Nor Prison Fear 3/4
Artwork by pattrose
Part One and Part Two.
Master Post for A Glimmering From Afar series
Continued from Nor Prison Fear (part two)
I was still dazed when I was booked into the Cascade holding cells. I didn't remember much about being taken in a security bird down to Cascade, just coming to briefly, in restraints, and overhearing one of the men telling the woman that she'd had the settings set too high for somebody my size, and that she'd be marked down for that on her evaluation.
Great. I'd been whupped on by an over-eager recruit. My head started whirling and I guessed I passed out again. I vaguely was aware of them hauling me out of their bird and trying to get me to walk, but my motor functions were still too impaired. I know my brain sure was.
I guess they got tired of trying to get me to move because I found myself over one security guard's shoulder, and toted into Booking.
“We're lucky he didn't wet his clothes. Prisoners often do when they're stunned as much as this boy is. Trainee, what would you advise we do if that had been the case here?”
“Two of us could have put his arms over our shoulders and carried him in that way.”
“Yes, that's an option, especially if the prisoner is bigger than the arresting guards. But it's slow and awkward. In this case, I'd have stripped him naked and carried him in that way. It amuses the protectors when we bring them in like that and keeps our clothes from getting stained.”
With the three brain cells I still had that weren't out on vacation I told my bladder to not let go. Going naked into the cells wasn't my first choice.
The whole booking process was a blur, the skimmer identifying me as being on probation, the charges being added to my record, being processed into a holding cell.
I was able to stand up by the time the paperwork was done, and walk by myself as I was led to a large cell where other lawbreakers were standing or sitting down next to the bars.
I was given a helpful push into the cell, and I turned around after almost losing my balance.
“Your PO will be by, and we've left a message for your sentinel.”
The protector turned away and I finally made my voice work. “Captain Banks... Tell Captain Banks... “
The man just raised his eyebrow. “Comm the head of MIC and tell him his department's pet convict landed himself back where he belongs? Sure.”
He walked away. He wouldn't get in touch with Captain Banks. I stumbled over to a corner and slid down until I was on the floor. Some of the other inhabitants of the cell were gazing at the new arrival, but most were ignoring me. I tucked my arms around my knees and stared through the bars at the door at the end of the hallway.
I had let Jim down. He was still unconscious, and I had no idea how much time he had left before Oliver decided to interrogate him, find out what he knew. Maybe Jim was right about Oliver wanting to recruit him, and perhaps he could buy some time by pretending to agree to that. I went cold when I thought that Oliver might torture Jim to get the truth from him.
Captain Banks would access my tracker records and find out I was down here, after he'd listened to my messages. I could only hope that he heard them soon, and that he believed me that Jim was in danger, and not dismiss me after also hearing the reports from the Savanaa protectors.
There was nothing I could do now but wait.
xxx
“Blair.”
I lifted my head from the table in the dreary interrogation room where I'd been brought an hour ago to wait for my PO to question me. My headache was truly epic, and I'd closed my eyes and dozed off. I hadn't heard the door open.
He said my name again, my first name. Perdition's chimes, that wasn't a good start. He'd been calling me Mr. Sandburg, to accord me the respect he'd said I'd earned. I guessed I was back at square one with him now.
“Officer Taggart, I can explain.”
He sat down across from me and shook his head. “Be quiet, Blair, unless I ask you a direct question. Then I want a yes or a no, and I advise you to take responsibility for your actions. Do you understand these directives?”
“Yes.”
“You're in violation of a number of probation requirements. You were found with credits on your person beyond the allowed amount. Is this true?”
I took a deep breath. “Yes.”
“You crossed into unauthorized space?”
“Yes.”
“You were found traveling on your own, without permission from your sentinel being registered with my office?”
“Uh, yes?”
“You don't sound very sure about that, Blair. Let's break it down. Did you have permission from me or my proxy at Community Service to travel on your own?”
“No.”
“You had permission from your sentinel to travel?”
I nodded emphatically, and answered yes.
“You were disruptive on public transportation, resulting in your arrest early this morning?”
