Chapter 7 - Alien Spy
The door of the scanner room closed loudly, startling the security men. Two child-sized figures fled down the corridor, turned a corner and vanished. The two Palace security men wasted no time in beginning the pursuit.
“They’ve gone!” one stated the obvious when they saw the second corridor was empty. “They could be any where now. I didn’t see their faces.”
“Nor I,” the other one admitted. “They could have been any of the children.”
“You go back to our post,” the first instructed. “I’ll report to shift leader Kele.”
All the children knew that certain areas or the Royal Estate were off limits to them unless they were accompanied by an adult authority. Such an incident, even if intended merely as mischief, had never occurred before and it was of sufficient importance to be taken directly to the President Governor. Reslic received Kele and the guard in his personal sanctum and he listened closely to the report.
“Children! Could you identify them?”
“No, Your Excellency,” The guard admitted. “We only caught sight of them as they fled. They transmitted out of the building. All we saw were two boys - one blond, one dark. Both were wearing brown trousers and tunics.”
“This is serious,” Reslic admitted, considering the implications.
Children received their transmitters at about nine or ten, after the onset of their power; from thirteen onwards their power became strongest. The older students would still be occupied with study and under supervision. The younger students still in the small lyceum would have finished for the day. Was the incident simply mischief or some kind of unhealthy influence?
“I will make enquiries,” Reslic told Kele. “Warn your guards to alert for any similar incidents there or anywhere else.”
“Yes, Excellency.” Kele nodded, accepting the instruction.
Sudden loud calls broke the peace of the gardens when the older students were released from their afternoon physical activities.
Zacary watched the steam of students – some walked, some ran and some transmitted away. One of the walkers glanced at him, watched him weeding one of the ornamental flowerbeds, and then continued on as if the weeder was of no importance.
Stenn Reslic’s face had shown no expression, but Zacary scowled. He still detested his distant cousin and the mutual antipathy had not diminished in the months since they had last seen each other.
A part of Zacary’s mind said, “He’s the President’s son,” and memories of their dislike for each other flashed through his mind. Then his mind suggested, “He would know a lot of things.”
Zacary thought back at himself, “So what?”
The idea of, “You want to know all you can learn about the Estate,” returned to him. His mind accepted that, even as a very deeply hidden part of it asked, “Why?”
Without considering why, Zacary placed his hoe and rake neatly on the edge of the garden and began to follow Stenn. The part of him that remembered how his cousin had trounced him, tried to tell him to keep away. The main part of his mind wanted to control his detested cousin.
As he walked nearer the President’s palace, Zacary spotted another of the older students, younger than Stenn, and one he already controlled. A ginger haired girl called Naomi. He had several more like her that he had programmed to work for him. He stopped to watch as he saw two of the younger students approach her. One of those was a dark haired boy, Esker. The other was his blond friend, Nera, a clever boy of twelve.
Those two were his best informants since Nera was interested in everything. Both had been pathetically easy to infect too, because they loved the sweets he gave them.
Since they were chatting to Naomi, he edged closer to hear what they were saying. He heard the Observatory mentioned and hid a grin. He had suggested to the boys that the place would be interesting to visit. Naomi seemed to think so too, since she asked questions that elicited more information from them. Finally though, she snapped her fingers and the two boys ran off. Then she turned as if looking for someone.
Zacary moved into her sight and she trotted over to him and gave him a hug and a not so innocent kiss. Even as he enjoyed his position, he glanced around to see if anyone had noticed. Seeing no one watching, he partially freed himself and spoke a few words in an odd language. Naomi dropped her arms and told him everything she had learnt from the younger children.
When she had nothing more to say, Zacary snapped his fingers and she went off, oblivious to having been with him. He grinned to himself. He liked Naomi kissing him, even if she was only fifteen. He liked being able to manipulate people, and considered the idea of trying for something more – but the memory of Stenn Reslic intruded.
“He can wait!” Zacary thought, annoyed. He didn’t want to be noticed looking for his cousin. He knew that Stenn seemed to disappear between the end of lessons and the evening meal and he had no idea of where, yet. Idly Zacary wondered if his cousin had a girl friend and decided to follow him for a while. However, he saw one of the palace guards looking his way, and he dropped back, pretending to study one of the ornamental trees. Realising that he had work to finish, he walked back to it and imagined himself stealing some unknown girl’s favours from Stenn.
Zacary noticed Tobias and a brown haired stranger waiting near the garden when he returned. He studied the stranger, observed the efficiency of movement, and was reminded of Stenn Reslic.
