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A Little Blue
Eleven
08/20/09 2145 A71, Scotland
Ciaran touched Elsa on the shoulder and pointed at the tent where Baker and Libby had retired to an hour before. “Please put them to sleep again like you did that night in the barn.”
She turned her head to look at him. “I thought you didn’t want me doing that again.”
“Most of the time I wouldn’t, but this is something that’s private family business and I don’t want them hearing any of what I am about to tell you.”
She smirked suddenly. “You just might make a better Infernal tamer than a Celestial one, you know. They commonly redefine their morality to suit the situation.”
Ciaran shrugged. “Everyone has some of the brightest good and the darkest evil inside them. That’s what the Bible tells us. It wants us to live good lives as best we can, but we are the ones that get to decide what parts we allow to control our lives. God decides the price we pay for those decisions.” He smiled briefly. “And while I know about two Saints named Ciaran, I’ve never claimed to be either of them.”
Elsa muttered and pointed at the tent. Ciaran felt that same tingle down his neck he’d felt before and then she smiled evilly. “It’s done. They’ll sleep the night through until dawn unless we wake them up.” Her ears flicked as Victoria and Eliana appeared out of the night and she looked from them to him. “What is this?”
Victoria sat down next to Elsa, with Eliana sitting down on her other side. “We are a family and if you have any questions about what Ciaran is going to tell you, hopefully we can provide answers that will satisfy you.”
“If he can’t answer them himself,” Eliana added as she stretched out her feet towards the fire and wriggled her toes happily.
“What about Ceres,” Elsa asked.
“She’s on guard duty but she’s listening to the discussion,” Ciaran replied.
Elsa blinked. “How? Where she is I wouldn’t be able to hear anything that’s said here unless you were bellowing.”
He smiled. “I’ll probably answer that as part of the discussion we’re about to have.” He added another couple of pieces of wood to the fire and leaned back against the stone fence he was sitting in front of. It made a great reflector for the heat of the fire. “You have already met Theodora. She is part of the family of my employer, Iain Grey. We are here in the British Isles because we’re on a mission for him and his family.”
Elsa nodded. “Victoria told me about it. We’re supporting the Royals by helping them grow their economies and secretly setting them up for the destruction of their way of life by giving their farmers, fisherman and anyone else you can find pokegirls who will try to swing their owners around to the points of view held by the Grey family and Texas. The second part, of course, the Royal government is not aware of.”
Ciaran smiled again. “Those are some of the missions we are here on, but, while valid reasons to be doing what we’re doing, ultimately both of those are covers for the true mission we are here to complete.”
Elsa blinked. “We have an overt mission and a covert mission and they’re both covers for the real reason we’re here? That’s,” she paused before shaking her head. “That’s a pretty sophisticated operation. Was using these multiple layers of security your idea?”
“No, it wasn’t. Iain and his family came up with it. Some of them could think circles around all of us put together.”
“I find that hard to believe, but I’ll accept it at face value for now. So what is our primary mission here?”
“First, you need to know that we have another cover mission,” Victoria interjected. “We’re supposed to make contact with Baker’s real ruler and arrange for her to meet with the Grey family. I believe they’re looking for some kind of alliance with her.”
“Yet another layer of security,” Elsa said musingly. “That’s,” she broke off as her eyes widened. “Did you say Baker’s real ruler? I suppose you are not talking about Queen Anne, are you?”
Ciaran chuckled. “Lieutenant Tamsin Baker is a double agent. Not only is she working for the Royal government, she’s also a knight in the service of a hidden government that neither the Royals nor the Blues know anything about. On top of that, Tamsin is an accomplished human wizard.”
Elsa stared at him for several seconds. “There are human wizards in Great Britain. I suddenly have so many questions to ask.”
Victoria patted her on the hip and smiled. “Let’s see if we can answer them before you ask them. Yes, Tamsin is a wizard. No, the Royal government is not aware of this fact. As far as they know, Sukebe was the only human wizard. I thought that too, until Tamsin was unmasked by Ciaran when we were all stranded on Sukebe’s space station.”
Elsa closed her eyes for a moment. “Space station?” They opened. “No one has mentioned a space station before. I have more questions now.”
“We don’t talk about it much,” Victoria said. “And I’ll tell you the whole story later.”
“Do you think I can see this space station?”
“We have video records of our visit, but otherwise no. You see, Ciaran sold it.”
“I,” Elsa sighed. “I may need to write down my questions so I don’t forget them.”
“We’re getting off of the subject,” Eliana interrupted. “We are discussing the mission right now.”
Ciaran nodded. “That we are. Baker’s true leader and her other queen is a woman named Ygerna, who happens to be a nonhuman. And by that, I mean she’s neither Naturalis nor Supernaturalis. She’s supposedly the last survivor of a race of immortal beings who have been around for thousands of years. She’s also the queen of a group of humans, all of whom have magical abilities. This group has been around for over a thousand years and is dedicated to the protection of the British Isles. Not necessarily the people living on the islands, but the islands themselves.”
Elsa blinked at him several times. “Excuse me,” she said absently to Victoria, got up and then dropped into Ciaran’s lap, wrapped her arms around him and hugged him hard. “I am so glad I didn’t let you send me to Texas. This is fascinating.”
“He’s definitely not oatmeal, is he,” Eliana said laughingly.
Elsa actually made a purring noise as she rubbed her cheeks against his. “No, he’s not. And I don’t think I’ll ever have pie as good as he is, either.” Elaina just grinned hugely.
Ciaran kissed Elsa on the forehead. “I’m glad you think that. We still have our last secret mission to reveal, after all. Maybe I should keep it a secret for a while yet so you don’t lose interest in me.”
Elsa’s ears flattened and she made a soft hissing sound for a second. “The others know this mission, don’t they?”
“They do.”
“Then I want to know now.” She suddenly smiled. “And you should note that I didn’t ever say anything about how I have your neck within easy reach or threaten to strangle you until you submit.”
Ciaran laughed. “I appreciate the lack of threat in your response.” He disentangled himself from her arms and shifted her so he could cradle her in his lap. “Before I can tell you, however I need to explain a few more things to you. First of all, Iain, his teacher, Kerrik, and a group of other people who live on this world all came here from another dimension. Apparently there are an infinite number of dimensions out there, some of which are almost indistinguishable from this one. They came here from a dimension which was very like this one, where Sukebe did what he did, pokegirls came to be and most of humanity died as a result. I’ve got some stories on my computer that explain what I’m telling you in a lot more detail, like the fact that Iain actually came from yet another dimension that was very similar to the one we live in as well as the one that Kerrik and his family came from. However, for the purposes of this discussion, the two places they came from are so similar that we can treat them as the same place.”
