Annie LXXVII: Elementary

(Chronological index: New World Order #16)

"Say what you like, Denise," Pet said wearily.

"I think you should put me with the other salamanders," she replied. Annie and Pet sighed.

They moved closer to Denise and hugged her. That wasn't the problem. She never doubted they loved her. She just didn't want them to start to resent her.

She sat perfectly still until Pet repeated the command. "Say what you like, Denise."

"I'm starting to be a burden and it's only been three days and I don't worry that you don't love me but this is going to get to be a horrible...." She stopped.

While she was talking she was free to move so she grabbed her sisters and pulled them close. The command only allowed her one sentence or a few seconds of 'freedom' until it overbore and returned her to quiet docility.

They'd tried everything. They commanded her to be normal, they tried emancipating verbiage, they'd borrowed from Pratchett and told her make her own commands... Nothing worked.

The salamanders were all docile, obedient and very boring to be around.

They had hopes that Ray would think of something but he was in a Raleigh jail for two homicides.

He'd hired a lawyer who said, "The difficulty is going to be motive. If you'd killed a man to keep him from raping or burning your wife, or right after they did, they wouldn't likely prosecute. But you killed two men for a sylph. I can't understand that and neither will any sane jury."

Ray had broken the table and Samantha had promised to find him a more sylph-friendly lawyer. Preferably before another altercation with the correction officers.

The cops had arrived at Chester's house shortly after neighbors reported the car crash. When they asked 'What happened?' every blue-haired sylph had been more than willing to describe everything that had ever happened to them.

Special Agent Dionne Trace had arrived, on the heels of Ray's 'gray area' clue. She'd heard the initial reports and classified everything as vital to national interests.

She convinced the police that if gold or other crucial elements could be made out of garbage, the gold standard would plummet, taking the economy with it. She'd gotten as far as 'ten dollars a gallon of gas...IF you can find gas,' when they'd agreed to keep quiet.

The agent had collected the fifty five salamanders discovered on the site, and the two sylphs and took them to an FBI safe house. She tried to get Ray, too, but they were adamant about keeping possible murderers in custody.

So the non-felon Fosters were in the safe house bedroom number three. The other salamanders were in one and two. Dionne shared the Foster's bedroom at their insistence. Two agents from the Raleigh office used sofas in the living room.

Dionne's report to her superiors made it to the President's desk. He officially directed the Anthonys to find out what was going on. Any development of the advantages of using salamanders for intelligence, counter intelligence or crucial resources would be welcomed.

And, also, of course, any information that might help find and prosecute these alchemists, if they were real.

Amelia rolled her eyes and started picking names of experts in law, biology, physics and manufacturing.

They also got some people with clearances to take care of the salamanders. They were helpless to even go to the bathroom by themselves.

The FBI had found the schedule Chester had developed. Caretakers took turns telling everyone in their room to eat, drink, go to the restroom, bathe, sleep and change clothing.

Annie and Pet were adamant that they could save Denise from such a fate.

Out in the world, progress was being made on behalf of the Undersized Americans, as the collected scales of non-humans were being referred to.

Thirty years of legal proceedings and inheritance and sales were a big obstacle to admitting that the sylphed were still humans.

That and the public was pretty pissed to find out how many of their leaders had been involved in blood-sports. They were not at all supportive of those sylphed bastards getting their rights back.

The President announced the Offscaled Registration Effort. Whatever the possible future disposition of sylphs, and gnomes and undines, they had to get a handle on exactly how many of them there were.

Where they were living, what size they were, and who thought they owned them.

And while it was kind of exciting to think that freedom and citizenship were around the corner, the Fosters were only concerned about each other right now.

"Say what you like, Denise," Annie said.

"You guys should concentrate on Ray right now and leave me with the others."

Annie and Pet looked at each other. Annie took Denise's head in two hands and stared into her eyes.

"Denise. When I went down a drain spout for Pet, and you heard about it, you thought it showed I loved Pet. You risked psychoses for Mia and I thought it meant that you loved me. You extended the umbrella of matrimony to the two of us, because you love us.

"Let us decide how much of a burden you are, okay?" She held the gaze for a few moments. Pet took Denny's hand and squeezed it. "Say what you like, Denise," Annie said.

Denise just burst into tears.

Hours later, they'd worked their way through a shower and dinner, a few questions Denise had about Ray's defense, and were ready for bed. The carrier was on the nightstand by Dionne's bed. They were curled up together like a pile of tiny, leggy puppies.

"Denise," Pet said. "I order you to dream about Daddy. Maybe he can help you."

"That's a good idea, Pet," Annie said. "But too... How about this? Denise, I want you to go to sleep, and be open to any communication from the ghosts. Say what you like, Denise."

She squeezed their hands and said, "Thank you."

-------

She was in the attic of Ray's parents' house. There was stuff that needed sorting. She was trying to dig her way through the junk to get to a window. If she could open the shade she might get some light inside.

