderful thing you have done! You are very efficient, Alba, and I thank you.”

            “Oh, it’s no problem, Rafael.” She handed him his pokedex. “Let me show you how to operate it and then you can have your starter pokegirl. If you came back this evening you’d get to choose from among a dozen or so, but I took the liberty of picking one that should be useful out where your family’s farm is.” A calculating look crossed her face and vanished almost instantly. “Do you want me to have her conditioned? A level five conditioning cycle would give her a clean slate to start her new life with you.”

            “I do not think that will be necessary, Miss Alba. Do you know anything about her?”

            The Nursejoy shook her head and didn’t let the satisfaction she felt at his refusal show. “No, I don’t. I just know what her breed is and that she’s not feral.”

            “Then I am sure your choice will be wonderful.”

            Alba turned slightly pink. “You’re too trusting, but thank you, Rafael. I can only hope that my son will be as conscientious as you are.”

            Rafael patted her on the hand. “You are like my mama. He will be a good person because of you.” He pressed the activation button on the pokedex. “Please show me how this works.”

            “I would be glad to.”

 

***

 

            Eve looked up from her reading and paused to take in the irritated look on Iain’s face as he came in the door. “Did something go wrong?”

            Zareen had followed him into the hotel room. She snickered loudly and dropped onto the closest bed, ignoring the glare he shot in her direction. “Of course it did.”

            Iain decided that his best bet was to ignore the Nightmare’s comment. “Where is Lindsey?”

            The Megami-sama pointed at the floor. “She, Dominique, Canaan and April went down the street to buy some clothes while Pandora is getting what we brought with us laundered. Our charge can’t overhear this discussion. What happened?”

            “Everything almost went perfectly.” He tossed a pokedex onto the dresser. “Rafael Constanza Delgado Lopez is now a legal tamer in the Silver River League. The problem is that I picked that particular pokegirl center to take the test at because they didn’t keep a stock of starters on hand and I was supposed to have to return later to pick one. That way I could skip out on getting a starter by being very, very late or not showing up at all.”

            “I know. I helped you to find that center just for that reason.”

            “I passed the test and everything was going along great until I got fucked over by an overzealous Nursejoy who decided to make my life easier.” He sighed and tossed a pokeball to land next to the pokedex. “Maybe I laid the whole ‘young man who needs a bit of mothering’ on too thick and it bit me in the ass. Or maybe she’s always that blasted efficient. In any case, while they were processing Rafael’s blood tests she took it upon herself to get him a starter.”

            Eve blinked. “You didn’t yell at her for it, did you?”

            Iain groaned as he flopped backwards on the bed. “Of course I didn’t. We want to encourage good behavior. After all, it’s the Megami way.” He sighed loudly. “You would have been proud of me. I was very good. I thanked her profusely for being so kind. I even filled out a comment card before I left and put Alba in for the employee of the month for going so far above and beyond her normal responsibilities.”

            “I am proud of you, Iain.” She picked up the pokeball. “What did you get?”

            “I got something to sell. I didn’t even scan it.”

            “You can’t do that.” He lifted his head and stared at her in surprise. “Iain, this pokegirl is registered to your alias. If you sell Rafael’s starter, it could make people wonder how he could do that since she currently comprises his entire harem. Besides, she might have been sent to you for a reason.”

            “What, she’s here because I’ve been behaving and this is my punishment?”

            “Yes,” she broke off and glared. “No! You’ve been good and this is your reward from the universe.”

            “My reward, huh? Can I trade it for what’s behind curtain number three and a copy of the home game?”

            “That’s not funny.”

            “Neither is adding more pokegirls to my life, Eve. How are we going to explain to Lindsey that I picked up another pokegirl here? I’m a tradesman and I have a full harem. I can’t participate in salvage battles, so the idea that I got her in a fight won’t work either.” He reached up and smacked himself on the forehead. “Oh, right, and I have to fuck her, too, taking time away from the girls I have feelings for and want to be with. That reminds me, I need to see if April measured my dick when we first met. I’m worried that it may be developing calluses.”

            Zareen laughed and smacked him on the thigh with her palm. “No calluses.”

            Iain’s levity vanished as he raised his head to give her an even stare. “No hitting, remember?”

            The Nightmare gave him a suddenly frightened look and bobbed her head apologetically. “I’m sorry.”

            He nodded. “Come here.” She crawled on her belly to him and waited a finger’s breadth away from him until he touched her hair. Then she pressed herself against him as he gathered her into his arms. He made a soothing noise and held her close. Zareen responded by burying her head against his side and breathing in his scent.

            Eve watched impassively. I don’t like that behavior.

            His eyes met hers. I don’t either, but right now I don’t want her hitting me more than I want to work on her being submissive. When she’s learned not to hit me anymore, then I’ll work on the submission issues. I’m just glad Canaan was able to find out why she’s this way.

            I am too.

            They were silent for several minutes before Ninhursag appeared in front of the bed. She looked at him and shook her head. “You’re not going to like this.”

            “Let me guess, Cherry is still incommunicado.” They’d been trying to get in touch with her for the last two days without any success.

            The Elfqueen was holding the Kerrik Wolf pokedex and she turned it over in her hands as she spoke. “It’s worse than that, Iain. The impression I’ve gotten is that the assassination attempt on Lindsey was just a part of an operation of some kind. I’ve talked to some of my contacts and I think it’s something a lot bigger than whacking a retired government functionary. Apparently someone has some plan to disrupt the government or at least the defense side of things. We need to find out if Harris was approached and they were really trying to eliminate her because she could ID someone important. That does make more sense than killing her because she might be a security risk.” She settled down on the bed where Zareen had originally been. “As for Minister Monica Chambers, something’s happened to her. According to official sources the Minister of Defense is on vacation and visiting family, but unofficially she’s gone to ground after an attempt on her life. Apparently Donna foiled it but got chewed up pretty badly while doing so.”

            Iain growled in the back of his throat. “What the fuck is going on there?” He smiled suddenly at the look of disbelief that flitted across Ninhursag’s face. “No, I have no intention of putting us in the middle of whatever rat fuck is going on in Blue, but I would like to know when we can take Lindsey home and get back to our regularly scheduled mayhem.”

            Zareen raised her head so her gold eyes could look up at him. “Kill her and claim she was assassinated.”

            Iain chuckled and pulled her head back down. “While extremely tempting, I told Cherry I would keep Lindsey alive if at all possible. I intend to do just that.” He frowned. “Was there any indication from your sources that this is some kind of revenge strike from Sanctuary?”

            The Elfqueen shook her head violently. “My sources don’t know what’s going on, but they have no evidence that Sanctuary is involved.”

