“Yes,” Olga said tersely. She rubbed her eyes and sat up, shook her head to clear the cobwebs, and yawned. “You have a stretcher, yes? And suitable clothes.”
“A stretcher, aye,” Gerd called softly from the far side of the four-poster bed. “He still sleeps, milady,” he added, forestalling her next question.
Irma grimaced. “I hate stretchers.” She stepped back, to leave Olga some space. “On the subject of suitable clothes—we are going to America, to meet an ambulance, at dead of night, I was told? But this other world, I’ve never been there before. So I don’t know what’s a suitable disguise for sneaking around there. . . .”
“Don’t worry about that aspect of things, we’ve got transport.” I hope. Olga sat up creakily. “Here’s the plan. We’re going to cross over with everyone else. Have the cards arrived yet?” Irma shook her head. “Well. When they arrive—it’s a new world. This site is undeveloped farmland. Our agents have laid on trucks, and they’ll drive Captain Hjorth and his force to the drop-off point for the counterattack. We’ll be taking a car into Irongate, which is near as makes no difference sitting on the south side of Concord, and where there’s a doppelgangered building in this world. Then we make two more transfers, crossing back at zero five hundred, and I’ll phone for an ambulance. I’ve got GPS, so we should be picked up within half an hour. Our main challenges are: keeping his grace comfortable, avoiding attention from the locals, and not killing ourselves by world-walking too much. Is that clear?”
“Yes, milady. Makes things easier.” Irma shook her head. “Four crossings in four hours—that’s harsh.”
“Yes. That’s why for the first crossing we’ll all be going piggyback on whichever members of your lance draw the short straws. And for the second crossing, Gerd will carry his grace and Martyn will carry you. On the third crossing, you can take the duke. The fourth will be the hardest, but that way, only one of us risks breaking our head.”
“Do you think we should ditch our field gear?”
Olga thought for a moment. “If it’s not too much to carry, I think we should hang onto it until we’re ready to make the final transit. But once we hit Concord”—she paused—“we can’t be wearing armor or carrying long arms. What clothing did you find for us?”
“Nothing for sure, milady, we must see if it fits—but the baron’s family maintained a wardrobe with some American clothing, and it has not been looted yet. I hope,” she added under her breath.
“Let’s go see, shall we,” Olga suggested, stretching as she stood up. Her own state she passed over: She and Angbard had never expected to wind up here, and her neat trouser suit would be fine. “We need clothing that will pass at a distance for Gerd, Martyn, and you.”
“This way, then.” Irma led her from the master bedroom into an adjacent room, its rich paneling splintered and holed by small arms fire. Chests of drawers and a huge wooden chest dominated half a wall. “I think this is what you’re looking for.”
Late afternoon.
Miriam segued into wakefulness to the rattle and jabber of daytime television fuzzed into incoherence through a thin stud wall. Gathering her wits, she rolled over. The bed isn’t moving, she realized. She’d found it difficult to rest, her worries chasing their tails through her mind, but she’d spent the last few nights on a transcontinental express train and the novelty of a bed that didn’t sway side-to-side and periodically bump across railroad points had eventually drawn her down into a deep abyss of dreamless sleep. Yawning, she sat up and rolled off the comforter. What time is it? . . . She glanced at the dressing table. Her notebook PC sat there, its LEDs winking as it charged. Whether it would start up was a moot point—it had spent six months in a hidden compartment in a disused office—but it had a clock; maybe it would still be working. She reached over and pressed the power button, then started gathering her clothes.
The regular startup chord and busy clicking of a hard disk provided welcome background noise as she dressed; but as the computer seemed to want to twiddle its thumbs instead of talking to her, she locked the screen and headed for the bathroom, and then the stairs, rather than waiting. To think that only four days ago she’d risked arrest and imprisonment to retake the thing, seeing it as central to her hopes for survival and prosperity! . . . Her understanding of her circumstances was changing almost from hour to hour, leaving her adrift and unable to rely on plans she’d made only the day before. It gave her an anxious sense of insecurity, rising to the level of nervous dread whenever her thoughts circled back to the pregnancy question.
The television noise was coming from the living room, along with other sounds. As Miriam pushed the door open she caught a burst of conversation: “She’s right, then what are we going to do? We won’t be able to go back! Had you thought of”—A blond head turned—“Oh, hi!”
Miriam paused. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything. . . .”
“Not really.” Huw was slouched in a recliner, propping up a laptop, while the two younger ones, Yul and Elena, had been either watching TV or arguing about something while sharing a large pizza of uncertain parentage. “Feel free to join us.”
“Yah,” agreed Yul, chewing rhythmically.
Elena thumped him. “Don’t talk with your mouth full!”
“Yuh.” He took her punch on one shoulder, looking amused rather than hurt.
Miriam turned to address Huw. “Where’s Brill?”
“Oh, she went out.” He sounded disinterested. “Hmm, that’s interesting.”
Miriam glanced at the window. It was clearly getting late, and the shadows of the trees out front were lengthening. “Is there anything to eat around here?” Her gaze was drawn to Elena and Yul’s pizza, almost against her will.
“Uh?” Huw looked up at her, and visibly did a double take. “Food? Um . . . yeah, food! Just a minute.” A rattle of hastily struck keys later, he closed the laptop’s lid and stood up. “Let’s see what’s in the kitchen?”
The kitchen was as sparsely equipped as it had been earlier in the afternoon. Huw headed straight for the freezer and the microwave, but Miriam stopped him. “Let me.” While she rooted around in the cupboards, she asked, “Any idea where Brill went? Did she ask you to get me a pregnancy test kit?”
“A what?” He walked over to the kitchen door and closed it carefully. “No, that’s women’s stuff. If you asked for such a thing, she wouldn’t trust a man to procure it.”
“Oh.” Miriam froze for a couple of seconds, disappointed. Then she sighed and opened the next cupboard. “So where did she go?”
“If not to attend to your request, I’d guess she has a private call to make. She was getting extremely itchy about being on the wrong coast, and even itchier about how we’re going to get back out east without attracting attention.”
“Attention”—Miriam paused to pull out a can of tomatoes and a bag of pasta—”what kind of attention?”
“She came out here in the company biz-jet, but . . . someone tipped the feds off about where ClanSec were concentrating? Somewhere near Concord, apparently. We’ve had hints”—Miriam rattled past him, rifling a drawer in search of utensils—“they’re getting serious about tracking us down. So I don’t think there’s a biz-jet ride home in our immediate future.” Miriam slammed the cupboard door. “What?”
“This is useless!” She pointed at her haul. “What did they think we were going to do, eat at Mickey D’s every day?”