CIA00.10

== Jadi Morok and the Dark Sapphire
Chapter Ten : "The Foot Wears The Other Boot"
by JJF ==
It's just a street.  Aeeennneey street.
Here.  We're going in here.
Mind your head on the lintel.
Well isn't it a mess.  This, laydeeez and gentlemen, is the humble abode of one Ms Kirena Drendara Morok, GoPJ, Grand Master.  That is the recliner, here is a bookcase, there is the dining table.
Over yonder is the bedroom.
Come on, come on, you'll find this interesting.
Now, look here.  Yes, I know there's underwear all over the floor, but that's not important right now.  A framed picture of Ms Morok's father; now this is what's interesting.
You've seen those vids where there's a safe behind a picture, right?  We all have.  So naturally, nobody would be fool enough to have one in real life. Or would they?
Come on, you know what I'm driving at.  Take a look.
That's right, there's nothing there, absolutely totally and utterly nothing.  Just a plain, blank wall, nondescript in every affect.
No, listen.  This is important.
Naturally, nobody in their right mind would try to hide something of importance in the wall behind a picture. But wait, something *is* hidden behind this picture.
Okay, I'll try to make it clearer for you.  Look at the frame.
Try the top left corner.
Ah, what's that you've found?  A catch?  Well well well.  
Well don't just stand there grinning like that, try pulling it.
Ah-ha!  Collect all that paper off the floor, would you?
Now, that looks like an interesting sketch...  it's the colour of a kazafruit, yes, but look at all those straight lines and sheer angles.  They aren't just the random scrawlings of a pencil, you know.
That's better.  Now, how do you think it got there?
*****
"Right," said Jadi, having positioned himself so that he could see both Menha Narranov and the lizard man.  "I believe this is the moment when you two tell me just in the System is going on around here."
The lizard man opened it's mouth and emitted a blood-curdling roar, it's pink saliva lightly splattering Jadi as it's tongue flickered in and out.  Helpfully, the translation drone translated this as long, gibbering peals of high-pitched laughter, before adding:  "How quaint."
"Unfortunately, Jadi, that would take rather a long time and we don't actually have all the information yet.  We'll be holding a Strategic Planning and Assessment meeting in about -" she checked her watch "-thirty minutes.  Come to the meeting, and all will be revealed.  I promise."
"In the meantime," said the translator as the lizard man uttered his guttural, spluttering dialogue.  "Gort here will take you to a room where you can relax."
On cue, another, smaller lizard man entered the chamber on a compact three-wheeled buggy.  Jadi sat in it nervously.
"Don't forget the meeting!"  Menha called after him as he was driven away.  "Thirty minutes; just follow the signs!"
*****
Vedaspel was walking off his lunch.  Where he was walking to I cannot say, if indeed he was walking to anywhere.  Perhaps he was just walking, exercising the muscles of the body he inhabited so that they remained strong and supple, ready for any moment they were needed.
Perhaps he was walking to catch the air, or to gauge the mood of the citizens of Kapone City.  Or perhaps his destination had been determined by powers far darker than you can imagine to aid in a dark and nefarious scheme.
It isn't really important.
On his walk, he came across a grizzled man dressed in the old uniformÊof a Journeyman of the Guild of Absolute Enforcement - from before they stopped wearing uniforms.  The man had an angry, caged-animal expression on his face; maybe it was that which made Vedaspel pluck the man's notebook from his pocket as he walked past.  Just out of curiosity.
He found the most recent entry and scanned it thoughtfully.
  +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  | Has hi was pro'ceed'in down Whinterbrook Street hin han     |
  | heasterly dire-ection, I happened hacross a young lady            |
  | fighting with a big thug.  Has his my whay, I                          |
  | hintervened on the ladies' be-arlf hand between hus we           |
  | managed to rhestrain the thug.  Has hi was about to                 |
  | call in, 'oweveh, 'ee shows me the hidentity carde of               |
  | ha Jhourneyman (first class) hin the Ghuild.  T'en 'ee              |
  | told me the lhady was wanted by hour hown Grand Master,     |
  | Mister Travis.                                                                             |
  |                                                                                                    |
  | Thus, I concluded hafter sihgnificant deliberations,                   |
  | hit whas my dhuty to hassist my comrade hin the                     |
  | Seizure hof the woman.  So hi dhid.                                         |
  +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
   Vedaspel smiled...
