rojectors bought and bundled, and they were sitting in a warehouse on Draconis waiting for shipment.

So what he had to do was get them all onto Earth, and then sneak them into the preserve one at a time. And for that, he was going to need some warehouse space.

That was what this trip was about. He'd just gotten another royalty payment and could now afford to rent a warehouse, but before he could do that, he had to make sure he could get out of the preserve safely, and that he could get past the Faey.

It was going to feel odd walking around in Faey territory. They were going to New Myrthan, Ohio, a mid-sized town near a large tract of farmland. New Myrthan was carefully chosen for this because of three things: it was a good-sized town, it was a large hub for cargo and commercial traffic, and it was located only four miles from the border. Food and farm equipment were ferried in and out of New Myrthan en route to either Draconis or the farms, so there was always commercial traffic. That meant that the town had warehouse space, and since there were no food shipments right now, it also meant that some of that warehouse space was empty and available. The town had a population of about 65,000, so Jason had lots of people around to help hide him, and it wouldn't look very odd to the Faey for them to see him and Temika rumbling around in an old truck; there were lots of old trucks around, many of them used on the farms. Two more farmhands in an old truck weren't going to attract attention, even at this time of year. Planting season was over, but the farms were still hotbeds of activity preparing for the spring planting, building expansions and new buildings, and basically engaging the farm workers not shipped to the southern hemisphere in busy work to keep them from getting idle, bored, and therefore unruly.

Jason leaned back in his seat and looked at his ID cards one more time, going through everything in his mind. The IDs stated that his name was Kevin Smith, a nice unassuming name. Miaari had included eight separate IDs in her little case, in two sets of four IDs in different names. This set was Kevin Smith, but there was another set that gave his name as Jack Brewer. The IDs had a resettable photo element, allowing him to download a holo of himself into the picture area, which projected a three dimensional image of his head into the air over the ID when activated, and displayed a two dimensional photo of him when not activated.

Right now, that photo was of a young man with green eyes and short coal black hair.

It still felt weird, his hair being so short, but Symone laughed at him for him cutting off all his hair, laughing at his vanity. His shirt and hair had been his only true vanities... besides, his shoulder-length hair helped keep his neck warm. But it was mandatory that he change his appearance, so he had done so.

Two of the IDs were duplicates of the main ID that everyone had, the Native Identification Card, though some people used an ID stick instead of a card, such as students, people who might have to slot a stick to use a piece of equipment. The other two cards in those sets were work IDs, both the same occupation. Both Kevin Smith's and Jack Brewer's cards identified him as a contractor, with a special annotation on the IDs that also marked him as owning his own business. Some humans still did own their own businesses, if it was a business that fulfilled a need that Faey technology or manpower didn't provide. A contractor was still a viable occupation in the Faey-dominated modern society, because people's houses needed to be fixed, and Faey construction specialists wouldn't demean themselves to the point of working on something as primitive as a house built before the subjugation. They let the humans fix the human things, and that would give a contractor a niche in society that would protect his business from takeover by Trillane and protect him from involuntary reassignment to a farm.

Clever, clever Miaari. Tagging him as a business owner would make him looking for warehouse space not be unusual enough to attract attention, especially for a contractor, who needed space to store materials and equipment.

"Does it have to be so damn cold?" Temika complained, pulling her hood up over her head more tightly. "Can't we turn on the heater?"

"This isn't cold."

"Ah'm from _Alabama_, sugah," she said in a bristling tone. "Trust me, this is _cold_."

"Don't ever move to Maine," he hummed.

"Ah ain't plannin' on it, sugah." She shivered and burrowed into her coat more. "We shouldn't have got heah so fast. Shit, even mah _teeth_ are cold. Can't we send?"

"This close to the border? Think, woman," he answered mildly. "You want this to be over before we even try to get through that hole in the fence? Now stop complaining and keep timing the guards."

"They been going by every four minutes on the dot, sugah, for over an hour," she told him. "You got the creds out?"