“Yes.” I was dying to explain what had happened to my PO, but he was a methodical man. If I just blurted out what had happened and the danger Jim was in, he'd think I was lying.
“I've been unable to reach sentinel Ellison, but I understand from the report by the Blossom protectors that he is not considered to be a missing person, just merely extending his vacation. I also understand that you've been quite the nuisance, calling in a false report to the Blossom PD. Did you leave the Bonaroo PD after being told you would be held till I had been consulted?”
Another deep breath. “Yes.”
“Let's go back to the credits that were found on your person. Did sentinel Ellison give them to you?”
“No.”
“Did you steal them?”
“No.”
“They were just given to you?”
“Yes.”
“This person was very generous to you then, Blair. Did you exchange sex for these credits?”
“No.” Two kisses and some groping couldn't really be considered sex.
Taggart looked at me thoughtfully after that answer. I squirmed, willing him to hurry up and let me just tell him what had happened.
The door opened then and Captain Banks walked in. I was so happy to see him, but he held up his hand. “I've been listening. I don't think you told the whole truth on that last question, Blair. What do you think, Officer Taggart?”
“I think something happened. Let me rephrase the question. Did you engage in any sort of sexual touching in order to be given those credits, or any other monetary advantage?”
I started to get angry. Jim's life was in danger here, and they were more concerned that I'd illegally sold my ass than finding out what had happened to him.
“Yes!”
Captain Banks looked thoughtful, giving me a penetrating look. He finally said, “Officer Taggart, Sandburg has been trying to contact me since last night, and I've never known Jim to disappear and let Sandburg go wandering out on his own. Sandburg also, as I understand it, could have run when the shuttle he was on stopped at a couple of stations that aren't part of the Hundred Worlds. He didn't. He was on a wagon cab to Cascade when he was arrested.”
“I'd like to look into this further, since Jim is one of mine. Would you give me custody of Sandburg for now? If Sandburg turned cashboy in order to get the resources to get here, then that level of desperation backs up his story that Jim's in trouble.” He turned to me. “You believe Jim is currently in Cascade?”
I didn't know if the yes and no thing applied to his questions too, but I wasn't taking any chances on ticking him or my PO off. “Yes!”
Taggart looked at me for a long minute, then held out his hand. I forgot that my wrists were still in lockers attached under the table and winced when my effort to put my own hand in Taggart's was stymied.
Captain Banks produced a key and released me. I let Taggart's warm hands engulf mine and he asked me if I truly believed my sentinel was in danger, and if I would stay in Captain Banks' custody.
He apparently was satisfied with my answers and told Captain Banks that he'd fix the paperwork back at his office.
“Blair, we're not done here, I'm just postponing things. There will be consequences, you know.”
I shrugged. My head hurt, I was hungry, and I needed to relieve myself in the worst way, but Captain Banks was going to give me a chance to save Jim. I felt reckless and hopeful and I couldn't care less right now about my probation violations.
“Sir, no disrespect, but if we can't find Jim, he's going to be dead, and so will I, so right now I don't give a damn about the consequences.”
I glanced up at the small recorders by the ceiling that kept a record of everything that happened in this room. Oliver must know by now that I was in jail here and he'd be monitoring if I was released or not, if his organization's ability to hack into records was as good as I thought it was. I stood up and motioned Captain Banks to come closer and bend down.
I whispered to him, “Make the records look like I'm still here, and can we leave without being noticed?”
He straightened and produced a pair of lockers and bound my wrists behind my back.
He winked covertly at Taggart and said for the benefit of the recorders, “I don't know how much of his story is space trash, but I'm taking him to the infirmary for now. They'll put him under and run a truth test, and if he's delusional, the docs will know. Either way, he'll be staying as our guest, and I'll let you know when you can have another crack at him.”
He turned back to me. “Sandburg, I'm going to do you a favor and forget that you just propositioned me. I'm starting to think that Jim did just get fed up and took a break from you, and all of this drama is you over-reacting. C'mon, I've got real work to do instead of all this monkey-shine.”