            Eve picked up the pokeball from the dresser. “Blue has made a lot of enemies over the years. It might not be Sanctuary at all.”

            “I know. It could be Sanctuary, it could be someone external to the league or it could be some kind of coup attempt, but at least it’s a place to start.” Zareen made an unhappy noise as he pushed her away enough to sit up, but settled back down when he put her head in his lap and began stroking her cheek. “Killing Cherry would disrupt the military side of the government and, if it’s done properly, could disrupt the whole government as they frantically try to make themselves assassination proof. But the important question is what would anyone get from having former Deputy Minister Lindsey Harris killed? Remember, they went after her first, which suggests that her death was at least significant to them at that point. If we can answer that, maybe we’ll have a better idea of who might be behind this and what is going on.”

            Eve sighed. “How do we start figuring out what the Blue League apparently can’t?”

            “That’s easy. We have Lindsey and they don’t. It’s time for her to answer some questions.”

            Ninhursag looked pointedly at Eve, but her words were for Iain. “And if she refuses?”

            Eve shrugged. “If she won’t answer some reasonable questions then we either cut her loose or we force her to answer them.”

            Iain tapped Zareen on the cheek and she looked up at him. “It’s time to get up. We have to go find Lindsey and bring her back here for some questions.”

            “I’m comfortable,” the Nightmare grumbled before sitting up.

            He chuckled and slid out of the bed. “And we all want to stay that way. Remember, we were told that Blue League assassins tend to use things that go boom more often outside the league. That makes us collateral damage in any attempt to kill Lindsey Harris.”

            “I can’t kill her and we’re not supposed to let anyone else kill her.” Zareen brightened. “Stake her out with a rope and see who comes to kill her.”

            “While it’s not my first choice, that is an excellent idea and I’ll keep it in mind if Harris proves reluctant to help.” Zareen almost purred as he turned to Eve. “Let the others know we’re coming, but I don’t want Lindsey to know what’s going on just yet.”

            “Just a second.” Eve picked up the Rafael pokedex and put it into his pokepack. Then she turned and offered him the pokeball. “She’s yours, you keep her.”

            “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

            “I think she’s here for a reason, Iain. Are you going to deny her the chance to find a home with us?”

            Ninhursag frowned. “What’s that?”

            “Rafael got an efficient Nursejoy and that’s his starter.”

            “You? A starter? That’s one of those clueless pokegirls they hand out to clueless tamers to see who will die first, isn’t it? That poor thing is in for a world of hurt when Eve sets up her training regimen.” The Elfqueen shook her head. “I thought you were going someplace where they didn’t have any starters ready.”

            “I did.” He made a face. “I got lucky.”

            Ninhursag blinked. “Lucky? You mean you got a new pokegirl and you fucked the Nursejoy too?”

            “Oh, good god, give me that damned thing.” Iain snatched the pokeball from Eve and tucked it into his pocket as the Megami-sama managed to turn her burst of laughter into an abbreviated series of coughs that fooled no one. He touched one of the psychic links residing in his head. Pandora, please expedite the laundry as much as possible. I’ve got some hard questions for Lindsey Harris and as soon as you’re back we’re going to find her so I can ask them.

            He felt a burst of satisfaction from the Fallen Angel. She hadn’t liked Harris from the start and privately had been very open about that fact. The dryer has five more minutes to run, but I am sure everything is already almost completely dry. Should I remove it now?

            No, five minutes either way shouldn’t be a problem.

            Then I will return with the laundry in six minutes.

            Eve gave him an amused look tinged with annoyance. “Shouldn’t you be funneling whatever instructions you just gave Pandora through me?”

            “You’re not my radio, Eve. I told her to get up here just as soon as the laundry was done. That’ll be in a couple of minutes.”

            “No, I’m not your radio, but I am your sergeant and I need to have an idea of what’s going on.”

            “As much as I hate to disagree with you, Iain, she’s right.” Ninhursag shook her head. “You’re the idea man while she is the person who makes things happen.”

            “Now I feel like a coccyx. You all come up with ideas that are as good as if not sometimes better than mine. That makes me redundant.”

            Pandora appeared with the laundry wrapped in a sheet she’d taken with her from the camping gear. She dropped the bundle in a corner. “I am ready to go.”

            “That was only three minutes,” Iain observed. “Nice job.”

            She shrugged. “I checked and it was already dry. If you wish we could wait the extra time before leaving.”

            “No, I don’t think that’ll be necessary. Ladies, let’s go find Lindsey and the others.”

 

***

 

            As they exited the clothing store, Lindsey Harris frowned when she saw the group waiting for them outside. She glanced at April. “What happened?”

            “What do you mean?”

            “Don’t try to play innocent with me. I spent longer in the service of the government than you’ve been alive. Wolf looks grimmer than usual and everyone not with us is with him. Since they’re waiting for us, that means something happened.”

            “I don’t know what has happened. All I know is that he has some questions for you.”

            Lindsey’s eyes searched hers. “Either you’re a fantastic liar or you really don’t know.”

            “I have no reason to lie to you.”

            They’d joined with Iain’s group and he smiled briefly. “Nobody here has any reason to lie to you, Lindsey. I have some questions because there’s been a development. Minister Chambers has suddenly and unexpectedly taken vacation to visit her family.”

            Harris knew what that meant. “Is she still alive?”

            “I honestly don’t know.”

            “You think the attempt on me is part of whatever is going on.” It wasn’t a question and they both knew it.

            He nodded somberly. “There are few true coincidences and it does make me wonder about the timing of the attempt on your life. I also wonder why they went after you and, more importantly, why they tried for you first.”

            “I don’t know why they tried to kill me. I only know what you told me, which is that someone wants me dead because they think I’ll tell the league’s secrets. That’s absurd, by the way. Everyone who works in the government is vetted by psychic or Megami scan every six months for loyalty and never by the same pokegirl twice. I’ve always been found to be completely loyal.” Her voice turned bitter. “I have always done everything I can for the league. That’s why being forcibly retired hurt so much.”

            “Why were you retired?” April looked thoughtful.

            “I was told that my treatment of Wolf had embarrassed the government and that they were worried about what kind of damage he could do to the league if he decided that we were his enemy. Why?”

            “Was it sudden?”

            Harris nodded. “Yes. Up until the day I was retired, I thought my superiors approved of what I was doing. I had no notice that I was embarrassing them.”

            April looked at Iain. “What if her sacking was part of what was going on?”

            “If she was sacked because of this, the question goes back to why. And then after sacking her, why would anyone want her dead? Why not just kill her in the first place instead of getting her removed from the government?” He grimaced. “My head is starting to spin. Let’s get something to eat before worrying about this any more.”