Jason held up four bright red bills, 100 credits of hard currency in four 25 credit notes, money made of a soft, flexible plastic that was pliable as paper yet much more durable, and nearly impossible to counterfeit. Jason wasn't used to seeing hard currency, for his ID had also worked as a credit card, allowing him to use his money. Temika had told him a while ago that getting over the border wasn't that hard, because in some places the fence and sensors were broken, and all up and down the frontier there were certain guards that would allow people to cross it... for a price. This was one of those places. There was a pair of guards that patrolled this area of the fence that were going to just let them drive through and on to New Myrthan for 100 credits. They would wait until the patrol was visible, advance to the hole and creep through as they reached it. Jason would roll down the window and give them the money, and then both them and the guards would go on their merry way. That particular patrol passed by where they were every four minutes, walking back and forth along the fence on a well-worn footpath. Just beyond that footpath was a grassy strip about twenty feed wide, and beyond that was fallow farmland, all of which sat in a low and wide valley with a medium-sized stream running through the middle. The terrain around New Myrthan was still considered hilly, but the hills were low and gentle, and the earth flattened out considerably only about 20 miles from New Myrthan, the edge of the great plain that sat between the Appalachians and the Rockies.

The hole in the fence was just an example of Faey laxity concerning the security of the Frontier. It was a huge, gaping hole, big enough for Luke to drive his deuce through, and blatantly visible... but _only_ if one was standing at the edge of the grassy strip and looked down. From the farmland, the hole wasn't visible, and he'd bet that no farm worker was allowed to get close enough to the fence to see it. The fence was at the edge of the forest, and the unique positioning of the hole in the bottom of a shallow gulley made it very hard to see from the air, because of the overhanging trees and a heavy growth of brown vines entwining the top of the fence, which dangled down into the hole. The location of the hole was ideal for it remaining secret, and he'd bet that the guards that knew about the hole wanted it kept that way, because they were making some money out of this. The only thing that could possibly reveal the hole would be vehicle tire tracks, but the edge of the fence was lined with gravel. When Jason got the truck through the hole, he was supposed to immediately turn left and follow the fenceline for about 50 yards or so and get on U.S. 35, and simply drive right on up the road to New Myrthan.

Jason and Temika weren't the only people waiting to use the hole. There was another truck behind them, about fifty yards back, sitting up on old Route 23, that had arrived about ten minutes ago. They started advancing at first, but when their headlights hit the back of Jason's truck, they immediately stopped and backed up, then one of their number got out of the truck and advanced with a rifle in his hands. Temika was the one to get out and go meet him, and when she came back she simply said it was another group of squatters waiting for curfew to end so they could sneak into New Myrthan.

This hole was relatively well known on the squatter side, so much so that their fees for allowing people to cross the border were known by most in the region. It was 25 credits a head for anyone on foot or on a bicycle, or 100 credits for a vehicle, for anyone crossing the border. All the guards who worked this part of the fence were in on the scam as well, so no matter who was guarding the fence, it was someone that was going to let one through.

"What time is it?" Temika asked.

"It's five minutes since the last time you asked," he answered her.

She groaned. "Can we _please_ turn on the heatah?"

"Just deal with it, sheesh," he grunted, putting the credits back on the seat between them. "It won't be much longer. Ten more minutes for curfew to be up, and we have to save gas. It has to get us home."

"Ah know, but Ah hate bein' cold when Ah got a heatah right heah in front of me," she grumbled. "Jason."

"Yeah?"

"What you gonna do about Kate? Ah mean, any woman with eyes can see that Kate likes you, and she's trying tah get over bein' shy and all, but Symone might get jealous or somethin'."

Jason chuckled. "You really don't understand Symone, do you?" he asked, looking over at her. "Symone would be overjoyed if I got into a relationship with Kate, at least as long as I didn't think it was permanent. And Symone says that you've been avoiding her."

She blushed slightly, obviously remembering walking in on them a few days ago, when Symone laid down the law on her. "Yeah, well, Ah knew that you and her fooled around behind Tim's back, but Ah nevah-"

"No, we don't," he interrupted. "Faey are very different from us, Mika. Jyslin is Symone's best friend, and Jyslin isn't here. Since Jyslin isn't here, Symone thinks it's her duty to watch out for me, and keep me happy since I'm not with Jyslin. That means that she'll prevent me from getting into any relationship that might jeopardize my commitment to Jyslin, but it also means that she'll be there to take Jyslin's place in certain aspects of my relationship with Jyslin. As a telepath, Mika, I'm sure you understand why the Faey completely separate the concept of making love from the concept of having sex."