Elsa made that purring noise again. “This just gets better and better.”
“I hope you still think so when he’s done,” Victoria said. “Ciaran, please continue.”
Ciaran nodded. “The place that they came from differs in one major regard from this place, that being that the time in this place when they left it was over three hundred years in our future. There, the leagues have taken over everything and life as a pokegirl sucks even more than it does now.”
Elsa’s purring stopped as if a switch had been thrown. “It gets worse?”
“There, pokegirls are given to young men and women as they come of age and they use them to hunt feral pokegirls and also to battle each other for prizes, often the very pokegirls they’re fighting with. Also, except for in a few places, pokegirls have no rights at all and can be killed on a whim. Or their personality can be erased in the hopes that the new one will be more accommodating. What you do need to remember is that we’re seeing signs of this world going in the same directions as far as pokegirl rights are concerned.” Elsa was starting to look ill. “Yeah. It gets worse, too, but you probably don’t need to hear more.”
She grimaced. “I want to, but I also don’t want to. Maybe you can tell me more about it later, when my stomach is back under control.”
“You can tell me if you want to continue that discussion.” Ciaran paused to try and organize his thoughts a little better. “While they were there, they met the Ygerna from that world and also managed to come across an evil that has plagued their world for over two thousand years. It was very powerful but they eventually managed to destroy it. One of its goals was the subjugation of the British Isles and everything in them. Later, this evil would have realized that the British Isles weren’t enough and it would have moved on the rest of the world. That evil may exist here and it’s our mission to prove or disprove its existence.”
She smiled faintly. “And why shouldn’t I like a powerful evil?”
“It’s not big into minions, it’s undead and it can’t keep you from going feral. It has no sex organs and cannot tame. The one on this other world did eventually learn about pokegirls and used some, but it murdered them all and turned them into something similar to what it was, after removing all of their free will and making them into puppets that stood around waiting for it to want something.”
She blinked. “That’s not very nice.” She actually sounded like her feelings had been hurt.
Victoria laughed. “You expect evil to be nice?”
Elsa’s ears canted sideways, but she chose to avoid the obvious trap. “If it does exist, what happens if this evil finds out about us while we’re trying to find out about it?”
“It’ll probably try to exterminate us,” Ciaran replied. “And even now, three hundred years before Kerrik’s family faced it, it’s extraordinarily powerful.”
Victoria nodded. “I’ve read the stories Ciaran has. This thing is more powerful than anybody you can think of. It’s completely ruthless, has no emotions except anger and hate and is almost impossible to kill. It is impossible for us to kill.”
“If it comes after us,” Eliana said, “Ciaran wants us to grab him and run away as fast as we can. He’s actually given us permission to girlhandle him if it happens.”
Ciaran shrugged. “Bruised and unhappy is much better than dead or enslaved.”
Elsa looked at Eliana. “Girlhandle?”
“We’re not men so we can’t manhandle and pokegirlhandle is too long to say.”
Elsa snickered. “That is true. Does this evil have a name?”
Ciaran nodded. “It does but we are not going to say it. Iain thinks it may be able to hear its name from anywhere in the British Isles. Since nobody knows it’s around, someone saying its name would draw its attention. It is likely to move to catch, interrogate and then dispatch anyone discovering its existence and so we don’t want that attention focused on us.”
“It’s a pity we can’t send a letter to the Blue League leadership with that name on it and get them to say it out loud,” Elsa said. “It could solve a lot of problems for the Royals.”
“Yes, but could it trace the letter back to us,” Eliana asked.
“I don’t think I want to discover the answer to that question is yes,” Elsa replied. “So what in this discussion explains how Ceres is listening to it?”
“I haven’t gotten to that yet,” Ciaran explained.
“Please do so then.”
“Another interesting fact about Kerrik and his family is that they have access to technology far in advance of what’s available today, perhaps even more advanced than the technology that Sukebe gave to the world. If nothing else, they claim it is. One of those pieces of technology is a computer that is placed inside the head of someone. It lets them communicate with others who have one.”
Elsa peered up at him. “I’m not sure I understand. Sukebe had pokegirls with cybernetic components. Is that what you mean?”
I think it might be better if I explained it to her.
Ciaran jumped at the voice in his head. You can do that?
If you will let me I can.
He nodded unconsciously. Then do so.
Please warn her and the others that in a moment I will be speaking through your mouth. Also let them know that you can take control back at any time, which you can. I’m not in the mood to die today.
He cleared his throat. “Ok, ladies, my twee just informed me that it is going to use me to talk to you. It says it can explain this better than I can. I won’t be possessed or anything like that and it can’t keep control of me unless I let it.”
Victoria nodded. “All right.” The others nodded hesitantly.
Go ahead now, he thought at it. He didn’t feel any different; he just suddenly started talking without him trying to. “I am Ciaran’s twee. I am not a computer as you think of one; I am instead a semi-independent personality that coexists with his. I have to be partially independent of Ciaran so that I can do things that he doesn’t know need done, a lot like his autonomic nervous system keeps him alive without him telling it to do so. I cannot control his voluntary muscles without his permission except in very rare circumstances, none of which are likely to occur at any point in his lifetime. I improve his physicality and I make him heal faster. I remember things for him so that he essentially cannot forget things unless he wants to. I say I, by the way, because you understand it, but in truth I am a part of Ciaran and do not think of myself as an individual in any fashion. I function as a transmitter and receiver for him, not only communicating with other people who have twees, but also I have limited access to computer systems if they have radio or subspace communication systems.”
Elsa’s eyes were getting bigger and bigger. “You’re a device in his head?”
“Not the way you are probably thinking of a device. I am inorganic in design, but I mimic the cells in Ciaran’s brain. I wasn’t implanted, instead I grew, laying down nets of myself that are intertwined with his neural tissue to such a degree that he and I are inseparable. He and I are truly one being, for without him I am nothing. Compared to him, I have a strong survival drive which makes me focus on keeping him alive, a lot like you do since if he dies so do I.”
“How do you keep him alive if you’re a computer?”
“He ingested a pill that was composed of tiny machines. Those machines essentially built me inside his brain. They also reproduced and now there are millions of them. I control them and I use them to help keep him healthy. I also improved him somewhat.”