She wasn't making a completely clear path, just moving stuff where there was room. Half of it just ended up going from in front of her to behind her, so when the phone rang she had to work almost as hard to get back out.

"I'm coming!" she assured the caller. The phone kept ringing and ringing. She finally stormed out of the storage room and towards Raymond's old room. She knew there was a payphone in there.

Annie and Pet were sleeping on Ray's old bed. The payphone was on the wall behind them. She didn't pause but knelt on the bed, touching her wives.

They were warm and cozy and wrapped their arms around her as she grabbed the phone. She wanted nothing more than to just sink down in their hugs and wait for Ray to come wake them all up.

But Raymond was grounded right now so he wasn't coming.

Her voice caught as she said, "Hello?" The line was static-filled. Crunching and crackling surges blocked whoever was trying to talk to her.

"Hello?" Someone may have been calling her name. "The connection's horrible at this end. Can you hear me?"

"Here," Annie said. She held a hand out and Denise gave her the phone. "Denise can't come to the phone at the moment, can we help?" She paused and listened. Denise sank down between the other two.

"It is Dad," Pet said. "He's been trying to get ahold of you."

"What's the problem?" Annie asked into the phone.

"He says," Pet replied, "that whatever was done to you is acting as a jammer. They can't reach you. They can't even find you."

"But they found me," Denise protested. "They guided you guys to me."

"But you guided us to fuckwit's house," Annie said into the phone.

"Nope," Pet said. "That was a Living Fosters Only party. He says we have a connection that they aren't part of."

"Well, what do we do, now?" Denise asked. Annie relayed the question. Pet was silent. "Oh. Well, thanks," Denise said.

She sank down to the mattress. Annie dropped the phone and the two cuddled her close. She thought she saw movement at the window, but when she raised her head to look, Ray's old room was gone.

Dee rolled over on the giant bed. Nothing else was happening. Denise lay back down and went to sleep.

-------------

"Say what you like for an hour, Denise," Pet said.

"I don't think that'll work, Pet, but thanks for trying to find a way to free..." Pet's shoulders slumped as Denise ground to a stop.

"Maybe," Annie started to say. Pet looked at her hopefully. The other sylph started to pace along the windowsill. "Maybe the secret is Fuckwit's point of view. I wonder if... Well, look. Legally, in society's view, we belong to Ray. Ray's our Master. Maybe Ray can order her to indulge in her free will?"

"Say what you like, Denise," Pet said hopefully. She had always been partial to 'Ray will fix' plans or hopes.

"It's worth a shot and I hope we get more word on Ray," Denise said.

The door opened and Dee walked in. She glanced around to find the sylphs, then sat in the chair by the window.

"How's it going, guys?" she asked. One hand stretched out to place a finger on Annie's shoulder.

"Depressing, but too polite to complain," Annie replied.

"But we talked to Dad last night!" Pet said. "We dreamed and he couldn't reach Denise but we could. So we translated."

"Conveyed," Annie corrected automatically. "But anyway, you entered the room RIGHT after Denise asked about getting word on Ray. So spill it, cousin."

"Well, he's got a new lawyer. One who loves sylphs and champions their rights. And will get Ray off for killing the fucksticks no matter what he has to do."

"Someone from the Center?" Pet asked. Dee shook her head.

"A friend of Sam's?" Annie tried. "Amelia's?" Dee continued to shake her head. There was a small quiver to her lips. Denise wished-

"Do you want to guess, Denny?" Pet asked. Denise blinked but couldn't nod. "Oh. Um, say what you like, Denise."

"Did we ever find out what Nigel does for a living?" Denise asked. Dionne smiled.

"No WAY!" Annie protested. "My worthless cousin's a lawyer? And he can practice in Florida?"

"He does a lot of work for a company with offices in five states," Dee said, "so he's all set up to practice here.

"Anyway, he remains as confident about the case as he was about my leukemia. And look how that turned out!"

"So what's he say?" Pet asked.

"He's meeting with Ray, then the prosecutor. Then he wants to come over and show people pictures of his baby girl."

"You have a niece!" Pet cheered.

"I have another cousin!" Annie added. "How big?"

"She's about three weeks old, so she couldn't come out here. But he's got pictures of Ruth-Anne and he wants to show them to you. Hell, he shows them to strangers on the street."

She turned to the silent one on the sill. "Say what you want, Denise."

"Oh!" Pet said guiltily. Annie was silent, staring into the distance.

"Congratulations to everyone and I hope he gets Ray out clean."

"We all do," the tough FBI agent said, fingers crossed over her heart.

"Ruth-Anne?" Annie said softly.

"He hopes you don't mind," Dee said. "But since you two saved me, he wanted to thank you. He really hopes you'll forgive him some day."

"I forgave him," Annie protested, but not strongly.

Dee shook her head. "We both figured you said that so I could forgive him." She sighed. "It's part of why he's such a sylph-sponsor now."

"Well.... " Annie took a deep breath. "I'm still not going to apologize to the idiot."