"Actually, no, Ah don't understand it."

"Okay, that explains a lot of it right there," he told her. "Faey consider making love to be joining the minds in telepathic union during sex. Having sex is just the _physical _aspect of it, Mika. I've experienced both sides of it, making love with Jyslin and having sex with Symone, and trust me, there is a _huge huge _difference between the two. That's why Faey are so casual about the idea of sex. Sex without telepathic union is just physical, just for physical pleasure. Yeah, I've enjoyed it the _two times_ I've had sex with Symone, I won't deny that, but she knows I never feel comfortable about it. That's why she's been looking for another woman to replace her, someone that's _not _my best friend's girl. She'll push Kate on me until she thinks Kate is a threat to my relationship with Jyslin, then she'll try to separate us."

"Ah know, but Ah just can't get over it," she grunted.

"She was trying to push _you_ on me," he said deliberately. "She thought you'd be the perfect woman for it, since neither of us would think a relationship would be permanent, and she thinks it's something of a scandal that you don't have a boyfriend."

"She needs tah keep her nose out of mah business," Temika grunted.

"Dream on," Jason chuckled. "Symone's a born busybody. She'll nag at you 'til you give in, cause she thinks you'll be happier. She told me that she has a new guy in mind for you."

"Mike, Ah'll bet," she snorted. "She's already mentioned his name like ten times. Mike's cute and all, and he's got a hot bod, but Ah just ain't ready for thinking about a man right yet." She looked at him. "Ah thought that was some kinda ploy tah make me get with _you_."

"Nope," he told her. "She meant what she said, Mika. You really pissed her off, I think you should know that."

"_Ah_ pissed _her_ off?" she said with sudden heat. "What the fuck did _Ah_ do?"

"Nothing, and that's what pissed her off," Jason chuckled. "She was really working hard to get you interested in me, because she hated seeing you alone, and she thought that you finding a boyfriend would help you deal with your thing about being touched. She thought you were being stubborn on purpose, but now I think she knows it's just because I'm not your type."

"Well, Ah have tah say, I _do_ think you're cute, sugah, and you're sexy," she admitted with a blush. "But you're mah _friend_. Ah never really thought it a good idea tah think of you that way, cause Ah was afraid it might ruin what we already got if we got together and got into a fight or some shit like that."

"Symone will not understand that at all," Jason chuckled. "In her eyes, the fact that we're friends would make it that much more logical for us to sleep together. It's all about point of view, I suppose. She sees sex about the same way you'd see giving someone a backrub. It's something you don't do for a stranger, but wouldn't mind at all doing for a friend."

"And you have the same problem as me," she reasoned. "That's why you don't feel all that comfortable screwin' Symone. She's a _friend_."

"Actually, my issue isn't Symone, it's Tim," he answered honestly. "Tim knows about what Symone does, because she _tells_ him. He told me he's alright with it, hell, he understands Symone way better than we do, but regardless of that, it just doesn't sit completely right with me. Symone's trying to break me of that," he told her. "She told me she wants me so I'm totally at ease with having sex with her, and I'd _better_ be at ease about the idea of Tim having sex with Jyslin."

"Ohmahgawd!" Temika gasped. "She said _that_?"

He nodded. "Now maybe you'll understand her point of view a little better, Mika. Symone has no qualms about having sex with her best friend's boyfriend, just as much as she doesn't have qualms about letting _her_ boyfriend have sex with _her_ best friend. To Symone, it's _just sex_. It's no big deal, it's just two friends having fun together. But, on the other side of that, it's not something that she'd do just on a whim. She only wants to have sex with me because Jyslin isn't here, that I'm cut off from the physical pleasure that my relationship with Jyslin provided. If Jyslin were here, she wouldn't be propositioning me, because she'd have no reason to. And if it was Jyslin here instead of me, she'd _expect_ Tim to be offering the same comfort that Symone offers me. In fact, she'd _demand _it. Jyslin and Symone are best friends, and in Faey society, there's a certain amount of sharing that goes on between best friends. Including boyfriends, but only when there's a _reason _to share."

