Alien Tongues (24 page)

"How are the men in the car?" Séamus asked.

"One's still unconscious," McMahon told him.  "The other's going to need considerable facial surgery."

Séamus nodded.  "There are two more dead at the facility.  One of the girls cut them but on my orders, turning off the lights and using night goggles.  I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure they were there to eliminate the girls.  I don't know why, and can only make some vague guesses."

"And they say chivalry is dead," McMahon commented.  "These must be awfully important girls.  Which, of course, is why you thought we'd be interested in helping you."

"Yes, though you are not going to believe why they are important.  What's your official position on leprechauns?"

McMahon first frowned, then shrugged to play along.  "Oh, but you'll not have me admit to believing in the little fellahs.  Even though, to be honest, we sort of know they're there."

"Well, some consortium of billionaire dot-commers invested a packet in scanning the universe for intelligent life, given that they cannot find enough to employ here.  Some signal came down from Heaven and they figure it includes the date of the Apocalypse.  No doubt it makes a huge difference whether or not it's before or after the next presidential election.  My four girls have language capabilities you just cannot imagine, which make them uniquely qualified to decode this signal.  It seems they did crack it, but it wasn't good news.  So, I figure they want to bury the train-wreck with the passengers still in it.  By "they," I will blow your mind still further by telling you its thirteen governments which represent 90% of the world's economy."

"Did you check the proof of that whiskey?" Grant asked of McMahon.

"Gentlemen, I am just telling you what the mad scientists at the Lab told me a few weeks ago.  I don't care if we're translating the Devil's Bible or ancient Celtic pornography.  If the British Security Service doesn't want these girls dead, it anyway deliberately sent four agents to forcibly remove them from my custody without countermanding my orders to protect them at all costs.  Therefore under the rules of the Agency I was justified in using all means at my disposal to prevent their removal.  There is only one reason why such a step would have been taken. Someone decided that, as soon as my order was countermanded, I would have very likely tried to hide the girls.  Actually, they were right – that's what I would have done.  A countermand of a protective custody, without sufficient justification, can mean only one thing.  They miscalculated by thinking I wouldn't have two agents killed and two seriously injured in order to prevent removal."

"Because they don't know what a FitzGerald is like," McMahon said.  "Jesus, you'd have thought they'd have read up about your Pappy."

Séamus continued, "For some reason, it was decided that these girls know too much for the good order of the world.  And someone at my Agency decided that, even if it were explained to me, there was a real danger I wouldn't agree.  They thought four young toughs, acting on new orders, would be a safer bet.  Then I might think harder about my career and my life."

"Would you like to hazard a guess at what the girls know that's so toxic?" asked Grant.

"Not exactly my area of expertise.  But I'm told these thirteen countries are 90% of the world economy while only 50% if its population.  Maybe that other 50% will be able to grab their fair share of the 90%.  After all, we're not exactly in a balanced world, are we?  Maybe it doesn't take much to tip up an overloaded apple cart."

"I'm all for a little social chaos," Grant mused. "Since I provide my own security.  And it would open up a lot more business opportunities for the likes of me.  But what exactly can we do now against the combined firepower of NATO, Russia and China?"

Séamus poured himself another whiskey and water and walked to the fireplace.  "These dot-com billionaires.  Call them the Consortium.  Seems like they already operate outside of any government control.  I suspect our Thirteen Nations learned something they don't want to share because they don't trust the Consortium not to take advantage of it.  Maybe it's some chemical that boosts brainpower enormously and our leaders prefer to keep us stupid.  But it will make gazillions for the Consortium.  We offer the girls to them."

"What if they prove to be as good a host as the Thirteen Nations?" McMahon asked.

"I honestly believe that's the safest place for the girls.  These techies may like money and power but they are driven by their own better-world, ethical principles.  They're the ones who've funded this search for Miss Universe.  You know what they say, 'Don't be evil'?  These guys were hardly killers in high school and I can't see them picking it up since."