“He is a fighter,” his mind interpreted. Unconsciously, his hand moved to touch a small pocket hyposprayer.
Tobias, never much of a talker, blithely assumed that Zacary must love gardening, because he was doing that job.
“Zac, this is Jonko – friend of mine,” Tobias introduced. “He helped me learn defence and fighting stuff. Said he would help you get back in shape.”
“Hi,” Jonko said in a friendly tone, as he studied the younger man.
“Hello,” Zacary returned cautiously. “I haven’t seen you around before. Where are you from?”
“Off world,” Jonko shrugged. “Been here half a year, near about.”
“What do you do?” Zacary asked.
“Not much yet. They stuck me in lessons.” Jonko shrugged again.
Zacary and Jonko exchanged information while Tobias beamed, pleased that his two friends seemed to like each other. All he had told Jonko was that Zacary was a member of the Peace Corps, but was on medical leave for an injury. Jonko, however was curious about Zacary. He knew the fate of the rest of the Peace Corpsmen who had been with the third scout party. His Guardian, Governor Xyron, had requested he not speak of that knowledge, and Jonko also refrained from mentioning his recent trip away from the Estate and his close friendship with Tymos and Kryslie.
“Peppermint?” Zacary invited after a while. He drew a small paper wrapped package from his pocket.
Jonko accepted one of the offered sweets. Tobias scrunched up his face and blithely said, “No thanks, don’t like them. I’ll leave you two to work things out.”
When Tobias was out of earshot, Zacary began speaking to his new acquaintance. He was soon aware of the look of increasing confusion on Jonko’s face - that was the effect of the drugged peppermint, and the hypnotic trance he had imposed. His mind considered how this older student might be useful; he knew already that this common bred yokel had power and was a ward of Governor Xyron. That could be really useful.
“Do you have access to the computer archives?” Zacary asked.
“Yes.”
A feeling of glee filled Zacary, and he began to lay commands onto his helpless toy. The first one was, “Do you know where the Tymoreans hide their aircraft?”
“No.”
“Next time you look in the archives you will find out and come and tell me,” Zacary instructed.
As more questions occurred to him, he added more commands.
Finally, his mind turned back to an earlier subject. “You’re in level delta, right?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know Stenn Reslic?”
“Yes.”
“Has he mentioned me to you?”
“No.”
“What about the Prince and Princess? Do you know them too?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know where they are?” That question popped into his mind with a sense of urgency.
“No,” Jonko answered literally. He did not know their exact current whereabouts.
Zacary felt let down, without knowing exactly why. He glanced around, saw more people walking through the gardens and decided he had spoken to Jonko long enough. He switched back to the odd language he had used to hypnotise Jonko and finished commanding his ‘toy’ to forget he had spoken to him when he heard certain words, and to come to find him if he heard word of Tymos or Kryslie. Then he snapped his fingers.
Jonko felt his head clear and was relieved that the younger man had not noticed his rude abstraction. “When do you finish work?” he asked Zacary. “I could give you some practice then.”
“I finish an hour before the evening meal,” Zacary told him. “And I could meet you after I put my tools away, if that would suit you?”
Jonko nodded and Zacary went on, “I really appreciate your offer. I want to get back to duty as soon as I can.”
“I’ll see you then,” Jonko agreed, and with a smile, he turned to trot back to his apartment and didn’t hear Zacary’s muttered, “Ignorant yokel!’
The mind controlling Zacary sent him the feeling of pleasure at his success in netting such a high-level student. That and recalling all the younger students he had in his control made his enforced leave from the Peace Corps seem less depressing. That had been the only place where he had seemed to be in control of himself, but this…was much better. Now he was in control of others.
That increased his desire to get control of his hated cousin, Stenn. The idea occupied him until he finished his assigned work. Scenarios flitted through his mind; he considered them in the light of what he knew of his cousin and discarded them in turn until he felt he had one that would work. He had to catch his cousin unawares, and that would not be an easy trick. However, he knew how to annoy him, and get him into fighting a mood. Then if he seemed to yield to Stenn, he could offer a peppermint as a peace offering. He knew Stenn liked them and they would taste sweeter to Stenn if he felt he had won.
Then, once the hypno-gen drug acted…he could make Stenn Reslic get into all sorts of trouble.
Jonko saw the grazes on Stenn’s face when he entered the nursery after the evening meal. He said nothing until he had closed the door of the playroom behind him.