Temika was quiet a moment. "Ah guess Ah really didn't understand all that well," she said. "Ah thought Symone was just bein' a slut, bangin' you behind Tim's back, but Ah see she wasn't."

"Not at all," Jason nodded. "She's just trying to be a friend in the only way she knows how. That's why she was trying to hook us up, and why she's now trying to get you interested in Mike. She loves you as a friend, Mika, and she wants you to be happy. And she's not going to stop until you _are_ happy, even if you think you're _already_ happy. To Symone, happiness is someone special in your life. So just give in," he chuckled. "Find a guy you like, and see where it takes you. You really have nothing to lose. Do you like Mike?"

"Well, yeah," she said uncertainly. "He's handsome, and he's funny, and he's kinda shy around me, which Ah think Ah like, and Ah think he's attracted tah me. But Ah think about touchin' him, and Ah get all weak in mah knees."

"Things are different now, Mika," he told her. "_You're_ the one in control now. You don't have to be afraid of anyone in the community, not even Symone. You know she'd never hurt you. She loves you."

She stared at him.

"That's all it is, Mika. When the Faey probed you, you developed a phobia about being touched because of it. You're afraid of being touched because you're afraid that it'll happen again, cause the mindbender put her hands on you. But it _won't_ happen again. You're a telepath now too, you can fight back now. Don't deny yourself _everything_ because of _one_ thing."

"How do you know that?"

"Back when I first met you, the first time we touched, it just _screamed_ at me, so strong I couldn't block it out," he answered her honestly. "Symone knows too, but Tim doesn't, because you've made a hell of a lot of progress since then."

"Ah, Ah don't know what tah say."

"Don't say anything. Just _think_ about it for a while. It's not something you can just shed immediately, it's going to take you time. But if you understand _why_ you're afraid, maybe it'll help you beat it."

"Ah... Ah will. Ah promise."

Temika fell silent as she evidently began thinking about what he said, and time inexorably passed. Jason kept checking his watch ever few seconds, and after ten minutes had passed and curfew was officially lifted, Jason started the truck and crawled forward, as the truck some distance behind them began to advance slowly as well. "Remember your training," Jason said quietly to Temika. "False front. These guards won't be Symone, and they _will_ try to listen to us. Got your false front ready?"

"Yeah."

"Then do it, and block yourself completely so you don't hear them send," he told her as he erected his own deceiving array of random, completely innocuous thoughts, the thoughts of a human with no talent.

"Ah hate the idea of not hearin' what they sayin'."

"Me too, but we can't react to any sendings, or we're hosed."

They waited about a minute, and the two guards came into view on the driver's side of the truck, trudging up on the rise. They diverted down into the shallow gulley when they saw the truck, and Jason rolled down his window as they approached, one on either side of the truck. Temika gave him a nervous look, but he simply stared at her calmly a moment before turning to look at the armored, helmeted guard.

"Show me some red," she demanded in accented English, a voice sounding a bit tinny from behind her helmet.

Jason held up the credits for her to see. She pulled them out of his hand and counted them quickly, then nodded to her companion on the other side.

"I ain't never seen you before, so listen up. No lights 'til you get up to the first curve, that's where the first farm's driveway is," she told him. "There's lots of old vehicles crawling the streets that're used on farms, so nobody'll pull you over for not having license on your truck. There ain't no old-style fuel stations in town, so you'd better not run out, and I suggest you just park that thing and walk or take a tram or cab anywhere you want to go before someone notices the exhaust. Park only at blue curbs, and if you get caught, you won't live to be sent to Columbus. Understand?"

"Perfectly," Jason said in a steady tone. "When is evening curfew?"

"Nine," she answered.

"That's all I needed to know. Thank you."

"Just remember what I said, and for Trelle's sake, keep your head down," the guard told him. "As long as you don't do anything to draw attention to yourself, you can get in and out without trouble."

"I'll remember," he said as he quite deliberately began rolling up his window.

The guard put the money in a small case on her belt as Jason crawled the truck ahead, then turned sharply left and slowly followed the gravel path up to the road.

"That was nervous," Temika said with an explosive sigh as Jason pulled back up onto the road.

"That wasn't bad at all," he said. "Neither of them even _tried_ to probe us, they probably just eavesdropped."