“What does that mean?”
“The human body is like a car. When first started, it operates within certain parameters. With a knowledgeable maintenance technician a car’s performance can be greatly improved, sometimes to the point of far exceeding the original limits and bounded only by the physical limitations of the car’s construction. I am doing the same thing to his body. Over time he will become stronger, faster and heal much more quickly and completely than he ever did. His vision will become much better, as will all of his other senses. He will never be able to compete with pokegirls, but he will be in the upper one percentile of humanity in all aspects of physical and mental capability. With proper training and the application of additional nanotechnology, he can improve much further than even that, but that is up to him. I am only allowed to work with what already exists. I may not improve him past the limits of his body’s current genetic and physical limitations. I have many other abilities, but whether or not they will be used depends on Ciaran and what use me makes of me. All of Ciaran’s family, with the exception of you, Elsa, has twees and they are doing the same thing to them that I am doing with Ciaran.”
Elsa’s ears went flat. “Why am I the only person who does not have one?”
“That’s what this is about,” Victoria said. “We’re explaining this to you because Ciaran wants to offer a twee to you. The rest of us got ours before you joined us and he wanted to make sure you were going to stay before offering one to you.”
You have control again.
Ciaran hugged Elsa tightly against him. “That’s exactly what’s going on.”
She eyed him curiously before relaxing into his arms. “Your voice sounds slightly different when it’s you. That’s a good thing to know.”
He grinned. “It is. Now, do you want a twee?”
Elsa laughed. “Let me think about it for a moment. I’m evil, I’m self-centered, I crave power and superiority and this will let me become more powerful than almost any member of a magic using breed that I could meet.” She frowned and then shrugged. “I’m not sure, but I guess it might be useful if only for the communication aspect.”
“Well, I don’t want you to put yourself out on my account.”
She gave him a flat look. “Of course I want this.” She glanced at Baker’s tent. “Does she have one of these?”
Ciaran shook his head. “She doesn’t know of their existence.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
“I’m not planning on it. Plans might change, mind you, but she’s not family, and neither the Royals nor Ygerna’s people are our friends. It doesn’t mean that Iain or someone else might not offer them twees, but I don’t intend to.”
“Good.” She slid out of his lap to lean against his legs. “When can I have my twee?”
Ciaran looked at Victoria. “Victoria, if you’d please be so kind as to bring me my pack.” She nodded and headed for his tent. “You’ll have yours as soon as she gets back.”
The purr was back in her voice. “Excellent.”
08/26/09 1120 Cairnryan, Scotland
“Well, that settles the question of who currently owns Cairnryan,” Ciaran said as he handed the binoculars to Baker.
She looked through them at the guards stationed along the road just outside of the village. They were wearing flashes denoting them as Blues. “Bloody hell. I wonder what they’re doing here. The village only has two industries, those being the ferry and fishing. It has no strategic value whatsoever.”
Elsa shook her head. “Why they attacked this place is not really important. You had it and so they wanted it. It could just be that simple. Do not forget that they have to conquer everything to win. What is important is this, how do we get to the ferry without getting stopped or attacked?” She looked at Ciaran. “Even if you get uniforms there is still a problem. Tamsin has one pokegirl, which is acceptable, but you’ve got four. Nobody has four pokegirls. Even posing as Blue tamers they will try to confiscate at least two of us and give them to soldiers who want their own sex toys.”
“Some of us will go into pokeballs,” Ceres said.
Elsa stared at her for a second before growling softly. “I should have remembered that we have them.”
“No one is perfect,” Baker said.
“No, but everyone should try to be,” Elsa replied sourly. “That is how you improve.”
“We still need uniforms.” Libby’s ears flattened defensively when everyone turned to look at her. “You will. Without uniforms you’ll need special identification proving you’re Special Forces or some other elite unit that gets pokegirls and doesn’t have to wear uniforms. Without either of those things all of your girls get confiscated or you get inducted into the Blue League Army.”
Ceres pursed her lips. “Could we make our way through the village under the cover of darkness?”
Baker shrugged. “Yes, but the ferry doesn’t arrive until well after the sun rises. It is likely that we’d be discovered and detained before we could board.”
Elsa touched his arm. “Can we talk, privately? I mean our family.”
He nodded. “Come on.” He led his ladies to where Victoria and Eliana were standing sentry. “Are we still too close to Libby?”
Elsa smiled. “We would be normally, but not since I cast a spell during our walk. She can’t hear us and can’t make out our lips in case she’s a lip reader. She couldn’t even read our minds if she was a telepath.” Her smile faded. “We can’t get uniforms here. A village this size will only have a few soldiers and fewer tamers in a garrison. They will probably all know each other, so killing two of them and taking their clothes will not work.”
He frowned. “Libby says we need uniforms. Is she right?”
“Unless you and Tamsin want to walk through town without any of us out, yes, she is.” She held up her hand as Victoria opened her mouth. “I did not say it was a viable option. There is another way.”
The Angel regarded her briefly. “What is it?”
“I spent time in the city of London. There are a lot of soldiers there and no one will miss a couple of uniforms or, really, a couple of them.” Her tail lashed once. “But Ciaran didn’t want Tamsin to find out I can teleport. That’s why I didn’t suggest this in front of her.”
Victoria frowned. “Can you teach me how to do that?”
“I can and I will. You’re a magic pokegirl and it’s too useful for you not to know it too. You should pick it up quickly, too.”
Ciaran looked in the direction of Tamsin and Libby. “I am not excited about wandering anywhere without a single one of you around. We may have no choice but to reveal something else about you.” He returned his gaze to Elsa. “If you don’t want her to know, we’ll just try to find another way.”
“I’m willing to let Tamsin know I can teleport,” Elsa said. “I have other abilities I do not want her to find out about, but then I haven’t shown most of them to you, either.”
“We can always go to a nearby town and kill soldiers there,” Eliana volunteered. “It’s unlikely that all of the troops in this area know every other soldier.”
“It’s also likely that some of them do,” Victoria countered.
“London would also give us a solution for the fact that Ciaran has too many pokegirls,” Ceres said suddenly, “without putting half of the family inside their pokeballs where we can’t protect him.”
“How,” Elsa asked.
“We put Victoria in a uniform and one of us pretends to be her pokegirl. She’ll need a weapon but she can carry Ciaran’s M16 or we acquire a suitable weapon while we’re getting the uniforms.”