"No one expects miracles," Pet said. Dee nodded.

---------

But Nigel didn't show up that evening. He called Dee and said 'interesting' things were going on and he'd be around much later. "Don't wait up," she repeated to the sylphs.

"What could be going on?" Pet asked. No one could hazard a guess.

Speculation was interrupted by an altercation in one of the other bedrooms. Dionne ran out. The sylphs jumped to the floor to follow. Annie paused to shout, "Come on, Denise!" and ran out the door.

A biochemist brought in to study the salamanders was sitting on the sofa holding a hand to his nose. Blood stained Dr. Thorgood's hand and a towel someone had handed him.

Sloane was one of the salamander caretakers, a former Army sergeant who worked Sylph Center security. He was held against the wall by two of the FBI agents. His hand was also bloody.

He demanded another chance at the scientist, the scientist demanded he be put down like a dog and the agents were telling each one to shut up.

"Ahem?" Agent Trace asked. The tone cut through the room like a cattle prod. Everyone silenced. Annie and Pet slid to a stop up against the wall. Denise caught up with them in a few moments.

"That bastard-" Sloane said.

"I was picked for this job by the President!" Thorgood said indignantly.

"Well I didn't vote for him so that means dick-"

"Hey!" Dee said. "One at a time. Without insults! Without name dropping! Doctor!"

"What?"

"Why are you bleeding? And don't say because he punched me, I figured that out."

"He misunderstood my experiment," the doctor said. "I swear, miss Copper was in no danger."

"You were going to set her on FIRE!" Sloane said.

"Through the fire! I was going to pass her THROUGH the-" His voice trailed off at Dee's glare. "Safely," he said in a small voice.

Dee jerked her head. The agents released Sloane. He took one step forward and Dee cleared her throat. "I'll, uh, go make sure Copper's alright," he muttered. He walked into one of the salamander rooms.

Faces looking from the doorways of bedrooms disappeared behind closed doors. The other agents went into the hall towards the kitchen.

Dionne glanced down at where the sylphs stood and then faced Thorgood. "I understand the desire to see if we can replicate the magic recycling program. But didn't you worry that abusing Copper might have turned her into a gnome?"

"Never has before," he shrugged as he checked the flow of blood.

"Before?" Annie asked.

"Yeah. These aren't the first salamanders we've come across." He was answering Annie's question but he spoke to the human.

"But we've never been able to make them make the elements they made for the alchemists.

"The President sent me to see if these were any different?"

"Why would they be different?" Pet asked. He ignored her until Dee repeated the question.

"Oh, well, usually, the bastards see us coming. They have a few moments with their pets. We were wondering if they gave some sort of self-destruct command that rendered them useless.

"Mr. Foster saved these two cleanly-"

"Clean?" Annie shouted. "Three dead and a cat that'll never chew again? Blood all over-"

"Tactically clean, Annie," Dee said. "No time for the final command." Doc nodded cheerfully.

"Exactly! Exactly! So if we could use them, maybe we can figure out how to use the others."

Annie coughed at the verb 'use.' Pet growled. Dee's hands went to fists for a second.

"Oh!" Thorgood said suddenly. "Did anyone save the material that flaked off Miss Gold? Was it-"

"HER NAME!" Pet shouted, "IS DENNY!" The frame of the house literally shook from the thunder of her voice. Pictures on the wall were askew. Everyone froze. Annie stared at her little wife in amazement, the humans in fear. Thorgood stopped breathing.

"I mean," she said in her normal voice, "her name is Denise."

"Yes, ma'am," the doc said, speaking to the sylph for the very first time.

Dee pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay. You, doc, leave the sylphs alone."

"The President authorized me-"

"The President's not here. I am." She lowered her hand to look in his eyes. "The sylphs are my responsibility. Unfortunately for Sloane, so are you. So stay outta the sylph rooms, except with my express permission, and we'll all get through this."

She turned and knelt by the sylphs. "And Pet? I'd really appreciate it if you didn't turn the doctor into a sylph."

Pet opened her mouth but Annie interrupted her. "No promises!"

"I really don't care," Dee said, "but the paperwork is murder."

"Oh." Annie nodded and turned to Pet. She jerked her head towards the agent. "You can promise her."

"Okay. I promise," she said. Thorgood sighed and sank back in his chair. Dee stood and went to find her agents. There were a couple of new rules for the household.

Annie looked at the other sylph. "Say what you like, Denise." The salamander spun to wrap her arms around Pet.

"I'm so glad to know you, Pet, and so proud."

"For the promise?" Pet asked. "Say what you want, Denise."

"For making the house shake on my behalf."

"The house shook? Because of me?"

"You need to use your powers only for good," Annie said. "Come on. Let's get back to the bedroom and out of people's hair. Follow us, Denise."

"No," Pet said. "Hold hands and walk with me, Denise."

"Oh! I should have thought of that."