"It's true you don't hear of people getting whacked in Silicon Valley," Grant added.  "I'll buy that argument.  But I still can't be confident they want to risk taking the girls.  Suppose you can't even reach these people.  What's your fallback plan?"

Séamus leaned against the fireplace mantel and looked round the room.  It was tastefully furnished in a warm, Edwardian style.  It was strange to think such elegance came from crime.

"I think you know it," he told Grant, "Provided I can have your word on two things.  Then of course I am going to leave it up to the girls to decide.  First thing, they'll always have the right to refuse, and stop work at any time.  Second, as far as you can ensure, they will never be physically or mentally abused."

Grant nodded.  "No problem giving you my word on both of those as that's the way our operation is run always. If they're going to be out of this country, of course not everyone is answerable to me.  But I work only with organizations that share our philosophy. Nothing is ever involuntary.  There's no punishment unless someone goes to the police, steals or becomes violent.  If something bad happens outside our control, we compensate it generously."

"We're like an unlawful army, with all the discipline that entails," McMahon explained. "You can understand that analogy, can't you, Séamus?"

"Where do you suggest?" Séamus asked.

"Let us make inquiries.  First let's get you safely to Holland.  After that, I suspect somewhere warm with beaches and a decent night life.  What do you think?"

"Better than a big city?"

"At least initially – friendlier police relations," McMahon told him.  "And you'd be surprised the high-rollers who fly in and want a top-dollar girl who can give them a good time at the casinos.  Many of these East Europeans never had a classy Asian woman who can speak their language intelligently."  He paused.  "Will you be looking for work yourself?"

"Put it this way," Séamus replied,  "I've got enough cash for about a month, and I don't intend to be anyone's pimp."

"Excellent.  No problem in getting you some security position.  Pay can be pretty good.  Mind you, it is likely to require, shall we say, some of your rougher skills."

Séamus shrugged.  "Beggars can't be choosers."

"Sounds like a deal."  Grant rose.  "Ryan and I will head out now.  You're very well protected here.  When you've made your decision, call me on this phone, which is fully secure and you can keep."  He handed it to Séamus.  "If you accept my terms, I suggest my men take you to Felixstowe soon. We'll get you on a container-ship to The Hague in the morning."  He stepped closer to Séamus.  "There are few men I would trust with such an arrangement, Mr FitzGerald.  I'm doing it partly because of Ryan's knowledge of your family, partly because I like what I see about you, and partly because there's a high chance of a good payoff and some chance of an outstanding payoff.  But you know I would also not be doing this unless I was sure in my mind that you understand the consequences of breaking my rules."

Séamus looked him in the eye.  "It's either you or some government-paid psychopaths.  But above all, I'm my own worst enemy."

Grant smiled. "Well, you have one less enemy tonight. Ed Allsop will be accompanying you to the port."  At Séamus's surprised look he added, "No need to worry.  When Ed learned what you did tonight, he felt he got off lightly.  I assure you there are no hard feelings on his side and – given his somewhat anti-government sentiments – quite a lot of respect."

"I'll take your word for it."

Grant shook his hand, patted his arm, wished him luck and left the room.  McMahon followed him, waving a hand at Séamus, grinning and advising him to stay alive.

Séamus fetched the girls from upstairs.  They sat in the large armchairs, looking somewhat overwhelmed.  He explained the deal he had made with Grant. He felt he had to make reference to the Consortium, saying it was a private business that shared their results with the government, and who might have an interest in hiring the girls which could be worth exploring, if he could ensure their safety.  He avoided any details of how the government or Consortium would use their number language.

After some ten minutes he fell silent.  Alice was the first to respond, sounding distressed.

"Séamus, that sounds terrible!  How can we possible trade these girls into such a business?  Didn't we already rescued them from crime?"

There was a silence.  Both Séamus and Alice looked at the girls, but none of them seemed to connect their gaze.  Finally, after the pause was painfully long, Chrissy spoke up.

"Alice, we know you mean well, and you have a good heart. But if you spent a while thinking about it, you might realize how thoughtless your remark was."