He grabbed my shoulders and pushed me out of the room. We didn't go back out through Booking, he called them on his comm and told them I was in his custody now, but to keep me in the system as being held. I'd be back later, after a trip to the infirmary.
Taggart nodded to Captain Banks and gave me a long look before heading back towards Booking. Captain Banks and I walked to the levitator and he pushed the button and grasped my upper arm, gently propelling me inside, where I leaned gratefully on the back wall.
When we reached the infirmary, Captain Banks spoke to the doctor, who nodded and disappeared. He took the lockers off and when the doctor came back with a red uniform scrub top, trousers, and a coat. I went into the bathroom, gratefully relieved myself, changed into the clean clothes, and bundled my own clothes up.
Captain Banks handed me a bag when I came out and I dumped my bedraggled clothes into it. The doctor stopped me for a minute and flashed a small light in my eyes, and I winced, stifling the gasp because man, this headache was a killer.
He pointed at a chair, and bustled over to a cabinet, returning with a syringe. He asked me to stand up and he lowered my loose and lightweight trouser bottoms until the top of my butt was exposed. He gave me the shot, and told me that I'd feel better soon, that severe headaches were typical after being heavily stunned.
Okay. I guess Captain Banks had told him about that while I was in the bathroom.
We left then, and Captain Banks took me out a back way, where a waiting PD vehicle was parked, keys in the starter. He quietly told me that he'd had Henri Brown arrange for the vehicle and for the recorders to malfunction for the next ten minutes.
He told me to duck down while we circled the roads by the PD, so that it would look like he'd left the building alone. After several minutes of silence, he blew out a long breath.
“Okay, sit up. And tell me everything, Sandburg.”
xxx
After I'd spilled my guts, skimming over what exactly Hal had asked for in exchange for his help, Captain Banks commed the station and started a few men he trusted implicitly into looking into Oliver's background, property, and connections. I knew that Jim was still alive, still unconscious, but I didn't know exactly where he was. I couldn't even say with certainty he was in Cascade. I was going on information a street person had overheard.
“So when Jim wakes up, you can use this mind-talk thing you two do and locate him?” Captain Banks sounded both skeptical and hopeful.
“Yes, the closer we are physically, the stronger, the easier, it is to hear each other. I can talk to him when he wakes up, but I've never tried to locate him just through our soul bond. And with him unconscious, this is new territory. I... I'll try. Ummm... I might know somebody who could help me. She's a priestess of the San religion. I met her when I was getting my degree in botany; she allowed me to study the use of plants in San ceremonies. She knows I was being tutored by the shamans of Quyllur, that I'm not a beginner at walking the clouds.”
Captain Banks frowned. “What do you think she could do to help us find Jim?”
“She has plants that would strengthen my ability to spirit walk, and she could monitor the experience, maybe funnel energy to me.”
“I thought you said you'd already met with Jim on the spirit plane, and that he was yanked away by something, probably a theta disruptor. What makes you think this attempt will be more successful? And Jim wasn't able to tell you where he was, right? Sounds like a waste of our time. We should go and get the information that's been hidden instead. Maybe while we're doing that Jim will wake up and you can talk to him, if he's within range. It sounds like they're going to interrogate him so that does buy us some time.”
I shivered. “Captain Banks, if they think Jim's a liability...”
“They'll kill him.” His hand briefly patted me on the leg. “It's not going to come to that. I've got my best men working this case, and we'll find him.”
He made a left turn. “We'll be at the Seattle building in about five minutes. The documents are hidden on a ledge on the top of the building? My arms are pretty long, I'm betting I can reach them with no trouble.”
“And afterwards? After you send the documents to the authorities? If Jim hasn't woken up? Can we go and see Corinna? I wouldn't go to the spirit plane, I'd try and leave my body and travel on this plane, see if there's some sort of manifestation of our bond that I can feel or see, something that would point me to where Jim is.”
“Have you ever done this before?”
“No, not walking the clouds like that, exactly. But astral travel is a well documented phenomena, although most people experience out of body events when they're dying or been brought back to life.”
“It's not going to help Jim if you die on me, Sandburg.”
“It's my choice to take that risk.”