Once they were alone in the bedroom, Annie made a beeline for Ray's laptop. It was about the only thing he'd packed before leaving to find Denise, to keep track of his erratic clues.

Now she called up his email to update the Center on secret government inventories of salamanders and failed experiments to boil them in garbage. And Presidential knowledge of the information.

"That should set the gnome among the sylph-baiters," she said as she hit 'send.'

Pet and Denise had watched from where they perched on a pile of paperbacks.

"Annie?" Pet asked. "Did we find out what the metal on Denise were?"

"Ray shoved a few flakes in his wallet after Denise explained that she was a salamander, and what that meant. They're probably still in his personal effects."

Pet stroked Denise's shoulder. "Do you know what you made, Denny?" Denise shook her head. "Say what you like, Denise."

"I could find it on the periodic table."

Annie leapt onto the keyboard and opened Google.

"Come over to the computer, Denise," Pet said. "Annie, doesn't Ray have a copy of the table on here already?"

"I can Google it in seconds," Annie said, "or spend two hours figuring out his directories." She found a pic and called it up. "What did you make, Denise?"

The salamander stepped up to the chart and pointed to one of the Lathanides.

Annie moved the mouse to click on that square. "Thulium," she read. "Very rare. Short half life, radioactive-"

"Oooh!" Pet squeaked.

"Eh, if it's a radioactive form, it's beta," Annie said. "Beta radiation won't penetrate your skin. Just don't eat it. Oh, look. It's worth..." She stopped talking. Pet knelt and tried to make sense of the notation.

"Can you read that, Denise?"

"Yes." There was a pause.

"Read that to me, Denise."

"It says that it's worth $50 a gram."

"Wow," Pet said. "Is that a lot?"

"Yes," Annie said. "I just checked. Gold, right now, is $47 per gram."

"Ooooooh."

Thulium discussion was suspended right then. The sylphs, and the salamander, all heard a familiar step on the front porch.

Annie and Pet turned to the door, then both turned back to Denise. Annie smiled and took one of Denise's hands in hers. "Go where you want to, Sister."

Then the sylphs had to run to catch up to the sprinting woman.

The front door was open. An agent stood there, Nigel was just stepping inside. "Where are the girls?" he asked. Movement along the edge of the floor drew his eye. "Annie! Pet! Denise! I have a surprise for-"

"RAY!" Annie and Pet shouted as they went past Nigel's foot. Ray was already on his knees, scooping up his wives.

"Nothing personal, Nigel, but I told you they'd hear me coming." He stood and moved inside. The agent locked up as Dee walked out of a salamander bedroom.

There were hellos and hugs and thanks. And Pet finally turned to Nigel and thanked him for getting Ray out of jail.

"Wasn't me," he said. "Someone from State called, and someone from Justice, two people from the state capitol and the Anthonys were on the phone once a half-hour. I just stood there and advised my client to agree with everything.

"Suddenly, we're in the car, and we've got twenty minutes to get to the airport. Sylphs, salamanders, solicitors, slayers and their security.

"Apparently we've all got to be in DC tomorrow morning," Ray said. "We have an appointment at the State Department with a cabinet member. So go pack!"

"You pack," Pet said. "We didn’t bring anything down here. Shut down your computer and we're ready to go."

Dee and Nigel stood close together as they watched Ray cuddle and kiss his sylphs. And find himself unable to pry Denise loose from his shirt. She'd gotten to where she wanted to be and wasn't moving.

Annie stood on his shoulder and regarded her cousins. She hooked a thumb at Ray. "Nigel? You got Lurch to stand quietly and do what he was told?"

"Yes," he said with a smile.

"Cooooooool," she said. "I think I may be half way to forgiving you all your sins."

"No rush," he said. She blew him a kiss then turned to kiss Ray's neck a few-

"They have no showers in jail?" she asked.

"They offered me a shower and a shave on the way out," he said. "But my counsel suggested I might be happier doing both a home."

Dee's phone rang. She stepped to a corner to answer it. A sound drew the attention of the agent guarding the door.

"There's a bus outside," he said. "One from our local office."

Dionne hung up her phone. "You were serious!?!" she shouted at her brother. She turned to the bedrooms where the caretakers were waving at Ray. "Pack! Load 'em up...somehow. There's a plane at the airport waiting for us all. Find something to carry the..."

"Guys are bringing in boxes from the bus," doorman said.

"Then go get them!"

Agents, caretakers, lawyers and biochemists scurried through one door or another.

----------

There was a government jet waiting for them at the airport. Denise thought that it was rather roomy, until all the boxes of salamanders had been loaded and taped down on the deck.

She stood in Ray's pocket and watched the human working party bounce off each other and slip around each other, getting passengers, luggage, boxes and themselves loaded and arranged.

Ray quickly decided the effort could use one less person and slipped to a seat in the back row.

He crouched down against the window and brought Denise out into his hand. She rested in the cupped palms and looked up at him. She saw her entire family. Ray's face and the other two on either shoulder.

