Invasion!--Revolution: Alliances

[weatherwax]

The patia security officers grow increasingly agitated at Maria's comment. One of them projects concentration that slowly turns to confusion.

Lars isn't answering, he says to his colleague. Miss, stay here.

They go off into the crowd.

We don't really have time for this, Gil says. All three of you, will you follow me, please? The meeting is about to begin.

He beckons to Jason, Maria and Cecil, then walks out into the crowd, toward one of the many portals to the left of the med tent.

***

The security officers blasted by Fleur are slowly coming out of their befuddlement. Terrell shakes his head at Tim and Richard, and, grumbling, heads toward the same portal as Gil.

Are you coming? he says grumpily.

[AlternateTorg]

María feels a twinge of suspicion. Is Gil really one of the good guys? she wonders, cautiously concealing her thoughts behind her mental portcullis. She really doesn't have any way to know for sure. After a moment's hesitation, she decides to stick with him for now, so she carefully looks around to ensure that no guards are watching, then slips out of the tent and hurries to catch up to Gil. She'll go to this meeting, but she intends to pry some answers out of him along the way. Who were those two, Fluer and Glory? she asks him. Fleur said something about turning me over to slavers. She listens as Gil fills her in on what he told Cecil while she was unconscious.

If you knew the market was used as a hunting ground by the slavers, why did you let us wander freely there? she queries when he finishes. It could have ended very badly for me back there. She carefully modulates her tone, intending to come across as violated and hurt--which isn't much of a stretch. If there's anything María's mother taught her, it's that you're never unarmed when you can make someone feel guilty. Maybe that guilt can extract some answers from the patia. Moreover, she plans on discreetly checking what her codex has to say about slavers. Not that I have any reason to believe that it's any more trustworthy than anyone else here... she muses.

[CCC]

Pardon me, says Cecil to whoever's nearby and seems likely to remain, could you please tell those security people which way we went when they get back? We have some urgent business that will not wait. To this projection, he attaches both the idea of the portal, in the short term, and of a meeting with the Head, in the medium term, though he mentions nothing of the subject of that meeting. That should be enough for the security staff to find them again.

Then he follows Gil through the portal.

[Ruan]

Tom gives Richard an gimlet eye, then nods toward the way that Gil and the others went, following along himself.

[balthazar]

Jason follows Gil, but he's not happy about it.

I'm not happy about this.