“I like that idea,” Victoria said. “Eliana can be my pokegirl.”
“Why must it be me?”
“Elsa isn’t going to leave Ciaran and that gives me a steed in you while Ciaran still has a steed in Ceres, who isn’t going to leave him either. You won’t really be my girl.”
Eliana scowled and opened her mouth, but before she could speak Ciaran put his hand on her shoulder. She blinked and looked at him as he smiled. “Victoria and you will be traveling with me and so we won’t be separated. If I need to run both you and Ceres will be there.”
She shot a glare at the Angel as she spoke to him in a petulant tone. “She’ll be giving me orders.”
He squeezed her shoulder gently. “She will, and for my sake I ask that you pretend she’s your tamer and obey them.”
Her gaze shifted to him and softened. She nodded once. “For your sake I will obey any reasonable order she gives me.”
Victoria cocked her head. “What would be an unreasonable order?”
“You’ll know it when I don’t obey it.”
Elsa chuckled. “That’s an interesting way to explain it.” Eliana just grinned back at her. “Ciaran, when do you want to go to London?”
“We’ll pull back a few miles and set up camp in someplace out of the way while I let Tamsin know what we’re going to do. We’ll go to London around sundown.”
08/26/09 1845 Freedom Camp, London, Blue League
Elsa appeared and looked around slowly. Once satisfied that she was alone she then released Libby from her pokeball. The Nekomata’s tails flicked as she looked around. They were in an alley that was dimly lit by the setting sun. “Where are we,” she asked in a low voice.
“This is Freedom Camp. It’s the London base for the Blue League Army.” She shrugged when Libby’s eyebrows rose. “They claimed a chunk of London, drove everyone out that they didn’t want in their so called base, pulled the surrounding buildings down to make a rough wall and named it Freedom Camp. I never said it was an example of good engineering.”
“Didn’t the British Army have a base here?”
Elsa’s tail flicked as she looked around them for threats. She nodded. “There were several barracks housing different units here. They were scattered throughout London and all of them were heavily damaged during the battle for London. The Blue tamers were still trying to understand how much firepower a typical pokegirl commands and sometimes the collateral damage was very extensive. What happened here really impressed their command elements. Or perhaps scared them is the right way to state what they felt. That’s why the Blues organized us into units similar to their armor formations with four tamers and their girls in a pokegirl platoon. After the fighting, none of the barracks were livable enough for the new masters to inhabit and, honestly, the Blue league command hierarchy likes to centralize things so they decided to concentrate their tamers in one location. Thus they created Freedom Camp.”
“I never knew that.”
“I was a Blue slave for longer than you,” Elsa said as she looked around again, her ears rotating as she sampled the night for danger. ”Personally, I think what Victoria told me about the current Royal plan of dispersing tamers among their regular infantry is more effective than the Blue model. If nothing else it removes the old armor vs. infantry rivalry and helps the infantry get used to being around us. It also simplifies the Royal command structure and additionally makes the Royal tamers harder to isolate and eliminate.”
“You said you were a Blue slave longer than I was. How do you feel about being Ciaran’s slave now?”
Elsa glanced at her. “I’m not anyone’s slave anymore. Ciaran asked me to join him and I can leave when I want to. Now I’m leaving to bring back Ciaran. You’d better fetch Tamsin, too.”
“You should show her more respect.” Libby’s eyes narrowed. “Lieutenant Baker prefers to have her rank used by pokegirls.”
Elsa flashed a grin. “Didn’t ask, don’t care.” She vanished. Libby bared her teeth in a silent snarl before leaving also.
A few minutes later Ciaran released Victoria, Eliana and Ceres as he looked around. “Where are we?”
“We’re inside Freedom Camp. It’s the London base for the BLA.” She snorted. “And blah they certainly are.”
Tamsin chuckled as she eyed their surroundings speculatively. “We should do some surveillance before we leave and gather information.”
Ciaran gave her a look. “We need uniforms before we can go wandering around and considering how we’re going to get them I don’t intend to stick around to be found out as fraudulent. That gets people shot. You can come back with Libby and do some reconnaissance on your own time later.”
Elsa nodded. “You are right that we will want to leave quickly, but I am aware that you would rather not murder someone for his clothes if you don’t have to. Besides, it is usually messy and can often ruin the uniform you’re killing the person for. I thought of another way to get the uniforms we need.” She patted the wall of the building that formed one side of the alley. “This is a laundry for officers and NCOs. We’ll steal the uniforms you want.”
Ciaran looked delighted. “That’s wonderful, Elsa. You’re a treat.”
The Mazouku smirked. “I know.” Eliana looked disgusted.
Victoria hesitated. “Loyalist tamers have a special badge that they wear on their uniform. Do Blue tamers do anything like that?”
Elsa nodded. “They do when they can get the badges made, but there are a lot of shortages. When they can’t they wear the standard Blue League uniform that the regular soldiers wear. But if we look hard enough there will be tamer uniforms here. It’s important to know that when the tamers took over they gave themselves some perks without thinking about the potential repercussions. As soon as they formed an army, they made themselves officers. Of course, suddenly they had way too many officers, but the damage was done and nobody wanted to be demoted. New tamers and all of the regular forces are enlisted and rise through the ranks, but since the army hasn’t been around for that long, most tamers are still officers or senior NCOs, some of whom have little or no formal training in how to do the jobs their rank traditionally handles.” She pressed her ear against a door that led into the laundry. It was a security door of some kind and had no door knob, handle or lock on this side. “Everyone usually goes home around 1700 and I don’t hear anyone staying late. Unfortunately I can’t open it so I’ll go around front and let you in.”
Ciaran shook his head. “No, you won’t. Eliana.”
“Yes?”
“Please open this door.” He smiled suddenly. “The quiet way.”
She grinned. “Yes, Ciaran.” She walked through the door. A moment later it swung open to reveal her. It also released a gush of humid air laden with the stench of harsh soap that engulfed them. Elsa grabbed her nose as she tried not to sneeze. Eliana waved them inside. “I checked the immediate area and didn’t find anyone, but I didn’t want to explore the whole place alone. It didn’t seem prudent.”
Libby blinked. “Prudent? You?”
Eliana smiled. “Ok, not prudent, I’m just not stupid enough to explore without backup.” She glanced at Ciaran. “It would be wrong.”
“Thank you, Eliana,” Ciaran said. He looked at Elsa as Victoria shut the door behind them. “Have you been in here?”