Captain Banks grunted and I kept quiet for the rest of the ride.
xxx
We had no problems getting up to the roof of the Seattle building. It's amazing what flashing a badge and scowling at people can accomplish. We also had no problems in finding the right spot on the north side of the building.
Captain Banks was correct. His arms were long enough to reach down and tug free the thin waterproof envelope that had been stuffed into a crack, one corner visible if you were really, really looking for it.
The problem was that he fumbled it and it landed on a ledge that was seven feet or so down from the top of the protective wall built around the edge of the building.
It wasn't that far, not really, and the ledge was fairly wide. Before I could talk myself out of it, I swung my legs over the edge and turned so I was lying on my stomach.
I'd caught Captain Banks by surprise, and he went from walking back to the roof exit, mildly cursing losing his grip on the envelope, to barking out my name and dashing over to where I was cautiously inching my body backward.
My right foot had found a toehold and I was clinging to the side of the building, fingers gripping rough edges of building blocks hewn out by years of exposure to weather, and I lowered myself the rest of the way down to the ledge. I stumbled a little and involuntarily caught a quick glance of the city from a bird's eye view. My stomach lurched and I swallowed down my nausea.
“You demented kid!” Captain Banks furious face was scowling at me as leaned over the wall. “I was going for a ladder, what in perdition do you think you're doing?”
I slid my feet sideways until I was at the envelope, stooped and picked it up. I shuffled my feet back to my original position and handed it up to him.
I took a deep breath. “We'd draw too much attention to ourselves, bringing a ladder up here. The building manager thinks you're looking for somebody on one of the upper floors, not checking out the roof. We don't want to alert Oliver that we've found something hidden, if he's got people trying to track us. Besides, I've wasted enough time by getting arrested; we need to hurry up. I still want to try spirit walking to find Jim since he's still passed out.”
I could feel a breeze, but it wasn't doing anything to dry the sweat that was clinging to my shirt and face. I felt hampered by the coat from the infirmary and pulled it off. I faced the wall and did a mental visualization of how I would pull myself up. Once or twice I'd tried rock climbing on an artificial wall, but I'd had safety ropes securing me. I remembered now why I'd never gone back. I really didn't like dealing with heights. Maybe if I faced my fears... I glanced behind me at the limited vision of Cascade and dropped that idea. I wiped my hands on my trousers, and gulped down another deep breath. And then another. Then I was just inhaling air and expelling it and this wasn't any kind of deep breathing for focusing myself, like I did to prepare for meditation.
“Blair! Stop that! Cup your hands in front of your mouth and breath slowly!”
I did what he said, but it didn't seem to be helping much. I kept panting and I knew I was heading for a full blown terror attack.
Suddenly his hands were circling my wrists, pulling them away from my face, and I looked up into his calm eyes.
“I've got you, kid. Now you're going to do what I say. Grip my wrists tight. I'm going to pull you up and you're going to move your feet and walk up the wall when I tell you to. This is nothing, it will take three seconds and then you're going to be back up here with me. Understand? Nod your head if you can't talk.”
My panting had lessened, but my mouth was so dry I didn't think I could shape words. I nodded.
“On three. And you just keep looking at me and you'll be fine.”
“One, two, three.” He said it so casually, as if he was counting out credits to pay for his lunch. He pulled back, lifting me as he moved backwards. I held on for my life to him and my feet scrambled up until I was over, and I fell off the wall and into his arms.
I was shaking, speech still beyond me and he closed his arms around me in a tight hug, and shushed me. It wasn't until he kept going “Sh, sh, Blair, you're safe,” that I realized that apparently making desperate noises was something I was capable of doing.
When I was able to be quiet, he pushed me away but didn't let go of me. He kept staring at me, probably assessing if I was getting over my stupid terror attack. I hadn't had one for a long time, not since it had really sunk in that I was probably going to be found guilty and mindwiped. Then I'd been on the Pride of Cascade, in a cell and alone, and I'd had to let the storm shake me to pieces. I'd tried to keep most of that from Jim, and I think I only succeeded because he was still new to interpreting my emotions through the soul bond. I hadn't done it to spare him, but because I didn't want him to know how weak I was.