            Dominique held up the bags in her arms. “How about we go to the hotel first and drop all of this off?”

            Eve exchanged a look with Iain. “They do have a lot of stuff,” she said quietly. “I think it would be a good idea. Right now half the harem is hampered with carrying all of that and would be slow into a fight.”

            “Fine.”

            Dominique nodded. “Come here, Zareen.”

            The Nightmare glared and backed up several steps. “Carry your own shit.”

            “Some of it is yours.”

            “I own no clothes.”

            “You should. We bought some for you.”

            Iain put up his hand as they started towards the hotel. “You bought it, you carry it.” He looked at Eve suspiciously. “Did you put her up to this?”

            “She needs clothes.”

            “Didn’t we already have this talk? Only two people here legally have to wear clothing in public and that would be Lindsey and me. The rest of you are free to wear as much or as little as you want and you are not going to force clothes on anyone who doesn’t want them.”

            Canaan’s antenna twitched. “You’re jealous of them.”

            He glanced at her. “I admit it. I tend to wear just enough clothing to safely perform the job at hand. Would I be nude in public here? I’m not sure it would be safe for any male to do that, but I do resent the fact that you have the option and I don’t. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the human body.” A whimsical smile flickered around his lips. “And I don’t mind watching anyone here.”

            Dominique jerked a thumb at Lindsey. “That had better exclude her.”

            Harris gave her an irritated look. “Why do you put up with their behavior, Wolf? They’re impertinent and don’t show you proper respect.”

            “I can see why she lost one of hers at Sadie Pokens,” Dominique said sotto voce.

            “I heard that.”

            The Archmage stared insolently back. “Good. I’d hate to waste an insult.”

            “Wolf, I insist you dress her down for that attitude.”

            “I like her the way she is, Lindsey. Did it occur to you that what you said to me was insulting to Dominique?”

            Harris stopped and dropped her bags before she folded her arms defiantly. “Are you taking her side against a human’s?”

            Iain opened his mouth to tell her to mind her own business and rethought what he was going to say even as the words started to come out. “Lindsey, my harem works for me. You have always thought I had an impertinent nature and I guess my attitude has rubbed off on them. I don’t really see it as anything that is broken. I’m sorry you and your impromptu protective detail aren’t getting along completely smoothly, but considering the circumstances we’re all you have.”

            Canaan’s head cocked. You would think she would be a bit more amenable since Dominique paid for her clothes. Their eyes met. Most of her money is tied up in investments and she didn’t expect to be going on a trip so suddenly.

            Iain was suddenly tired of the whole situation. “This is going to sound cruel, but I don’t have the slightest bit of interest in asking my ladies to monitor their behavior to make you feel better. I don’t work for you. I’m not even working for Monica. We’re here because Monica asked us to keep you alive and we agreed that you didn’t deserve to be murdered. Do you want to release me from my agreement with Minister Chambers so we can take you back to your home and go about our business while you go about yours?”

            Harris looked shocked. “You’d leave me to be butchered after saving my life once already?”

            “I would. You don’t like me. You think I am an arrogant snot. I don’t like you. You’re a bitch. Your death doesn’t affect me either way as long as none of my family gets hurt while you’re being killed. I like Monica. I like her enough that I had special plans for her before I had to suddenly change the direction of New Beginnings and all of those plans fell through the cracks. Because of this possibly misplaced affection for one of my creations, when she asked me to protect you as a favor, I agreed to her request. But if you think that because of that I am going to tell Dominique to apologize because you’re offended when she makes the perfectly reasonable comment that she doesn’t want me sleeping with you then you’re dead wrong. Dominique doesn’t have anything to worry about since you and I are about as compatible as concrete and fish, but I can understand why she doesn’t want me to even consider giving up more of the time she could spend with me on someone else. Pokegirls get the short end of the stick all their lives and she isn’t responding this way because you’re human, it’s because you’re female, she doesn’t get all the time she wants now and I have pretty wide tastes in women.”

            Harris stared at him for several seconds before visibly deflating. “I need you,” she whispered so softly that she was almost inaudible. “I don’t want to die.”

            “We don’t want you to die,” Eve said gently. “But Kerrik lets us be proud and he lets us be strong and we will not let you take that away from us.” She smiled amusedly when he let out a frustrated sounding growl. “He hates it when we say he lets us behave like we do, but you and I understand that I’m right. Many tamers would punish us for being ourselves, just as you wanted him to do to Dominique a minute ago. It’s perfectly legal and almost universally socially acceptable behavior in a tamer. He won’t. He values us for us, not for what we could be shaped into.” Her smile faded. “If it helps you, there is a practical aspect to this, too. Letting us be who we are has increased our effectiveness by several orders of magnitude. I have seen both kinds of harem and this one is much more powerful than a restrictive harem composed of identical pokegirls would be. And no matter what Kerrik wants, he is our tamer and I am his alpha. If making myself or the others toe some imaginary line of behavior would improve our ability to protect him, I would do so without the slightest hesitation and regardless or not of whether I had his permission to make the changes I thought necessary. After all, I am a pokegirl and I am his.”

            Iain snorted. “And because of who I am, we’d fight about it.”

            Her smile reappeared. “Because of who you are, we’d fight about it every step of the way, but because of who I am, I would win. I am older and sneakier than you are.”

            Iain started to say something and closed his mouth as he tried to think of a graceful way out of this discussion. Ruefully, he realized he couldn’t. “You’re more than welcome to be old. I, on the other hand, am hungry and this is not getting me food.” He picked up Lindsey’s packages. “Since I’m pretty sure that nothing in any of these bags would fit me, we can either find a dumpster for these clothes or we can take them back to the hotel right now.”

            Dominique grinned. “You bought them, so I suppose they’re yours to throw away as long as you understand we’ll just buy more.”

            “Well, we can’t have that if I bought them.” Iain put his nose up and headed briskly for the hotel. Laughter floated from behind him as his ladies and Harris followed.

 

***

 

            Dominique settled back in her chair and rubbed her stomach through her blouse. “That was much better than Kerrik’s cooking.” They were at an outside café. It was popular and filled tables surrounded them.

            He looked blandly at her. “Feel free to take my turns.”

            “I couldn’t do that. It would rob you of the chance to improve.”

            Ninhursag leaned over and whispered into Iain’s ear. He grinned. “That sounds like an excellent idea.”

            Dominique looked at them suspiciously. “What did you just tell him?”

            “I suggested more vegetable salads as main dishes. They’re pretty flexible and hard to mess up for you.”