Since she still was holding her nose, her voice was nasal as she replied. “I was once bonded to a sergeant who was addicted to poker. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t that good at it and, more importantly, seemed to have the bad fortune to often be at an illegal game the night it was raided by security.” She took a slow shallow breath and released her nose. “Fortunately for him, he knew the right people so instead of losing his stripes or his head he got punishment duty here. He was always pissed about getting sent here and usually took it out on me. He always brought me with him for the nastiest parts of the job.” She shuddered. “Some people are really gross with their underclothes and I had to sort them so he didn’t have to touch or smell them. He wouldn’t even give me gloves.”
“You won’t have to do that again,” Ciaran told her.
Ceres eyed her curiously. “What happened to that tamer?”
Elsa’s eyes glinted with satisfaction. “I arranged for him to accidentally stumble in front of a charging Amachamp during unit training. She shattered his pelvis and upper legs. They had to amputate one leg at the hip. He was discharged and now I think he sits on a corner and begs for money, if he’s even still alive.”
Victoria frowned. “Why didn’t you just teleport on the other side of the door so you could open it?”
Elsa shook her head. “This place is the most disorganized place I think I’ve ever been in. They never left things in the same place. While we were talking I tried several times to teleport to the other side of that door and each time I couldn’t find a spot open enough to arrive in.”
Eliana nodded. “There was stuff everywhere when I went in. I had to jump into the air to become solid and I still landed with one leg in a basket.” She motioned towards one wall where a vast pile of clothes, carts and other things had been unceremoniously shoved against it. “I cleared the space before I let you enter.”
Elsa opened a door as Victoria and Ceres automatically checked the room for threats. The room on the other side of the door was probably twenty meters on a side and was filled with laundry carts stuffed with fabric bags. Each laundry cart had a slot on the front of it with a colored paper tag set in it. “The clean clothes are stored in here before they’re returned to their owners. The tags tell which building the laundry came from. The laundry delivered today has been sorted and is in the next room to be washed in the morning. They’ll be folded and put in the bags with the name of the owner on them. Men and women wear the same uniform, which will simplify our search somewhat in looking for some that reasonably fit Ciaran, Tamsin and Victoria. If the uniform is dirty, we’ll wash it either here or back at the camp, so don’t limit your search to just the clean clothes in this room.” She gestured at a shelf. “There are some rubber gloves there if you want them, but the really nasty clothes should have already been sorted and left to soak overnight.” Her smile had a nasty turn to it. “And don’t worry about cleaning up. There’s no reason to try to hide the fact that someone was rummaging here since we are leaving London immediately. It’s also not unknown for the place to be broken into, although nobody is sure why someone would do so. Mostly, it’s men’s underwear that gets stolen so they think some pokegirls are involved. The people coming to work in the morning will just have to fold and sort everything again.”
Ceres looked at Ciaran. “You have enough help to find what you need. I’ll guard the door and make sure anyone who comes here gets surprised instead of surprising us.”
He nodded. “Try not to kill them if you can but don’t take a chance on getting hurt or letting them sound an alarm. We can stash prisoners in the laundry where they’ll be discovered when the launderers return to work.”
As Ceres took up station near the door Eliana grabbed a random bag and pulled a uniform shirt out of it. She held it up to examine. It hung like a small tent in her arms. “This guy is huge. I’m surprised that uniforms come this big. Does the Blue League have a lot of fat tamers?”
Elsa didn’t look up from examining bags. “It’s probably a custom uniform. As for the size, if you give a man a couple of women to wait on him hand and foot then, yes, he can get fat in short order. I’ve seen several portly senior officers.”
Eliana dropped the shirt on the bag and reached for the next one. “This one isn’t portly. I’ve seen Snorlasses who would wear smaller shirts. This shirt would almost fit my equine form.”
Victoria had pulled out all the clothes from one bag and examined them closely. She put them down and looked at Ciaran. “What rank should I be?”
“I am hoping to make Ciaran a major, you a captain and Tamsin a lieutenant,” Elsa said from where she was. “A major would command a pokegirl tamer company and it’s unlikely that the unit in Cairnryan will have anyone who is of higher rank. If another major tries to order him around, he can claim to be senior due to time in grade and ignore the orders.”
Ciaran frowned. “Will my Texan accent cause problems with my being in the Blue League Army? People seem to be able to figure out I’m not a native fairly quickly.”
Elsa shook her head. “The Royals would care that you’re an American wearing one of their uniforms. The Blues are a much more diverse bunch, with tamers from America, Germany, Canada, Australia and the UK. As the rebels in this war, at the beginning when travel from other countries was still relatively easy, they promised any tamer who would fight that they’d get rich rewards after the war was over. They will, however, expect an American to be one of the original group and therefore, if only from advancement due to time in grade, of a higher rank than lieutenant.”
Baker frowned. “Why am I the most junior officer? I happen to be the only one here with actual military experience.”
Victoria smiled thinly. “That would be ‘actual military experience in a human military’, Tamsin. All of us pokegirls were in Sukebe’s legions and I, for one, did have higher rank than you do now.”
Elsa smiled as well. “I want you to be a lieutenant because you are already one and also because I like Victoria and Ciaran more than I care about your hurt feelings.”
Baker scowled at her. “I do not like your attitude.”
Elsa almost beamed at her. “Feel free not to like it to your heart’s content.”
“You do know that you’re an utter bitch, don’t you?”
“The phrase would actually be utter queen since I’m a feline pokegirl. A canine would be a bitch.” Elsa was examining a pair of fatigue pants. She shoved the pants back into the bag they came from and offered the whole thing to Baker. “These may fit you, Tamsin. They’re actually female and cut for a woman with a trim waist like yours. The legs might be a bit long, but that’s easily fixed.”
Baker took the bag as she gave Elsa a questioning look. “What is your problem with me?”
“I didn’t like the Blue tamers I had. The best of them treated me like I was furniture with a pussy attached to it. You have a tendency to treat Libby just like that so it’s not surprising that I’m not fond of you either. She wants to please you, so she’s even convinced herself that she wants to you to treat her that way.”
Baker looked surprised. “I treat her as I should under military rules.”
“I am not interested in hearing your justifications for treating a person as less than one. You asked and I answered. Now try on that uniform.”
Ciaran looked back as Baker opened her mouth to reply. His tone was firm. “Ladies, the whole purpose of coming to the laundry was so we didn’t have to kill anyone to get these uniforms. If your arguing brings someone we’ll have to kill them and so we’ll have failed in that purpose.”