“What have you been up to?” he challenged his friend.
Stenn rose from where he had been playing with Llaimos and glanced in a convenient mirror.
“Nothing much,” he said tersely, and walking to greet his friend. “Where have you been?”
“Your father had more questions for Kel and me,” Jonko explained. “We were excused from lessons today. Had any trouble here?”
“No,” Stenn said, and he tried to change the subject. “Are Tymos and Kryslie back yet?”
“No, they are off to doing something. Faced down your father and theirs and my Guardian. I thought they were going to be swatted for defying them,” Jonko related.
“What happened?” Stenn asked, interested.
“Later,” Jonko suggested. He watched in amazement as Llaimos teetered from the floor to his feet and toddled over to cling to Stenn. “What are you going to say when your father notices the obvious? You have been fighting…who won?” Jonko persisted with the subject of his concern.
“I did!” Stenn growled. He leant over to lift Llaimos, and Jonko had to do a double take. The young Prince looked as if he were over a year old.
“I’ll stay here tonight,” Stenn decided. “By morning it won’t be noticeable.”
Jonko refrained from disagreeing. By morning, Stenn was likely to have a shiner of a black eye.
“So what was it about?” Jonko urged.
With a growl, Stenn admitted, “I saw that cretin Zacary, acting oozingly sweet with Senna.”
“Oh!” Jonko understood, and then sought confirmation. “Zacary?”
“You won’t have met him. He went off to join the Peace Corps just before you came.”
“Actually, I think I met him today. Tobias introduced us, thinking I might help him get back to fitness and get his skills back up.”
“Do yourself a favour, Jon, and keep clear of him,” Stenn advised, and he gave his friend a long list of reasons. He than asked, “Did Tymos tell you about the time he got stuck in the caverns?”
“During his test for level delta?” Jonko asked.
“No, before that.”
Seeing Jonko shaking his head, Stenn related that incident, finishing with, “Zacary claimed that voices in his head told him to do it. My father had him checked by all sorts of specialists, and the upshot is, he got his power neutralised and he was allowed to join the Peace Corps as consolation.”
“He might have changed,” Jonko suggested. “Didn’t he just get injured?”
“Injured? That’s not half of it. Tortured and probably brainwashed – though no one is sure. That’s why he is still here – my father doesn’t quite trust him but can’t figure out why. Zacary will be here at least until Uncle Ty has time to talk to him. Anyway, you had better tell Keleb to keep clear of him too.”
“Was he with that group that went missing? And many were found dead?” Jonko suddenly asked.
“Yes, the only survivor we know of,” Stenn confirmed. “How did you know about that?”
“How did you know the stuff you said about him?” Jonko countered.
Stenn’s answer was muffled as Llaimos chose to give him a hug. He finally managed to say, “Yeah, well, I know.”
Jonko shrugged, but smiled. “Yeah, like that.”
Keleb had heard that Jonko was giving someone extra practice, and had Zacary pointed out to him during one of their afternoon exercise sessions. Jonko had admitted he found the young man friendly enough and had no reason to dislike him. Stenn had quickly added his own view, and Keleb chose not to take sides on the subject and to make up his own mind. However, he had not gone out of his way to meet this Zacary.
However, the reverse was not true. Zacary was looking for an opportunity to get Keleb alone, since he had noticed he was a friend of both Stenn and Jonko. To prepare for the meeting, he had learnt a lot from the oblivious Jonko - a lot of stuff that amazed him, and he really didn’t believe. Those two yokels, Jonko and the other one, were commoners! They had joined the High King’s tour, and rescued Tymos and Kryslie from the aliens. Obviously, they were more than they seemed, but not infallible, since the younger yokel had been captured and tortured – the perfect gambit for an initial conversation.
Zacary contrived the ‘accidental meeting’ and commented, “You’re a friend of Jonko, aren’t you? I see he is giving you extra practice too.”
“Yes,” Keleb agreed, suspecting the meeting was contrived, but not wanting to be rude. “He mentioned you. Something about being on medical leave from the Peace Corps?”
“Yeah, and I need to get back in shape. Came out worst in a run in with some aliens. Peppermint?”
“Ah, no thanks,” Keleb refused.
Zacary hid his dismay, and commented. “I heard you had a bad time with those aliens too?” He made his voice sound fearful.
Keleb was immediately on the alert. No one except senior palace personnel should know that.
“Aliens? I thought they were brigands,” Keleb lied blatantly. “Or so they said. But I am back here now, where it is safe.”