My breathing was slowing down and I managed to croak out a “Thanks,” when his grip tightened on my upper arms and he gave me one hard shake.
“Blair Sandburg, if you ever do something that rash and foolhardy again, I will turn you over my knee and give you the spanking you deserve. You should have told me you wanted to climb down, not just done it. Have you always been afraid of heights? What if you'd passed out on the ledge? You could have rolled off and...”
He drew me back into another rib cracking hug for a long moment.
Huh, I thought as he stopped the embrace and shoved me towards the exit. He'd sounded worried about me. My feet stumbled to a halt and he paused.
“What? Is something else wrong?” He sounded impatient and grumpy and there was a note of anxiety in his voice.
He'd been worried about me? Ah, no. Enlightenment slammed into me. If I'd died, then Jim would have also crossed over soon afterwards, and Jim was his good friend. I felt my world right itself and I realized that the comfort he'd given me was partly a reaction to averting Jim's death and also, well... Captain Banks was a decent man. He'd have taken care of a stray dog that had hurt itself in front of him, so I shouldn't take the care he'd given me personally.
But still, impersonal comfort or not, he'd given it. “Ummm, no. I'm okay. I just wanted to say 'thank you' again.”
His face relaxed, and he shook his head. “Kids,” he muttered under his breath. “Let's go, Blair. We'll send the documents to people we can trust, and if Jim hasn't woken up by then, I'll take you to see that priestess.”
He gave me another gentle shove, his hand on my shoulder, and we left.
xxx
I looked at the data from the dots in the envelope, using Simon's slave, absently giving him directions now and then until we we'd crossed into a part of town that the upper classes avoided if they could. Many streets were in need of repair, and grill-work over windows and doors became common as well as rows of abandoned buildings. I directed him to park down an alley where the botanica's door was located and handed him back his slave when the protector vehicle glided to a stop.
“This information about the plan to release the plague on Denair is explosive, Captain Banks. Jim thought we could send it to his dad, but I think we should wait until Oliver's in custody. He's going to be ruthless about tracking down anybody who's got this, and if the corruption goes as high as Jim said it did, then it could get funneled into the wrong hands, and made to disappear. With no documents to back up the accusations, and if the people who passed it to the authorities are eliminated, then Oliver and his patrons are going to get away with this.”
“What else is on the dots? I'd like to nail Oliver on as many charges as possible.”
I told him and then bit my lip, thinking. I didn't know who to trust in the Celestial Congress, and Captain Banks and I didn't have enough clout to get the information directly to people who could act on it, without it being screened by staff people. There were too many chances of things going wrong by going through the usual bureaucratic channels. Giving our information-bomb to Jim's dad was a good idea, since he was involved enough with politics to hopefully know the right person to contact directly, and he could make it personal.
We needed to make these documents so widespread that they couldn't be swept under the rug. And the timing needed to be right. If it was released before we found Jim, then his captors might just slit his throat and run. No, we'd need to do it after he was safe.
I wished I could talk to my mother. Naomi was brilliant at this sort of thing, and she'd made it her life's work to fight oppression. She'd have the contacts. I didn't know where she was, though, or how to get a message to her safely anymore. I hadn't even tried after bonding with Jim, afraid to lead a bounty tracker to her. She avoided the Hundred Worlds' planets, since there was a standing order to pick her up for questioning. A bounty tracker could operate on any free planet, though, kidnapping people and taking them in for New Rainier justice. I'd last seen her on Quyllur, when we'd had a clandestine visit. I missed her so much, and now I deemed it too risky to even comm her through other friends.
I thought about what I'd learned from her about speaking out against corruption in the government. I mulled over names of people who would help. A glance at Captain Banks' face showed me he was probably doing the same thing. And we had to hurry. Corinna rented a room in the back of the botanica and was there every morning, meeting with people with grievances regarding problems in this community, but she'd go to the Central Cascade Office Annex in the afternoons to continue her neighborhood advocacy.