Elaina leaned over and stage whispered to Ciaran. “Is she being rude to Tamsin?”
“I’d say so,” he said in a normal tone.
“Then shouldn’t she apologize to Tamsin?”
He nodded. “I’d like her to.”
“Why don’t you tell her to apologize then?”
“I don’t think she’d listen to me and you’re not supposed to give orders that you know someone will ignore. It undermines your authority and I’ve got precious little to start with.”
“You told me to apologize.” Eliana’s tone was curious. “Why not tell her to do the same thing?”
“You are more reasonable than she is. Elsa is a contrary woman and if I tell her to apologize to Tamsin she’s likely to get her back up and that’ll just make the situation between her and Tamsin worse in the long run.”
Elsa’s ears had been slowly flattening the whole time he’d been talking with Eliana. “If you want me to apologize to her, just damn well say so!”
“Language,” Eliana replied coolly.
Ciaran turned to the Mazouku. “Elsa, I know your opinion of the way both the Royals and Blues treat their pokegirls. Everyone here knows your opinion of them. I happen to, by and large, share that opinion. But Tamsin, while she hasn’t treated Libby as a member of her family the way I do for you, hasn’t actively mistreated Libby either, and as far as Libby seems to be concerned, has been treating her a lot better than she’d been treated by her Blue tamers. Yes, she could be treating Libby like I treat my ladies, but she’s not. She does; however, seem to not be punishing Libby with the institutional anger she undoubtedly feels towards pokegirls in general for destroying her life, her country and arguably, her world. I would appreciate it if you would stop taking out your ire for all of your previous tamers on Tamsin, who isn’t one of them. I would also appreciate it if you apologized to her for the way you have been treating her and, finally, I’d appreciate it if you stopped treating her that way from now on.”
Elsa looked at him for several seconds with her ears plastered flat on her head. Then they slowly rose. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’re right.” She turned to Tamsin. “I apologize for the fact that I treated you as if you were one of the people who mistreated me. You are not and you don’t deserve that behavior from me. Ciaran’s also right that you treat Libby better than she was treated with the Blues.”
Baker’s expression was solemn. “Understand that I’m still not happy about the way I was treated, but I accept your apology.”
“I will endeavor to treat you differently in the future.” Elsa turned to Ciaran. “Is that acceptable?”
He nodded. “It is. Now let’s get back to finding uniforms that fit that are the right rank. That’s going to be difficult.”
Victoria touched him on the arm. “Don’t worry about the ranks. I can sew and I’ve got a sewing kit in my pack so we can change rank insignia around however we want.” She motioned at a bag she’d laid aside. “Those clothes belong to a major and I’ll take them for the insignia.”
“That’ll certainly make things easier.” He glanced at her. “Considering that you’re an Angel, do you really need to find a uniform?”
Victoria chuckled. “No, I don’t. I’m looking for one that will be a good fit for you.” She dropped her voice. “I think that Elsa isn’t correct in the ranks we should have. Your being a major is a sound idea, but I think it’ll be better if I am a sergeant. Officers usually have enlisted around to take care of them and I’d make a better sergeant than Tamsin would since, as a sergeant, I’d be expected to be your aide.”
He shrugged. “I just don’t want to get stopped by the Blues. Other than that, I don’t really care.”
“You said you were not in the Texas Army.”
He nodded. “I’m not, but I did some training with them and then more with the Grey family. You had more rank than me or Tamsin. Maybe I should be the sergeant and you the major.” Victoria was shaking her head before he stopped speaking. “What?”
“A sergeant is a specialist with years of training and experience. It’ll be easier to claim you were a civilian who helped in the overthrow and became an instant major as a reward than for you to try to fake being an experienced NCO.”
Elsa had apparently been listening as she looked through bags of laundry. She kept her voice low, too. “Also, there are not a lot of female officers in the Blue League Army. One would be unusual while two would be rather remarkable. A female sergeant, however, wouldn’t be as noticeable.”
“You wanted Victoria to be a captain.”
Her ears flicked. “I did. I trust Victoria to keep our best interests at heart. I’m not sure Tamsin is your friend, but even if she is, I trust someone with more of a vested interest in keeping you safe. Victoria is part of our family and her I trust.” She grimaced. “Victoria’s right, however, and it would present a better appearance for her to be of the other ranks than to have three commissioned officers wandering alone through the howling wilderness.” Her ears flicked. “It would be even better if Ciaran was the only officer in the group. Tamsin would make a lovely sergeant or corporal.”
Ciaran frowned at her. “After the exchange between you two, nobody is going to suggest it to her. We’ll make this work with Victoria being my aide and Tamsin being my subordinate.”
Eliana came over carrying two bags and held them out to Ciaran. “These should fit you.”
He took them. “You seem rather certain about that.”
She grinned. “These are from the same man and there are some civilian clothes in the bag that are almost the same sizes you wear. I think the pants are two centimeters bigger in the waist than yours.”
He opened one of the bags and pulled out a pair of the uniform pants. An inspection revealed she was right. “Ok, that takes care of me and Victoria.” He looked at the Angel. “See if the ones Elsa gave to Tamsin also fit and let’s get out of here if they do.”
“We’ll still need the right rank insignia,” Elsa said. “What are the ones you’ve got?”
“These belong to a lieutenant-colonel,” he replied after a quick peek into the bags. “And they’re forest camouflage.”
Victoria nodded. “They’re the Number 8 Uniform. That’ll be perfect for here. Let me check on Baker.” She was back a few minutes later with Baker and Libby. “The uniforms Elsa found are a decent enough fit. I can alter them enough to make them look good on her. We can leave now.”
08/28/09 0700 Cairnryan, Scotland
The pair of sentries watched them approach with undisguised curiosity until the corporal in charge of the detail read Ciaran’s rank tabs and straightened. “Sir! Welcome to Cairnryan!”
Ciaran had decided to use the name stenciled on the inside of the uniform so Victoria could use Sullivan for her last name. It meant they didn’t have to think one up for her and reduced his chances for discovery if, for some reason, someone got their hands on his clothes. “Corporal, I’m Major Culpepper. I didn’t expect to see you here. What’s going on?”
The sentry looked apologetic. “Sir, I’m under orders not to be discussing anything that I might know with anyone that I haven’t been cleared to talk to.”