Pet was anxiously telling him all about all their efforts to free Denise from whatever soul-sapping effect made salamanders such mannequins.

On the other side, Annie just smiled and stroked the neck. She looked confident. So Denise decided to be confident. After all, Ray had probably spent most of his jail time concentrating on her problem.

When he wasn't trying to kill his lawyer, anyway.

He let Pet finish her tale of frustration and woe while the others strapped in and the crew prepared for take-off.

She heard Nigel coming close, but he took a seat two rows up from them. And it sounded like he was discouraging anyone else from sitting near the newly reunited family.

There was an abbreviated safety lecture from a world-weary announcer. "Federal regulations force me to remind you that you've all flown before and if you can't observe the seatbelt sign, you deserve to die in turbulence. Thanks for using Air Ad Hoc, hope you have a pleasant flight."

Then they were airborne.

Pet was shouting over the airplane noise, and starting to repeat herself, identifying more and more worries about things Denny couldn't do. "And rollercoasters! She loves to wave her hands on rollercoasters! Someone would have to tell her when to raise her hands and tell her when to grab the bar and then raise hands again!"

"It's okay, Pet," Ray assured her. His eyes were on Denise, thumbs stroking her shoulders and arms.

"Besides the fact sylphs don't ride roller coasters," Annie said, but amazingly not in a snarky tone.

"Oh."

"Now, shush," Ray ordered. Denise found her pulse starting to race. Pet tried to get comfortable. Annie's smile got wide enough to show teeth. Why didn't Ray move her to where she could hold Pet? Lend some of that confidence?

"Denise," he said, slow and deep. Even sylph hearing could barely make it out over the jet engines. They were as alone as if in a bunker.

"Denise, I am your husband. And your owner. Not in the sense of a short-sighted government rule about pets and masters.

"I own a quarter of your soul. And you own a quarter of mine."

"That's four!" Pet said. "Do I own a quarter of your and her souls, Ray?" Annie grabbed his shirt collar and traversed to his other shoulder like a frantic mountain climber. As Ray was nodding his head, she grabbed Pet in a hug and shushed her.

"Anyway," Ray went on. "I found you. We found each other. We are so close to each other, we finish each other's paragraphs. I can't imagine a life without you.

"You own my heart and have a death grip on my future, my fate, my very life. I'm yours and you are mine."

He lifted her to his lips. She stared into his mouth, his humid breath flowing over her and pooling in the basin of his hand.

"I own you, Denise. Your body, your heart, your fate and your soul. And as your owner, I order you to shrug off fuckwit's domination of that soul." And he kissed her, his lips gently squeezing her face and holding it there for a second. She felt a thrill rush through her, aside from the usual response to his intimate touch.

She took a deep breath as he lowered her slightly, staring into her eyes.

"Denise?" Annie called. Pet scrambled out of the other sylph's grip and jumped to Ray's hand.

"Denny?" she asked. "Can you say something?"

"Something," Denise replied. Annie laughed.

"It's not funny!" Pet screeched.

"It sure is!" Annie snorted. "You asked a question, not an order. The proper answer would have been 'Yes, Pet, I can say something.'"

Pet spun back to face Denise. That's when the blue-haired woman's poker face crumbled. "Gotcha," she said.

"Very damned funny," Pet cried, burying her face in Denny's hair.

----------------

The jet didn't pull up to a terminal at Reagan but parked in a waiting area near the gates. There was another bus waiting there. Familiar faces were on it.

More Sylph Center security guards took direction from Sloane to move all the salamanders aboard off the plane. Samantha and Amelia oversaw the transfer, welcoming each salamander to their new home.

"We've contracted salamander care for the government," Amelia explained.. "We've got plenty of room and a few hundred sylphs with nothing better to do than buddy up with a salamander one-on-one."

"We made that phone call," Sam said, "about ten seconds after we got your email, Annie. And since they've finally given up on using the salamanders the way the Alchemists do, they were just a burden."

"I guess Ray's cure for me won't work for everyone," Denise said. Everyone stared. Pet explained Ray's fix, proud that her trust in the big guy had not been disappointed.

Thorgood was indignant that no one had mentioned the cure on the flight. Annie pointed out that it was possible to literally throw him under a bus, since two more were approaching.

The Anthony's just hugged and congratulated, totally unsurprised. As Amelia put it, "If there's one person on the planet can defeat this alchemy shit by sheer force of will, the four of you together are that one person."

Pet started to count on her fingers. Annie told her it was emotion math.

"Like Carla says? Oh. Okay, then."

A much sleeker bus pulled up. The Anthonys and Dionne gasped. "That's for visiting dignitaries," Dee explained. The one behind it was less flashing but still more comfortable than public transportation.

Security guards in a chase car hopped out to check IDs against a list. To the amazement of many, they even verified the sylphs.

The Anthonys, Sam's Secret Service guard and all the Fosters were invited aboard the first bus. The biochemists and the other legal and science experts were sent to the second one.

