Chap 404  Two Cheated Women

“Now that we’ve figured out who meddled with my roster, with misappropriation of Landing materials, hacking into multiple databases and I’m sure if we dig deep enough, we’ll find even more mischief, what shall we do about Wendall?” Chief Evvelin said.

The others were all thinking the same thing. There was a very long silence.

“We have several things to consider,” Lord D’nis said, finally. “In my opinion and experience, he has committed enough crimes to easily warrant punishment. But what kind? Crom’s Mining Hall Master will no longer accept criminals to work in the mines. His crimes don’t warrant beheading, and, frankly, I’ve seen enough beheadings to last me a lifetime. Not a one of them ever made me feel as if justice was truly done, other than making certain the criminal never did it again.

Banishment as a punishment is almost useless now that Thread is gone. And it doesn’t ensure that the criminal doesn’t return, reoffend or retaliate. For instance, Lord Dorn used two of my Weyr’s dragonriders to dump criminals in the southern steppe. They’d been banished at least once but made their way back to Southern and continued their crimes.  I’m assuming they’re dead, but there is still that possibility that somehow, they survived walking a thousand kilometers in wilderness inhabited by lions and giant wherrys.

We have to remember that sending him out to an island works but ONLY if there’s no access to datalinks, the starship or the database. He will still have all that hacking info in his head.”

“Aye,” they said. Christa thought, I bet I can build a program like he did, to keep him out.

“Thus, I’m thinking that he should be tried here, with you all as plaintiffs. But we have to catch him, and soon. Today we have the advantage of surprise, but it won’t last long. Once we have him, THEN we can dispatch him to an island with just the clothes on his back.”

“My lord, before we do that, I would suggest that Wendall be first ‘employed’ in opening the Galileo building. Remember, the database said IMMEDIATELY. Wendall and his two mates are the only ones certified to do that job,” Chief Kendra said.
 

“That’s a good point, Chief. Can that job be done in leg shackles? I don’t want him escaping, you understand.”

She gawped for a moment. “Um, pardon me, I don’t know. Remember, sir, you had to read me my own SOP, and there’s nothing in there about leg chains. But when I speak with them, I’ll inform his mates that their own freedom, domicile, and employment here at Landing depends completely on their managing Wendall. They’re to keep him working, to keep constant watch on him, he’s to inform them of everything he does and needs to do, such as taking a pee, and when work is done, escorting him back to his cell. I’ll also allow them the call on whether he needs leg shackles.”

“Chief, I think he’s enough of a bully that he’d talk them out of using them. I’d advise he be kept in some sort of shackle. Maybe just one leg, but still….” Jansen said.

Grafton said, “Let’s consider this a bit more. Whatever is in Galileo, it’s of such importance that the computer wants it opened NOW. I believe it has everything to do with the oncoming ‘thing’. Wendall knows this. Shackling him will only antagonize the lout. What if he manages to damage whatever is inside in revenge? I think he’s too much of a risk. Chief Kendra, it may be time for your staff to re-learn how to open a building. After all, Maintenance has been doing it for two years without damaging anything and they don’t have the so called ‘certification.” It may even be wise for Maintenance to train Engineers on how to do their own job.”

“Woof,” Raylan said, “That will certainly raise hackles.”

“Maybe it’s time they were,” Grafton said. “Chief Kendra, your staff has had it easy. The former Engineering Chief let your staff shift the hard work to another division, I’m absolutely certain it was intentional. They kept it secret, even from you. In two years, not a single engineer came to me complaining about another, unqualified division doing their work. I know of the unfairness because maintenance DID. They had legitimate complaints about the unjust distribution of taskings. Wendall made it appear as if Chief Evvelin was to blame, and still, neither Chief Orlon nor any of his staff complained to her. Not one. If anyone should be blamed, it’s the former chief, and Wendall who hacked the databases in order to keep the whole fraud going.”

For several moments, the group was silent.

Then, Evvelin said, “Once again, a blind man sees more clearly than the rest of us combined.”

D’nis sighed. I thought retiring as Weyrleader took decisions like this off my trencher. But this time, the decision is clear.

“Thank you, Grafton.”

“My lord, it is an honor. And my duty.”

He sighed. “This is an impromptu trial, I know. But I am now going to assume my standing as Lord D’nis, Council of Six.”

He cleared his throat.

“Wendall, of Landing’s Engineering division, impersonated me, threatening others in order to shift his duty to others. We have all heard his other crimes. They do not warrant his beheading but do warrant permanent dismissal from Landing. I intend to have him transported to an island in the Western Ring Islands. Chief Evvelin, I do not intend or advise punishing his family. I ask that you ask them if they want to be transported as well, although I hope very much that they don’t.  The rest of you have charges against him as well. I am now open to hear if any of you have any reason to not have him transported this afternoon. Do I hear any?”