*****
"Nice wheels." Jadi remarked as the tricycle careered along gray, dusty corridors at about seven miles per hour.  Gort, who didn't seem to have a translator, grunted and spit a globule of frothing pink spittle onto the floor.
"Nice table manners, too.  Remind me to get you invited to one of my brothers' dinner parties."  The reptile's reaction to this was to slam on the brakes (or whatever equivalent stopping mechanism the tricycle possessed) and hiss into Jadi's face, mouth wide open and forked tongue gyrating from side to side.
Jadi noticed that Gort's breath smelt of apple juice, and gently started to reach for his gun, whispering "Nice Gort, good Gort, youreally don't want to eat me do you" along with the other idiotic things people say at times like this.
Gort gestured ill-coordinatively over Jadi's right shoulder and closed his mouth with a great exhalation -- and a good deal of spitting, millions of droplets of lizard-man saliva showering the bounty hunter's face.
Jadi noticed disgustingly that Gort's spit didn't taste anything like apple juice; seconds later he fell backwards off the buggy, retching dryly into the floor as Gort drove off.
Eventually, having narrowly retained whatever his last meal was in the correct place, Jadi lifted himself gingerly to his feet, carefully staying near to a wall for support.  The world just about failed to invert.  This world actually consisted of a plain, gray corridor, with absolutely no identifying features whatsoever.
"Oh, mulch it!" shouted Jadi, spinning round and thumping the wall as hard as he could.
When the world had stopped spinning, Jadi noticed that there was something on the wall behind him.  A piece of yellow paper.  Written on it, along with several lines of indecipherable alien script, were the words 'Strategic Planning and Assessment Meeting -- This Way'.  Someone had carefully drawn a pointing hand at the bottom.
Jadi looked along the corridor in the direction the hand indicated -- there was nothing before the corridor curved around out of sight.  He looked the other way and almost kicked himself.
Imbedded in the wall beside the sign was a normal human-sized door, decorated with the words 'Jadi Morok'.
*****
Delwyn Travis was playing with his hourglass, watching sand ooze from one bulb to the other, and then upending it and watching sand ooze the other way.  It amused him.
His office-bell bleeped.
Travis sighed, put the hourglass down and called for his visitor to enter.  Not to his great surprise, the short figure of Kluge lumbered into his office.
"I've got 'em, sir.  Jus like you wanted.  Twenty-four unidentified women, in the holding cells.  The ones downstairs.  Ready and waiting for you."
Travis grinned.  "Then we'd better not keep the ladies waiting, had we."
"Errrh... why not?"
"Because, Kluge, the sooner we get started the sooner we'll have finished and the sooner we'll have what we want."
"Oh, errrrhh, right..."
*****
Jadi had found that his room was small and sparsely-furnished; it contained mainly an Antennaed Semi-Hemispherical Thing which he supposed might be a washbasin, a Large Fluffy Thing which might be a bed, and a Big Rectangular Thing about which Jadi didn't like to speculate but could double up as a table. Someone had thoughtfully provided him with a clock, counting down to the time of the Strategic Planning and Assessment Meeting.  At that point he had still had twenty-three minutes left.
The first thing he had done was clean the lizard man saliva from his face - and almost instantly the fuzzy feeling in his head had vanished, and he felt strong and invigorated once more.
That got him wondering whether it was some kind of contact poison and whether there would be any more serious effects -- so soon Jadi was feeling strong, invigorated and scared.  He didn't like poisons at the best of times - they reminded him of a nasty Conflict of Interests with a chap in the Guild of Justifiable 
Assassination.
But when, after five minutes he had not died or gone mad or done anything else strange, Jadi calmed down and found himself rather bored.  There were still sixteen minutes until the Meeting started, so he just sat on the bed and thought.