            “But I like meat!”

            April chuckled. “No, you like his meat.”

            Dominique blinked and started laughing as Eve shook her head before turning to Lindsey. “Dysfunctional we might be, but we are a family.”

            Harris was watching things with interest. “My family was never like this. And you say this is better than a more restrictive harem?”

            The Megami-sama nodded. “Doesn’t the Blue League train its military humans to use their own initiative because it improves their effectiveness? Kerrik does the same thing with us and it works just as well for pokegirls as it does for humans. It takes a person who is confident in himself far more than most beginning tamers are to let us be ourselves all the time, but the result is undeniable.”

            “Wouldn’t it increase turnover during Sadie Pokens events?”

            “The opposite is true, Lindsey. Kerrik couldn’t get rid of us if he wanted to. Harems like ours have the lowest rate of breakup of any of the various types of harems in existence. The statistics are only skewed because tamers that feel like him usually become tradesman as fast as they can, if only so they can’t lose any of their pokegirls to salvage. It’s a lot easier than constantly refusing challenges from others.”

            The former government official nodded. “I’ve seen studies that say the same thing. But what are we supposed to do about the others?”

            Eve pursed her lips and considered how to say what she wanted. “In the beginning, the way the leagues started changing the way that people thought about pokegirls was by changing the educational system and indoctrinating children as soon as they went to school. You’d have to go back to that and redo it once more.”

            “That’s a lot of inertia to overcome, Eve.”

            Eve nodded solemnly. “Yes, it is, but thirty percent of your beginning tamers die before they get old enough to retire or become tradesmen. This has the potential to reduce those losses substantially. It’s good for the tamers, it’s good for the government and it’s good for the league. The Shepherd program is a good start in that direction, but tamers need to understand that pokegirls can think too.”

            “You just want us to believe that pokegirls are as human as we are.”

            “Of course I would, but right now I’d be happy if people thought of pokegirls as less disposable.”

            Apparently Iain had been eavesdropping, for he looked in their direction. “Officially, the idea that pokegirls were less than human was put forth as propaganda during the Revenge War to make men more likely to kill those pretty girls on the other side of the battlefield and to justify some of the horrors that were perpetrated by both sides. The war has been over for centuries and today pokegirls need us and we need them or we’re all going to die in the jaws of the ferals.”

            Harris frowned. “You said officially. There was an unofficial reason?”

            His teeth flashed in a quick grin. “The writers who created and continued the genre were horny perverts who still had consciences. In our time and place, slavery is a very dirty word. Making pokegirls into slaves would be impossible to justify if they were human. But if they’re creatures that need to be fucked or they go crazy and have an inbred hierarchical order, well, then making slave harems out of them becomes a kindness that just happens to pander to the fetishes of young men and women everywhere.”

            “Is that why you got involved in it?”

            “No, Eve, it isn’t. I found pokegirls while looking for something else. I had been writing for a while and was looking for ideas to steal for a couple of worlds that I created. In the pokegirl genre I found something I could write about that had a ready made audience to give me critiques so I could polish my writing for other things that I wanted to do.” He snickered at something only he could see. “It also helped me to make regular writing a habit and nothing improves writing more than actual writing. You can go to all the workshops in the universe and they won’t help you if you don’t write. Writing is a skill and all skills improve with practice. I like detail and put it into my stories. In addition, I was a game master and thought like one, so I tended to flesh out the places I wrote about with research and creative thinking. Details make a story come to life for the reader and writer alike, and more ideas came to me to use in my writing. Because I was prolific, articulate and I liked to debate instead of argue, people, whether they agreed with me or not, gave me their time and listened to what I had to say. I like to think. I also like my opponents in debates to think, too, and I have always demanded that people engaging in discussions with me back up what they’re saying. Because of that, I was made a moderator and an administrator, responsibilities I tended to take seriously and use impartially. Because I tried to be impartial, I was mostly respected in the genre, small pond though it might be.”

            He felt something flicker on the edge of his consciousness as magic fluctuated under the table and his eyes met Eve’s as sudden fear filled hers. Aurum exploded off his chest, shredding his shirt as she appeared next to him. She grabbed the table and hurled it away from her lord and master. A heartbeat later it exploded over the crowd, sending a spray of shrapnel and debris that turned the throng of pokegirls and humans into a red wrack that moaned piteously on the edges even as the first screams filled the air.

            Eve grabbed Lindsey and hurled her at Iain. “Armor!” He caught the human and activated his armor ring around both of them. Not designed for two people, its field fluctuated wildly until he added magic from his own store to it, stabilizing the protective barrier just as the Gunvalkyrie lurched to her feet on a rooftop a hundred meters to his right and hosed them down with both of her tribarrels. As he fed magic into the supercharged ring, it rapidly began to grow hot on his finger.

            Eve, Dominique, Pandora and April shot into the air, following the plasma bolts back to their attacker while Zareen, unable to reach Iain, phased and hovered protectively nearby in case of further attack. Ninhursag teleported a dozen meters away. Lightning shot from her outstretched hand and danced over the Gunvalkyrie, knocking her aim off until she retargeted. Canaan joined the Elfqueen, her antenna moving as she quested for more attackers.

            The sidescatter of the plasma bolts would have injured his harem members, but they were already in motion even as the Shadowcat hurled a second satchel charge from the rooftop opposite the one the Gunvalkyrie was on. Canaan caught the explosive in midair with her telekinesis and tossed it back to the Shadowcat, who teleported away just as it detonated. The bomb was a multipurpose device designed to land with the integral shaped charge pointing down and the blast punched through the roof into the top floor. Glass exploded from every window on that floor to rain down on the people below, killing several and more than one screaming form who had rushed to the windows to see what was going on below was shot through them in the detonation. The explosion ignited the rooftop and smoke began to curl up into the air.

            Aurum shimmered and the bolts of charged particles curved in midair to strike her squarely where they were absorbed into her body. Her wings curved up and between them a large ball of energy composed of the stolen plasma began to coalesce. The Gunvalkryie tried changing her aim point, but the plasma still turned to strike the Dragoness.

            I have found their human controller. Canaan vanished in pursuit before Iain could even think about stopping her.

            Pandora, go with her. Eve landed behind the Gunvalkyrie as the Fallen Angel followed the Splice. The steel pokegirl spun, her tribarrels still spitting plasma and Eve ducked under the stream and charged as Zareen lunged for Iain, hissing as he dropped the field and threw Lindsey across the Nightmare’s back before turning his ring back on and summoning his staff. “Get her out of here!”