Zacary gave a realistic shiver. “I hope so, but I heard they even came here, didn’t they?”
Keleb kept to his fabrication. “Some brigands broke in here, but I know my guardian has strengthened the defences since then.”
Zacary pretended that he still didn’t feel safe. “They were not brigands, they were aliens and they have weapons like nothing I have seen. They could bomb this place and then what would we do?”
Keleb mentally made a note to mention this conversation with his guardian. “You need not worry. If it got to dangerous here – we would all go to Dira.”
“How? They could ambush us on the way?”
Only after he had said, “We’d go by long range beam,” did Keleb feel he should not have revealed that detail. It was some subtle sense he felt of Zacary’s satisfaction and hearing that information and his facial expression being smug rather than relieved.
He wondered why Zacary had not known that, and if it was only because he had never graduated to the large lyceum.
“Look, Zacary, it has been nice to meet a friend of Jonko’s, but he is waiting for me in the armoury,” Keleb tried to give the young man a hint.
“Yeah, nice,” Zacary agreed sourly, as Keleb walked off.
He scowled, and muttered to himself. “Who is he? He’s not one of Xyron’s get! He doesn’t like peppermints, so I can’t use him yet.”
Thinking then of his new training partner and latest ‘toy’, he moved to where he could look out for him and was rewarded by seeing Jonko trotting in his direction.
Jonko hurried in the direction of the armoury. He had agreed to meet Keleb there but was running late. He didn’t see Zacary until he stepped unexpectedly out from behind a stand of trees and spoke softly.
“You fool Zacary,” Jonko muttered as he was forced to sidestep, but he stopped suddenly as Zacary completed his greeting.
Since he didn’t have to watch his words with Jonko in the trance state, Zacary came directly out with the question that was of immediate importance to him.
“If the Estate was attacked and everyone went to Dira, would the Estate be unprotected?”
Jonko obligingly assured him, “No, my foster father has been increasing the effectiveness of the defensive screens.”
“What is the long range beam?” Zacary tried.
Again, Jonko explained, “It allows us to travel over long distances. We step into its effect and use our transmitters.”
Inwardly Zacary swore, since he could no longer use a transmitter. Yet his mind seemed to gloat at learning this information. “Are Tymos and his sister back yet?”
“No.”
“When will they be back?” Zacary tried, but Jonko only shrugged.
Someone was approaching, so Zacary spoke a few words and snapped his fingers. Jonko took of again at a trot and had no recollection of the meeting.
Once Keleb had walked out of Zacary’s sight, and he was sure he wasn’t being followed, he stopped, needing time to make sense of his empathic feelings about the meeting with Zacary. Something about that young man made him uneasy. It wasn’t the uncomplimentary things that Stenn had said about him, although Sacul had confirmed a lot of those claims, nor was it the fact that Zacary had no Royal Power now and was effectively a commoner. Keleb had met enough commoners on the King’s tour that he did not consider them inferior or dumb. This was something else.
He retraced his steps and stopped where he could unobtrusively watch Zacary. Jonko would understand if he were late. The temporary gardener had not moved far, and was only pretending to rake over the garden bed. In fact, he was watching the path Keleb had used, as if he was expecting someone. The only other person Keleb expected to use that path at this hour was Jonko, as it led to the armoury and the indoor training hall. Right on cue, he saw Jonko trotting into view, and then he saw Zacary step into his friend’s way. He was too far away to hear what Zacary was saying but Jonko was acting strangely. Keleb decided to walk back as silently as possible, but then Jonko began running towards the armoury again. He let Jonko pass his position and then began to run after him.
“Jon! Wait up!” Keleb called out.
Jonko stopped and smiled at his friend. “I thought I was late,” he commented.
Keleb replied casually, “I was held up by Zacary. I had trouble getting away from his questions!”
“What did he want?” Jonko asked curiously.
“He was afraid the aliens would attack us here!”
“He ought to have faith in the Governors,” Jonko answered dropping the subject. “You haven’t heard anything about Tym and Krys?”
“No,” Keleb replied puzzled. Surely Jonko would have mentioned Zacary stopping him.
“I saw you stop running; I thought he had cornered you too,” Keleb mentioned.
“No, I didn’t see him,” Jonko admitted. “Though he does seem to be appearing in all parts of the Estate, doesn’t he?”
Keleb nodded, puzzling over what he had just seen. He would mention the matter to his foster father after his practice session.