I wouldn’t say a word if held at knife point, Jansen thought. Wendall, you’ve been screwing us all over for years. Blame me, will you? My arse.

Lord D’nis looked at every person in the room, and even made eye contact with Fafhrd.

No one said a word.

“Thank you. Please hear and witness:  By my order, Wendall of Engineering is to be transported this afternoon to an island in the Western Ring, never to return.”

All of them said, “Heard and Witnessed.”

“Right then,” he said, feeling justified. “I never envisioned the day when I’d say this, but right now, I’d love to have a datalink to contact Chief Orlon. But I am lucky in that I have a dragon. I sent a message to K’ndar and P’jar via dragon, telling them that the Maintenance lads were to cease work on the building immediately, and after lunch to find that stupid water leak.”

“Is Wendall still there?”

“P’jar says that Wendall’s gone off to eat lunch, his two mates left much earlier. That gives us some time to come up with a plan. It needs to be put into place NOW. I told P’jar to keep Wendall at the digging site when he returns, but I’m betting it won’t take long for Wendall to realize he’s been found out. When he does, he’ll bolt, sure as sunrise. And once the datalinks are operable, he’ll be back to hacking Landing’s database, only this time he’ll be out of reach.”

They nodded.

“Chief Evvelin, please, who is Wendall’s partner?” Grafton asked.

Evvelin pulled up her employee roster.

“Her name is Candis. She’s a cook in the dining hall! Judging from her Chief’s evaluations, she’s competent and well liked. Not only that, she’s been employed here as a cook for years, much longer than Wendall’s time.”

“Anyone who’s had the bubbly pies in the dining hall knows Candis,” Jansen said.

“And the kids?”

“One’s a 16 year old girl, named Kenya, and a younger son, Camer, he’s ten.”

“Kenya? I know her, she’s a classmate of mine!” Christa said.

“The woman in the Regulus building is much older than sixteen,” Grafton said. “She told P’jar she was of noble blood. Do your records show a woman around that age being a noble, Chief E?”  

“Hmmm,” Evvelin said, “I don’t track bloodlines, Grafton. Nor do I think it’s important. Noble blood doesn’t guarantee ethics or excellence. Remember Fleming and his odious mother? Fleming’s out on an island, somewhere and I’m fairly certain that IF his mother still has her head, she’s closely watched in Lord Toric’s hold, if not in a cell. I’m sure she can’t fart without his permission. Both are from Lord Toric’s line and both criminal. People will claim noble blood to get out of something or get something extra, when they’re no more noble than I am.”

She gasped. “Wait. I JUST NOW got an updated request for ‘repair water line” at 7006 Regulus! There’s a note, “SECOND request, highest priroty.” And the sender misspelled priority.”

“Just now?”

“Just now. Well, perhaps five seconds ago.”

“Which terminal did it come from? It can’t be from Wendall’s here, he’s at lunch, and I’m sure he won’t be allowed to use the dining hall’s terminal.”

Christa moved over to look at Evvelin’s screen.

“It’s from the terminal in Regulus.”

“Ahh. Any employee number in the requestor block?”

“No. It’s a name: Sylvia.”

“A name? Not an employee number?”

“Just “Sylvia.”

Evvelin smiled as she typed. I should really have this young lass teach me how to better use my terminal, she thought as she typed, I’ve already learned a LOT. “There is no one named Sylvia listed as an employee OR a family member,” she said, after going through her records.

“Hmm. Then she’s a guest?”

Again, Evvelin went through her records. She shook her head. “My guest roster only goes back a year. And there’s no Sylvia listed.”

That doesn’t mean she used that name to sign in,” Data said.

“That’s true, sir. But my staff is sharp. They don’t like it when someone signs in with a false name.  There’s no way to check on them, though. No one on Pern has any sort of tablet or badge with their name on it. When a guest or petitioner signs in, we take them at their word that they’re who they say they are. Only us, here in Landing, have identity badges and that only went into effect at…”

“When the database was changed two years ago,” Data said.

“I’m going to assume,” Lord D’nis said, “That this young woman is here either as a consort of Wendall, who snuck her in, probably without his partner’s knowledge. Or she managed to sneak in on her own, and somehow managed to get the Regulus building furnished and supplied with all the amenities of home, to include a data terminal, without help or approval. Logic suggests to me it’s the first scenario. The building itself is far from the central living sections of Landing, there are no neighbors to be able to report on whatever is going on there. This ‘Sylvia’ didn’t sneak in. Wendall BROUGHT her in, without permission and without letting Admin know.”

“Yes.”

“It’s as I said,” Grafton added, “he found himself a willing little bird to dally with instead of working and I bet my boots his partner, Candis, hasn’t any idea of her.”