"How do you stay so fuckin' _calm_?" Temika asked.

"I learned how to cope with fear in my martial arts training. Trust me, I found that just as nervous as you did, but I've been taught how to not let it _show_."

"Teach me, sugah!" she laughed.

                                        * * *

New Myrthan was a new town, built about ten miles north of Chillicothe, built out where the hills were very low and gentle, where the ground was much flatter and fertile enough to make it prime farmland. That farmland was now lying dormant, waiting for spring, but the town was still bustling with activity. Dropships and smaller cargo vessels were crowded in the skies overhead as they delivered or picked up equipment, personnel, and supplies. People scurried about in town, most of them humans wearing worn but functional clothing, and more than enough armored Faey guards to keep those farmers from getting any ideas. There was at least a pair of guards literally on every street corner, wearing the camouflaged armor that marked them as soldiers of House Trillane. They had MPAC rifles slung over their shoulders, and most of them weren't wearing their helmets but had them with them, slinging them over their rifles instead. The town had wide streets and buildings built by the Faey, not by humans, buildings that were made of a plastic-concrete polymer that was very thin, but also very strong and surprisingly flexible. Most of the buildings of New Myrthan were devoted to the farming trade, being storehouses, barns, warehouses, and shops and businesses that dealt with farming and farming equipment. Interspersed among those larger commercial buildings were modest houses, houses inhabited by Faey more than by humans. Faey soldiers patrolled the streets, and quite a few Faey wearing both utility clothing and stylish apparel made their way along clean streets and well-maintained sidewalks in the town.

It was apparent very quickly to Jason and Temika that this was a _Faey_ city, not a _human_ city. Most of the businesses were owned by Faey and dealt with Trillane, supplying materials or supplies, and that put many more Faey on the streets here than in New Orleans, the only reference Jason had to compare. The humans here looked nervous and afraid, rushing about their business, no doubt feeling quite uncomfortable being surrounded by Faey. From what Jason had seen, the population was almost equally split between human and Faey.

But they weren't the _only_ races here. Not long after sunrise, after Jason and Temika had parked their truck in a lot at the edge of town and walked in they had come around a corner and found themselves staring face to face with a creature that was most certainly _alien_. At least the Faey were almost completely human-like in appearance, with only their ears and blue skin marking them as not human... but this, this was _not humanoid_. It looked like a six foot tall preying mantis with a mottled brown carapace, and two sets of legs supporting that body. Two sets of arms were on a lengthened chest section, the upper arms ending in wicked natural blades, almost like scythe blades fused to the bases of its wrists, the lower set ending in three-fingered hands. The head was most definitely insectoid, with compound eyes and sharp, dangerous-looking mandibles. It had large wings folded onto its back, and there was a small machine of some sort strapped to its chest. There were two more that looked just like it just behind the first, but they were half a foot bigger and had no wings.

Jason almost walked into it, because he was looking at a hovercar going by as he came around the corner. Temika's scream of alarm was his only warning as he looked ahead, then came to an instant stop and took a step back in surprise. He felt an aura of heat emanate from the creature, and he realized that that was what the machine on its chest was doing, generating heat.

It was a _kizzik_, one of the seven races of the Imperium. Jason remembered reading about them. They were insectoid, and though the vast majority of the race was stupid, the nobles, almost their own sub-species within the species, were quite intelligent. He remembered reading that they rarely left their homeworld, which was a desert planet; in fact, the _drones_, those dumb kizzik, were actively not allowed to leave their homeworld unless accompanied by a noble who could control them. He did recall that these creatures had no sense of hearing whatsoever, they could only detect vibrations through hairs on their legs and bristles on their forearms, but it wasn't nearly sensitive enough for them to discern complicated sound patterns like speech. It was used more for detecting vibrations in the ground. They relied on a sign language to communicate with those outside their species; they used _scents_ to communicate within their own species, a pheromone language that was supposedly as complex as any spoken language.

The one directly in front of him, that one was a noble... only nobles had wings. The two behind it, those were drones, nothing but workers or soldiers, stupid as rocks but completely under the noble's control.