            Zareen snarled at him in fury. “You get on now or I’ll kill her myself!” His eyes glittered angrily, but he deactivated his ring and jumped on her back. She phased and raced through the wall of the nearest building.

            Eve threw herself at the Gunvalkyrie, but before she could strike the steel pokegirl snapped her arms down at the rooftop underneath herself and blew it to shreds, dropping from sight just before Eve’s sword slashed through the space she’d occupied.

            “Get back!” Eve threw herself backwards at April’s warning just in time. The Black Skull Dragon folded its wings and dove, crashing into the hole and through it as well as the floor below before the construct’s life energy gave out and it vanished.

            Eve activated her wonder guard and dropped into the hole as Dominique swept her energy blade in a circle and chopped another hole in the roof. The Archmage looked up at her beta. “April, stay here in case she backtracks.” Then she stepped into the opening she’d made and was gone.

            Sirens shrieked as several police and military vehicles raced around a corner. Aurum twisted and hurled the ball of plasma at the lead vehicle, which exploded into flaming debris that blocked the street. The Dragoness surveyed the damage as the other cars slammed into each other in their haste to halt and chuckled hollowly. “Oops.” She spun as glass shattered from a window halfway up the building Eve and Dominique had entered. The Gunvalkyrie leaned out of the window just enough to fire her plasma artillery in direct fire mode at the Dragoness. The twin plasma bombs vaporized all the flesh from the Dragoness’ skeleton even as she fired her hyper beam at the exposed steel type, who managed to duck out of the way just before Aurum’s attack struck. The beam smashed through the building and out the other side several floors up, the exit hole vomiting stone, steel and glass in a spray that covered more than a city block with projectiles that fell from the sky in a lethal rain.

            Canaan exited and smiled malevolently at the human in front of her as his eyes widened. “Surrender or die.” She grunted in surprise as the Shadowcat against the wall behind her emptied her suppressed assault rifle into the Splice’s back in one long burst. Canaan dropped to her knees and spat blood as she activated her healing abilities. From behind her came the metallic sounds of the Shadowcat reloading her weapon. “Bitch.”

            Pandora appeared behind the Splice and facing the Shadowcat as the dark pokegirl raised her assault rifle again. The Fallen Angel instantly whirled into a roundhouse kick that knocked the rifle away and took the Shadowcat in the face, crushing her jaw before smashing her through the wall behind her and into the next apartment in the building they were in. Screams of surprise came from the inhabitants of that room as the Shadowcat picked herself up, cursing through shattered teeth.

            The man whipped his assault rifle up at Pandora’a armored back and screamed as Canaan stabbed an energy blade through the receiver of the weapon, incidentally slicing through his wrist as she lunged on her knees and dragged the blade down.

            The Shadowcat blurred forward as Pandora reached up over her shoulder and jerked the shotgun from the scabbard she’d made for the weapon when she’d modified it by sawing off the stock to leave only a pistol grip. The three round burst of slugs took the Shadowcat in the face and punched out the back of her skull.

            As the corpse fell, the Fallen Angel turned and leveled the shotgun at the human, only to stop when Canaan held up one hand. “I want him alive to interrogate.”

            “Fine. You carry him.” Pandora put her hand on Canaan’s shoulder and jerked her to her feet as she poured more healing energy into the Splice’s body. “I want to get back as soon as we can. Kerrik isn’t in danger, but he isn’t safe since they still haven’t caught the Gunvalkyrie.”

            Canaan grabbed the man and healed him as Pandora turned to face the hole in the wall and the Catgirl standing there staring at them. “Call the authorities and report what you have seen. We will be gone by then, back to Ruby where we belong. It begins today.” Her voice rose to a triumphant yell. “The Czar will rise again!”

            The Catgirl stumbled backwards as she, Canaan and the human disappeared.

            Ninhursag had joined Iain, Zareen and Lindsey where the Nightmare stood out of view of the building Eve and Dominique were still looking for the Gunvalkyrie in. When Canaan, Pandora and the human appeared, Iain frowned curiously. “Can he call on the Gunvalkyrie to give up before we destroy anything else?”

            “Bugger you,” the man snapped. “The only way she’ll stop is if that woman dies.”

            Ninhursag chuckled. “Well, for once they’re not trying to kill you, Kerrik.”

            “Yeah, I’d just be collateral damage and just as dead. Canaan, would you look into his mind and see what you can retrieve that we can use?”

            “I will.” Her antenna extended and a single plasma bolt took the man in the back of the head. The energy released vaporized the back of his skull and blew a bloody froth over Canaan and everyone not directly behind her.

            The Gunvalkyrie shifted the aim of her sniper rifle to the woman’s head as she forced down the pain and grief that ripped through her at carrying out her tamer’s orders in the event of his capture. Shooting through the windows of the building between them hadn’t been especially difficult after the first two bolts had shattered the intervening windows. Now she would complete her mission and then she would attempt to evade and return to the safe house.

            When the energy blade slashed through the barrel of her sniper rifle, something akin to relief filled the Gunvalkyrie’s heart. Evasion was now impossible and that opened other options in the orders she had last received from her now dead tamer. She turned to face Dominique as the Archmage leveled the shimmering blade. “Surrender or die.”

            The Gunvalkyrie lowered her arms and supercharged her internal plasma generator to its absolute maximum. “I choose death, but I will not go alone.”

            The blast shredded the third floor of the building. The building swayed, trying to find a new equilibrium, but too many of the support columns on the third floor had either been damaged or completely destroyed. The fall started out deceptively slow, but the mass of the building accelerated until it smashed into the ground in a cloud of dust that filled the air and blotted out the sun around the impact site.

            Iain looked to his right at Eve, April and Dominique as they appeared. “Are you ladies all right?”

            “She killed herself.” Dominique looked pissed. “That stupid bitch tried to take me with her, but I warned Eve and April as I bailed. I thought things were under control, damn it. Now we’re no closer to finding out what is going on than we were before they attacked us.”

            “Not true.” Canaan reached into the skull of the man she still held and pulled out a piece of his brain. “There’s still enough for me to work with.” She popped it into her mouth and swallowed.

            Lindsey almost fell off of Zareen and threw up while Iain turned green but didn’t look away.

            Ninhursag was examining the scene around them. “You know, I’m pretty sure that even the presence of Eve is not going to get us a pass from the police. Aurum did blow some of them up after all and we don’t have any prisoners for a gift to make them less angry at us.”

            Iain forced a chuckle around his stomach’s queasiness. “To the victor goes the blame?”

            “A building got blown up, another is burning nicely and a whole lot of people got themselves killed because they were around Lindsey here. The government is going to have some very hard questions for us.” Silver eyes met his. “And after the first psychic pokegirl’s brains leak out her ears after she tries to scan you, those questions may be a lot like the ones you told us about when the Inquisition put people to the Question.”