The caretakers were already on the Center bus. Dee went with them, still feeling responsible for her charges, though their outlook was improving.

Nigel clapped Ray's shoulder and went with his sister.

They boarded and found 'posh digs' as Amelia commented. The bus had overstuffed chairs, a wet bar and stocked minifridges.

"Is there a shower?" Annie asked. She climbed up to Ray's shoulder to look towards the back of the bus.

"If there is," Sam warned, "Ray's using it ALONE."

"We've tried to attend scheduled events after a Foster communal shower," Amelia growled. "It's not happening."

"Maybe a sponge bath," Ray said, headed aft.

"Put the sylphs down!" Amelia shouted.

"I have to hold his sponge!" Annie called back.

"I have to run the water!" Pet added.

"You're not the boss of we!" Denise finished. The door shut and the Fosters were alone together for the first time in a while.

"Well," Sam said with a sad shake of her head. "At least they discussed it logically."

------

The bus had pulled to a stop by the time they came back out. It was at a fueling station some distance from the terminals.

A few guards grouped around a van and watched as the busses came close. A little over half of the group was black, wearing clothes that were just slightly out of fashion for American security.

"African," Sam muttered.

"The thick plottens," Amelia added. When the three vehicles stopped, two of the Africans went to each bus. The guards exchanged ID with the guys in the chase car, with the guys on the busses and with the guy from Sam's detail.

A plane was taxing in to the fueling station as they finished this. The new guards moved back to ask Ray and Sam for ID.

Sam complied, asking who they were. Ray just smiled and offered a hand to the guard in front of him. They shook.

"I assume you're the one that got me out of jail....again?" he asked. The other man laughed. Ray said. "Let me introduce you to Annie, Denise and Pet. Girls? Kisu."

"Very pleased to meet your wives," Kisu said, offering a finger to each sylph for a shake.

"You know?" Pet asked as he reached for her.

"I know many things about some of the most important people in the world," he said. "I was sorry to hear about Denise, here, but-"

"It's okay," she said. "They turned me into a newt, but I got better."

Kisu burst out laughing. "You don't frighten us, English pig dogs. Go and boil your bottoms, you sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you."

The Fosters laughed. Everyone else on the bus stared. Ray tried to explain. "They're lines from a funny movie-"

"Holy Grail," Sam said. "Yeah, yeah. Got it."

"Just never heard that with a Swahili-accented French accent," Amelia said. "Now this is...?"

"Ah," Ray said. He waved at the Anthonys. "Kisu Kikali, president of Sanc Dembuka, this is Sam, and this is Amelia."

Kisu turned to take Sam's hand, bowed low and kissed it. "It is indeed a great honor to meet you, Miss Anthony. I have admired your work for some time."

"Well, uh, thanks," she said with a smile. "And this-" she held up her sylph.

"Miss Kamal needs no introduction," he said softly, sinking to his knees. "I am and forever will be in your debt." He bowed his head, then said something in a language no one understood.

Except Amelia. Her translations had, once up on a time, saved the life of the person holding her and the father of the man kneeling before her.

The Foster women knew the history and sighed as they watched Kisu's first chance to meet the heroine of that long ago hour and looked outside.

Their husband looked away. A number of people were filing off the jet and getting into the second bus. One woman was coming towards their bus.

Ray watched curiously as she worked her way through security. She carried a briefcase but no one ever looked inside it. When they tried, she showed them her ID again and firmly kept them out of the thing.

"AHA!" Kikali said as the woman climbed aboard. The guards scurried and the vehicles started to move. He beckoned and she walked down to where the people sat.

"Aha?" Annie asked.

"Ray Foster, I loved meeting your wives, and I have a chance to return the favor. I want to introduce you to my own wife."

Ray stood to offer a hand to the woman. She smiled, bright and cheerful, with almost as many teeth showing as Pet's smile.

"Ah, no," she said. "I am the aide. Mrs. Kikali..." She tapped the side of the briefcase.

"Oooooh," the sylphs said.

"Your wife sylphed?" Amelia asked as the aide sat down next to Kisu.

"You don't have a wife," Annie said. "I looked it up. While Ray was tilting at windmills I researched Sanc Dembuka."

"My wife did not sylph," he said with a smile. "And I was not married as far as anyone knew."

"Oooooh!" Pet squealed. "A secret sylph marriage!"

"At the start," he admitted. "But things changed."

"Can we meet her?" Sam asked.

Kisu made a 'wait' gesture. "I need to explain a few things. Which will lead us to why we are all together and all going to meet your president."

He settled down in his seat and regarded Ray. "When you and I spoke in the jail, Mr. Foster, I asked you why you slugged a man." Ray nodded. "I honestly expected your reason to be...because the Swede was an alchemist."

Ray's jaw dropped. Annie looked up at her husband and back to Kisu. "You knew? About alchemists? Back then?"

"We have been fighting their efforts for over twenty years," he replied. "But it's largely a secret war. If everyone knew that they could basically get free minerals, every sylph would be in danger.