He didn't want to close his eyes, he might miss the meeting; he wouldn't have put it past the clock to sound an alarm when the meeting was due to start but he couldn't bet on that.  On the other hand, the bed was very very comfortable and he had been very active recently with very little rest so he was a little tired and he would need all his wits about him for the meeting so maybe if he just rested for a moment if wouldn't do any harm...
Jadi Morok, fully accredited and licensed bounty hunter, acting Grand Master of the Guild of Poetic Justice, closed his eyes...
...and entered that hinterland between sleep and wakefulness, when the conscious mind is conscious but no longer in control, when dreams occur in a television before the mind's eye, glorious Technicolor 3D in your living room.
"Don't worry, lad.  I'll get you out of there."
The Doctor; so much had happened since he left Deremar he hadn't had time to think about his alien friend.  He could see him now as clearly as he had seen him in real life through the bars of the cage, leaning over the table worriedly, his hair lifted by a gentle breeze from somewhere in the darkness.  The pile of cards in front of him.  A memory, a frozen tableau of a scene from the past.
Jadi wondered what had happened to the Doctor and Grace; had they won the race and regained their ship, or did they fail and pay the price?  When this was over, he would go back, see if he could help them again.  Besides anything else, sixty thousand mazumas would go a long way to paying off his credit card.
"Don't feel so bad, my boy."
He had had no choice but to leave them on Deremar -- he didn't know what kind of trouble Kirena was in here, but it was big.  He was needed here.
And the Doctor had known that.  Of course he had.  Why, he could still remember it so clearly...
Finally, they reached the travel terminal.  As he climbed out of the car, tears still in his eyes, he found Grace hugging him.  "I'll miss you." she said.
No sooner had he disengaged himself than the Doctor was shaking him by the hand.  "I'll miss you too.  We'd never have got this far if it hadn't been for you.  And since you've been such a great help, I have something for you."
And suddenly a small brown felt pouch was being pushed into his hand, and the Doctor's voice was halfway towards a conspiratorial whisper.  "Open that later.  I also have two pieces of advice.  Firstly, the dungeon is empty and booby trapped.  Try the attic.  And secondly, when you get invited to a council of war, try to be ten minutes early."
He had smiled as best he could.  "Thanks, Doctor.  I hate goodbyes."
"Me too," the Doctor had said.  "So let's just say 'au revoir' shall we?"
And then he had turned and walked into the terminal.   
Au Revoir.  Jadi wondered what the Doctor had meant by that.  Knowing the Doctor, probably something cryptic yet useful.
   "And secondly, when you get invited to a council of war, try to be ten minutes early."
   Something else intended to be useful advice, he had no doubt, but equally useless at the moment.
   "Firstly, the dungeon is..."   
Wait a minute!
   "When you get invited to a council of war, try to be ten minutes early."
   "... council of war ... be ten minutes early ..."
   Jadi's conscious mind started sending urgent messages to the 
rest of his brain; each message labeled "Wake Up Now!"
   His eyes snapped open.  They flickered about the room, finally alighting upon the clock.  Eleven minutes until the meeting starts.
   "... be ten minutes early ..."
   With practiced ease, Jadi rolled off the bed and pelted out of his door.
*****
"Well well well, look who's here early," commented Menha Narranov as she entered the Meeting Chamber. To her complete and utter surprise Jadi Morok was lounging in one of the plush chairs, his feet on the table, absently tossing a kazafruit from hand to hand.
"The early bird, and all that rot." he responded, a large smile on his face.  He watched as Menha sat at the table opposite him.  Several lizard men, some wearing strange head decorations, took some of the other places.
"Well," he said when everyone was comfortable, "what's going on here, then?"
"Not yet." scolded Menha.  Or rather, a lizard man translation drone speaking in Menha's voice.  "We are still waiting for some people."  Now that it was pointed out to him, Jadi could see that there were some unoccupied chairs.
"Would you have waited for me if I had been late?" he said after a few minutes of silent waiting.
"Of course." replied Menha.
Another pause.
"So, just who are we waiting for?"
"You'll find out when they get here."
Yet another pause.
Jadi was about to say something when he noticed Menha and the lizard people turn their heads to look at the door.  He followed suit.  Then his mouth dropped open.
At length he closed it.  "What are YOU doing here?"
To Be Continued...