There was a very faint murmur from the other girls, as if providing moral support to Chrissy.  She continued, "All of us knew what we were doing back in our home countries. We did it because it was the fastest way to earn money to help our families.  Instead, we could have chosen to work in factories for five dollars a day, in which case we would have been able to buy our families aspirin to ease their pain. If there's an evil in this world, it's not the opportunity we had to make good money.  It's the fact that all so-called honest jobs back home don't make enough to buy medicine when our families get sick.  So as far as we were concerned, we were not traded.  We just chose to so something tough because we felt a duty."

"Chrissy," Alice said in what she obviously meant to be a kind voice, "I was not criticizing you.  You are the victims."

"We're not victims!"  Phyllis said loudly.  "Yes, I was the victim of my uncle's rape, but after that I knew how to take care of myself."

"Alice," Jenny said, her voice pleading.  "You have to give us some dignity here.  We're actually all quite proud of what we did.  We were the breadwinners in our families.  Of course there is unpleasantness sometimes.  But in my book it's much better than going down a mineshaft every day.  And whenever you turn on a hot shower in much of Asia, you're sending someone down a mineshaft to supply your energy.  So the world is full of people who get abused and people who create the abuse.  In our case, we all believe we made the right decision before, and we're the ones who are free to make it now."

"Anyway, the job you got for us would have had us burnt to death if Séamus hadn't saved us," Tina added.  "Who are you to say that Séamus got us a bad deal?  Actually, I certainly don't know yet if I want to risk going to this Consortium, which could have the same fate planned for us.  For the time being I'm just comfortable with a well-organized gang."

Séamus wondered if the girls were somehow protecting him, but he didn't have a way to measure that.  They had seemed hard on Alice, but it was impossible not to side with them – it was they who had suffered that kind of life before, after all.  They sounded very supportive of his deal with Grant, so he felt he could side-step Alice's objection.  Should the girls' viewpoint seem so alien to her?  The conflict was, as far as he could see it, that the girls seemed to feel they were in full control of their own lives, and Alice could not accept that they were.  Is any sense of control an illusion?  Even if we think we are willingly accepting the seduction?  Now he knew enough at least to ask that question.

"Girls," Séamus said.  "Would you mind if I spent a few moments with Alice alone?"  When they had returned to their bedrooms he said to Alice, "I'm afraid I just don't see any alternative.  None of us have the money to otherwise survive in hiding, let alone pay for our escape from here.  And we need to give Grant an incentive to keep us alive."

She nodded.  "I know you're right.  And I know Tina's right – it must now look like a better option than what we offered them.  I don't think I can ever lose my sense of guilt about that.  But it's so hard to be a woman telling them that this is their best option.  I can't tell you how much of a total failure as a human being that makes me feel. And these girls are so talented!  Séamus, how did everything fall apart so quickly?"  Alice buried her face in her hands.  He realized that, among the six of them, she was the one wholly unprepared for events to turn so suddenly and violently downwards.  Or was there something else, too?

"One practical question," he said slowly.  "Do you believe that Grant will stick to his word?  In other words, protect them from violence as much as he can, and keep them free to choose?"

Alice lifted her face from her hands.  She had been silently crying, but now her face was calm.  "Yes, Grant will stick to his words.  He loves his code of honor.  It makes him the Genghis Khan of Northern England."

"You said before that you didn't know him," Séamus said softly.  "What's the story?"

"Can you hug me a little?"  she asked.  Séamus moved to her sofa and she leaned against him.  "Mum accidently killed Dad.  They were fighting and something went terribly wrong.  I told her not to worry about any murder or manslaughter charge; that the evidence was very much in her favor.  But she was too scared.  She went to Grant to clean it all up, and he did.  Mum was never charged with anything.  But now my family owes Grant for a long time.  Both she and I have to help him with alibis and, in my case, some blocking of police surveillance.  It was I who told him about the girls, so that created the Allsop problem.  Grant just wasn't prepared to fully accept my version of things.  Maybe he trusted me to be truthful, but he couldn't be sure that you were not using me and the girls for other purposes.  He's really paranoid, which is what scares me."