"The amateurs would probably be worse than the true alchemists."

"Was I..." Denise started to ask. "My kidnapping, was that... revenge?"

"I don't believe so. They are not a closely knit organization. They know of one another and grudgingly share information. But the men you killed, Mr. Foster, would have only felt amusement at your treatment of their peer."

"So you kept the secret," Pet said slowly, "to protect your wife."

"I did."

"And," she went on, "you sent... You got the other sylphs out of you country. Was that....?" Everyone waited patiently for Pet to form her thoughts into words. "Were you protecting the sylphs? Or just... You kept the alchemists in your country from using them."

"A little of both," he said with a smile.

"I was right?" Pet said in surprise.

"Of course you were," Annie said.

"Wife?" Amelia asked, pointing at the briefcase.

"Yes. Well, don't take this wrong, but I recently had a dream." He looked surprised for the first time Ray had ever seen, as everyone reacted to that statement.

Most were variations of 'Aha!' Ray figured he'd been expecting scorn or dismissive derision.

He stared. Pet giggled. "He's silly. Okay. I dreamed of my dead Daddy, and Denny dreamed of her Daddy and Amelia and Sam dreamed of a Secret Service agent, Annie dreamed of Ray's grandfather and Ray dreamed he had sex with the three of us all at once and this was before we were all having sex with him except one at a- Oh."

She'd seen Annie making a throat cutting gesture and stopped. "Anyway, we already believe you."

After his eyes bugged just the littlest bit, Annie waved. "Come on, move the narrative along. You had a dream? Maybe of a dead relative?"

"Grand mother," he said softly. He shook his head. "A priestess of an old, tiny religion. Legend says it goes back to the pygmies of the Greek legend of Hercules. Although, of course, we call it the Ethiopian legend of Antaeus.

"She came to me and my wife in a mutual dream. And asked if Adilah wanted to 'do something' about the people preying upon the sylphs."

He gestured towards the aide. She started to open her case. "Well, Adilah's name means 'justice,' so she quickly agreed. And thus..."

Laying on a couch in the case was a small woman. She wore a long green wrap with a matching headdress.

She stood up on the open face of the briefcase which rested on the aide's knees. Ray estimated her height as about fifteen inches. Somewhere between the average height of gnomes and undines, anyway.

"Hello," Adilah said. "I've been looking forward to meeting all of you." She held her hands out and Kisu scooped her up to stand on his thigh.

"You're not a sylph?" Pet asked.

"Dur," Annie said, but softly.

"Adilah," Kisu said, "is what we have come to call a Deva."

"A spirit creature that controls elementals," Denise said. "Does that mean....?"

"I can cure salamanders," Adilah said. "I can make you a sylph again, or I can make you an efreet."

She smiled at Denise's expression of hope. Then she shrugged her shoulders. Bright red wings flapped free of her back and spread.

"Oh, my lord," Amelia breathed, "that's beautiful."

"She is," Annie whispered.

"Ray, can I be a diva when I grow up?"

"Deva, Pet, and yes."

"Sadly, no," Kisu said with a shake of his head. "Grandmother Sarah made it clear-"

"Sarah?" Sam asked.

"Missionaries," Kisu said quickly. "But she made it clear, the position of Deva requires blood heritage."

"My ancestors," Adilah said, "include wise women that protected the pygmies long ago. As does Kisu's."

Annie shot a look over at Amelia as the Sanc Dembukans described a running conflict with sylph exploiters. Amelia saw the look and shrugged. Her father had researched their heritage back to Africa, but beyond that...?

Denise stepped from Ray's thigh to his hand and tapped his wrist. He lifted her up to hold her before Adilah. "What's an efreet?"

"We have found many sylphs changed to will-less, obedient slaves. They can turn almost anything into an element," Adilah said. She brushed Denise's hair gently. "I can restore their free will, though I see that would be redundant here." She smiled knowingly at Ray and Denise.

"I can, though, change the other salamanders. I can give them back their minds, their will. Then they can change trash to treasures when they desire. We have a few employed in our home. A very secretive work force."

"It is a business plan I've long dreamed of," Kisu said. "And I think the answer to the problem undines have."

"Mia?" Annie asked.

Adilah nodded. "Mother Earth thought it was a deal with humanity. Take the trash away, I will grant you health, youth. But now, people just move trash from one spot to another."

"And she's not getting what she wants," Annie said with a nod. "So fuck us, and our getting what we want."

"That is very close to what my grandmother said," Kisu said with a wink.

"Oh. Um, I didn't mean-"

"It is alright, Annie," Adilah assured the sylph. "His granny was not so...restrained."

"Annie the restrained one?" Ray laughed.

"Shut your pie hole," Annie snarled.

"So instead of shifting trash around, we can truly recycle it," Sam said, skipping the conversation over the byplay.

"Would the recycling centers need a Deva?" Ray asked. Kisu nodded. "So...if Adilah's the only one..."

