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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt">“Daughters and their spears,”
Teranike said, “is our version. Mentioning boys, here comes
Joe, just too late.”</span></p>
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<h1><span style="font-size:12.0pt">CHAPTER 14</span></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt">The Invisible<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>Fortress</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt">Morning</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt">January 23, 2018</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt">There
finally came the day on which I really did not feel sick.
The change happened all
at once. The bruises had gone away. Medico swore up and
down that the broken
ribs had been re-knitted as good as new. My shoulder gave
me a twinge of pain
if I picked up something really heavy, but Medico said
everything was actually
all right, except I would have to live with discomfort for
a few months. That
was going to be interesting tomorrow, when I go back to
weight training. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt">It
was very much time to re-appear at Kniaz Kang’s for
breakfast, have pleasant conversations
with normal people, and be on my way. The weather report
for North Cosmopolis,
which through some historical peculiarity is well inland
and north of the great
port city of Cosmopolis, said heavy snow had ended. <span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I carefully checked my
Joe disguise and
slipped into a long winter coat and insulated gloves.<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was a bit hard to
hide that Joe teleports,
not unless he walked in to Kniaz Kang’s from the woods at
the edge of town, but
his other gifts could perfectly well stay hidden. I
wouldn’t be cold, but Joe
pretended that he needed a winter outfit. A complicated
loop of teleport jumps
brought me to line of sight behind the restaurant and its
registered teleport
landing pads. The pads were circles of pavement, each
three yards across, laid
out like giant flowers on each side of a spinal walk.<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They had thoughtfully
all been shovelled
already.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I’d have
to thank Teranike, who
did a remarkable amount of heavy lifting for a somewhat
minimal salary. Of
course, when you are a Polarian, and a decade older than I
am, you view
shovelling many cubic yards of snow to be light physical
training.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt">My
laser pointer was at hand.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>I tagged the rearmost
pad, saw the clear light come up on the adjoining service
post, and teleported
the last hundred yards.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Yes,
I could
have skipped tagging, but then someone else might have
teleported to the same
landing point at the same time, with unpleasant results,
at least for them, me
being one hundred per cent at fault.<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>This way, any reasonable person would check the
interweb, find the point
was momentarily in use, and wait until it was free.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt">I
was halfway down the walk when warning lights came up on
all six pads. Not
three seconds later, what had to be half the Washington
State Persona League
appeared all around me.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I
froze, about
to panic. Fight or flight both sounded really bad, when
all I wanted was
someone else’s cooking. Then I realized that none of them
had force fields up. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt">“Hi!”
That was Lady Barbara, their lead mentalist, her garb the
traditional mentalist
dark green trim on cream.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>“Sorry if we
startled you. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We’re
just here for an
early breakfast.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt">“Hi,”
I mumbled.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>“Not a
problem.” I moved very
quickly down the walk, conscious that a stack of
heavy-duty personae was two
paces behind me. GR, I had seen them eating here before.
We were far enough
from Seattle that there was a shortage of tourist gawkers.
Kniaz Kang did not
allow reporters on his premises. He’d sued one large New
York newspaper into
bankruptcy over that point. Other newspapers had taken the
hint. I pulled the
side door open and held it for the Washington League. It’s
just what a polite
twelve year old boy would do for a group of adults. I had
also lined them up in
front of me in case things got violent. If their
conversation was staged, it
was really well rehearsed.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>Half of the
guys were discussing the Seattle Base Ball Nines team and
its perennial contest
with one of the Boston teams, the Doves.<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>Most of the women were tightly focused on Tacoma’s
Amazon League
professional lacrosse team. At least, the Starhawks say
they play lacrosse. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That’s
women’s lacrosse, not the much less
vigorous men’s game.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Women’s
lacrosse is
technically not a blood sport. Optimistically speaking.
Being charitable. The
rules say so. Honest.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>They
really do. They
must’ve all ordered in advance, because they cut through
to their private
dining room. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt">I
reached the head of the line. Kniaz Kang nodded at me.
“You are too late to see
her, Joe. She left already,” Kang announced.<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span>“But Dorothy and Teranike are still in the South
Greenhouse, part way
through their meals.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt">“Her?”
I asked.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt">“Her,”
Kang announced with a not-quite-joking frown. “Your new
girlfriend. Your
height? Copper hair? Really pretty? Enough of a persona
that she wore light
trousers and a lighter blouse and vest, no coat at all,
despite the weather?
Paid for very little breakfast in good coin? After she
cleaned my parking lot? And
asked where she should sit, you being her boyfriend?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt">“Oh,”
I managed. “Her.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>My
girl friend. We must
have been on different schedules.”<span
style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In
particular, my girlfriend schedule was for obvious reasons
extremely blank, likely
to stay that way for some years yet, and so far as I can
tell at the moment going
to stay blank forever. Girlfriend? What was going on here?
“Now I’d better make
up to her, right?”</span></p>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt"><br>
</span></p>
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