Ciaran shrugged. “I just didn’t know we’d captured this town. What you’re doing here isn’t that important as long as I can still get to Ireland on the ferry.”
The sentry suddenly looked uncomfortable. “There may be a problem, sir. We’re holding both of the ferry boats here, sir. You’ll want to be talking to the captain, sir.” He turned and pointed at a nearby house. “He’s in there, sir.”
“And what is his name, corporal?”
The sentry blinked. “He’s Captain Breckenridge, sir,”
“Thank you, corporal.” Ciaran turned to Baker. “I guess we’ll talk to the captain.” His voice dropped and only Ceres and Elsa heard him mutter, “not that I really want to.”
“I didn’t see a pokegirl,” Victoria said as they headed for the house. “So there aren’t enough tamers to put them on guard duty. Royals would have a tamer posted here in case a feral attacked.”
“I don’t know how tamers work in the Royal Army,” Elsa said, “but they’re the elite in the BLA. They don’t stand guard unless there aren’t any infantry around to do it for them. The infantry acts as a tripwire warning system while the tamers will have set up a reaction post somewhere in town and will quickly respond to attacks.”
Ciaran looked at Baker. “How does the tamer setup work in the Royal Army?”
She glanced around them. “This isn’t the time or place to have that discussion.”
“I suppose that’s true enough.” They stopped at the indicated house. It was obviously pre-war and had been damaged sometime in the last few years. Skillful repairs had almost seamlessly meshed the new portions into the old, but the color of the wood was a dead giveaway. It should have been painted to cover the repairs up, but paint was a modern luxury that was very scarce. It was also larger than Ciaran had come to expect and was probably a multi-family dwelling.
Victoria shifted the M16 she was carrying to a more comfortable position. Both she and Baker had protested him giving the weapon to the Angel, but Victoria had finally agreed that as part of the camouflage involved in portraying a member of the Blue League Army she needed a rifle and Ciaran wasn’t going to give up the firepower advantage in his combat shotgun, especially when Victoria didn’t really need it and he did. “What do we do if the ferry isn’t going to be traveling to Ireland sometime soon?”
Ciaran knocked firmly on the door and spared a smile for her. “We do what we’ve been doing pretty much every day and improvise a way over there.”
A sullen looking brunette in her late teens or early twenties opened the door and looked them over disdainfully. When she looked into Ciaran’s eyes, he fought not to recoil from the hate in them. “What do you want, sir?” Her tone was as cold as a winter wind in the panhandle.
“Good morning, miss. I am Major Culpepper and I want to talk to Captain Breckenridge.”
The woman shrugged phlegmatically. “The captain is eating breakfast and has given instructions not to be disturbed during his meals.”
Libby whispered something to her tamer and Baker’s eyes narrowed. “Sergeant Sullivan!”
Victoria looked at her. “What is it, lieutenant?”
“Inform the captain that Major Culpepper is here and wishes to speak with him immediately.” She glanced at Ciaran. “Unless you wish to not give the captain the chance to address the situation and just have him flogged as is allowed since you are both a senior officer and a tamer.”
The woman’s eyes lit up with hope, which faded as Ciaran shook his head. “No, we’ll let the issue slide unless the captain is brave enough to ignore Sergeant Sullivan when she informs him of my presence. However, the sergeant will take her girl with her in order to hopefully impress the captain with the gravity of the situation. I am not fond of waiting.”
“Yessir,” Victoria said. “Come along, Eliana.”
“I, for one, hope he is that stupid, I mean brave,” Elsa muttered as Victoria and Eliana pushed by the woman.
“You would,” he muttered back. She just gave him a rather satisfied smile that conveyed her felineness to him so strongly it was uncanny. No cat could have done it better.
Victoria came out with Eliana. Both of them looked rather smug with themselves. “Sir,” Victoria told him, “Captain Breckenridge needs a few minutes to finish dressing before he sees you.”
Ciaran nodded. “That’ll be fine, sergeant.” He looked at the woman. “What is your name?”
Sudden fear shot across her face. “Karen,” she said slowly, “Karen Woolsey.”
“Well, I’m sorry for disturbing you, Miss Woolsey, but I had to speak with the captain. I hope you have a nice day.”
She gave him a confused look before shaking her head. “You too, major.” Her answer was coldly polite. “Would you care to come in to wait for the captain?”
“No, I think it would be better for the captain to meet me out here.” Ciaran cocked his head. “It’s your house, isn’t it? He just commandeered it for his own use and pressed you into service as his house servant.”
She nodded slowly. “That is the whole of it, sir.”
Ciaran grimaced. “I can’t understand a man who thinks that thieving from someone won’t be resented. He’s lucky you haven’t poisoned his tea. I don’t think I would have waited this long.”
She looked startled and suddenly wary. “I’d never even think of doing that, sir.”
“Do what?” Captain Breckenridge was a tall, muscular man who looked fit to be on a Blue League recruiting poster.
Ciaran snorted. “Assuming we win this war, we will be ruling over people like Miss Woolsey here. They are not going to forget if we steal from them, so I didn’t understand why you weren’t paying rent.” He smiled thinly when Breckenridge shot a worried look at Woolsey, who promptly disappeared into the house. “I’m Major John Culpepper. I was planning on catching the ferry to Larne, but I’ve been told by your sentry that I may not be able to do that.”
Breckenridge nodded. “I’m Captain Breckenridge. The ferry has been held, major, for a classified operation. Once that operation is complete, both of the ferry boats will be released.”
Ciaran tried hard to look bored. “And when will that be, captain?”
“I don’t know, sir. You’d have to ask someone at headquarters.”
“Where is headquarters?”
Breckenridge pointed towards the town. “It’s not far from the ferry docks. Sir, if you will wait for a few minutes I can summon someone to escort you there.”
Ciaran shook his head. “I appreciate the offer, captain, but I should be able to find it on my own.” He looked at Baker and Victoria. “Let’s go, ladies.”
Baker waited until they were out of earshot of the house. “Would you really have poisoned the captain?”
“I’m Irish and my parents brought me up to be Irish, with Irish ideas about honor and revenge. Irish have started feuds that lasted for centuries for far less than having their homes confiscated. I don’t care how many ferals might be in the forest, by now I’d have slit his throat and disappeared into the woods to report to the Royals and join their forces.” He smirked. “My mother wouldn’t have bothered to wait nearly as long as I would, either.”