I can give her one, Christa thought. Everyone loves Candis. And it’s unfair to Kenya and Camer. They’re my friends.

She began to type a message.

Chief Kendra, Evvelin and Jansen all shook their heads. “No, sir, I disagree,” Evvelin said, “We women, we can tell when some male isn’t on the up and up. Candis probably suspects he’s got something going on but she hasn’t been able to pin it on him.”

“Until now,” Jansen said. She smiled.

————————————————————————————-

P’jar got to his feet from his resting spot near the series of holes he’d dug.

“Talk about being on time, team leader, what, did you get lost coming from the dining hall? Took a nap?” he snarled.

“Up yours, Pee Jar. There’s crumbs on your collar, so you had to have lunch, too.”

“No thanks to you, but yes. One of the lads at Maintenance brought me a meat pie. You can see them at the far end of this commons, by the way.”

“What are they doing? They’re supposed to…”

“Shut up, fool!” team leader snapped.

“They’re locating the waterline supplying the Empty Building,” P’jar said.

“Not at that end! It’s almost a kilometer from the building!”

Something about them tingled in Wendall’s mind. Something’s odd here, but..”

“Two thirds, to be precise,” P’jar said, interrupting Wendall’s train of thought. “They told me. They also said that you louts are so stupid you couldn’t find your arse with a map and a mirror. Speaking of maps, where IS this map that you, dweeb number one went for, did you find it?”

The man frowned. “My name isn’t dweeb,” he said. “

“No, but for once, Pee Jar’s right, you are a dweeb. Where’s the map?” Wendall snapped. Gotta keep this lout under my thumb.

The dweeb hung his head. “Uh, uh, well, there is no map. Never has been. I just said that, um, because, well, my back is bad.”

P’jar smirked. “You know, don’t you, that they are proposing a bet to you. That being, they’re betting two marks apiece they’ll have that water leak located and repaired by close of business tonight.”

“NO WAY!” Wendall shouted.

“A bet? I’ll take that bet,” the other dweeb said.

“I told you, Pee Jar, to keep digging. You’ve not done a bit of work since lunch break.”

“But the bet, boss! It’s a sure thing! There’s no way on Pern they can have it done by tonight?”

Falconth pinged him. Corvuth says to turn them so their backs are to the building with the woman.

P’jar turned himself and pointed to the holes. “And you know this how? Do you know how many holes I’ve dug? Before lunch and during? No. You don’t know. Here, let me count for you because I doubt you can count beyond one two three many.” He stomped away from the building, thinking, I don’t remember myself how many I dug. Just that it was a lot.  

 “Look,” he insisted, to keep them focused on him, “One, two, three, four… five, six, seven, eight…How do you know I didn’t obey you, lout? Nine! Ten!  Here, look at these holes. LOOK AT THEM. I dug each and every one of them, starting wayyyyy ahead of us.”

Yes. They had turned their backs, following him unconsciously.

“There’s not a lick of water in any of them. I’m not going to dig another hole. That’s on you. I’ve given you a head start, you know? Ten holes, all the way to the far edge of the commons. You’ll be digging with your bare hands, because Maintenance took the shovels. They’re THEIRS.  SOMEONE stole them out of Chief Orlon’s tool shed. Was it you? Huh?” He glared at the team leader.

“He, no, they left them,” team leader said, too quickly.

“And you still haven’t explained to me why in the world you are so insistent on repairing a water leak in a building that you say is ‘empty’. It’s not empty, is it.”

The team leader looked surprised.

“IS IT??.”

“I ORDERED YOU to stay out of it,” team leader shouted.

“And I obeyed. I didn’t go in it. But I can’t help but wonder, why is an empty building suddenly in need of water? And your division is doing the work? That makes no sense. To add insult to injury, you won’t even do the work yourself. No. You and your lazy dweebs here are more than happy to have me dig here, dig there, despite not even having a map to go by and then you say, ‘at this rate we’ll be here until Turnover.” Well, without shovels, that may be so, because I’m not digging so much as a spoonful for you jerks.”

He stopped, and saw Fafhrd hovering behind the men. And behind the bronze? He saw familiar people approaching. Ah. Yes. Your head is all the way in the loop, isn’t it. I’ll give the snare a yank, just for fun.

“You know what, team leader? Jerk without the courage to provide his real name, the one who says he is to monitor my work? I know what it is about that building. You’re hiding something in it. Or someONE?”

The team leader flinched, then touched his dagger.

“Now I really WILL stab you,” he snarled.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” said a voice behind them, “Although I’m fairly certain that P’jar will allow you first blood, and then behead you with your own knife.”

The three whirled as one to see several people. P’jar grinned at the perfect ambush. Lord D’nis stood just behind the three, with Evvelin, Grafton, Jansen and Data with them. Only Chief Kendra was unknown to him.

