Chapter 50

Three days later I was in the town of Upper Walpole. The village was on the left bank of the Moselle River in territory that I knew as being northern France. The village stood upon an escarpment that overlooked the river below it and a second smaller town. That town was known as Lower Walpole.

Upper Walpole was a walled city of roughly six thousand men, women, and children. It was ruled by an outworlder by the name of Hans Berger. The man was middle aged and fairly fit and he called himself Graf von Berger. Between Upper and Lower Walpole and the lands lying about it he ruled a small barony that contained almost twelve thousand people, all of whom lived under medieval conditions.

More importantly Upper Walpole and Graf von Berger were under the technical control of Onyx Network and it was the home of the White Owl Tavern. The tavern stood just off the main square of the centre of Upper Walpole and it was within a stone throw of Graf von Berger's keep. The tavern was a three story brick and timber structure that consisted of a large common room, a livery stable, and a brothel in addition to lodgings for weary travellers.

The reason I was in Upper Walpole and looking for the White Owl Tavern was because I was looking for one of Peter Richards colleagues. Surprisingly, the consortium came through for me when I sent Mai Woo to question them about the fate of Richards' former team. The consortium had come up with the information plus more, as I had hoped they would, and now I was off trying to liberate them so they could come to Oak Hall and work for me.

The person I was looking for was Kathy West. Kathy had been a technician on Richards' team who'd been responsible for maintaining the mechanical components of the system. Her resume, which the consortium had provided me, was very impressive and I knew from reviewing it that even if we never got any of my pet projects off the ground, that she would be a superb resource for Lord Barnabas and Elsa Mueller. My only hope was that the woman was still able to function as a technical expert. She'd been on Game World for four years now and she hadn't had as much luck as Peter Richards had. The fact was that she'd been raped within days of ending up on Game World and since that moment she'd lived her life out as a slave and a whore. I wasn't certain what condition she'd be in when we finally met her.

Entrance into Upper Walpole was reasonably easy. We just walked in. The town was a trading centre for the region and wagons and people came through it all the time. The guards on the gate stopped me and my party for a minute or two, but they didn't give us much trouble. It was drizzling out and none of the guards really wanted to stand out in it and get wet, and seeing that all we wanted to do was to find a nice inn for the night and to get out of the rain ourselves, the guards proved very understanding. It also helped that I slipped them a few copper coins for their inconvenience.

The common room of the White Owl was off to the left of the main entrance. It was early in the day when we got there so there weren't that many people in the place. The room had an open stone hearth in the centre of the room that vented through a chimney hole in the ceiling of the room. About it stood several trestle style tables and benches. There was also a bar. The bar stood to the inner back wall of the room and behind it stood the kitchen that served the entire tavern. While my party settled themselves at a vacant table in the back corner of the common room, I went to the bar and ordered us some food and drinks. I quickly learned that like on my world, this region was famous for wine. I ordered up a couple of flagons to go with the house stew and paid for it at the counter. The man minding the counter was middle aged, overweight, and slightly nearsighted. He had red hair and a big bushy red beard and he looked a bit like a Wildman, but the apron about his waist was clean as were his meaty hands, and he greeted me politely. Once he had taken my order and my coins I asked him for some information.

"I understand this place runs a brothel," I told him in a half questioning, half stating a fact manner. "The guards mentioned it when my party and I came through the main gate. One of the men said that there was a woman here by the name of Kathy and that if I wanted a good time, I should seek her out."

"Kathy?" the man said with a start, his eyes blinking once or twice as he stared at me in disbelief. Then his face turned red and he got up off the stool that he was sitting upon. "Why those good for nothing bastards," the man declared angrily. "They'll never get another drink in here if I have anything to say about it. How dare they say that about Kathy?"

Well that took me a bit by surprise and I didn't hide it. The man saw the expression on my face and he immediately started to calm down.

"Don't worry friend," the man said in a dismissive manner, "I'm not mad at you. Obviously the bastard you were speaking to decided to play a prank on you. There's no whore in this establishment by the name of Kathy. There is a woman here by that name but she's my wife."