The botanica was run by her good friend, Iya, and also served as a gathering place to practice their religion. Corinna had been a priestess since she was a child, and I'd been privileged to witness her work as a social advocate and as a priestess of Ursha, her beautiful gold shawl draped over her face and shoulders, dancing the ritual steps to welcome her higher power to come and inhabit her body while her own consciousness remained safely in a trance.
“Besides Jim's dad, have you thought of any other contacts we can trust?” I hoped he had come up with more names than I had.
“Sheila Irwin. She used to be one of mine before transferring to Internal Investigations. Wish I could trust my superiors, but...”
“Well, uh, I trust Eli Stoddard, an old professor of mine. And Jack Kelso, he's teaching now at Rainier, but he's very savvy about the NRIA. He used to be pretty high up in the organization years ago, but after he was betrayed and ended up losing the use of legs, he ferreted out the NRIA agents responsible who'd gone dark-side and turned them in. He'll have no problem believing something like this is happening again. He's a good guy, although I don't know him very well.”
Simon added, “Jack Pendergrast; he'd want to help Jim out, and Henri Brown. I trust both of them, but I doubt they know who to pass the dots along to. Still, they'd do their best.”
I fiddled with the hem of my red infirmary shirt. “Ummm, my PO, Joel Taggart. I can't say that I really know him personally, but he's been fair with me. I think he's an honorable man.” I swallowed. “I know he's going to punish me for the rules I broke, but you know, I did the best I could. I tried to talk to you, and I did my damnedest to get the protectors on Savanaa to believe me.”
Captain Banks snorted. I was a little hurt by that. Didn't he believe me?
“Stop worrying about Taggart. I'll speak to him and back your story up. If anything, this should reduce your probation. You've been instrumental in this case and I won't be shy about letting Community Service know that.” He rubbed his eyebrow. “Joel Taggart is a good choice; he had a good reputation when he was a protector. Okay. I'm going to duplicate the dots and send them to all of them, including Jim's dad, in a time delayed holo. I'm setting it for delivery tomorrow morning. We'll have found Jim by then.”
I held my breath and blinked hard for a moment. I could deal with jeers, and indifference, and cruelty -- I had long practice at deflecting negative vibes -- but kindness, especially from this man who'd always been free about voicing his low opinion of me, that sailed right through my defenses. And I was tired, exhausted, really. It made it harder for me to not react, but I swallowed down the lump that had made itself at home in my throat and waited for Captain Banks to finish up.
He gave the orders to his slave, and then shut it down. I took the dots and replaced them in the envelope, and slid it into my pocket for now. I knew what the botanica offered for sale, and I could fix one of the healing crystal bracelets so that the dots would be hidden in it. Such a bracelet would be ignored, since they weren't valued as jewelry. It was a trick I remembered Naomi using before, to keep dots from being noticed.
We left the protector vehicle, which I knew from experience had effectively scared off most of the people hanging out on the nearby streets, and entered the botanica, a jingle of bells announcing our presence.
It was dimly lit, the scent of candles and many different herbs combining to make a welcoming, familiar aroma for me, but probably these scents struck Captain Banks as being exotic.
I called out Iya's name and she passed through a curtain of beads, a smile breaking out on her pretty face when she saw it was me.
“Blair, it has been too long.” She faltered then, looking a little confused and I knew that she remembered that I'd been arrested. The quick glance she gave Captain Banks assessed him, and came to the wrong conclusion.
“We heard you were taken to be a guide by a protector, instead of being sent to the farms for selling Yana. How could anybody believe that of you?” She jerked her chin at Captain Banks. “He is your sentinel?”
“Iya, this is Captain Banks, he's the head of MIC. My sentinel works for him, and I do, too.”
“Ah, you help solve the crimes? They are lucky to have you.” She beamed at Captain Banks. “He is so clever, this boy. And such a hard worker. He worked for me for a time, in exchange for what I could teach him of our sacred herbs and healing plants.”
“He's a hard worker,” Captain Banks agreed diplomatically, flashing a guarded look at me.