            “Torture? Been there, done that and I’m not interested in a repeat of the experience.” He looked around. “Eve, I think I feel a sudden yearning for the fresh air of the deep wilderness. I know you’d like to stay and help with the injured, but that would put us in too much danger.”

            Eve sighed and nodded. “You’re right. I still,” she broke off. “What about our gear?”

            Iain frowned. “Canaan?”

            The Splice nodded. “They didn’t know where we were staying and I know how they tracked Harris to here. She has a tattoo on her somewhere that is magical. It’s so the Blue League can rescue kidnapped government officials. Charles had the key so he could find it.”

            Lindsey was wiping her mouth and gave Dominique a grateful smile as the Archmage handed her a canteen of water. “How did he get that?” She took a mouthful of water and spat it out before drinking.

            “We just wiped out an official Blue League wetwork team, Lindsey.” Canaan gave her a grim smile as the woman gasped in shock and almost dropped the canteen. “Charles Peterson was a lieutenant colonel in the BLSF and was assigned to the 21^st or Ghost brigade. He was tasked to eliminate you.” Her eyes flicked towards Iain. There’s a lot more to that story, but we need to get moving.

            I understand and you’re right. “Eve, if they didn’t know where we’re staying, once we get someplace safe you can send two people back for our things. Right now, we need to really go somewhere else before the police start searching over here.”

            Aurum had returned to her place on his chest. I could keep them busy for you if you’d like, my lord.

            Iain didn’t see a reason for her to kill more people just so they could hang around. No, that won’t be necessary. “Eve, move them out.”

 

***

 

            The camp had been set up and the area scouted, the three ferals they’d run into now resting inside their new homes. April, Pandora and Dominique had returned to Montevideo to get their supplies and check out of their hotel suite while the others finished setting up the camp.

            Iain looked at Eve. “I’d like your help with Harris.”

            “In what fashion?”

            “She’s still got that tracking tattoo. One of them has got to go.”

            Eve blinked and snickered quietly. “How would we keep the tattoo and get rid of her?”

            He smiled slightly. “We’d figure out a way if we really had to.”

            Lindsey Harris was stringing a clothesline and stopped when they approached. She looked from one to the other. “What is it?”

            “Your tattoo needs to come off or they’ll be able to find us again.”

            “I was thinking about that too. Eve can remove it, but you’ll have to leave. It’s in a private place on my body.”

            Eve frowned. “I can’t remove it unless I excise it with a knife. Kerrik can drain the ink out of your skin without hurting you.”

            Harris looked surprised. “I thought it could be marked out or something.”

            Eve shook her head. “If it’s a magical tattoo that a pokegirl put on, then it can’t be destroyed by alteration unless it’s by another pokegirl who knows how to put on tattoos. Nobody here knows how to do that.”

            “What about Kerrik’s tattoos? Those are magical.”

            Eve was not going to explain the Dragonesses as tattoos, especially since she didn’t entirely understand them herself. Not even Iain did. “He got those from someone else and she’s not available.”

            “Damn. So my options are to have the tattoo cut out or have him see me nude.” Harris looked him up and down. “I have no interest in you sexually.”

            “Right back at you.” She frowned at the slang and he grimaced. “I’m not interested in you, either. While seeing you nude may give me an erection, I will not be interested in using it on you.”

            “If you’re not interested, why would you get an erection?”

            He shrugged. “It’s my body getting ready for something that’s not going to happen. My clothes are staying on and you’re in no danger whatsoever. Hell, if you think Eve would let me rape someone, you’re silly. If I were into rape, she’d just make sure she and I played out rape fantasies so I could get my rocks off. That way I wouldn’t be committing anything evil.”

            Eve was bright red and not looking at anyone when Lindsey looked at her. “Is that true?”

            She turned even redder. “Yes,” she said softly. “And if I couldn’t give him what he wanted, I would find someone who could.”

            Iain took her hand and she looked at him. “I know you would,” he said gently. “You are one of the best things that ever happened to me, Eve. I’m very glad I didn’t kill you like I wanted to when we first met.”

            “I’m glad you didn’t either. It would have made taking care of you a bit difficult.”

            Harris shook her head. “Will I ever hear the whole story behind that exchange?”

            Eve looked at him and shrugged. “I’ll tell you about it later. Right now we need to remove that tattoo. Which is it going to be?”

            “Would you get undressed with me?”

            “What?”

            Harris gave Iain an uneasy look as she spoke to Eve. “If you got undressed with me, then I wouldn’t feel so nervous about him seeing me.”

            “Kerrik?”

            “I’ll still be focused on the tattoo, but if it makes Lindsey relax and you don’t have a problem with it then neither do I.” I’ll just have to concentrate really hard not to stare at your luscious body standing next to the old bat.

            Be nice. Her smile showed her pleasure. “All right, if it’ll help you, Lindsey. Where is the tattoo?”

            “It’s under my left breast.”

            “Kerrik, please turn around so we can get topless.” Her eyes warned him against making one of his usual comments.

            He wouldn’t do that around Lindsey anyways and turned to face away from them without saying a word. He even tried to keep his perception from focusing on them as they did whatever they were going to do behind his back.

            He was serious when he said that he wasn’t interested in Harris. Even in his world, physically attractive women weren’t that hard to find, but it was personality that really caught his attention. In his opinion, Lindsey was a bitch, and he found women like that about as sexually stimulating as a swift kick in the groin.

            “Kerrik, we’re ready.”

            He turned around and found he had to force himself not to stare at Harris. It wasn’t that she was particularly attractive or unattractive. She was a decent example of a healthy woman at her age, which was approaching sixty years of age. It was just that none of his pokegirls had pierced nipples and because they didn’t it had been a while since he’d seen any.

            Eve lifted her chest slightly to get his attention and suddenly he had no trouble ignoring Harris and her nipple studs. He put his attention on Lindsey’s face and smiled confidently. “Ok, I’ll have to touch the tattoo, but that’s it.”

            The tattoo was about an inch across and had the Blue League flag along with some arcane symbols that Iain finally decided didn’t really do much. It was the circle around the whole tattoo that held the real magic and he spent a few seconds studying it.

            “You’re staring at my breast. You said you wouldn’t.”

            “I’m looking at the tattoo.” He looked up. “Now I’m going to touch it.”

            She gritted her teeth. “Do it.”

            Iain reached out and traced the design with a fingertip. He could feel her skin shudder beneath his touch and could also feel the wave of anger surging just beneath her surface. She really didn’t like him.