I apologized to the man for being rude and offered to buy him a drink. By that time bowls of stew were being carried over to where my party was seated and so were our drinks. I apologized once more and then excused myself.

My party consisted of Dork and Nimue and Peter Richards. We were all dressed in travelling clothes thrown over our armour and we were all armed with swords and knives and a few other weapons. Even Richards was suitably armed and armoured. The man might be a technical expert but he had spent four years as a pirate and he had a better than average knowledge of fighting with a sword. When I got to my table, I sat myself down with my back to the outer wall and then I told everyone about what had happened with the bartender. That brought a chuckle from Dork who was well hidden beneath his travelling cloak. It also resulted in some head scratching from both Richards and Nimue.

"I thought the report from the consortium said that she had been working as a prostitute these last four years?" Nimue muttered in a low voice while she poured herself some white wine. "Do you think they lied to us?"

"I don't know if he is or he isn't," I replied in an equally low voice. "The hairs on the back of my neck haven't risen up, so for now let's eat and drink. While we're doing that we can keep our eyes open."

We did just that. There were several females in the common room, the majority of who were locals by my definition of the word. Some were just young teenage girls who were working as serving girls in the tavern. A couple of them were older women who were definitely working as prostitutes. They were sitting on the laps of a couple of local men and they were laughing and joking with the men and giving them plenty of personal attention. Only one of the women in the tavern was an outworlder and she looked too old to be Kathy West. The woman was wrapped in tattered and soiled rags and she wore a torn shawl about her head. She was bent and battered in appearance and tired looking and she was working as a drudge. Currently she was mopping up the entrance hall that connected the common room to the main entrance and the rest of the tavern.

The strangest thing was that I got the sense of danger off of her every time I glanced in her direction and that got me worried. I got worried enough to warn the others in my party. Only Richards looked at me funny when I told them that the old woman was a threat, but I couldn't blame him for his response. He hadn't been around me very long.

I decided during our meal that the best way to find things out was to start asking questions while the place was relatively calm and not busy. I left my party at the table and I wandered over to the bartender again. I complimented him on his wine and his food and then bought him a drink. I again apologized for the 'prank' concerning his wife. He accepted it graciously and then, because I was being so apologetic, he suggested that I take a walk over into the brothel and perhaps pick myself out some company for the remainder of my stay. He even offered me a token that would guarantee me a discount considering the fact that I'd bought him a couple of drinks. I smiled at that and thanked him. Before taking the man up on the offer, I slipped in a few more questions and got myself a few more answers. Number one was the fact that he didn't own the tavern and that he only worked the bar. The owner was a local by the name of Kurt Walker and no the man wasn't around at that moment. The other fact I got an answer to was that Kathy, the man's wife, was the head cook of the White Owl and that she was in back working. At that I thanked the man for his conversation and generosity and then I went back and rejoined my party. When I got there I poured myself another drink.

"I'm going over to the brothel and check it out," I told everyone after I'd taken a sip of the wine, "and while I'm at it, I want you, Peter, to find a way into the back and see if you can spot the bartender's wife. She's supposed to be the head cook here so she shouldn't be too hard to spot. Have a look at her and if she does turn out to be Kathy West then come and find me. If not, don't cause any problems and get your ass back to this table. While we're gone, you two keep an eye on things. If something happens that means trouble for us, sound off and I'll come running."

Nimue didn't like the idea of me heading into a brothel but there really wasn't any way around it. I left first and headed out of the common room and up a flight of stairs that led to the next floor. The bartender had told me that the brothel was on the next floor, situated over the common room. I found it without any problems.

The place was dead. There was one woman sitting by the door to the brothel and that was it. The woman was middle aged and she didn't look like she was a working girl. She was a little plumper than the girls working the customers down stairs and she had on a wee bit more in clothing. I gave her a quick once over as I stepped into the room and she did the same to me. Unlike my reaction to her, the woman started to beam with happiness. I guess she liked what she could make out from my general build and stature.