"She begs pardon," a voice called from behind her. A male Faey wearing black trousers of some sleek, shiny material and a thigh-length red coat with his hood pulled up to hide his hair, said as he came around the three insectoids. "She didn't mean to frighten you."

"Uh, that's okay, really," Jason said unsteadily, looking into the creature's eyes. "It was my fault, I wasn't looking where I was going."

Jason stared into those compound eyes for a moment, then shuffled a wide berth around the three creatures and went quickly on his way.

"Did you see that thang?" Temika breathed quietly as they scurried away, past two bored-looking Faey guards on a corner. They paused to make sure they had the light, then crossed the street.

"It's a kizzik," Jason told her. "The one in front was a noble. The other two were just drones."

"What does that mean?"

Jason explained it to her as they stopped at a small coffee shop, filled almost entirely with Faey, outside of the two human clerks behind the counter. Jason took note at the offended looks when he motioned for Temika to sit at a table near the door, then bought them both a cup of coffee. "I remember reading about them," he told her. "The nobles are smart, and the drones are dumb. They rarely leave their home planet."

Temika looked around. "This a good idea?" she asked quietly in French.

Jason blinked. He'd completely forgotten that Temika could speak French, and her talking about it flooded back to him as he heard those words. She was a bayou girl, and they spoke French down in the swamps and bayous of Louisiana and Alabama, either active parts or remnants of the old Cajun culture. Much as he had learned French from his mother, Temika had learned it from her mother and grandmother. Jason silently reminded himself to warn Kiaari about that. "We paid our money, we have as much right to sit here as anyone else," he shrugged, replying in French.

"Yeah, but that's pushing it, Jayce," she told him. "We aren't supposed to be making a fuss."

"I know, but what else are we going to do?" he asked. "It's not even six yet, and nothing's open. I don't want to walk the streets waiting for the bank to open."

"You have that list that Clem gave you?"

He nodded, patting his jacket pocket. "I don't think we're going to find all of it here, but we'll see."

"Excuse me, what language is that?" a voice asked in accented English. Jason looked up and saw a male Faey, tall and willowy, holding his heavy coat over his arm. He had thick blue hair, like the sky, which was almost the same color as his skin. His light skin was a sign that he rarely saw much sun, most Faey were much darker.

"French, sugah," Temika answered, putting a light smile on her face.

"It's a beautiful language," he told them. "Almost musical."

"Ah think so too," she told him. "Ain't many around these parts that speak it."

"Yes, that's why I've never heard it before. Are you from, uh, _French_?"

"France, sugah, and no, Ah ain't," she answered. "We speak French and English where Ah come from, but not much of French no more."

"It's certainly not here, you have the most darling accent on your English," he smiled. "Where is it from?"

"South, sugah. _Way_ south."

"Ah. Well, thank you for the information. Good morning." The Faey male wandered to another table and sat down, and began chatting with two women.

"Nicely done," Jason said in French with a slight smile.

"Boy, that was nervous," she said with a slight titter.

"But you handled it well. Congratulations, you're gonna do just fine."

They lingered in the coffee shop, eating breakfast and listening to the Faey chatter... which actually wasn't much, given they were sending as well, and both Jason and Temika had themselves blocked out so they couldn't hear. After about two hours, they left the coffee shop and got down to business, that being completing the shopping and looking over warehouses to find something suitable. The first thing they did, though, was go to the bank. There was really only one bank on Earth, the Bank of Trillane, the house bank that was controlled by Trillane. Earth institutions still existed, but they were all controlled by the house bank, so though there was still Columbus Regent Bank and First Federal and Chillicothe Savings, they were all just different names for the same institution. According to the note that had been in the case with the IDs, both identities had bank accounts with Trillane's bank, which could be accessed through any bank on Earth. Usually, Jason could just transfer funds to these accounts using his panel, but what he had was hard currency, and that required him to deposit it in person.

The process was quicker and easier than he'd expected. He simply walked in, waited in line for 5 minutes until it was his turn at the teller window, said he had hard currency to deposit into his account, and handed it over. They deposited it, and that was that, no signatures, no ID scans for veracity... because they didn't care who put money _into_ an account, only who took it _out_.

He deposited 700 credits into that identity's account, if only to give them some spending money that they could use without raising eyebrows using hard curren