            Good. That would make disposing of her easier to justify to Eve, should it become necessary.

            Iain focused his magic and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket. “Here goes.” He carefully released his intent and the ink in the tattoo began to glisten on her body as it was pulled out of the cells where it had been injected. It flowed into his finger and appeared on the handkerchief in his other hand as a blob that quickly spread as the tattoo became lighter and lighter until it was gone. He pulled his hand away and tucked the handkerchief back in his pocket. “Done.” Then he turned around again. “You can get dressed, ladies.”

            The tattoo had taken only a couple of minutes to remove.

            Eve took his arm and started leading him away from Harris. “Let’s give Lindsey some privacy.” Iain glanced at her and blinked. She was still topless. She noticed his surprise and dimples appeared on her cheeks as she smiled. “Maybe you’re finally corrupting me a little, but we are alone and so it doesn’t matter.”

            “It’s about time. I’ve been trying hard enough.”

            “Should I get nipple rings?”

            Iain’s eyebrows went up. “I think not, unless that’s something you’d want for yourself. I think your nipples are just fine the way they are.”

            “No rings?”

            He grinned. “Uncovered.”

            She winked.

 

***

 

            “I want to be there too.”

            Iain managed not to roll his eyes at Harris’ assumption that she was welcome in their conference. “Then shut up and come with me.”

            She looked startled for a heartbeat and then fell in with him. “If you treat all human women this way, you’ll never find a wife.”

            “What you call human women is overrated.” He rubbed his right ear where a mosquito had bitten him while he was relieving himself after getting up. “What I call human women I already have in my life. Homo sapiens and Homo sukebe can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, suggesting that they are merely subspecies of Homo sapiens in the genus Homo in the family of Hominidae.”

            “So you’re one of those.”

            “A person capable of logical thought? Yes, I am, even though it’s a bit hard on the Catgirls.” When she looked confused for a second he smiled slightly. “It’s an inside joke that you don’t have to understand.”

            “Ah.”

            Everyone else was seated around the campfire and Vanessa gave him a wave that he returned with a smile. “Glad to see you could make it. Did you have any problems with your little mission?”

            “None whatsoever.”

            “That’s good.” He settled down next to Canaan, who wrapped two arms around him and leaned firmly against his side. They’d tried the traditional method of having her sit in his lap that most of the other members of his harem liked, but her body mass meant that she tended to squash his testicles and cut of the flow of blood to his thighs, so this had become her form of an affectionate cuddle with him. “Canaan, the floor is yours.”

            The Splice hugged him slightly tighter before speaking. “I want to start by clarifying some things that I got from the memories of Colonel Peterson.” At the same time, her mind was touching the members of her family. I am modifying Lindsey’s memories so she believes I was able to scan Peterson before he was killed. My Amachamp side suggests this will help to preserve our safety from people interested in collecting Hunter pokegirls. Please do not say anything to her about my consuming his brain, or if you do, make it sound like I have some kind of fetish for eating the brains of sentients. It is a documented behavior in Alaka-Whams, albeit an extremely rare one.

            “What is the current political situation between the Blue League and Orange?”

            Lindsey’s eyes hardened. “Things are tense since we deported a bunch of their tamers for stealing pokegirls.”

            Dominique grinned. “Tense is an understatement. There were several incidents and some people were killed.”

            Canaan nodded. “That’s right; I forgot you used to work for the government. Why did Orange League tamers have to be deported for catching ferals?”

            “That’s not the issue,” Harris replied. “They were stealing tamed pokegirls and shipping them back to the Orange League as a shortcut to their program to solve their shortage issues.”

            April’s mouth dropped open. “They have a shortage of pokegirls?”

            Harris nodded. “They have a shortage of ferals, which are a major source of pokegirls in any league. They always have. While any other league would trumpet this fact to get immigrants, they feel it’s a problem and downplay the whole issue. They try and correct the situation by sending out tamers to other leagues to collect feral and tamed pokegirls, but since they are sending military units out for the collecting a lot of leagues are unhappy with letting them come into their lands. That and Orange has always had an expansionist stance that makes people nervous. They see their shortage of pokegirls as a military problem which suggests they think having enough would allow them military solutions to several other issues the rest of the leagues don’t like about them, like their use of nuclear technology that is forbidden by league treaties. Right now Orange tamers are not welcome in Blue and haven’t been for over a decade.”

            “Ms. Harris, what do you know about Duncan Mulroney?”

            She looked faintly surprised. “I’ve known him for over twenty years. He replaced me as the Deputy Minister of Department Six and is very competent. Why do you ask?”

            “Do you remember a party you and he attended about eighteen years ago?”

            “No, I don’t. I attend a lot of parties as a requirement for the various posts I’ve held during my career. Why would I?”

            Canaan’s antenna twitched. “I’d like to refresh your memories of the event. It’s necessary because it helps to explain why you have been targeted for assassination.”

            Harris sighed. “If you must, but please don’t mess with anything else.”

            Iain blinked. “You’re pretty blasé about this.”

            “As part of my job, we get regular deep scans to confirm our loyalty and honesty. I’m used to it.” Her eyes closed and she frowned. “Ok, I remember the party like I just left it. What’s so important?”

            Canaan smiled slightly. “Do you remember what you guessed about Mulroney?”

            “I caught some kind of accent from him and said it sounded like a friend of mine from Orange. He laughed it off and said it was from deep in the hinterlands of Scotland.”

            “You were correct and he was lying to you. Duncan Mulroney is a deep cover Orange League operative sent to gain rank in the Blue League so that he could covertly introduce large numbers of Orange tamers into the BLSF and smuggle already trained military grade pokegirls back to Orange. He documented that conversation in one of his reports and, when he manufactured some of the charges that got you removed from the post he needed to attain, was instructed to have you eliminated afterwards in order to remove any chance that your memory about his past might come back to haunt him.”

            Harris shook her head disbelievingly. “That’s impossible. He joined the ministry eight years ago and has been regularly scanned by psychic pokegirls ever since. He would certainly have been discovered. That’s what the whole scanning program is for.”

            Canaan nodded. “Normally that would be true. I am aware that you know Lara, Lana, Leslie and Lisa.”

            “Of course I do. They’re the Alaka-Whams who do the scans for Department Six.”

            “Are you aware that they are all parthenogenic littermates?”

            She looked thoughtful. “Yes, it was mentioned to me once or twice that they are from the same litter.”

            “You are aware that this means they share the same DNA and, except for superficial differences that can be easily changed, are physically identical.”

            “I know what being parthenogenic littermates means, Canaan.”