"Looking for some fun?" the woman asked in a congenial manner.

"Are you the only one here?" I asked briskly, looking from her and glancing about the empty room. The room was about a quarter of the size of the common room below it. It looked more like a saloon or waiting room. There were a couple of benches built up against the walls and there were tables in front of them. That was it. There was also a door way in the middle of the wall that ran the width of the room. I immediately figured that the door led to chambers where the prostitutes worked.

"No stud," the woman replied promptly, giving me a very toothy smile. "I'm not alone up here, although I will admit that your pickings today are pretty thin. There are a couple of girls working the common room right now so they're not available and Hazel is with a customer in her cell. That leaves Greta and Phyllis for you to pick from. Do you want me to call them out here so you can have a look?"

I thought about her offer for a moment and then reached into my coin purse and pulled out a piece of silver. The woman's eyes widened at the sight of it.

"I want some information," I told her bluntly, "and I'm willing to pay for it. I'm looking for a particular woman. She'd be a couple of inches shorter than you with a slighter build. I knew her as Kathy West but she might be going by another name. She had a head of curly blonde hair and a pair of bright blue eyes. Do you recognize the woman? She'd have been working here for the last four years."

"Well," the woman started to say slowly and thoughtfully, "that doesn't sound like the Kathy I know. She's Eric the bartender's wife and she's short and fat and she has black hair. Now the only blonde around here would have been Goldie and she's gone."

"Gone where?" I asked her.

"Some guards came this morning from the keep and they hauled her off," the woman replied in a tentative manner. "They told us to mind our own business if we knew what was good for us. Goldie tried to resist but like you described her, she's a slight woman and the men were some of the Graf's bullyboys."

I tossed the woman the piece of silver and thanked her for the information. Then I turned about and headed down the flight of stairs towards the entryway and the common room. The old woman was still mopping the floor when I got to the bottom. As I stepped by her and turned into the common room the hairs on the back of my neck started to go up. Instantly my right hand slipped under the fabric of my travelling cloak. As it did, I heard the sound of metal sliding on metal. Instinct took over after that.

I pivoted on my right foot as I grabbed for my sword. As I came about to face the woman, I spotted a blade coming straight for me. As quickly as I could, I swung my sword about in an attempt to parry the weapon. The blade was on the end of a pole and the edge of my blade and the force of my swing snapped the pole in two before the blade reached me. The blade fell harmlessly to the floor.

The pole weapon had been wielded by the old cleaning woman. The pole had been the handle to her mop and the blade had been hidden in a metal sheath buried amongst the material that made up the mop head. The woman had pulled it out of the sheath as I had stepped by her and she had lunged towards me in hopes of planting the blade into the back of my neck. My reaction to her attack had taken her by surprise, but only for a moment. As the blade to her weapon clattered to the floor, she tossed aside the remains of her pole and then she leapt at me.

That took me by surprise. What shocked me even more was the strength and weight that the little old woman put behind her attack. She moved like a panther in her attack, leaping from where she'd been crouched. As she leapt her left hand shot out to grab the wrist of my sword arm. As her hand clamped down upon my wrist, her body slammed into mine and her legs wrapped themselves about my waist. The momentum of her attack threw me backwards and I slammed into the wall beside the bar. Fortunately I was able to grab her right hand with my left as her hand shot towards my exposed throat. I was able to stop it just before she was able to close her hand about it. Still it took me all my strength to do it.

The struggle commenced then. The woman's legs began to tighten about my waist and I felt as if I was being squeezed by a boa constrictor. The same could be said about her hand about my wrist. She was squeezing it with an incredible amount of strength and if it wasn't for the high-tech padding beneath my chainmail shirt, I was certain that she would have snapped my wrist. Still the force that she exerted was enough to cause me to drop my blade. Thankfully help arrived a few moments later.