"Sanc Dembuka's greatest import will be trash. We can clean up garbage, pollution, wastage... All reduced to ingots of marketable minerals.

"If we can make any more Devas, then we can set up more recycling centers."

"Wow," Pet said.

"But, why are you HERE?" Denise asked.

Adilah stroked her hair again. "Grandmother said someone here needed me."

"And, we have a few demands," Kisu said. "I believe the Anthonys have a few changes they would make to the Sylph Act?"

The two women nodded, eyes wide.

"And as we have seen in this matter, as America goes, so go the industrialized nations. Well..." He stroked his wife's back. Her wings shivered. "There are things I would like to see happen. For all the sylphs of the world."

----------

Years ago, President Dorre had been Secretary of the Interior in President Anthony's cabinet. He knew Sam and Amelia and was sympathetic to the cause of sylphs and the other Undersized Americans.

He was so enthusiastic about Kikali and the Anthony's plans for the Sylph Act that they were willing to forgive his not telling them about the alchemist problem.

"Because we didn't know how to solve it!" he said cheerfully. He walked around the State Department conference room waving his hands excitedly. "We didn't know how to break their existence to the people without causing every teenager and idiot to throw sylphs on the barbecue, hoping to get gold ingots.

"But now! NOW! Heehee! America can lead the way in sylph rights and salamander rescue and AND environmental responsibility, which will not so incidentally solve the undine failure to be fountains of youth. I'll get my people right on it! They're already on it! They're dusting off every letter the Center has ever sent us for how to 'improve' the Act, and actions Justice says we can or can't take, and justifications we can use to ram Truth, Justice and the Americanized Way down the throats of the congresspeople who dare stand in our way."

He laughed some more. Annie tugged Pet closer. "Pet, are you missing a brother?" The blonde shook her head.

Dorre walked around behind Kikali's chair. "Okay! Okay! This is brilliant. You're in charge. And I mean, really. I don't want any rumors about America ramrodding policy overseas. Well, there will be rumors. We'll just make sure they can't be substantiated.

"So. So. Okay. Tell us what you want. We'll commit some trash trucks and cargo planes and barges. Is there a river in Sanc Dembuka? Never mind! We'll put some engineers on it. With your approval.

"I'll make it clear to the Army Corps of Engineers. You're in charge and not just to rubber stamp approval of what they wanna do.

"That'll even be part of the advertising! Sell it to the people that way. Little Sanc Dembuka is saving the US, same as the salamanders and efreets are saving humans. I love it."

He spun to a row of clerks typing furiously and whispering into note-machines. "Are you all getting all this? I don't want to repeat myself."

"Can you?" Samantha asked.

"Oh, sure. This stuff, it's so clear! It's like, you don't decide it! You just see it! What is this I see before me, handle towards my hand? It's a recycling bin!

"Now, how much trash can you handle?" His eyes flickered between Kisu and Adilah, unsure who would have the answer.

The fact that he even considered Adilah would be the one with the information brought tears to Amelia's eyes.

For the first time, at the highest level, an Undersized person was being taken seriously.

"We don't know," Adilah said. "It depends on how many salamanders we can find and make into efreets. And it depends on how many devas we can find."

"Okay. Okay. Where would we search for them? Is there a database we can mine?"

"It's going to be limited to sylphs from Sanc Dembuka," Kisu explained. Dorre spun to Amelia.

"Of which you have a few hundred over at your place, right?"

"Right," she said quickly.

"Okay. Okay. How many of them can we talk into going back to Africa."

"You'll ASK!?!" Sam shouted. "My God, the world I grew up in is GONE!"

"Of course we'll ask," Dorre said. "Former President Kendall will spin in his grave, but that's just gravy."

"He's not dead yet," Ray pointed out.

"Oh, he won't be finished spinning before they put him in the ground," Dorre said with a dismissive wave. "Okay. Kikali. Your thoughts."

"You should switch to decaff," Kisu responded instantly.

-----------

Dorre wanted to make the announcement that evening. His advisers almost physically restrained him. Congress was going to want numbers, the voters would want examples and the undines would need something more than 'my dead granny told me' to reassure the population.

"So...." he drawled. "Tomorrow afternoon?"

"How about," Kisu said. "I take the salamanders and their caretakers back home. We do the ritual and see how many devas there are. How many efreet recycling stations can be set up.

"During this time, throw a pack of lawyers at the Sylph Act and present the whole thing at one press conference."

The cabinet members in attendance heard 'time' and nodded enthusiastically. Dorre slumped and sat down for the first time in two hours.

"You could practice your speech," Pet said.

Dorre popped up again. "Long has this once proud nation marginalized the achievements, the citizenship, the very humanity of too many, for too few reasons," he said, assuming his more calm public habits and slower voice.

The Attorney General clasped her hands together and bowed to Pet in gratitude.

Sam stood. "Come on, interested parties, let's go to the Center and get a list of volunteers."



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