“I mostly clean up messes.” She looked puzzled again, and I clarified, “When my sentinel doesn't need me to ground him, I work as a janitor; you know, I clean the bathroooms, mop floors, although I've been promoted to also running errands and once in a while the other detectives will let me help them.”
She glared at Captain Banks. “What is your business here?”
I answered instead, going to her and catching her hand. “It's okay, Iya. I'm okay. And there is no shame in the work I do, so don't be upset, all right. I'll bring Jim, my sentinel, to meet you sometime, and you'll like him. I love him, and he saved me from being mindwiped. Now I'm hoping to save him. Is Corinna here? I need her assistance to do a ceremony.”
“She is. Wait here and I will go and see if she is free now. Tomas and his mother were here earlier to ask for her help, and she usually lets people out the side door. I've been busy in the storage room.”
She smiled at me, and shot Captain Banks another disapproving look before going back through the beaded curtain.
I went over to a display that held bracelets, looking them over till I found the one that worked for my purposes. It was pretty with its row of different healing crystals set in a pattern on the gold band. Gold was considered archaic by most modern standards, and wasn't in much demand, but it was traditional for the San religion, an offshoot of ancient African Earth practices.
My pocket knife had been left behind in the guesthouse back on Bonaroo. I hated to lose it, my mother had given it to me when I turned thirteen. Maybe the manager would send it to me if I commed him and paid the freight charge.
I turned to Captain Banks. “Do you have a pocket tool?”
He slid one out of his trousers pocket and walked over and handed the combination knife and tool kit to me. I used the pliers and loosened a crystal, and then I slid a dot under it and tightened the holding so that it was held securely once again. I repeated the procedure, and I had just completed my task and given the tool back when Corinna and Iya returned.
I slid the bracelet on my arm and listened as Iya introduced Captain Banks, Corinna returning a polite greeting. As this neighborhood's liaison, she dealt with government officials on a daily basis, so she was not intimidated by a high ranking protector coming into the botanica.
While they were exchanging names, I reached for my wallet, then remembered that it was still in lockup at the station. Captain Banks caught my aborted movement and instead pulled out his own wallet.
He paid Iya, and Corinna and I walked to a small table and sat down in the chairs. They were just as rickety as I remembered, and Corinna smiled when I grumbled about it.
“Blair, you did not come today to sit in Iya's chair. What is the trouble that brings you to a priestess of San's door?”
“I'm soul bonded to my sentinel, but he's been kidnapped. He's unconscious, but we did meet on the spirit plan for a few moments before he disappeared from our meeting place, an image of a waterfall from Quyllur. His kidnappers probably put a theta disruptor on him. I couldn't get a sense of where he was, and he couldn't tell me because he didn't know.” I leaned in closer to her. “But I think with your help I could walk the clouds, follow our bond to where he's being kept. They're going to kill him if we can't find him.”
She frowned, and touched my face, a soft caress. “I can see you are tired. If you do this, then I will pull you back if you fall ill. You must agree to that, Blair, or I will not help you. Walking the clouds for long distances is dangerous.”
“I know. And my spirit guide has lent me strength. Please help me, Corinna. I love him and they're going to hurt him.”
“You agree I can pull you back if needed?” she asked me again. I knew that if I didn't agree she wouldn't help me. Corinna was safety girl all the way.
“I consent to your terms. I ask for your help, priestess.”
She rose and took my hand. “Come. We will need privacy for the ceremony.”
She spoke to Captain Banks. “I think you should guard the door, Captain. Iya, it would be best to close the botanica.”
Iya put a closed sign on the door, and locked it, and Captain Banks followed us through the swinging beaded curtain to a back room, spacious and set about with pillows on the floor, and took up a guard position in the hall.
Corinna shut the door and stood in front of me, and I looked at her as if I had never met her before, seeing a tall graceful brown-skinned woman, taller than me, with black wavy hair that fell past her shoulders. She lifted the filmy golden shawl that was the symbol of her office from her shoulders and draped it over her hair, the elegant fabric framing her features.
She cupped my face in her hands. “You do this for love, Blair and that will give you strength. Come now. Let us begin.”
xxx
Continued in part four.
Laurie