Dork hit the woman from behind with his warhammer. His blow caught her in the back of the head and it drove her face into my chest. Surprisingly it didn't deter the woman in her attempt to pop my head off of my shoulders. Having heard my blade hit the floor, the woman released her grip on my wrist and with the speed of a cobra striking, she grabbed for my throat with her free hand. That was when Dork's second blow fell. This time he got a result. Shockingly it wasn't what anyone of us expected.

The woman started to flop about and sparks started to fly. The woman's limbs went limp and I was able to push her off of me. The woman's body fell to the floor with a thud and then it started flopping about again. Legs kicked frantically and arms flailed to either side of her body. Frantically Richards shouted at Dork to hit it again. Dork did what he was told. This time the woman stopped moving.

"What the hell was she?" Nimue asked to no one in particular.

"She's a robot," Richards declared as he moved to kneel down beside the fallen body.

"A robot?" I repeated with disbelief in my voice.

"Yes," Richards said as he started pulling the rags that had covered the woman's form away from the body. As they were pulled away, it was quickly revealed to us that what we had thought to be an old woman was in fact some sort of advanced robot. The robot had a human face and human hands but that was it. The rest of her was a metal frame upon which her limbs, power plant, and drive mechanisms were mounted.

"Fuck!" I exclaimed in disbelief. "That was close."

"You were lucky," Richards replied, looking up at me as he spoke. "This is a standard security robot used by the networks to secure their facilities. Its programming is actually very rudimentary and there is no built in weapon systems in it and it has no armour protection except what protection its basic shell provides. If the networks had sent a police robot after you, I don't think that you'd have survived."

"Well she was more than enough trouble from my perspective," I told the man in response, "so let's not give them any ideas. Okay?"

"Okay," Richards said as he stood up.

By then we'd drawn a bit of a crowd. The men who'd been in the tavern were all standing off to one side and they were holding their weapons at the ready. The whores were hiding behind them. Eric the bartender was holding a club in his hand and his wife was standing behind him. She was holding a butcher's knife in her meaty hand. When our eyes met Eric blinked with surprise and then he started babbling.

"What was she?" the man asked.

I didn't answer him immediately. Instead I glanced down at the robot again and then back at Eric. When I spoke I asked him a question instead.

"When did this ... woman start working here?" I asked the man bluntly.

"She just started working here today," Eric the bartender stated. "Philips from the Graf's guard dropped her off this morning when he came and got Goldie. He told us just to let her do what she wanted and ignore her. We didn't know that she was ... well whatever that thing is. I swear it!"

I looked at Nimue and Dork and then over at Richards. It was clear to all of us that Onyx or some other network had known that we'd be heading here today and it was equally obvious to all of us that we could expect a little more trouble before we were done here today, especially if we insisted on going after 'Goldie'.

The first thing I did before leaving the White Owl was to get rid of the robot. At my request the consortium teleported it from where it lay and hopefully, they delivered it back to Oak Hall. As I told Richards, the thing was a gold mine from my point of view. It had a power source that he could make use of and it probably had a receiver / transmitter that he could make use of in building his jamming system. Of course that depended on whether or not Dork's blows hadn't damaged it. We'd find out later.

I also took the time to order up some supplies for us. We'd arrived in Upper Walpole travelling light, mainly because I hadn't wanted people to think that we were trouble. Now that I knew that we'd be heading into a fight, I called upon the consortium to deliver us a few items that we'd left behind in Oak Hall. In the blink of an eye those items appeared. For Dork and I, I called for our helmets and greaves and our shields. I also called for a shield for Nimue and Richards. Additionally I called for a gorget for each of us. The robot had gone for my throat, clearly knowing that it was unprotected by my shirt of high-tech chainmail. Hopefully the gorgets would prove helpful. As well I asked for mail gloves for Dork and me. I had a feeling that they might come in handy in this upcoming fight. As for Nimue I asked for her bow and two quivers of arrows. One quiver was standard broadhead arrows of the high tech kind and the other quiver contained fire arrows. I also called for a satchel of grenades.