            “Then you won’t be surprised when I tell you that they are all the same pokegirl. It’s why you’ve never seen more than one of them at a time. All four of her handlers are from the Orange League too, and were installed just before Duncan joined the Ministry.” Her blue-gray eyes watched Harris turn white. “The program was supposed to have allowed all four of them to scan each other to verify that each was still loyal. That will have to be changed, in spite of the fear Department Six has that some of its secrets will be compromised if outside psychic pokegirls scan the department’s loyalty supervisors. As you can see, not allowing outside access allowed your department to be deeply penetrated by Orange League agents.”

            “How can you know all of this?”

            “Colonel Peterson was planted as part of the same group that Mulroney was. There were over a dozen agents inserted into the BLSF in a group at that point. Because of this, they have become closer than was operationally safe and shared information with each other that would have better remained compartmentalized. It is a human failing. Peterson and Mulroney were best friends.”

            Harris looked at Iain. “We have to do something.”

            “We?”

            “You said that Minister Chambers is your friend. It’s likely that her investigation is getting too close to Mulroney and that’s why she was attacked. He’ll kill her if you don’t get involved. In addition, if they already don’t know you’re protecting me, they will figure it our eventually and you’ll go on their hit list right next to me and Monica.”

            She’s right. Canaan didn’t sound pleased about it, but then nobody here was going to be. Peterson didn’t know about us, but Chambers does and she might have told someone. In any case, Mulroney will try to find out why his assassins keep getting killed and that will lead to us sooner or later.

            “Our options are going to be pretty limited. We have to let the rest of the government know what’s going on while not getting chewed up in the gears of the machine we’ll be throwing ourselves into.” Ninhursag looked thoughtful. “They won’t know we’re coming, though, which will be to our advantage.”

            Dominique looked around the group. “We’ll need proof. Canaan’s knowledge may not be enough. And the only contact you can trust is Cherry, so we have to find her.”

            “If she’s still alive,” Eve observed. “And then we’ll have to keep her that way long enough for her to help us.” The Sisterhood is unlikely to break cover for this, but if you want I’ll talk to Lucifer.

            Let her know what’s going on, but I don’t want her people revealing themselves unless it is absolutely necessary even if she will help. “Finding Cherry will be the hard part. Once we’ve got her safe, proving what Canaan knows will be easy.” Iain pushed to his feet. “Canaan, I want you to make a list of everyone in the BLSF that you know is either an agent, has been compromised or even might have been compromised. I want as much information as you can give me before we consider our next move. Lindsey, rack your brain and see if you can think of where Chambers might have gone or if she has some friends who might have an idea. We’re running behind the bad guys in this, so we’re going to have to cheat like crazy to catch up.” He frowned. “Eve, you, Dominique and April put your heads together and think about what we might need that we don’t have. Don’t let reality affect your wish list, either. I’m willing to consider raiding a police station or military outpost here in Silver River or even in Blue to get something that might prove especially useful.” Or asking the people on the Des Moines for some gear if they have it and we might need it.

 

***

 

            Iain leaned back against Zareen’s side and looked at the message on the Austin Drummond pokedex from Rudy Wells as he thought about what it said. He’d considered not sending a reply, but some of what Kelvin had hinted at had left him concerned and he wanted to let Kelvin and the Captain of the Daisy Mae know how he felt about the things that had him worried. However, replying as Austin would be way out of character, so he’d decided to write Kelvin another letter.

            Finally he picked up the pen and began writing.

 

 

            He put the pen down and read through the letter a few times; making a change here and there with his magic altering the script so he didn’t have to rewrite the whole thing again. Finally he folded it up and put it in an envelope for Eve to deliver.

            His wife showed up a few minutes after he sent her a mental request and gave him a broad smile. “Are you done writing yet?”

            He held up the envelope. “I am. Would you be so kind as to deliver it to the Daisy Mae for me?”

            Eve smiled and plucked the letter from his hand even as she dropped a pokeball into it. “I’ll trade you.”

            He eyed the pokeball. “What’s this?”

            “It’s Rafael’s starter. You almost left it at the hotel, quite by accident I am sure.”

            “You’re determined to do this, aren’t you? You are aware that we’re going back to the Blue League in the next day or two.”

            The Megami-sama gave his hand a firm push to close his fingers around the pokeball. “It doesn’t matter to her.”

            Iain sighed and rolled the ball around on his palm. “Sometimes a man has to know what battles he can win and when he needs to save his resources for another one.”

            “I’m glad you understand that.”

            “Let’s see if this is anyone I’d like to have sex with.” He triggered the pokeball. The girl that appeared was so skinny that she looked taller than she was. In fact, she looked almost emaciated and Iain fancied he could count her ribs from where he sat. She was nude and looked almost human, except for the bright yellow ears that poked above her head and the yellow tail bent in a jagged pattern that lay limply behind her. Her eyes met his and her ears went flat.

            He gave her a friendly smile, carefully not showing any teeth. “Hi,” he said brightly.

            The pokegirl took a deep breath and screamed in a voice filled with terror and despair before turning and bolting into the forest that surrounded them. She was still screaming and the sound faded quickly as she raced away from them.

            Iain gave Eve a puzzled look and shrugged before he picked up the Drummond pokedex and returned it to his pokepack.

            “Kerrik, your Peekabu is getting away.”

            “She’s not my Peekabu and shows no signs of wanting to be my Peekabu.”

            Eve frowned. “Iain, I mean Kerrik, she’s going to run into some feral and get eaten.”

            Zareen snorted. “She won’t be more than a mouthful.”

            “Kerrik, you need to go get her.”

            Iain looked up and Eve blinked at the disinterest in his eyes. She hadn’t seen it in quite a while. “I see there are three options available here. We could let her go off to whatever fate awaits her. You could go get her. Or, finally, you could insist I get involved and I’ll send Zareen to fetch her for me. Zareen will beat the shit out her and force her back into her pokeball.”

            Eve looked up at the Nightmare, who almost successfully hid the eagerness in her eyes. “No, I think I’ll get her for you. I am the maharani, after all.”

            Iain held out the pokeball. “Yes, you are. You might want to take Canaan with you since I can’t hear her anymore and that means she might have finally stopped screaming.”

 

***

 

Iain Grey - Tradesman

Eve - Megami-sama (maharani)

Dominique - Blessed Archmage

April - Duelist

Ninhursag - Elfqueen

Zareen - Nightmare

Pandora - Fiendish Fallen Angel

Canaan - G-Splice (Amachamp Hunter - Alaka-Wham)

 

Dragonesses

Eirian - Silver

Skye - Blue

Emerald - Green

Aurum - Gold

Beryl - Red