They were moving through a part of town that had been almost completely demolished. All that still stood were a few charred timbers. There was little chance of being overheard, which allowed Elsa to ask the question they were all thinking. “What do we do now that the ferry isn’t running?”
Ciaran answered immediately. “I think we’ll make sure that the ferry won’t start up again in a couple of days and then retreat from Cairnryan and then I’ll ask you to fly to Ireland so you can teleport Libby there and we can continue on our journey.”
“I want to know what’s going on here,” Baker said flatly.
“That is your prerogative,” he replied. “At least it is until you try to order us to help you in spying on the local troops.”
Tamsin chuckled. “I think I’ve already learned better than that. I’d plead with you instead, and try to play on your basic humanity to get you to help.”
He chuckled too. “I’ll admit that has a much better chance of succeeding than insisting. We’ll have to see how good you are at it.”
“I have this urge to kill her again,” Eliana announced quietly. “She’s going to try to get Ciaran to help with something that’s very dangerous and I don’t like it.”
Baker shook her head. “At least telling me that she wants to kill me is better than just trying to do it like the last time.”
“And I didn’t threaten you either,” Eliana pointed out. “I just wanted the major to understand that I didn’t like the idea of spying on an unknown number of troops. I’m not alone in that, either.”
“No, you’re not,” Ceres said.
She looked at Ciaran, who shrugged. “I know, but I’ll have a hard time leaving Tamsin alone to her fate here and you know it.”
“If I strangle him until he’s unconscious,” Elsa said in a quiet questioning tone, “and we go somewhere else, would that violate your Celestial’s moral code? He would get over being angry about it eventually.”
Victoria gave Ciaran a grim look. “I’m thinking about it, but I’m inclined to say no.”
“No to strangling him?”
“No it wouldn’t violate my moral code.”
“There will be no strangling me,” Ciaran said firmly. “I am pretty sure I wouldn’t find it nearly as much fun as Elsa would.” He looked ahead and made a face. “Uh, oh.”
“Huh?” Victoria looked past him. The ferry docks were fenced to control people loading and unloading, with large gates for the vehicle traffic which had been so prevalent before the war. They still stood and machine gun posts had been set up beside them, while soldiers were posted every fifteen meters along the exterior of the fences. Two ferry boats were docked and Blue League troops patrolled each of them. Even from here, the feathered wings on one of the people told them that tamers were among the guards.
Ciaran looked at Elsa. “I take it the presence of tamers means this is something significant?”
She was looking at the docks, her ears intently focused on it. “It does indeed. Whatever is going on here, it’s far more than just nicking a small village from the Royals.”
“We’ve been seen,” Victoria said softly. “Turning around right now and heading the other way would be very suspicious. I recommend we walk past the ferry as if we were going to something on the other side of the village and don’t stop to ask questions.”
Ciaran focused inside. Can you remotely activate the computer on my belt to record what it can of this?
Yes, I can, but I can also transmit what your eyes see to it for a much more detailed recording. Your computer’s camera is partially blocked by your shotgun and, of course, attached to your belt for a much more limited field of view.
Do that then. “Lieutenant,” Ciaran said in a low voice, “I just started recording video of what we’re going to see. I’ll give you copies of the files.”
She gave him a startled glance. “Thank you.”
The sentries at the machine gun posts barely glanced at them as they walked by. Even then most of their attention was focused on Ceres’ nude form. The Tantrasaur ignored their stares as she alertly monitored the surroundings in case of attack.
They were almost past the gate when a voice rang out. “Major! Stop right there!”
The guards perked up as a muscular bald man jogged from one of the ferry boats towards the gate. That is a lieutenant colonel, Ciaran’s twee told him. Behind the officer glided a slender woman with an inhuman speed and grace to her movements. She carried an ornately carved pole taller than she was. Following him is a Slicer and she is carrying a bo staff. She is a very dangerous fighting type pokegirl.
Ceres drifted in front of Ciaran and Elsa shifted sideways away from him as the lieutenant colonel jogged through the open gate and stopped in front of their group. The Slicer stopped a short distance behind the colonel and watched with almost disdain as Ciaran came to attention. “What seems to be the problem, colonel?”
The lieutenant colonel frowned. “You didn’t salute, major.”
Ciaran had no idea how to pull off a proper British salute and wasn’t going to try. “It’s a bad habit to get into in the field, sir. I’ve seen officers get shot after being saluted and the Royals have excellent snipers.”
“You’re one of the Americans.” It wasn’t a question. “I am Lieutenant Colonel Turner. General Fowler wants to talk to you. Who are you and what are you doing here?”
“I’m Major John Culpepper. This is Lieutenant Baker and Sergeant Sullivan and we’re on a mission to Ireland, sir.”
The colonel’s eyebrows rose. “What mission could you possibly have in Ireland?”
Hesitation could be fatal and Ciaran didn’t. “I can’t discuss it, sir. I’m afraid it’s classified on a need to know basis.”
The colonel looked like he wanted to spit. “You’re one of those bloody intelligence types, aren’t you?”
“I can’t discuss any aspect of this mission, sir.”
The colonel took a deep breath. “Where are you based out of, major?”
“I was last in London, sir.”
Colonel Turner shook his head. “I don’t really care what your mission is. The general still wants to talk to you, major.
Ciaran grimaced. “And when a general wants to talk to a major there’s only one answer from the major. Please lead me to him.”
Colonel Turner laughed. “I’m glad to see an American who understands proper military protocol, major. Where are you from?”
“I’m from Texas, sir.” Ciaran didn’t see any reason to lie about that. Not every Texan agreed with what had happened to the state government and many of them had become expatriates living in some other country. Lying was always bad and could prove fatal if someone was able to identify his accent. “My parents are from Ireland. When Blue sent out the call for volunteers from other leagues, I jumped at the chance to see my homeland. Then those blasted Irish declared themselves neutral.” He shrugged. “Apparently my people don’t want to be free of the government that turned its back on them to preserve itself when the pokegirls started attacking.”
Turner smiled coldly. “Someday we may be in a position to reward them appropriately, major. After all, they’ve been conquered by Britain before.”
Except for the fact that you’ve already tried and they chopped your tamer army into tiny pieces, Ciaran thought to himself with satisfaction. He made himself return the smile. “That is true, sir.”
“It’s not wise to keep a general waiting, even if he and I have been getting along rather well,” Turner said. “You and your people come with me.”
Ciaran Sullivan
Victoria – Angel
Eliana – Samhain
Ceres – Tantrasaur
Elsa – Mazouku