“Um, um,” team leader gulped.

Dweebs One and Two had the presence of mind to bow low. P’jar noticed them slowly moving away from the team leader.

Lord D’nis snapped, “Perhaps you’ve become so inured to flouting civil courtesies that you fail to bow to me?”

Team leader gulped and bowed. But not as low as the dweebs.

Lord D’nis turned to Chief Kendra. “Chief, is this jerk ‘Wendall”?

“Yes, my lord, and I am so sorry to say that I failed to sack him when I had a chance. But I’ve only been in this position for two weeks, sir. The only time he’s not insolent, patronizing or outright insubordinate is when he’s out of the office during work hours. Which is often. What he’s doing, I don’t know? But it’s not what he’s being paid for.”

Lord D’nis turned. “Tell me, Wendall, what is so important about that building? You insist it’s empty, but still, you’ve arranged for water to be supplied to it?  Why did you rearrange Chief Evvelin’s task roster to Maintenance opening a building that they aren’t certified or trained to do? And how is it that you’ve shifted your work, that of opening a building, to a division that isn’t trained, as you are, to do it?”

“Yes,” Evvelin said, and her voice sounded like that of an axe blade being sharpened, “It IS interesting that all this scenario has happened several times. And all without my knowledge, never mind authorization. I am VERY interested in learning how you managed this.”

“My lord,” P’jar said, barely able to keep from laughing, “They did not dig a single hole. I did. And found NOTHING.”

“I see. You’re on dragon transport duty today, I thought?”

“He was, my lord,” Jansen said, so pissed at the team leader she contemplated snatching his dagger and slitting him neck to navel, “But this lout, this liar, Wendall, dared come into my office, insisting P’jar was to dig holes for him, and then said he would inform you, sir, of P’jar’s dereliction of duty.”

“This lout, here?”

“Yes, my lord, the very same one.”

“And how did he threaten you?”

“My lord, I got a message on the database from YOU saying so, and implying that you would see P’jar punished for failure to repair.”

“From ME, ma’am?

“Yes, my lord.”

“I made no such message, ma’am. I would like to see it.”

“My lord,” Data said, enjoying seeing Wendall beginning to squirm, “We discovered that not only did he write this so called message, he did so by hacking into not only MY database, but in every database in Landing. Every one. He even made it so that the message was supposed to vanish, but my techs caught it and corralled it. It’s safe in an UNMARKED file,” he snarled at Wendall, “where a data thief won’t ever think to look.”

“You pretended to be me, then, Wendall?” Lord D’nis returned his glare accompanied by a tone like ice.

“Um, your, um, my lord, it’s not what it looks like,” Wendall squeaked.

“You are avoiding the question. Your answer should be Yes or No.”

“My lord, you see, it was like this…”

“I am not a computer geek, Jerk. I’m an engineer first, a dragonrider second, and councilman of Pern third. I don’t give a damn what you claim it looks like. To me, it looks like lying for your own gain. And I cannot tolerate lying. NEVER MIND your impersonating ME to make the threat.”

“My lord,” Evvelin said, “he hacked into my database. Not only did he change my duty rosters SEVERAL times, dumping work onto Maintenance instead of doing it as he’s certified for-he also had the bollocks to exempt himself from all tasks and duties here at Landing. For TWO YEARS. Right, Wendall?”

The two dweebs suddenly glared, realizing they’d been screwed too.

Wendall was silent. His knees were shaking.

“That wasn’t very smart,” Grafton said, as Fafhrd landed on his shoulder. “That’s cheating everyone. Never mind that anyone, to include ME, does their allotted tasks, knowing that whomever made changes to Chief Evvelin’s rosters risked…well, ma’am, I won’t say what you might have done to such a criminal. There ARE women present, after all.”

“Go ahead and say it, Grafton. The women here aren’t afraid to say we’ll cut off Wendall’s bollocks with his own knife,” Jansen said.

Evvelin chuckled, but it sounded like that from an enraged wher.

“You are too kind, Jansen. I’ll use my wooden spoon.”

“Wendallllll!” They heard a voice that carried for what seemed kilometers.

Wendall’s jaw dropped.

They turned to see: a woman wearing a smock that said “DINING HALL”.

And alongside her was a young woman of about 21.

The two came marching up to Wendall.

“You lied to me, Wendall,” Sylvia said, “You never said you were married! And with KIDS? I’ll have your eyes, you bastard!”

“You cheated on me, Wendall,” Candis said, “with a girl half your age?  Sylvia will tell me alllllllll about your days spent trysting with her while I’m working.”

Wendall paused, then lunged at P’jar.

Who was waiting for it.

After tying him up with Candis’s smock, he put his foot on Wendall’s back.

“Feel like going for a ride?” he said, sneering. “I’m tasked for dragon transport, you know.”